CHANGSTAR: Audiophile Headphone Reviews and Early 90s Style BBS

  • December 31, 2015, 09:41:45 AM
  • Welcome, Guest
Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  
Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 [6] 7 8 9 10 11 ... 15

Author Topic: CanJam SoCal 2015 March 28-29 Impressions Thread  (Read 15925 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

ultrabike

  • Burritous Supremus (and Mexican Ewok)
  • Master
  • Pirate
  • *****
  • Brownie Points: +4226/-2
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 2384
  • I consider myself "normal"
Re: CanJam SoCal 2015 March 28-29 Impressions Thread
« Reply #50 on: March 30, 2015, 04:37:32 AM »

LOL! Didn't know about the nano-marketing-stuff. Dunno. I would have to spend more time with them to make a better assessment.

I had a chance to check the Soundblaster X7 and the O2 from JDS Labs table themselves. The guys from JDS Labs put some random music for me (didn't have a selection like other tables did), and that music was banshee-like fucked up. It was not doing any favors to the O2.

The Soundblaster X7 was not too bad. I had to turn off all kinds of crap (Crystalizer, SBX, BBQ, OMG, MakeMyDay...) for things to sound normal. My reason to check it out was that this little gadget can power speakers and acts as a 5.1 pre-pro (Dolby only but accepts LPCM), but with a dedicated headphone out, and it's small. It was OK, but for now, Meh.

The highlight of the show for me, as far as gear is concerned was the Smyth Realiser A8. Unfortunately the didn't have movies and where rolling around with some demo stuff. So they put the center channel and things are OK, but then I move my head, and all of the sudden my eyes fixed on the wall infront of me. Sound was placed outside. This was a first, and the way to get the experience was to move my head around a little. I got the clue to do this from reading stuff by Tyll and Luis. This shit is real, and requires a head tracker. Unfortunately, it's expensive. Of course dude went through the other 7.1 channels and shit got real again. I really wish this was more affordable.

Oh yeah... and I missed the Riva TurboX  :'(
Logged

Marvey

  • The Man For His Time And Place
  • Master
  • Pirate
  • *****
  • Brownie Points: +555/-33
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 6698
  • Captain Plankton and MOT: Eddie Current
Re: CanJam SoCal 2015 March 28-29 Impressions Thread
« Reply #51 on: March 30, 2015, 04:48:33 AM »

Riva Turbo X



When Donald pressed the play button, I mouthed "WHAT THE FUCK" to him. Like WTF good! This tiny tiny thing the size of an alarm clock plays BIG. Really can't nitpick for its price. Amazingly well braced internally with little box resonance (in other words, less boxy sounding than some $40k speakers.) Bass extension and quality that should NOT exist with something at this size. Donald mentioned that they pulled off every trick in the book to make this thing.

I bought one.
« Last Edit: March 30, 2015, 05:06:43 AM by purr1n »
Logged

donunus

  • Cheapus Sexus
  • Mate
  • Pirate
  • ****
  • Brownie Points: +52/-3
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 875
Re: CanJam SoCal 2015 March 28-29 Impressions Thread
« Reply #52 on: March 30, 2015, 04:52:16 AM »

Audioquest Nighthawk. Nice warm sound. Very sweet. Biocelluse diaphragm. Braced internals. Not audiophile tuning. Right price. Very very promising.


This was from my rig and OJs rig, not the WA7 at the auduoquest table.

Would you take the Nighthawk over the PM3?
Logged
Team Delicious and Juicy Sound

n3rdling

  • Statastic
  • Able Bodied Sailor
  • Pirate
  • ***
  • Brownie Points: +86/-0
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 480
Re: CanJam SoCal 2015 March 28-29 Impressions Thread
« Reply #53 on: March 30, 2015, 04:53:14 AM »

The Smyth is the bestest.  You gotta go to their place one day and have them give you a personalized calibration demo.  It'll blow your mind.

Marv, that's similar to what I told Donald.  It gets quite loud and stays very well controlled, especially given its' size.  I also told him it sounded better than some expensive speaker setups I've heard...which is either impressive or sad haha.
Logged

Marvey

  • The Man For His Time And Place
  • Master
  • Pirate
  • *****
  • Brownie Points: +555/-33
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 6698
  • Captain Plankton and MOT: Eddie Current
Re: CanJam SoCal 2015 March 28-29 Impressions Thread
« Reply #54 on: March 30, 2015, 05:01:47 AM »

HE1000

After additional sessons, Anaxilus was able to steal this thing to playback on my amp (EC 2A3 custom) and Yggdrasil and OJ's Mojo/Gungnir combo. It's my understanding that the HE1000 is still being tweaked so take these observations with a grain of salt. I felt these sounded best from solid-state. The HFM EF1000 amp did this headphone no favors. Compared to the Abyss, not quite as solid and grounded, but more airy toward stats. I don't think the HE1000 is quite there yet, but it shows enormous potential. The bass was a bit bouncy. Hard to describe. It wasn't well controlled, but I wouldn't say that the bass was muddy. Hence bouncy. I also felt there was a slight broad midrange suckout and maybe a spotlit treble peak. Soundstage was wide but lacking depth. Again, just meet impressions with very very limited time on records and gear I was familiar with. This might be interesting. We'll see.
« Last Edit: March 30, 2015, 05:27:38 AM by purr1n »
Logged

Marvey

  • The Man For His Time And Place
  • Master
  • Pirate
  • *****
  • Brownie Points: +555/-33
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 6698
  • Captain Plankton and MOT: Eddie Current
Re: CanJam SoCal 2015 March 28-29 Impressions Thread
« Reply #55 on: March 30, 2015, 05:01:58 AM »

MrSpeakers Ether

Quite impressive. As many others have said, Mr. Speakers best headphones. Overall, I think they are better than the Audeze LCD2 Fazor. Sound was air, open, and light. Soundstage could have been deeper, very low end bass could have had more heft, but these are minor things for an otherwise very good headphone. Maybe a tiny bit bright. The design of the headphone and the fit / comfort are fantastic. Possibly the best of any other headphone out there (in terms of ergonomics).
Logged

Marvey

  • The Man For His Time And Place
  • Master
  • Pirate
  • *****
  • Brownie Points: +555/-33
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 6698
  • Captain Plankton and MOT: Eddie Current
Re: CanJam SoCal 2015 March 28-29 Impressions Thread
« Reply #56 on: March 30, 2015, 05:14:57 AM »

I think Jason was pushing it with some of the ads.
Logged

Marvey

  • The Man For His Time And Place
  • Master
  • Pirate
  • *****
  • Brownie Points: +555/-33
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 6698
  • Captain Plankton and MOT: Eddie Current
Re: CanJam SoCal 2015 March 28-29 Impressions Thread
« Reply #57 on: March 30, 2015, 05:25:23 AM »

Would you take the Nighthawk over the PM3?

I have the PM3 in a box right now. (Along with a lot of other crap - when it rains it pours). I get the feeling I may like the PM3 based on what others have said. I'll let you know more a bit later. At $400, it's harder to nitpick stuff to death like what we did with the PM1.

With the Nighthawk, it's more a matter of a different sound. Biocellulose dynamic vs. planar. One thing I will say that that Audioquest's DAC and amp (Dragonfly and Woo cube) did the Nighthawk absolutely no favors. I understand why they have chosen those combos, but the Woo cube amp is just not my sound. I know it's not totally fair to say how the Nighthawk sounds on an EC custom amp with Yggy; but honestly, I feel the Nighthawk would had much better synergy with say an Asgard 2.

Out of the Woo, the Nighthawk was overly bassy muddy and warm were it masked everything in the treble. From OJ's Mojo/Gungnir combo or my setup, the bass wasn't so gooey and the treble was really sweet. The price at $600 is certainly much more right than the overpriced expensive crap that's has been coming out lately. Put it this way, I'd take this over the EL8 with a good solid-state amp.
Logged

Bill-p

  • Would you like graphs with that?
  • Mate
  • Pirate
  • ****
  • Brownie Points: +49/-14
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 336
  • Midrange-head
Re: CanJam SoCal 2015 March 28-29 Impressions Thread
« Reply #58 on: March 30, 2015, 05:52:39 AM »

Okay... more impressions:

HE-1000: I think... this one needs to be driven out of the right amp (not so good pre-amble for a $3K headphone, me thinks), and... well, the right DAC. Or in fact, I don't think the DAC mattered that much. Yggy with Marv's 2A3 amp didn't do much to it. Mjolnir alone with Gungnir (yeah, seriously! ;)) was able to make it sound much better. Still, I didn't think it was that stellar.

EL-8 closed: better out of a tube amp. Specifically, my TTVJ portable tube hybrid.

ALO Continental DAC/amp: actually better than I expected. A bit sizzling up top. Need toning down. Bottom end kinda fat. Vinnie Rossi and Ken Ball both agreed on that point, and proposed some tuning changes. Other than that, I think... pretty good DAC/amp entry. I mean... relative to something like the Hugo. Price is kinda on the high side, though, me thinks. It should be cheaper.

Cavalli portable amp: out of Geek Out 450, it was a bit on the mellow side, but that was mostly due to the Geek Out. This little amp was amazing. I think the 6.5V power supply is holding it back a bit. I have a sneaky feeling that with super sensitive headphones, the walwart could be introducing its own distortion into the sound, or something along that line. Maybe noise as well. Alex told me it was quiet though, and I could never try it with an IEM, so no idea. Should have brought my ear buds. Volume pot between >10 o'clock to <2 o' clock is the best, me thinks, but gain could be a bit too high for some headphones to achieve that. Overall, I thought they sounded phenomenon. Smooth, resolving, a bit... not edgy, and a bit "warm" due to the smoother sound, so I don't think these are for everyone. Would definitely work well with dry headphones, though. It sounded tube-like, with good solid-state impact. Amazing. Probably not for everyone, but I loved it. Staging could be better, but I'll paraphrase a good friend of mine here: "headphone staging is ridiculous anyways". I agree with him there.

LH Geek Pulse (infinity?): good, but a bit bright and sibilant. Different filter helped make it more tolerable, but still bright. Could just be the recording, though. "Get Lucky" was good.

Sony PHA-3: clean, clear, quiet. Good match for Sony MDR-Z7, I think. Much less peaky in the treble than the ALO amp and Geek Pulse above.

As for non-vendor stuffs...

Frank Cooter's SR-009 setup... amazing! Stax speed with body, without brightness, mellow, enjoyable, and very easy to listen to. Not as clean and clear or amazing as Yggy, but I think that's mostly DAC. Amp sounded like it was smooth and all, which I think... is just perfect for the SR-009. Takes a lot of the edge off. Super listenable! Very impressive! I rank this as the 3rd best system I heard at the show.

Marv's rig... Yggdrasil 1.0 coupled with Eddie Current's 2A3... awesomesauce! Made pretty much every headphone I plugged into the rig enjoyable. Sounded "bright" to some folks, but I think it sounded very clean and clear. Plankton galore. Crazy bass. Can fake folks out either with Abyss or Code-X. Very very good. Made even the HE-560 sound slightly more holographic. Very cool. Ravi wasn't kidding when he said this was the best rig at show. I agree wholeheartedly!

Milos' Sony MDR-R10... well, f***! Like... f***! I said f*** like... a billion times when I put that on. The R10 gave me a "WTF" streak. It. Was. F***ing. Epic! Forget measurements, tonality, etc... this is IT! Absolute f***ing best headphone experience I have ever had. Bar none. So yeah... this was best of show for me. All the stuffs above are nice, but they are very far below the experience I got from the R10. It wasn't about the details, or resolution, or even tonality of the sound. The R1 0 sounded... REAL! Like... the soundstage made things appear like they are physically present at a specific place in space. Even when my eyes are open. I didn't have to close my eyes to "force" myself to imagine some form of soundstage. The sound was made physical. Not weighty or tangible, but physical. Hard to explain. But Milos, dude... I can now fathom the magic of the R10, and why it is considered the best closed-back headphone. Hell, I'd say it's the best headphone in the world for me! Thanks for bringing it, man! I feel it's redefining my approach to achieving a perfect headphone experience altogether!
Logged

kothganesh

  • Rebelious Stax Zealot
  • Able Bodied Sailor
  • Pirate
  • ***
  • Brownie Points: +39/-0
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 734
Re: CanJam SoCal 2015 March 28-29 Impressions Thread
« Reply #59 on: March 30, 2015, 05:59:17 AM »

How do the Nighthawk and Ether compare to the Slants?
Logged
Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 [6] 7 8 9 10 11 ... 15