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Firestone Audio Fubar IV Plus Review

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As an impressed customer of Firestone Audio I was really curious to get my hands on the Fubar IV Plus DAC/Headphone amp. Firestone Audio has a reputation of offering products that fall into the  “absolute value for the money”, yes – I know Audiophile products aren’t generally easy to afford but if you look around there are always “gems” at acceptable prices!

Features & Build:

A full metal enclosure provides the Fubar IV Plus a rugged feel and solid look. Available in a choice of black or silver faceplate the unit is, as most of the other products from Firestone audio small and actually cute ;-) .

The Fubar IV Plus accepts USB and optical inputs. The USB is limited to 16bit/48Khz which is not really something expected out of a device at this price but since the DAC upsamples all input signals guess that wouldn’t be an issue, still I would love to have native 24bit/96Khz support. The optical and coaxial inputs support 24/96  content and the optical input is my preferred option from my Macbook Pro.

Performance:

My previous Firestone Audio product was the Fubar II USB DAC which had really impressed me with the quality to price ratio and I started out with high hopes for the Fubar IV Plus and have not been disappointed :-) . Let’s start out with the source material; most of my audio collection is standard 16/44 FLAC and I’ve only got a handful of 24/96 tracks so why the craze towards a DAC which supports higher sample rates? The Fubar IV Plus is not just a DAC that supports a higher sample rate but also provides it’s own Upsampling feature, meaning any source material fed into the Fubar VI Plus is upsampled to 24/192!

I started out with the Fubar IV Plus as a DAC powering my Matrix Mstage headphone amplifier. Let me start with the most obvious, the sound-stage on the Fubar IV Plus is the first thing that hit me once I plugged in my HD600/650! Coming from the Fubar II the obvious ridiculous improvement in sound-stage is just amazing!. Just this single feature kept me stuck with my headphones as I tried out some of the live performance tracks that I had, which felt ok on the Fubar 2 but airy and well….lively… on the Fubar 4 plus. The “air” in live performances is also quite perceivable with clear instrumental separation. Talking about clarity, the Fubar 4 Plus definitely provides a very clean and clear sound without much color (isn’t completely neutral, thankfully) but definitely adds slight warmth making the sound interesting and not dry. There is no noticeable sparkle in the highs but they are well spelled out keeping the sound engaging, mids are beautiful,  and lows strong making the Fubar 4 Plus a very pleasant DAC.

The upsampling capablity of the DAC has been a very interesting feature to have as most of my audio is not high-resolution or high quality recordings. All my audio CDs have been ripped to lossless at 16/44Khz and upsampling these to 24/192Khz definitely adds more definition to the audio. The promise of high quality audio content has come with offerings like HDtracks but a majority of music is bought to-date is from iTunes or Amazon Music and other such online music stores. It is quite impossible for someone looking for good audio to have his or her music library in high resolution and for now upsampling seems to be the solution.

The Cambridge Audio DAC Magic is a very popular and highly praised Upsampling DAC and I had the chance to do a direct comparison with it and see how the Fubar 4 Plus fared. The Cambridge DAC Magic is a pure DAC unit and has no headphone amp capabilities but just as the Fubar4 Plus, is capable of 24/192Khz upsampling. Technically the DAC Magic is far ahead of the Fubar 4 Plus but I was pleasantly suprised to see that the DAC Magic pulled ahead only by a slight margin! The treble on the DAC Magic is brilliant, mids lovely, full and clear, the lower end is well defined with proper extension and depth. Comparatively the Fubar IV Plus seemed to be well behind on the treble and right behind on the other fronts. Infact the edge offered by the DAC Magic is quite insignificant in my opinion!.

Ofcourse these are two different products, the DAC Magic wiith its plethora of connectivity is more of media center “ish” DAC and the Fubar 4 Plus a straight forward headphone listening unit. I can confidently say that the Fubar 4 Plus gives the DAC Magic a worthy fight and actually wins considering convenient desktop use. TIP!: On usb connections the Fubar 4 Plus achieved a recognizable performance boost by opting for a Furutech GT2 cable!

Most audio enthusiasts looking for the  Fubar 4 Plus are probably seeking a compact DAC/Amp headphone solution, so let me talk about that as well. Actually, I did not notice much of a change when switching out my Matrix Mstage to opt for the Fubar 4 Plus’s built-in amplifier. The unit is capable of handling high impedance headphones (like the HD600/650) without any trouble, I listened to tracks with the volume pot at around the 9 to 10 o’clock position with the impedance selector switch behind on High. I also played around with my Sennheiser HD448 and Superlux 668B in the low impedance mode and everything was as good as ever! The amplifier section (comes with the LM4562 opamp) allows for opamp rolling opening up a bunch of possibilities to further tailor the sound.

In conclusion

On the whole I would rate the Fubar IV Plus as a neutral toned gear (comparatively the Fubar II now seems to be slightly warm!), the lows are good, treble  clear with  slight shine and the mids seem to be very slightly recessed though that could just be me! (or my HD650). Remember I have paired the Fubar IV Plus with the Matrix M-stage V2, the Matrix in itself is a fabulously neutral headphone amp and together with the 4 Plus it does seems to take a slightly cold or more neutral character.

A DAC/Amp combo is a great way of saving money (and space) for the budding audiophile. The Fubar IV plus is a worthy DAC/Amp combo to own atleast until you save enough to upgrade to next price bracket, Firestone Audio has a clear competent product in this price range and is a worthy purchase for audio enthusiasts.

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Creative Aurvana Live! Review

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The Creative Aurvana Live! is a closed headphone that I recently had the opportunity to try and I believe that it is definitely one of the best ” value for money” purchase as well as an excellent headphone at the sub 100 cost.

The Creative Aurvana Live! is an offering from the Aurvana range of products that Creative offers (as we’ll have it for my typing comfort sake!) is a deceptively simple looking pair of headphones. The glossy earcups are the first thing that will strike you out of the box, that also means that it is going to be a fingerprint magnet. The headphone does not boast a great build but my “guess” is that it actually is tough enough to survive as a carry-around portable or travel headphone for everyday use. The whole frame is made of plastic with a metal band bringing up the clamping area of the headphone. The box comes with a carrying bag, 6.3mm stereo adapter and a 1.5m extension cable. A special mention to Creative’s frustration free packaging, I still remember how I had to fight with the Sennheiser HD448 blister packaging! The Creative Aurvana Live! feels really light in the hands and has this ” aura of coziness” about it. The 40mm “bio-cellulose” diaphragm is held in plastic earcups covered with soft leatherette material (great for winter days). As a headphone designed for use with portable music players the CAL! has an impedance of 32 Ohms and is driven well by all almost all portable music players.

Comfort:

The CAL! reaches a level of comfort that I have not experienced even from headphone models costing 5 to 6 times its cost. The clamping force is almost non-existent and is very  similar to the HD448. I even wonder how Creative manages to keep the little isolation that it provides with such paltry clamping force (guess the leatherette earpads do that job!). The headphones disappear once the music starts playing and that’s how I like it. The upper part that sits on the head has little foam cover, but that does not deviate from the overall comfort the CAL! provides. The 1.2 meter cable is fine for my 5’10 stature but if you’re taller than the provided extension cable is a nice touch. The CAL! is really light (210 grams) and just disappears once I hang it around my neck like any portable headphone should. The earcups envelop my ears (circumaural) but I can easily see that they might not for users with larger ears (becoming supraural) resulting in even less noise isolation.

Sound:

Lovely, warm and very musical. Driven straight out of my iPod Classic the CAL! does a beautiful job of most types of music that I throw at it. The vocals are slightly recessed (or it’s just the highs creating the feeling!), clear sharp treble with decent extension, lovely midbass – bass is present, not so much sub bass and rumble, but clear tight lows. The soundstage  feels as good as the HD448s and the musicality of this headphone definitely bests both the Superlux HD661 and the Sennheiser HD448. I’m a proponent of uncompressed music and prefer using lossless files whenever possible and would recommend that music lovers need to experiment with the same. My personal experience is that the headphone or IEM that one uses can greatly affect the clarity or resolution of these lossless files and believe is one of the reasons that people often don’t notice the difference compared to an mp3 file. The Creative Aurvana Live is a headphone that will definitely help appreciate lossless and higher resolution music be it on a computer or a portable music player.

Upon connecting my Fiio E11 to the CAL! I was expecting that the bass would probably get a bit too strong but to my surprise, that never happened. There was a slight improvement in definition overall and that’s all I could experience! So there is little to almost no improvement in adding an amp to this headphone (which is good and bad!). Performance is very much similar when connected directly to a laptop so its great for movies and casual gaming as well. As Tyll’s review at Inner Fidelity and the good folks at HeadFi have shown the Aurvana Live seems to be a reincarnation of the Denon AH-D1001. The bio-cellulose based diaphragm is still used in today’s Denons like the AH-D 2000,5000 and 7000. Not long ago, I had spent a short time with the AH-D2000 and could actually feel the “Denon sound” in the CAL! The D2000 is in a completely different category than the CAL! and therefore outmatches it, but the “flavour” of the sound is very similar.

(Courtesy: www.innerfidelity.com)

In conclusion:

The Creative Aurvana Live! is a crowd-pleaser with its warm and mid-bass bumped detailed presentation. The sub 100 buck headphone market is one of the hottest and the Aurvana Live is a capable entry, though not a popular one. Newer arrivals like the Sennheiser HD449 face some stiff competition from the CAL! considering the price and quality delivered, lets not forget the Superlux HD661 as well with its unbelievable price point.

Creative seems to be one of the under-appreciated players in the headphones market and its offerings like the Aurvana Live! seem to be lost midst the celebrity endorsed, ridiculously colored or funky design headphones crowd out there. The CAL! is a well-rounded headphone offering that should be a very good choice for the general smart music listener looking for slightly neutral presentation and isn’t looking for a bass-head headphone. The only setback that one can associate with the Aurvana Live is the poor isolation that it offers but I have had no problems using it outdoors since that also makes it a sufficiently safe choice as well!

As a well-rounded headphone offering its not suprising that eventhough it  does not enjoying popularity it does seem to have a strong fan following. In fact there are a whole bunch of mods that these die hard fans have come up with which seems to pretty much make the Aurvana Live an awesome buy for the money.

Update: Seems like the CAL! is getting popular, CNET just published its best headphone picks for under 100 bucks and guess what’s at the top!!

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Review of the Huawei iDEOS X3 8510

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These days feature-phones are fast being replaced by low end smartphones that just about everybody looking for a phone can afford! Though things are never that simple, the dearth of budget smartphones coming out means that one needs to be more careful about anything that carries the moniker “entry level smartphone”. Not everybody can afford the top of the line Dual core smartphones and frankly these top end are now getting pretty close in size with their tablet brother-en!

The Huawei X3 is the ideal save-your-money and check-out-what-android 2.3-can-do smartphone that can keep most users happy for the money they spend on the device. You can read my complete review at Brighthub, but here’s the brief version.

The X3 is an entry level device which seems to target handsets like the HTC Gratia, LG GT540, LG Optimus ME, HTC Wildfire and the Samsung Galaxy Mini (may be the Optimus One as well..).The X3 8510 is a good looking smartphone (read doesn’t have the looks of a cheap no-name handset!), its sleek by smartphone standards (but its no Galaxy II either!) and just feels right in the hands. Performance is decent, considering the 600 Mhz processor and paltry 256 Mb of RAM. Passes the Angry Birds test without too much performance hit, but not ideally a gaming device. That said several casual games run without a hitch.There are a bunch of videos on Youtube demonstrating the X3′s gaming prowess. After a month of having the X3 as my primary phone, I feel that its a very competitive entry level Android device that’s definitely worth the price! Yes, its not fast or powerful but that never stopped me from using it. Android 2.3 – check, Navigation – check, Google maps – check, email and social networking – check, expandable memory – check, location awareness and connectivity check, with checks on all the right boxes Huawei has offered a good smartphone for the money. Go read the full review to see the strengths and where the Huawei X3 doesn’t do so well…here’s a clue…the battery!

Odys Media Book Scala – Ereader Review

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Odys Mediabook Scala

The introduction of the Amazon Kindle has completely revolutionized the way people read and get their “hands on books”. I have been great fan of the Kindle reader from the  initial release though for some unknown reason haven’t given into my temptation yet! Meanwhile the growing market for Kindle-like readers have exploded starting from the premium Sony ebook reader to virtually nameless imports from China. Some of the these new devices are capable of functioning as cheap ebook readers as well as a portable media device for movies and music. The currently low priced ebook readers available in Europe (or atleast Germany) include the Odys Media Book Scala and Trekstor Ebook Player. This review covers the Odys Media book Scala.

The 7 inch reader looked pleasing, felt a bit heavy in the hands but otherwise seems to have a decent to good build quality expected out of a sub 100€ product. The Media book Scala comes with a charger unit, manual, quick-start guide,USB cable and carrying case (a very handy list of accessories!)

Oh! Btw, here’s the unboxing ;-)

The Media Book Scala is a very targeted device, it does one thing only..that’s ebook reading (ofcourse there is the audio playback…but then its kind of standard on most ebook readers, thanks to the Kindle!) There are similar products available like the Archos 70b, Trekstor 7M which do a bit more! frankly I like my Ereader to be just a reading device. There is no Wi-Fi, which means no Email distraction nor the itch to check out your RSS subscriptions/Twitter updates. The device boots up directly into the library screen and shows you the available books ( 5 books come pre-loaded, nothing fancy just good old Gutenberg goodness). The Media Book Scala has 4gb of built-in memory which means it can hold a lot! If you do put some Audiobooks in there, it might run short but the SD card slot allows expansion with card capacities upto 32 GB.

Specs in Brief

  • Screen size – 17.8 cm (7″) 16:9
  • Resolution – 800 x 480
  • Screen type – TFT Display with LED backlighting
  • Contrast – 400:1
  • Brightness – 200 cd/m
  • Supported file formats – Ebook: EPUB,TXT, PDF
  • Music: MP3, WMA, OGG, WAV, AAC
  • Photo: JPG, BMP, GIF
  • Supports Adobe DRM, Bookmarks, Zoom In/Out
  • Internal Memory – 4 GB
  • External Memory – upto 32 GB SD/MMC/SDHC
  • Battery – Built-in rechargeable Li-Polymer Battery 2900 mAh
  • Batterylife – Ebook reading 9 hrs, Audio 24 hrs

Usability & Design

As I’ve captioned in the Unboxing video, my first impression of the device was “its heavy”. Weighing in at about close to 900 gm the Media Book Scaleo is one of the heaviest ebook readers that I’ve come across! Although initially I did not notice any discomfort with the weight factor the more you tend to get into reading sessions the weight does become noticeable. As an average built male in my early thirties I generally have no problem carrying around a device close to almost a Kilogram, but for times where one expects to have a one handed reading experience or better yet when one looks to fall asleep while reading the heaviness,  (forgive the pun)the Media Book Scala “weighs” on one’s nerves and muscles! I’m sure the fairer sex are not going to opt in to this device based on just this disadvantage.

The power button for the unit is located at the base of the device and at times a little difficult to get to when the unit is kept in its provided case. The buttons provide enough feedback when pressed, except the page turn buttons located on either edges of the device. The page turn buttons somehow felt  unsatisfactory when pressed and usually made some noise (depending on the location where they are pressed) that gets a bit annoying with time. The TFT backlight screen is just right for reading and allows for controlling its brightness as preferred by the reader. The device allows for both portrait and landscape use though the provided G sensor that makes this switch automatic is always off the mark and drives me nuts! As a handheld ebook reader the Media Book Scala is a well executed device. The media capabilities of the device as described on the provided information brochure and manufacturer’s website describes support for a handful of audio formats. My experience with mp3 files proved the device handled audiobooks well with resumable playback support. Although no information of video playback capabilities are advertised, the Media book Scala  easily detected and played 720p mov videos on my memory card! the 800×480 TFT display does render some sharp imagery making it possible to use the device as a movie player in a pinch. The design decision to place the speaker at the rear makes it impossible to hear any audio if the device is held in the provided case. Though I would wonder why anyone would want to playback from the speaker as the provided headphone jack does the job very well. The screen viewing angles are decent and shouldn’t be a big problem for most users.

Reading on the Media Book Scala

Now coming to the most important part of the review, let me first start with the general experience of reading on the Media Book Scala. I’ve only managed to put in about an hour and a half worth of continuous reading time on the device (completely indoors) and its been quite comfortable. I’ve set the screen brightness at about 47% which seems to suit the lighting in my reading space. The buttons for the navigation are bit noisy and just don’t feel right when pressed. Page transitions are quick and smooth (exclude PDFs only epub & text files) but I did notice slight stutter occasionally. The screen is good for reading with its 800×480 resolution, its no retina display but I’m happy with it. The G sensor which allows for landscape or portrait reading modes is a pain and drove me crazy! I’ve just disabled the auto rotate feature and have not had any trouble with it again. File format support is not the Media Book Scala’s strong point, it supports text, PDF and epub. From my reading experience text and epub files have had no problems with scaling formatting, PDFs are an entirely different story. Complex PDFs are just simply painful on the Media Book Scala and don’t play well, large files similarly cause the device to crawl making reading impossible. Overall, if you really want to enjoy your reading experience then quit the PDFs and go with epub or text. Content display size adjustments on the device allow for comfortable reading and though as I’ve mentioned previously PDF files are always troublesome. Its a pity though since I checked out some scientific papers (PDFs) on the reader and the (microscopy) images were really good looking. Unlike the competing Trekstor Ebook Player the Media Book Scala has limited file format support. The three formats that the device does support are widespread support for additional formats wouldn’t hurt. From the user perspective, an application like Calibre can solve this multiple format problem easily as well as provide an iTunes like interface to manage one’s ebook collections.

Verdict

The Odys Media Book Scala is a well built and functional device with a nominal price. The reading experience on the device has been decent though frequently interrupted by the inaccurate G sensor (which probably can be fixed with a firmware upgrade allowing one to switch it off completely!) and the weight of the reader. The Amazon Kindle weighs less than 250 gm and a direct competitor to Media Book Scala, the Trektsor Ebook Player comes in 400 gm lighter. At about 40€ cheaper than the Kindle reader the Odys Media Book Scala is a very capable device for the price if you can manage the weight!

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