The bass you refer to also tends to be less precise and less clean than the best open phone transducers (save Shure).  I also can't imagine most bassheads liking clean, detailed, well textured bass either.  So why are you talking about them again?  The Beats thread is elsewhere.

The hd800  certainly meet the expectations for "critical listening" by offering a clean, detailed, textured bass, but IMHO  would benefit from offering more punch/energy. If I've understood you well, you implied that a better source than xonar stx, would allow the bass of hd800 to have significantly more punch/energy. Fine, now if someone manage to confirm it, with objective considerations,and preferably in layman's terms, that would be great. Otherwise, I  know that just for fun & excitement, I  can look for cheaper alternatives.

Seems like an afterthought to me too.  Why pick a chipamp that requires a 10 ohm series resistor so it doesn't oscillate itself to destruction?  While we're at it, WTF was TI thinking  when they designed that chip?

"A purpose built headphone amp with good power and linearity.  What else does it need? 1300 V/uS slew rate!"

Far from being a "purpose-built headphone amp", it's a re-purposed DSL driver. Just so happens it also works ok with audio freq., so cha-ching!

Far from being a "purpose-built headphone amp", it's a re-purposed DSL driver. Just so happens it also works ok with audio freq., so cha-ching!

That's what it really is?  Lulz...

They need to stop letting their marketing department write the data sheets.

Uh no, cranking it up makes the ridge worse IME.  The overall equal loudness contour might improve but the absolute magnitude is still larger since it's simply louder.  Beside volume matching amps removes that concern.

I'm saying that if an amp takes the edge off then with that amp you can turn it up louder than with an amp that doesn't take the edge off.

Yup, music selection.  But most music has it's bass in the mid/upper bass anyway.  Unless one is a dubstep junky, that extra low bass extension doesn't come in handy as much.  I do enjoy the extra kick drum resolution from a good planar.

So you agree w/ my assessment of punch versus rumble.  We'll disagree on our hearing of the HD800s under ideal conditions.  LCDs yes but no Hifiman has ever given me any sort of skull crushing rumble.  I quite prefer Massive Attack on my HD800 over the Hifimen or Stax except maybe a 507.

I find that I care more about the rumble than many other people and less about the punch.  Probably less than a third of my music is electronic with deep synths though.  Most of my music is metal, which I notice the differences with most headphones quite easily in, but I even notice it in a lot of Jpop.

I think that most people just never stop to define the punch vs rumble when people say that something has "good bass" so it creates a lot of confusion.

The HiFimans weren't as skull crushing as the Audezes but were still good enough for something like 99.5% of my music in that area.  An LCD-2/3 with some EQ to DF and surround to binaural DSP would probably be deific for movies.

I believe most of FR graphs around are taken at 85-90dB.  Besides, we've played w/ volume matching and effects on FR t the mic, irrelevant from the graphs point of view.  Not far off from what I might normally listen at to AB gear for relatively short durations (around 75-90 depending on time of day and freshness of ears).  Most gear I've ever heard simply doesn't have that 'live'dynamic sound at normal volumes like you'd get from a live instrument.  Then again, live instruments aren't quiet.  You can't play a Piano, trumpet, violin properly at 60dB.

I meant level matching for the A/B listening.  I'm talking about how peaks in the wrong place can limit your maximum listening volume.  The choice of test sign al when level matching a headphone can change it's perceived volume.  Pink noise, white noise, pure sine at what frequency, etc.

On the loudness curves, something that sounds 'live' at low volumes will always sound awful at high volumes.  I mostly listen to my PFE 232s quietly (-45 or 50 on my Clip Zip) where they excel but without any extra processing.  With Rockbox I have an amazingly convoluted EQ preset I need to make them good at -20.

Unfortunately, as awful as value can be for performance in the dynamic amp world, I think it's even worse in the Stax world.  I can only think of 3-4 amps worthy of the 009's ability compared to maybe 6-7 for the HD800 and most of those cost twice as much as their dynamic counterparts.  I think the price differential is simply a reflection of the niche market and lack of sufficient economies of scale and competition.

Yes, I think the Dynahi is a fine SS amp.  I do like his redux of the T2 more than the BHSE however.  I could never see myself listening to Massive Attack, Prodigy or Godsmack on a BHSE.  No huevos.  Acoustic or classical would be more ideal.

I never got to properly A/B, but I remember liking the Lambda normal bias I heard from a transformer box and a 30 year old receiver better than the HD800, LCD-2/3, and HE-5LE/6.  The bass was better than HiFiMan but not quite as good as Audeze, the mids were just luscious, the treble what bright and detailed without being painful, and the "blackground" and imaging blew all of the above out of the water.

It pretty much sounded like a good BA IEM but with lower distortion and much bigger soundstage.

I want to build a BH eventually (it's supposed to measure great and uses tubes, what's not to like?) but it seems like all its transistors have dried up.  I'd probably get hazed to death if I ask about it on Head Case so I'll have to figure it out some other way.

You really think something like 1.5 ohms output Z is really making a difference w/ the HD800's 300 ohms (nvm, I see this below).

I don't really know.  I'm just throwing out known physical causes I can think of.  It's not changing the FR to any significant degree but that resonance has an electrical component so changing the Zout slightly could do something to it.

I'll wait to hear or see evidence of distortion making one of the most resolving headphones on the planet sound better.

If you didn't know the psychoacoustic effects ahead of time the effects of the crossfeed I usually use on an amp's measurements would probably inspire someone to hunt down the designer and make his entire family .  Given that, and the fact that there's no accounting for taste, I don't think it's too much of a stretch.

Giving you guys the benefit of the doubt and assuming you're hearing a real difference that difference is in th e numbers somewhere.  Two devices that null deep enough will be indistinguishable by ear alone so our measurement equipment is clearly up to task.  The question is if we're measuring the right thing because psychoacoustics aren't usually accounted for.

The reason I always ask you guys about this stuff is because if you're right about what you say you hear and it can be identified then it would be trivial for a DSP to duplicate the results and inexpensive filter circuits could be added to non-computer sources and get pretty damn close.  Then everybody could have the same experience without expensive, large, and power sucking amplifiers.

The Dolby Headphone option switches to Dolby Virtual Speaker for the line-out, while the EQ works either way.