V-Moda's outrageously sweet portable DAC and headphone amp

The V Moda Vamp Verza

(Credit: V Moda)

I've reviewed a number of portable headphone amps over the years, but they just took the analog output of a phone or MP3 player and made it sound better. Ideally, you want to totally bypass the player's digital converters, but up until recently that was a very expensive proposition. The V-Moda Vamp Verza cuts the price to less than half, and works with iPhones, iPads, and iPods, as well as Androids and computers. I'm really impressed with the little Vamp Verza's sound.


The look and concept were designed by V-Moda's Val Kolton in Milan, Italy, but the Vamp Verza is one of the few audio devices that's still made in Japan. It's a great looking piece of gear, but since it's really designed to be used in tandem with a phone, Kolton also designed the machined Metallo case ($101) specifically for iPhones or Samsung Galaxys. The Verza and Metallo case together form a sleek phone/audio system. The 'Verza comes in three colors: white/orange, red/black, and matte-black; the all-metal construction gives it a high-end look and feel.
Kolton listened to a bunch of converter chip sets and amplifier circuits to get the best possible sound with Apple and Android phones. He couldn't find one that sounded great with both Apple and Android phones, so the Vamp Verza houses two separate digital-to-analog converters. For iDevices (iPod/iPhone/iPad) there's an Asahi Kasei Microsystems AKM 4353 DAC chip; for USB-DAC and Android, the Vamp Verza uses a BurrBrown PCM2902 converter. Both converters offer the same maximum resolution of 16-bit/48-kHz sampling rate.

The Vamp Verza, with an iPod Classic and JH-13 in-ear headphones

(Credit: Steve Guttenberg/CNET)

I was thrilled to see the Vamp Verza has an actual volume control knob, which I consider a huge improvement over up/down buttons. The knob makes it easy to zero in on exactly the volume you want.
Partnering the Vamp Verza with my iPod Classic and V-Moda Crossfade M-100 full-size headphones seemed like a good place to start. No doubt about it, the M-100's sound was transformed by the Verza, the bass firmed up, so the Black Keys' visceral kicks kicked harder than ever. Crosby, Stills & Nash's vocal sound was far more natural, and straight ahead piano jazz CDs definition and clarity were much improved.
Comparing the iPod's headphone jack with the Vamp Verza's, it sounds like it's providing a more direct connection to the music. Miles Davis' trumpet cuts through more, the bassline on Paul Simon's "Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes" is easier to follow on the Vamp Verza. The iPod Classic sans Verza sounds veiled, softer, and blurry by comparison.
My Jerry Harvey JH13 in-ear headphones with the Vamp Zerza were a terrific combination. The Los Lobos' "Live at the Fillmore" concert CD had a remarkably spacious sound; the Vamp Verza opened up the JH13's stereo image a lot. In-ear headphones tend to keep the image inside your head, but the Vamp Verza pulled the sound out. Nice!
The two high-impedance (250+ ohm), full-size headphones I tried -- Sennheiser HD 580 and Beyerdynamnic T 90 -- were sonically underwhelming with the Vamp Verza. Switching over to a low impedance (50 ohm) headphone, the Hifiman HE-400, the Vamp Verza regained its composure, and the sound was incredibly clear, dynamic and lively. Bass power was spectacular. I also compared the Vamp Verza with the new $479 ADL X1 iDevice-only digital converter-headphone amp, and it was a close contest. The ADL has a slightly warmer, richer tonal balance, but still has plenty of detail. I'll have more to say about the ADL in a few weeks.
I also used the Vamp Verza on my desktop as a USB DAC/sound card, hooked up to the Adam Audio F5 self-powered speakers. The sound was rich, highly detailed and dynamic. Activating the Vamp Verza's 3D processor generated a much bigger and more spacious soundfield, but I preferred straight stereo with the speakers.
The Vamp Verza comes with a USB-to-Micro-USB cable, a 3-inch USB-to-Apple 30-pin cable, a 4-inch Android Micro-USB-to-Micro-USB cable, and two V-Moda rubber bands to secure a smartphone or iPod to the Vamp Verza. The Verza's DACs will work with iPhone 5 and the new iPads with Lightning connectors soon; V-Moda is getting ready to ship its Tuono, a "short" Lightning adapter this summer. The price hasn't been set yet, but will probably be $20 or $25.
You don't have to take my word for how good this thing sounds -- you can buy the Vamp Verza for $598 from the V-Moda Web site (or Amazon) with a 60-day return policy, and there's no restocking fee. Other V-Moda outlets may not offer such generous return options.

Policy refresher: Appeals process

We’re continuing our policy refresher series today, taking a closer look at what happens when we detect content that doesn’t comply with our policies.

As we've talked about often on this blog we maintain a set of policies for AdSense designed to foster a healthy ecosystem and protect our publishers, advertisers and users. The vast majority of content on AdSense publisher sites follows these policies. However, sometimes, our systems do find content that doesn't comply, in which case we'll send a notice to the affected publisher. Notifications can be viewed by signing in to your AdSense account and visiting the Messages page, under your Home tab. Additionally, notifications are sent to the email address associated with your AdSense account. A notification will outline whether it is a site warning/disabling or an account disabling issue. If it is a site warning then you have 72 hours to make changes and do not need to contact us. If your account has been disabled then you should review this help center article to find out more about why we would disable an entire account. The rest of this post will deal with what to do if you receive a site disabling notification.

The first step is to understand the nature of the violation. For more about the different causes and how we define them, you can visit our Help Center and review our program policies.

In some cases, you may be eligible to appeal. If this is the case, please take note of the following considerations in formulating your appeal:

• Make sure you understand the violation: each time we send a notification we include a snippet explaining the violation. If you still have questions following this, our Help Center contains a variety of information on program policies. We also encourage you to seek advice in our Forum - our Top Contributors have a lot of policy knowledge.
• Check your entire site: with each notification we send you a URL as an example of the violation. Keep in mind that this is only an example, the violation may be present on other pages on your site, and we expect you to take appropriate action throughout your entire site. In many cases publishers have found Google’s search operators, specifically the “site:” operator, to come in handy, particularly for content violations.
• Be thorough: we understand that AdSense means a lot to you, and having ad serving disabled may cost you revenue. Take your time when filing your appeal and look through your entire site. Writing a thorough appeal is more important than filing an appeal quickly.
• Tell us how you ensure that this won't happen again: if you were notified about a content violation, tell us what systems you have put in place to ensure that content violating our program policies won't be placed alongside AdSense ads again. Webmasters with large websites might talk about updating filters or hiring human reviewers, while blog owners may tell us that they have familiarized themselves with our adult content policy better, and ensure not to post certain type pictures again.
• Send us examples: were you notified for content violations? In that case send us some example URLs where you removed AdSense ads from. Were you notified because of ad implementation issues? Send us an example URL with your improved implementation - for some cases we will require pages with AdSense ad code implemented, even though ad serving is disabled.
• Err on the side of caution: you may disagree with our decision to disable ad serving to your site, but keep in mind that our policies exist to protect the entire network of users, advertisers and publishers.

We know that your sites are important to you. Please understand that we don't take these decisions lightly. For more information on appeals best practices, take a look at this help center article.

Posted by Dan Zilic - AdSense Team
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New controls and transparency in the Ad review center

Publishers often tell us that they would value more information on the ads displayed on their sites, along with greater control over which ads are displayed. The Ad review center is a key tool for publishers giving you the option to review individual ads and choose whether to let those ads show on your pages.

To further increase transparency and control, we’re happy to announce that we’ve launched several enhancements to the Ad review center, improving overall usability and giving you better insights into the ads shown on your site.

First, the Ad review center now includes an impressions-based progress bar, which shows you the total coverage of the ads you have reviewed so far. This new feature tells you the percentage of ads you have reviewed relative to the total impressions on your site. For example, if the bar reads 79% you have already reviewed ads that total 79% of your impressions.

Next, you now have more access to information on a specific ad simply by hovering over the creative and clicking on the magnifying glass in the bottom right corner. You can preview the landing page of an ad to learn about the user experience and we have also added additional information such as the time remaining before an ad in the ‘upcoming ads’ queue is auto-approved, advertiser and ad network details plus the duration of video ads.

Finally, publishers can now review and block visually similar ads by simply uploading a screenshot or logo, or searching for text in images, thanks to the integration of Google image search technology into the Ad review center. Try out these new features in our Ad review center and share your feedback on our AdSense+ page.

Posted by Fiona Herring - AdSense Product Manager
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Intel sets Haswell launch for June 4th, details bold battery life claims

Haswell is hardly a secret at this point: there's been a steady drip-drip of demos and technical leaks since as far back as 2011, and just a month ago we brought you the low-down on its integrated graphics. But today, finally, we have official pricing for a number of variants, a concrete date for availability (this coming Tuesday, June 4th) and, perhaps most importantly, some detailed benchmark claims about what Haswell is capable of -- particularly in its mobile form.
Sure, Intel already dominates in MacBooks, Ultrabooks (by definition) and in hybrids like Surface Pro, but the chip maker readily admits that the processors in those portable PCs were just cut-down desktop chips. Haswell is different, having been built from the ground up with Intel's North Cape prototype and other mobile form factors in mind. As a loose-lipped executive recently let slip, we can look forward to a 50 percent increase in battery life in the coming wave of devices, with no loss of performance. Read on and we'll discover how this is possible and what it could mean for the dream of all-day mobile computing.