Letter from Hong Kong (24-16): ELO's Love and Hate Affair with Douk E6
Douk E6 Parts I, II, III (by DJ)
It had been sometime since I wrote about my first impressions of Douk E6. Here are some of my further impressions of this unit. First of all, I must say it is an amazing little unit which is able to provide some musical and exciting sound through different applications, but that comes with con's. Here I chronicle my tempestuous journey in chronological order.
Currently, I am using all "Studer" (Sommer) interconnects to achieve the optimum sound based on my latest setup. Viard HD12 is still my speaker cables. The chain is:
WEA > UMI 2 Clarity Plus > Douk E6 > UMI 1 > Aiyima A08 Pro > Dynaudio Crafft
Love For a short while I had an extra UMI 2 Clarity Plus and I had wonderful results, but the UMI 2 Clarity Plus and my older UMI 1 one-two punch proved adequate in achieving similar results. I think the link between Aiyima and E6 is not so picky compare to WEA to E6 [Editor's Note 1].
With the above setup, I cannot but smile and be satisfied with the sound coming out of the system, which is extremely musical, smooth and agile. Pretty much every song is so musical and enjoyable to listen to!
Hate But it came with a price to pay. They one thing that kept bugging me was the microphonics. Especially when I touched or tapped the unit accidentally, the high frequency zing scared the hell out of my CEO and even myself. I also think the E6 is prone to picking up some low buzzing/hissing noise and EMF noise in the background, which is annoying when listening to quiet passages. Of coz once music gets loud, it will be less of an issue.
So then, I was in a love and hate situation but despite the annoying hiss and buzz, I was totally bought over by the benefits of E6. If I could take away these annoying sound....
Love Again! The noise kept bugging me and I was trying different ways to counter it. The issue stood out also because the noise floor of the UMI duo is ultra low which made the noise hard to ignore.
Well, one day my CEO asked me to turn down the volume (seems like her ears are much more sensitive than mine)... I ran over to my setup, but instead of turning down the volume on E6 or adjusted it on my tablet, I lowered the volume of the Aiyima A8 Pro to 9 o'clock from 11 o'clock. At the same time, I noticed the hissing had subsided quite a bit. But the overall volume was too low, so instead I turned up the volume of the E6 and also experimented with different volumes of the Aiyima. After a few rounds, the final optimal setup for me was 10 and 1 o'clock for Aiyima and E6, respectively [Editor's Note 2].
Now the hissing has almost subsided to an acceptable level; still there, but not an obstacle to casual listening anymore.
I also plugged in the UMI2 with a 5V/2A phone charger and light doesn't come up (as what Icefox had suggested). Placebo effect or not, I felt that instrument separation had improved and harmonics became fuller too.
As for the E6, like others who swear by it, I love its music directness, its musicality and agility in music presentation. It is now showing off its strength in full swing and has added to my system clarity and extension on both ends.
Vocals, both male and female, are as uncanny as possible, never overly chesty on male vocals nor glassy in female vocals.
For string instruments , especially violins, the last bit of hardness and brittleness that was present before E6 was introduced has now gone completely.
Yes, the ultimate attack and heftiness was toned down a bit but that does not deter me from enjoying the overall music, so it is acceptable! Always a tradeoff~
I'm getting the benefits of both E6 and UMI's which is the final outcome that I had hoped for from Day One. Once again, matching of equipment is essential. I'm now using 100% "Studer" cables which is also a key part to achieve this effects.
Meanwhile, I have managed to control all the sizes of my equipment to palm size and the sound is not a bit tiny at all! The largest equipment, bigger than palm size is the Sound Burger (SB) from AT, but it is again way smaller than the drilling-rig type turntables! LOL!
Right now, I will turn on my "Enjoy music" mode and play randomly whatever Tidal offers me on my own playlists and immerse into the music!
Next step is to replace the cheap USB charger to a proper power supply, whether it's LPS, beefy SMPS or a simple iFi PowerX and see if it would further improve the overall performance! Stay tuned!
Editors Notes: 1) absolutely, 1:1 transformers are best used between source and Preamp; effect is less, but potentially beneficial, between preamp and amp; 2) This is a classic example of Gain and Level. Older audiophiles will remember many classic preamps, such as ARC and MFA, to name just two, with separate Gain and Level controls. In this case, the Aiyima has its own preamp gain stage and careful dialing in of the volume knobs of both Preamp (E6) and Amp (Aiyima) will reap rewards. If there are more than one volume knobs in the amplification chain it's worthwhile to carefully evaluate various combinations. Similarly, if the source has a volume knob one has to do some work to match it with what follows.
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Trip to Lake of Thousand Lanterns, Foshan
What a lovely trip with beautiful night scenes and fantastic food experience that is so affordable!!
First meal was already epic. You literally had to fight for the limited special dishes as displayed in the corner! I was lucky to grab the last seafood pot consisting of 6 juicy abalone and four small bue crab, which were so sweet and tender!
Breathtaking night scenes and light show at the Lake of Thousand Lamps
Another amazing late night meal at this "Fisherman Fun" Restaurant
With 15 fat and QQ razor clams on vermicelli and garlic bits, 6 juicy fat and tasty oyster grilled with same garlic and vermicelli on top and a fresh sea urchin from Hokkaido. All for $200 yuan!
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