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Post by hifidez on Sept 11, 2014 11:15:21 GMT
They're well worth the silly money, Derek. They can be prone to telephone interference though, I hear. I hope they don't pick up interference from the TV. It's a modern TV, and dad will be sitting 10' or so from the screen. I would think that'd be ok. By telephone interference do you mean from mobiles? My bedside Pure Evoke DAB radio is very sensitive to mobiles. D. |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 11, 2014 14:12:37 GMT
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Rabbit
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Post by Rabbit on Sept 11, 2014 20:13:25 GMT
Yes Derek. Mobiles. I don't get it but I have seen others complaining. A bit strange since it has a metal enclosure, but I guess with the gain on low, it might improve.
They sound really good in spite of the bad English/description that was posted on Ebay. Really worth the money.
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Post by hifidez on Sept 12, 2014 14:10:52 GMT
Ok - I ordered two... one through Ebay, and there was a message saying only one left in stock. So ordered second one from Amazon at slightly higher cost but that did include next day delivery. The Aamzon-sourced NX1 arrived half an hour ago.
Only used it with my Grado SR60s so far, and compared it to my V-Can ii. Source was just my Pure Evoke DAB radio at this stage, line out; BBC Radio 3 Proms repeat broadcast from RHA, and some general pop on Radio 2.
The NX1 is very well made, solid and looks good. And I can only repeat what others have said in that, with no signal applied, there is no noise at any volume setting. No noises when vol pot is turned.. nothing. Quicly checked noise levels with some far more sensitive Sennheiser earbuds.. with the High gain setting I could JUST hear a little background hiss but not enough in any way to disturb a listening session. Flick the switch to Low gain and there was NOTHING. Superlux HD681? No noise at either high or low gain.
Back to actual listening with SR60's... well I preferred to have the gain setting on Low with the vol pot more advanced, rather than High gain with a lower volume setting. Just me? Was there a difference? Low gain seems leaner and cooler (which I like) but I stand to be corrected.
Comparing the NX1 to my V-can II... well the V-can IS better. And so it should considering its price. The V-Can's bass is a tad more convincing and in terms of soundstage there is little more feeling of 'beeing there'. Remember I have been listening to the RHA acoustic on R3 and this effect isn't so noticeable on studio recorded material. Had a quick listen to Dire Straits's 'Latest Trick' on the M-Audio / PC system and it all sounded just dandy through the NX1. So if you just listen to the NX1 without swapping to another amp it's a great sound. Nothing stands out. I'd say a neutral sound with no obvious 'sound' of its own. Plenty of drive too.
I'm taking it to work from now on with my tablet and laptop.. my next task will be to try it with my tablet and see if putting the NX1 between tablet earphone socket and 'phones will be worthwhile. Certainly I'll get higher volume levels with NX1 inserted, but I don't listen at high levels on 'phones anyway. It's all to easy to listen louder than you think you are.
Regards,
Derek
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Post by Rabbit on Sept 12, 2014 18:08:55 GMT
It's pretty clean sounding Derek. It is funny that as hi fi types, we're actually reviewing something seriously at toy prices. Value for money is absolutely super with these little amps.
Sure, they're not the bees knees, but mine cost me all of £21. 5 pints of beer. 2 or 3 cd's. It's absolutely a no brainer for someone who needs a bit more power for Ipods or iPads. Even at the Amazon price, I think they're great!!
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Post by hifidez on Sept 17, 2014 9:48:49 GMT
My E-Bay-sourced NX1 arrived Tuesday, two days ahead of the earliest quoted delivery date, which was nice. Again great build quality and perfect sound. I spent a couple of hours on Tuesday listening to the Jeff Lynne's BBC Radio 2/Hyde Park gig on BBC's iPlayer. Enjoyed the whole thing; the NX1 with my Grado SR80s showed there was slight MPEG'ing with the upper percussion in that cymbals had an artificial shimmer. This wasn't as apparent on my Spendor speakers so the NX1 certainly lets you drill down into the mix and hear what's going on. (while I was watching the replay I recorded the soundtrack in real time using TOSLINK from the TV into an external Soundblaster ADC/DAC connected USB-wise to my laptop).
I have also had some extended listening now with my Android tablet running Squeezeplayer and streaming from my main office PC music libaray. My tablet is already good-sounding but putting the NX1 into the chain you get more 'grunt', a sense of scale. Obviously the tablet's audio chip is working less hard when playing into the NX1. Very pleased.
I'm visiting my Dad down in my old home town of Southampton this Saturday. As I said, he's a bit hard of hearing now and needs a little amplification to allow him to watch the TV at a level that's sensible for others in the room. I'm looking forward to hooking up his Shures to his TV via the Topping. I'm 'sure' he'll be happy.
Incidentally, Dad was a great trumpet player in his day. He was a big influence on both my sons who got a fair way with their brass studies. My tuba-playing son gained a B. Mus. at London Holloway. The other son achieved a post Grade 8 certificate playing euphonium. Proud Dad here :-)
Me? I joined a rock band as singer when I was 40. Not quite the same somehow?
Derek
p.s now I have two Toppings, I'm only one Topping short of a full pizza?
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Post by Rabbit on Sept 17, 2014 17:43:41 GMT
I use the Topping quite a lot Derek. It's a handy little thing and the battery has a really long life. It's not as 'fat' in the bass as some, but it is very neutral and doesn't seem to get in the way of the sound much. It doesn't have an obvious sound signature. I joined a band out of desperation. No way was I going to make knives and forks in a fading industry!!  |
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Post by hifidez on Sept 22, 2014 8:21:45 GMT
Back now from trip down south to install Dad's NX1. Using an adaptor, took an audio line-out from the TV's SCART socket and ran a long phono to 3.5mm jack lead to his NX1. Plugged in his Shure SRH-440s and that was that. TV is receiveng terrestrial digital TV & radio; we set it to BBC Radios 3 & 2 to hear what music was like. Simply fabulous. Dad was amazed that such a small gadget sounded so full-sized; he is used to a Rotel RA-820 BX... nice amp. He's happy he can now enjoy his own preference for volume levels.
Didn't get around to trying the NX1 with his vintage Sennheiser 424s but I'm sure they'd have sounded great too.
Derek
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Post by Deleted on Oct 4, 2014 23:13:26 GMT
NX-1 TO THE RESCUE2nd. night in our holiday and we had just come back from a nice meal at around 11pm. Beautiful warm night. Switched the pool lights on and took a couple of large glasses of white out to the table by the pool. Then realised that this villa had no radio. All our previous villas had had portable radios in the kitchen. This one had nothing. Bit of lateral thinking later and we had music! Source was my old Sansa Clip (on 75% volume) into the Topping NX-1 (on 90% volume), into my old Audio-Chi closed-back portables (32 ohms) that I had brought along as backups in case my Panny 450's went U/S. The Audio-Chi W-4's have capsules that can rotate almost 360° (maybe 350°?) so it was easy to set the headphones lying on the table with both capsules facing our seated position and fairly blasting out sounds. Romantic sounds, of course.
Warm night. Candles on the table. Beautiful starry skies. Cicadas trilling in the background. Bottle of smooth white. Romantic music . For the sake of decency I'll draw a veil over what happened next . . . . God bless the NX-1!! |
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Post by Rabbit on Oct 5, 2014 6:26:30 GMT
I never thought there were Cicidas in Clacton.  |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 5, 2014 10:30:48 GMT
I never thought there were Cicidas in Clacton. There aren't - it was Grimethorpe  |
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Post by Rabbit on Oct 5, 2014 10:37:49 GMT
 Sorry, my X1 is making me daft!!!
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Post by hifidez on May 12, 2015 13:48:01 GMT
I never thought there were Cicidas in Clacton. A belated comment... On one of our Meditteranean trips it was a beautiful and hot evening; the usual insect chorus was in full swing. My wife turned to me.. in all seriousness... and said "Isn't it great hear those enchiladas again?" My tear-soaked shirt dried quite quickly as it was so warm. D. |
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Post by Rabbit on Jul 8, 2015 10:03:48 GMT
The NX2 has been released now. I'm not sure whether it replaces the NX1 or not but it's exactly the same in terms of low price with the added option of digital in.
I tried it today and it really isn't too shabby considering the daft cost of these devices. Metal body. Tiny. Minute switches but perfect for wandering around.
The analogue amp is much the same with an inset rotary dial rather than a knob like the NX1. They're not massive in the ppwer stakes but they do help to drive slightly more difficult headphones from duff sources. You know, when you use an iem or headphone, where you get close to the top of the dial for power. This helps.
It's aimed at mobile phones and does work nicely from the analogue in.
Surprisingly, the digital in also works pretty well. I connected my Ipod Touch directly into it and it provides more power.
It's also a neat little device and is an advance on the NX1 with the addition of the dac.
It makes you wonder, just how cheap can these things be and still produce reasonable quality for most people using phones who want a boost in power. This is retailing around £30, which is extremely low in price, although about an extra tenner on the NX1 which I really like for what it is.
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Post by thelonious58 on Jan 22, 2016 16:01:05 GMT
Interesting and witty posts!I bought an NX-1 a while back and am also very impressed when using it on my iPod Classic with HD598 (which is of course easy to drive!)
Currently amazon.co.uk have the AKG K612 on at only £84.99, but other posts I have read on head-fi.org state that the K612 need more power than the NX-1 will give. Perhaps they like their music too loud? I am a bit confused!
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