300MAX NPAudio mod. I know mod's are generally not really accepted or want to be heard about but there's been a couple of people ask about it and feel like it's time to comment. Thought I'd post here being what I'm writing is specific to pairing with Storm and it might (unintentionally) ruffle some feathers in the MAX thread.
Can't recommend this highly enough now. I was asked how it sounds vs stock a few weeks ago when it had just over 100hrs. I struggled to say anything of real substance, one being memory from when I last heard it and two, tonally I thought it was the same. Bass had a little more impact, stage was a little better, male vocals maybe a little bit fuller, all were "a little"...
Fast forward to now and somethings changed in the past couple of days quite significantly. Last week it was going through my mind that maybe I'd made the wrong call and should go back to 300M and was even considering N30LE. The past couple of days have been an eye opener...
The bass it's producing now is just incredible. This is probably the best bass I've heard from a portable source, the fullness and texture are simply superb. Mids feel very alive and rich in tone vs stock, lower treble has zero forwardness now which was nearly a deal breaker for me when stock and using Mira2w, Sov Symph removed the distinct peak I'm sensitive to but it was still quite an in your face listen. (couldn't enjoy z1r with it).
Don't know if it's the caps finally settling in, new opamps shaking loose, whatever. It's such an easy listen now, reeks of typical class A house sound and really has pulled off some magic to easily be the best portable pairing I've used by quite a margin.
I think 3 days ago I compared it directly to the desktop rig which had quite linear tubes in it at the time, there was a lot of chat about IEM's scaling on WC thread so decided to direct AB a few songs. I mentioned to a tube friend how surprisingly similar the two setups were sounding tonally to the embarrassment of the desktop rig as it's no where near the same price bracket as a modded MAX . Two nights ago I had to check sanity the following day as the bass was sounding exceptional (Radiohead - The Bends, never an album where I thought bass sone through and sometimes really led the song - High and Dry for example), and a morning set of ears yesterday confirmed it with various artists / tracks followed by 3hrs of pure enjoyment last night. I'm a firm believer in mood / time of day can skew impressions so felt obligated to cross check my ears / brain.
Highly recommend it to anyone else with the same pairing, don't expect miracles straight away as you'll be disappointed, I'm probably 300hrs in at a very rough guess and it's now changed considerably, that's also with very little listening as I kind of shunned it for a bit so it's not a case of brain burn in.
I'd say if you're pairing it with Storm, have also heard 300M and maybe 320M is slightly err'ing too much on the typical ROHM side of life, take a walk on the wild side and give Steve a shout.
Mod include what's basically an array of upgraded capacitors, Steve will tell you the intention wasn't to significantly change anything but upgrade in keeping what's already there to higher quality so you've got the likes of Audio Note, Nichicon UFW changed to Nichicon UFG etc in there now. I also decided to go for the upgraded opamps which change whatever TI opamp iBasso uses to the flagship OPA1656. There may be a possibility to use AD chips but Steve says they put out more heat and remain untested so far.
