End of Summer + lightly reflecting on it + short IBasso update

As I sit here writing this I have a piece of gauze in my mouth after coming back from the dentist and having a little tooth/extra piece of bone pulled out of it. Still a little bit numb but I'm sure the pain will come soon. The end of Summer is coming soon! :O What a summer it has been!

I initially wasn't all that excited for Summer but in the end it turned out pretty well. Honestly, from what I feel, I spent most of this summer becoming lazier and lazier. (Not necessarily a bad thing, as it's been nice to just kick back and relax) However, it has been kind of hard getting back into the swing of things in preparation of the coming school year but it's getting there. I spent most of my summer throwing money at my moneypit  *cough* I mean car *cough* but will most likely drive the crap out of it in the next 6 months while I save up for what is basically my dream car (Swapped RS with WRX/STI swap!! xD) and I get to put all my cool parts on this car onto the next car I get. I <3 that Subarus are like legos. I learned a lot more about cars, but any really tired of the lack of boost. So time to go boosted! xD (Super super excited for this if you couldn't already tell)

Anyhow, between that, work, church activities and hanging out with friends, Summer turned out to be quite eventful. I went on some really cool hikes and on the days I wasn't lazy, I was able to go running early morning and see the sun rise (which is pretty much one of the most awesome things you can do early in the morning). I didn't spend a whole lot of my summer doing productive things academically and next summer I'll probably spend out of state working as a intern somewhere. *crossing my fingers for California*

The other thing I wanted to talk about separately from the rest of this stuff is the IBasso. IBasso has continued to impress me with each firmware update and the company itself is stellar. I seriously do love how it sounds and it really is cream of the crop as far as portable audio goes IMHO. There isn't really even words to describe how good the music sounds for portable use. This thing works great as a bedside rig paired with my LCD-2s. I spent a lot of summer rediscovering music I hadn't listened to in a while and hearing things I truly have never heard before. Crystal cables should be sent off to be built soon as well. (Super excited for this as well!) At this point, I may be doing some major updates to my current desktop rig (which is slightly getting the edge in sounding better than the IBasso), at the same time though as a college student I think my audiophile journey is nearing a end. I think it's time to kick back and really just get immersed in all my music all over again. :) One thing, I'm going to try to follow through the school year with that I am currently doing right now is: I wake up every day now and ask myself am I doing something to make myself better in some aspect and if I am, then I am satisfied

Ibasso DX100 review

So I purchased the Ibasso DX100 on pre-order and man does it sound good!! It's easily in the top setups I have heard by far. Rivaling many desktop rigs which is saying something. I know the sound will change more over time but I thought I'd give it a review anyway because it is phenomenal! At this point I've probably put around 100 hours or so on it since receiving the unit. As a reference I have owned the Cowon s9 and heard the ipod -> CLAS -> DB2/PB2 setups extensively. I have also heard SR-009s, Orpheus, HD800s and the like. Anyways, onto the actual review.
I tested both some standard 16/44.1 kHz songs ripped using EAC as well as 24/192 kHz songs off of Linn Records and HDTracks and everything in between. ;) I even tried some mp3s. The UI while quirky is highly functional in my opinion though Ibasso does need to fix some items in the next firmware update to make me really happy with this product.
The only things I feel really need to be fixed are not fading in the next song when you change songs in the middle of another one playing and to fix album order and tagging of files. I use mostly .wav for my cd's so there isn't much in the form of tagging for me, however, I still am struggling to get some albums loaded in the proper order. It exhibits behavior similar to the Hifiman products in that it loads the songs based on copy order to the device. I mean seriously WTH, needs to be fixed ASAP.So it's something to take into consideration for future DX100 owners.
Moving on to sound, I've been comfortably using this as my go to portable getting something like 7.5 - 8 hours of battery life which is enough for me. On the go, I've been using the RE0s or modded Sr-60i's with it (I'll post pics on head-fi gallery soon) with it while I home I'm currently using LCD-2 rev. 1s with Moon Audio's Silver Dragon v. 3 (soon to be cabled with Crystal Piccolino :D) It's really a joy to listen and the best I think I've heard either of these. The RE0s were good enough that I'm seriously considering customs. Any suggestions?
The RE0s while it did sound good lacked a lot of depth but the soundstage is getting better day by day. The LCD-2 on the other hand is just indescribable how good this combination sounded. I'm always hesitant to use words like synergize but that's exactly what happened here and I'll try my best to describe the sound.
Overall soundstage was quite good even out of the box, yet the instruments all had a bit of 'harshness' in the sound and lacked decay on the notes. The decay on the notes to me is what gives music that life-like quality through a good source/DAC/amp/headphone. Already this is much improved through the caps just burning in. The soundstage is the best I've ever heard them on LCD-2s and really I think I just ended up with a really good pair of the LCD-2s. The sound after about 100 hours is more organic and life-like to my ears and I'm really enjoying the sound. The width and depth i'm hearing is really quite something. I'd say the overall effect I get from my LCD-2s is they sound like a pair of very good speakers with a bit less on the whole imaging front but stunning nonetheless.
Some recommendations for fellow DX100 owners to try is Susan Wong's 'Someone Like You' and 'Chopin & Lizst' by Annelean Leaneats (Both can be found on Linn Records site in 24/192 kHz). Something I've noticed that I find neat is you can easily tell different concert halls from each other and really get a sense of the depth of the hall with the DX100 -> LCD-2 combination. You can actually really also hear the singer's breath into the mic and things such as fingers moving up and down the frets on a guitar. Definitely adds to the music and quite a neat experience. The next section is going describe the sound as I'm hearing it through the LCD-2s.
The bass was very well extended and very detailed in my opinion. I really enjoyed listening to Hans Zimmer's work to see how the bass sounded. The movie soundtrack for Inception sounded gorgeous. The bass had great impact and the sound was very surround.
The mids on this were very lush and full of micro details that I swear I've never heard before on some cd quality recordings. (To think it gets better :O) I think the sound here can be best described as very open and airy but at the same time highly intimate through the LCD-2s and I can't state enough how much of a joy it is to just listen to the music. I just love how rich and full the mids sound.
Finally, the highs. The highs were sparkly and extended extremely well and on well recorded albums really did just sparkle. There isn't really much else I can say about the treble.
I'm going to have to cut my review short here as I have finals coming up and some homework to finish but once my crystal piccolino's are in and the DX100 has had some more time to burn-in I'll post additional thoughts and add some more to this post. In the meantime, I'm going to get working on some homework and just enjoy my music. :) Pics coming soon as well.

Musings ramblings and been a long time since I've updated..so here it is :)

So in the last month or so I've gotten kinda overboard on spending (mostly audio related) and realized... I kinda suck at money management :S. Oh well, the IBasso DX100 is coming sometime in the next week and I'm crazy excited for it to show up. The DAC is top notch and from initial reports, it sounds like this DAP will be an endgame solution for me. Also, on the way is a crystal piccolino (99% silver 1% liquid gold injected into the "cracks" in the silver bonds). I'll review both of these products when they come in but for now I'm super excited is all I can say really. :) (I can see the light at the end of the tunnel on my audio spending ;) ) Basically after this spree i'm planning on quitting until I graduate and I'm almost certain I won't be unhappy with the combo (Hi-rez music ->IBasso DX100 -> LCD-2 w/ 5 ft. SE crystal piccolino as the cable.)

In regards to school...Spring Break is coming and the weather is really nice outside right now. With balancing work and school, life has been kind of difficult but it's been quite the experience and I'm enjoying every moment of it. Recently, I've decided I want to work harder on getting better at the musical instruments I already know and learn violin (basically based on hearing the emotion a youtube artist was able to get out of the instrument) I've even found some in great condition for decently cheap so it seems viable actually. :) 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_profilepage&v=aHjpOzsQ9YI

There is the video if any of you care. :P

Considering everything I've learned this year I still think computer science is the right path for me but everything is getting really tough. Not much else is going on right now really...just school and work. I did get braces though and they ARE quite the pain. I'm hoping I can get them off in about a year. The results WILL be worth it. Also I've been really lazy recently and just need to get back on track. Starting the 18th of March I plan on really starting to run hard and bulk up as well (I am planning on running the SLC marathon; hopefully will be able to this year and if not this year then next year for sure) The motivation has always been there but as I've said I have been lazy. A motto, "Work hard now, play hard later. Play hard now, pay hard later", that my friend lives by has really inspired me & pushed me to work towards the above goals more than ever. I'm hoping 9 weeks from now I can look back on this post and be proud of what I will have achieved in 9 weeks. In 9 weeks time, everything I've done, every meal, every sacrifice will hopefully be worth it. On a tangent I found out Utah has quite a good selection of food challenges. I plan to best all of them as a goal by the end of this year. I'd been eyeing this particular challenge for a while and have sat through plenty a painful bowl (yet delicious) of curry in hopes of besting this challenge

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/51379418-78/sooksri-diner-challenge-curry.html.csp
^^ It's going down Spring Break '12.