Conservatively, I've now put 200+ hours on the iMod, listening to it for 4 hrs a day for three more days, and letting it play while I'm at work and so forth. I think have a pretty good idea what it's supposed to sound like now, at least my unit on my Rotel RX-1052 and MMGs, which most audiophiles would consider entry-level audiophile gear. It seems that after burn-in, my iMod's performance is all about boosting clarity and resolution of the low- and mid-end of the listening spectrum, as well as increased detail and warmness throughout the spectrum. One person in the other thread suggested that the iMod sounds more like an analog source with digital resolution, and I agree.
Given others' comments about the iMod, I wonder if everyone's iMod has burned in differently than mine. Inferring what others are telling me about a burned-in iMod, that it's a replacement for a high-end CD player, I feel I should be getting more high end oomph out of the unit, while others don't comment on that issue. High-end oomph and "sparkle" are definitely not part of my iMod experience, even though hi-hats, cymbals, and vocals resolve perfectly clearly. It's just that it sounds mid- and bass-heavier than before it burned in--the warmness and clarity of bass notes are what I'm picking up there.
The unit is definitely warmer than it was before it was modified, but like I said, I'm not getting the "sparkle" promised to me unless I turn up the treble 4 dB. Then it sounds really "sparkly." To be fair to the unit's performance, I compared 0 and 2 dB over the base settings on the amp, but that didn't seem to boost "sparkle" very much over 4 dB.
Vocals like Diana Krall on "The Look of Love," which seems to be the reference track most reviewers listen to when reviewing a product, sound better with the treble boosted. Diana's voice definitely sparkles at the 4 dB level of treble-boosting, whereas it sounds muffled with 0 dB treble-boost. But even at normal levels of treble, her voice sounds perfectly resolved on the iMod--I hear small breaths before she sings, for example, just less of it than at 4 dB.
Boosting the treble works well except for experimental electronic tracks like mu-Ziq's "Mushroom Compost" and their ilk, which I attribute to overtrebling (is that a word?) and hence screwing up the natural balance between square and sine waves in the high end of the listening spectrum and drum tracks and electronic hum in the low- to mid-range.
To be fair, I'm using the iMod with crappy emergency cables from Radio Shack. When I get my sub for Xmas, I'm going to spend a little more money and get Vinnie's high-end cable. Hopefully that will make a difference in high-end "sparkle" without having to resort to turning up the treble on my amp.
I haven't heard a CD player with a NOS DAC, so I am not qualified to comment on the comparison.
I've been flipping back and forth between the iMod and my stock 5G. The difference is incredible, and I wonder if a more fair comparison might be between an iMod and a stock iPod, rather than with a CD player. Clearly this is one area where the iMod kicks butt. The 5G just doesn't have the same soul as the iMod. For example, when I listen to The Cars's catalog on the 5G, it sounds sterile, lacks resolution, and is generally fuzzier compared to the iMod, which renders The Cars the way I think it should sound, like it did on my old Technics-linear-tracking-turntable-with-$1000 Ortofon cartridge (does that date me, or what?). Same with the Queen catalog--"Bohemian Rhapsody" never sounded so good on the iMod, even better than it did on vinyl. My thinking is that albums that were released on vinyl as well as CD take advantage of the warmer and higher resolution sound of the iMod compared to the 5G. After burn-in, synth-pop sounds better on the iMod than it did before--tracks that sounded cold and sterile before sound more like they did when I was a kid, listening to Ultravox and Eurythmics vinyl on my record player.
After listening to it for this long, I don't consider it a replacement for the Rotel RCD player, which wouldn't muffle the high-end of the spectrum and which delivers crisp, well-resolved mid-range bass, though with a digital sound without the warmness of the iMod. I consider the iMod more of a replacement for my 5G iPod, which was my input source before the iMod arrived. I think eventually I'm going to pick up an RCD and just burn CDs from iTunes whenever I want to listen to albums, and listen to the iMod for tracks that were originally created for vinyl as well as CD. But for now it's a perfectly good way to listen to most genres of music with excellent clarity and warmness, only with the treble turned up on the amp.
If anyone has anything to say about the iMod reproducing the high end of the spectrum without being muffled, especially with better cables, I'd like to hear about your experience, since it would differ from my experience.
Thanks!
