CHANGSTAR: Audiophile Headphone Reviews and Early 90s Style BBS
Lobby => The Meeting Place => Topic started by: uncola on March 28, 2015, 04:44:54 PM
-
Post any impressions from the event
:ship:
Hot new hardware that deserves impressions:
MrSpeakers Ether headphone
Hifiman HE1000
Audioquest Nighthawk
Audeze EL8
Cavalli Liquid Carbon
Cavalli Liquid Silicon
Light Harmonic Geek Pulse Infinity
-
Please don't forget Enigmacoustics D1k "Dharma." :wheel: It concerns me slightly, but doesn't surprise me at all, that they're pairing it with a tube amp.
-
Sooooo, any of you dill weeds have any impressions so far?
-
Impressions of the weather - a little blustery and cold , water freezing on the rocks but clear blue skies and sun shining brightly making everyone cheery despite the frigidity .
(http://s246.photobucket.com/albums/gg104/dBel84/Mobile%20Uploads/?action-view¤t=20150328_163327_resized_zps9a258afa.jpg)
-
Impressions of the weather - a little blustery and cold , water freezing on the rocks but clear blue skies and sun shining brightly making everyone cheery despite the frigidity .
(http://s246.photobucket.com/albums/gg104/dBel84/Mobile%20Uploads/?action-view¤t=20150328_163327_resized_zps9a258afa.jpg)
Ice in SoCal? Blasphemy.
-
No, I am at a meeting in North Wisconsin, just thought ZD might appreciate my impressions too ;)
-
I was able to make it there for a few hours today. Will post something up later about the Ether, HE1000, Liquid Carbon, EL8, Sony MDR-R10s, Smyth Realiser A8, O2, Soundblaster X7, and some other stuff.
Great to see Luis, Marv, Milos, Mike, OJ, Tyll, Bill, Jeff, Insidious Meme, Blubliss... LOL! even Dan didn't seem too pissed off at me which is great! :)
-
I was able to make it there for a few hours today. Will post something up later about the Ether, HE1000, Liquid Carbon, EL8, Sony MDR-R10s, Smyth Realiser A8, O2, Soundblaster X7, and some other stuff.
Great to see Luis, Marv, Milos, Mike, OJ, Tyll, Bill, Jeff, Insidious Meme, Blubliss... LOL! even Dan didn't seem too pissed off at me which is great! :)
Hey, it's the first day. Everyone is still hopeful! Coz Dan can let it slip for a while!
-
Please don't forget Enigmacoustics D1k "Dharma." :wheel: It concerns me slightly, but doesn't surprise me at all, that they're pairing it with a tube amp.
Interesting headphone. Drivers more integrated than k340. More cohesive sound between low and highs. Has a lot of similarities in sound including a treble peak.
-
Liquid Carbon is amazballs
-
Ditto on that, too. Liquid Carbon is amazball.
-
Well. Bad news is that I lost my camera. So no pics from me. Sorry folks.
Good news is that at least I got much more from the meet than a price of my camera.
-
Initial impressions of HE1000 are positive. Can't say for sure because not familiar with recordings and amps used by hifiman. Seemed to have a high percentage of e'stat and ortho positive qualities .. Speed and heft.
Nitpicking, but depth could be better in relation to width.
-
What cans did you use with the carbon?
-
Carbon is promising... Only as good as the DAC. That is a good thing.
-
Initial impressions of HE1000 are positive. Can't say for sure because not familiar with recordings and amps used by hifiman. Seemed to have a high percentage of e'stat and ortho positive qualities .. Speed and heft.
Nitpicking, but depth could be better in relation to width.
Very nice. Looking forward to more impressions on the HE-1000. Would be nice to have a ortho / e-stat hybrid that doesn't need to be fed on special amps.
-
Bill's modded Sony Z7s were pretty damn good, me gusta.
Luis turned me onto RIVA Audio, Donald North's their chief engineer and they managed to make a bluetooth speaker that fills a room and doesn't suck. Quite impressed at the price point. Bought one.
Spent like 5 minutes with the Dharma. Concern for people with big heads and fit but they said they'd fix that. Deserving of more time.
Need to try the Bluetooth Noble Dongle and HE1000.
Contemplating a $4k Schiit stack. Don't have anywhere to put it at home though...
-
Even with an iPad Mini as the source and a Centrance DAC, the Liquid Carbon was really impressive. Fast and clean, with plenty of extension at both ends. I can easily see one sitting on top of my Hilo, or in the office with a Concero on top. Hard to be certain because the Ayre room was noisy and they were even worse than Schiit in terms of having familiar music to listen to, but the Concero-Carbon combo might beat the Codex.
The prototype Cavalli portable is insane. Must be heard to be believed. If the production model is as good as the prototype, Alex has hit a five-run home run.
Closed EL-8 did nothing for me. It doesn't do anything horribly wrong, but it's just dull.
On the other hand, given how much I dislike the PM-1 and PM-2, the PM-3 was a real surprise. For what it is and what it costs, it is a solid value. Sounded really good with the Pono Player. Gets instrumental timbres almost entirely right. Doesn't get congested in big orchestral climaxes. Soundstage isn't spectacularly wide or deep, but it's good enough.
Lastly, the Noble N9 bluetooth gizmo is a steal at $99. Music coming out of iPhone sounds much better than I expected it to. Phone audio on the prototype is a little grainy, but per Brannan the production models have a different chip than the prototype and do a better job of noise reduction. If you have a use case for something like this, don't over-think it, just buy it.
-
Agree on the EL-8. A fairly warm and dark can. Luis had exactly the same impressions. Not a bad set of cans for what they are though.
Also agree the Liquid Carbon is the shiznits!
Actually heard the the Ether from the Liquid Carbon and Lyr 2. The two Ethers I heard are good. Fairly open. IMO, the Ethers didn't seem to hit as hard as the HE1000, and were perhaps a little bright, but that's a relative. Would have to spend more time with the Ethers to make a fair assessment. Not too bad. Proly the best set of cans Dan has put out. Loved the HE1000 as well.
-
Interesting headphone. Drivers more integrated than k340. More cohesive sound between low and highs. Has a lot of similarities in sound including a treble peak.
Thanks Marv. Bummer they couldn't get it really right but I'm not surprised. Probably just a limitation of that sort of dual driver.
-
Any impressions of the Nighthawk vs el8 would be much appreciated, thank you guys.
Super jealous of everyone who can make it to the show :)p2
-
Loved the Liquid Carbon as well. Used my HE-560s balanced. Didn't try the portable as my Leckerton covers that for me. Had no obvious issues when listening to the HE-1000, Electroacoustics Dharma and the Ether.
Line up this morning was somewhat long getting in. And the maps on the guide.. ugh. Had to remember there was a giant pavillion area that also carried vendors. Good to meet up with good friends again, and have fun.
-
Did anyone prod Alex for more info on the Crimson? Release date, estimated price? I'm in the market for a balanced amp and was hoping to spend < $1k. At $1k is it worth it to just make the jump to the Rag?
-
Hilights for me, whatever that means.:
- Meeting up with some great people. Pirates are a blast to hang out with.
- HE1000
- Dharma : Better driver phase coherency than old K340. Minor treble peak, but it seems like they are aware and will be tuning it out.
- Cavalli amps : Carbon out of Hugo w/ low batteries was kind meh. Portable sounded good! Slightly warm.
--Jeff
EDIT: How the fk could I forget Frank Cooter's SR-009 amp? That was definitely the best thing at the show, I must have just forgotten it since it's unobtanium for everyone else.
-
Only made it for an hour or so of listening today. So far:
*Bill made my 560s sound less annoying, big thanks to him
*Dan's Ether has great imaging (for an ortho), great comfort and is quite enjoyable when pushed hard by the Yggy/Rag. It's what Fostex's 500RP should've been. But the price...
*Russky Oppo was also enjoyable and smooth. The Oppo will never be a detail monster and it will never be as involving as some other headphones, but it is good in a relaxing listen type of way.
*Bill's modded Z7 (I've never heard the regular version) - not much bass, but still manages to be a fun 'phone. Sexy build quality.
*Frank Cooter's new amp is gorgeous as always, but it tries to change the 009 into something it's not. I'm going to try to listen to a couple of more favorable pairings tomorrow.
*Yggy - cool design, it was really fun and funny to listen to Moffat explain his f.u. to the current trends in the high end DAC market. But alas, I remain DAC-deaf.
*Bourbon - bourbon was good.
-
Made it there kind of late, but here are my personal highlights...
1) Hanging out with the pirates and associates. Still the best way to spend of evening short of spending it with Adriana Lima. ;)
2) The Riva Turbo X. There are times when something totally unexpected blows you away. The Riva Turbo X is such a product. I definitely need to spend some quality time with it but initial impressions are simply WOWOMGAWESOMESAUCEWITHBBQ ON TOP! I own a Soundmatter FoxL and FoxLO combo and the Riva Turbo X blows that combo out of the water. What is the Riva Turbo X? It's an awesome little blue tooth speaker that packs quite the punch at a price that may surprise you. BEST OF SHOW for me personally. More to come soon.
3. HE1000 - Great sounding HiFiMan. 'Nuff said.
4. Cavalli Liquid Carbon and Cavalli Portable - I definitely heard some potential but I believe the Chord Hugo it was attached to was definitely fucking up the signal chain. Will return tomorrow with my Geek Out 450 to properly evaluate stuff I was interested in.
WORST OF SHOW
1. Chord Hugo - Over priced piece of shit which fucked up my listening experience. Silver turd with skittle colors. Will return tomorrow with my Geek Out 450 to properly evaluate stuff I was interested in.
-
Nice to see y'all pirates. It was a fun day for audio and an awesome evening with dinner to conclude CanJam day 1.
- Yggy is ...well.. jus Yggy. Gonna get 1 in "3 or so weeks" (according to Mike M)
- Bill's LCD2 is quite a fun headphone to enjoy. It will be my next project if I can manage to get my 404LE off my FS.
- Abyss's fit is as quirky as finding the amp/dac for HD800.
- Drahma hp will be a great contender of 1000+ segment. Speed of stat without the delicate ethereal quality.
- HE1000, Ether are good but not worth the asking price imo.
- Riva bluetooth speaker is quite a surprise. Good punch from the little guy.
- I'm tempted with UERM 25% off after the 3D scan. :(
Lastly headfiers' listening volume level (at least at CJ) is way above my comfort zone.
-
- Bill's LCD2 is quite a fun headphone to enjoy. It will be my next project if I can manage to get my 404LE off my FS.
This was perhaps my favorite of the show. I'd love to see how Bill modded it (or send him one to mod).
-
I am back at home. As I said, I lost my camera so no pictures. Sorry guys.
Impressions:
1) HE1000 : Unlike CES's prototpye, no more sudden harshness. I believe I once said I am willing to pay this headphone up to 3K, and it is priced right at it.
2) Nighthawk : Unfortunately no sonic change since CES and it was confirmed by AudioQuest guys. Right now it is good, but I do feel the sound is sometimes too thick and warm.
3) Ether : Good and lightweight. It is essentially a worse version of LCD-X (less/worse bass and less/worse treble, about equal in mid) but priced only 200 bucks below LCD-X. Unless weight is biggest concern, LCD-2 and LCD-X actually provide slightly better deal IMHO, but I'd say it's... well, ok I guess. The biggest strength of Ether is really its weight and comfort, not sound.
4) D1000 : Surprisingly good, unlike others said I do not find this headphone bright on treble. Quite balanced and sounds good and airly.
5) R10 (bass-light) : It's good, closed headphones but definitely more I listen to these headphones, they are really past their prime time. To be honest, they sound very good, but I don't find any magical about it. From my perspective, PM-3 is almost like 85% of R10 but costs only 400 bucks. EL-8 is already toe-to-toe with R10.
6) Stax-Sigma : It's the best estat I've ever heard. Definitely better than their newer and more expensive siblings such as 007 and 009. Yes, Sigmas are also ethereal-sounding headphone, but I feel they are just... right. Unlike other estat headphones except HE90, I don't sense any weirdness that stemmed from ethereal-sounding of estats. It is hard to describe but they do this sound 'correct.' If I were to buy, I will prob try buy one of these.
7) General Cavalli stuffs : What else can I say, they are all very good amplifiers without any apparent weakness I could sense. I would had bought one of his amp if Rag has not existed.
8.) Ygg : It's... ygg I guess. Among with HE1000, I will buy this DAC as well, probably finishing my headphone system.
9) Marv's modded Abyss : Ok, now it actually sounds like really good headphones unlike unmodded one which just sounds unacceptable in many areas except bass. Still, I would not spend more than 2K on these headphones. HE1000 is, even against modded Abyss, simply better headphones if you ask me.
10) Oppo PM-3 : Biggest surprise for me. Expectation was not high. My first thought was "Meh, it is almost as good as HD650", then I realized these ones are closed-back and priced 400 bucks. It actually sounds slightly better than Alpha Dog in terms of tonality, for example. Probably the best portable closed full-size headphones, period. Sure some other T50RP modded ones may sound better, but they are not really portable.
11) EL-8 : Open one is good, and closed one is indeed such massive improvement from CES. Treble spike has been greatly reduced and overall sound is much more coherent now. I can say they are quite competitive with their price, and ready for sell. I'd rather get open version of EL-8 instead of LCD-2 at this point.
12) Stax 007 MarkII : Am I only one thinking it sounds better than 009?
13) AKG K1000 : doh, lack of any low-bass is the biggest problem. Otherwise speaker-like sound is indeed main hooking point of these unique headphones.
Trends I witnessed:
1) Very annoying and dangerous trend of ever-increasing the price of headphones and associated equipment. One of the headphones I heard was absolute disaster, yet it is priced at whooping 900 bucks. There is some unknown planar headphones from a company whose people have not even decided a name of the company. But I was told they were going to sell at +1K USD. Just... yeah. I do have feeling the bubble is going to burst soon or later, and similar fate may happen to high-end headphone market like current high-end audio ended up.
2) Planar Planar AND MORE Planars. I only see mountains of Audezes, MrSpeakers and Hifimans. Even HD800 is increasingly becoming a rare breed. Very few Beyers (and majority of them are presented as A&K branding) and absolutely no sign of AKG except a lone K1000 (hmm, no K812, lol...) and maybe K7XX (I think I saw it somewhere). Of course, no sign of Grado as well except someone was brought his PS-1000 for comparison.
3) Many traditional hifi-audio companies jumping into headphone market, surprisingly usually with right price. Ayre's new headphone amplifier is a prime example. I was quite pleased with its sound and the fact that it will cost about 700 or less pleased me. ENIGMAcoustics is another company which was making tweeters and now jumping with hybrid headphones and a very nice tube amplifier with relatively cheap price (~600 bucks)
Stories
1) I had chance to talk with Tyll about his former company. "Tragedy" is such a right word for Headroom after Tyll left. I really wish Headroom was still making amplifiers and DACs. I really loved Headroom Micro with desktop module. It endured pretty much all of my early head-fi adventures.
2) Seminar for Planar magnetic headphone. All I can say is; price has always been and will be the key. All technologies mean little if people can't enjoy them due to price. Dynamic headphones have a very strong advantage here since the cost of drivers is indeed far less than Planar's. I believe the market will eventually adjust itself as planar as high-end and dynamics as low-mid-end. Traditional highly-priced dynamic headphones will have harder time convincing people to buy them. It is already evident that AudioQuest's Nighthawk is receiving very lukewarm responses.
There may be things I forgot to mention since I cannot see pictures to remember myself, but I believe I pretty much covered all important and interesting stuffs.
-
I think you like more thicker sounds as you like the Stax Sigma and SR007.
Did you think the HE1000 is thick as the Abyss ?
-
I think you like more thicker sounds as you like the Stax Sigma and SR007.
Did you think the HE1000 is thick as the Abyss ?
Nah, I don't necessarily like thicker sound (actually I am one of few people who like AKG K701 and K712, which are furthest from being thick sounding). I think I am just more tolerate toward thicker sound.
Abyss has definitely more thicker sound than HE1000, prob due to more bass response of Abyss. But in general HE1000 is simply better headphones regardless. It's more complete, pretty much flawless performance at this point with being really comfortable to wear as well.
-
Here are some of my quick notes from yesterday. Will have to revisit them tomorrow:
EnigmAcoustics Dharma: slow bass, fast treble, midrange kinda okay with some upper midrange emphasis around 1-2KHz, sounds like it could be peaky, but due to the 'stat drivers workin' over time to ensure that doesn't happen, what you get is a nice smooth sound. Very cool trick. Me likey.
Audeze EL-8: open version potentially better than LCD-2F to some folks due to tonality...? I think I heard either a 1KHz or 2KHz emphasis that causes vocals to get slightly higher-pitched. Not unlike Audio Technica voicing. Bass is solid, but sounds a bit distorted, and highs are a bit smoothed/rolled. Sounds like typical Audeze house sound to me. Closed EL-8... uhh... no body, thin, tinny, a bit shouty, very peaky, very sharp, and bass is solid, less distorted than open version but doesn't hit as hard. Neither version sound very focused with regards to bass and placement/locality.
Hifiman HE-1000: I think I heard a bad sample of the the HE-1000. Will have to revisit tomorrow. My impressions of them would be very different compared to everyone else's. 'nuff said! :P
Fostex TH900: now I hear its neutrality. The bad part is dat bass. It sounds kinda... thick and not very detailed/layered. I don't think I heard much of the treble issue, which is good.
Mr. Speakers' Ether: sounds to me like a stock pair of HE-560. Not a bad performer at all, but not very stellar, either. With the way they sound, they're priced kinda... a bit too high. If they were the same price as the Alpha Prime now, it would be more reasonable. Other than price, I don't have much else to complain about.
Cavalli Liquid Carbon and portable amps: very good amps. Clean, clear, smooth, liquid, effortless, but with very good impact (scary good!), and resolving to a point, as they hit a wall with the DACs used. Me likey.
Frank Cooter's SR-009 system: sounds great to me. Full sound that's still smooth, resolving, and effortless, and not edgy at all. Some didn't like this sound because they find the 009 sounds odd that way. Frank says his SR-007 Mk.2 sounds better with that system. I believe him. 007II would make that listening experience a delicious one!
Sony MDR-R10 (bass-light): surprisingly not as bright as legend would have it. Warm and full sounding with a good amount of resolution, and deep soundstage. Would love to see how this one looks like on a measurement rig.
I hope I'll be less of a jerk today after some good sleep. We'll see... :)
-
Made it there kind of late, but here are my personal highlights...
4. Cavalli Liquid Carbon and Cavalli Portable - I definitely heard some potential but I believe the Chord Hugo it was attached to was definitely fucking up the signal chain. Will return tomorrow with my Geek Out 450 to properly evaluate stuff I was interested in.
WORST OF SHOW
1. Chord Hugo - Over priced piece of shit which fucked up my listening experience. Silver turd with skittle colors. Will return tomorrow with my Geek Out 450 to properly evaluate stuff I was interested in.
For whatever reason, there appears to be almost one hugo in every photo i've seen from the event. I myself quite like the hugo, but if its use is that widespread, may be impressions will be skewed?
-
2) The Riva Turbo X. There are times when something totally unexpected blows you away. The Riva Turbo X is such a product. I definitely need to spend some quality time with it but initial impressions are simply WOWOMGAWESOMESAUCEWITHBBQ ON TOP! I own a Soundmatter FoxL and FoxLO combo and the Riva Turbo X blows that combo out of the water. What is the Riva Turbo X? It's an awesome little blue tooth speaker that packs quite the punch at a price that may surprise you. BEST OF SHOW for me personally. More to come soon.
That's is really interesting. Thks. Donald North is really involved in this company ?
-
What cans did you use with the carbon?
used the paradox slants and the lcd-xc. They sounded good I liked it better than anything at the alo table or lhlabs pulse(indirect comparison). Bill-p and me and going to try to convince Cavalli to let us a/b your triad/carbon with the code-x, his mod lcd2, mod z7, and the slants.
by the way thanks for telling me that your gear was coming to the meet. :spank:
-
It was on the downlow. Need a reason to sell either the Triad or leck so Bill brought the triad, the Abyss was for Marv's table and the Code-x was so Bill could measure a baseline for his mods.
-
It was on the downlow. Need a reason to sell either the Triad or leck so Bill brought the triad, the Abyss was for Marv's table and the Code-x was so Bill could measure a baseline for his mods.
:)p13 haha its all good man I'm just glad I was able to get some ears on time with it. It was a nice surprise at the show. thanks for that. :money:
coincidentally the silicone is almost as good as the carbon but the carbon is still better. thus I arrive at a problem use carbon vs silicon (cost and future purchase will depend)? As much as I like to think I am beyond the marketing bullshit I did smile when I heard the word balance.
-
Please don't forget Enigmacoustics D1k "Dharma." :wheel: It concerns me slightly, but doesn't surprise me at all, that they're pairing it with a tube amp.
The amp was actually pretty good I tried it with the hd800 and it did pretty well. It's now the third amp I like the hd800 with first two are DNA Strauss and Alo studio 6
-
Hugo TT. Used as DAC/amp combo. Listened to a few tracks I was familiar with.
Amp section isn't bad. Has balls to drive difficult planars. Overall sound is warm maybe slighty gooey. Resolution is mediocre. Microdynamics slightly lacking on the cusp of being good. Almost a good unit... For $4500, this very much is not worth it. In some respects, worse than Hugo
Oh I forgot. After 10 minutes, digital fatigue started to set it despite warm tone.
In closing, this is sad. We can put together reference sounding DAC and amp combos for $800. Now we get multi thousand dollar pieces...
-
Must be because they hadn't left it on for a week. :)
-
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.
-
Hugo TT. Used as DAC/amp combo.
Amp section isn't bad. Has balls to drive difficult planars. Overall sound is warm maybe slighty gooey. Resolution is mediocre. Microdynamics slightly lacking on the cusp of being good. Almost a good unit... For $4500, this very much is not worth it. In some respects, worse than Hugo
Oh I forgot. After 10 minutes, digital fatigue started to set it despite warm tone.
In closing, this is sad. We can put together reference sounding DAC and amp combos for $800. Now we get multi thousand dollar pieces...
I don't know any of Chord products, but it looks like there an overwhelming hype on these. Even if the sound was top notch, I could'nt cope with this childish design (flashy colors of skittles' inlays, duh ?) and the price asked.
Ali
-
Any iems/ciems at can jam?
Adel? Layla? Cardas' new iem? Aurisonics?
-
Hugo TT. Used as DAC/amp combo. Listened to a few tracks I was familiar with.
Amp section isn't bad. Has balls to drive difficult planars. Overall sound is warm maybe slighty gooey. Resolution is mediocre. Microdynamics slightly lacking on the cusp of being good. Almost a good unit... For $4500, this very much is not worth it. In some respects, worse than Hugo
Oh I forgot. After 10 minutes, digital fatigue started to set it despite warm tone.
In closing, this is sad. We can put together reference sounding DAC and amp combos for $800. Now we get multi thousand dollar pieces...
Interesting, thanks for another data point. I really liked the TT, did not listen to the little one. The price is hard to swallow and the look/lights are atrocious. I did enjoy speaking to Rob Watts.
Would love to have both the TT and Yggdrasil to listen to at home.
-
Even with an iPad Mini as the source and a Centrance DAC, the Liquid Carbon was really impressive. Fast and clean, with plenty of extension at both ends. I can easily see one sitting on top of my Hilo, or in the office with a Concero on top. Hard to be certain because the Ayre room was noisy and they were even worse than Schiit in terms of having familiar music to listen to, but the Concero-Carbon combo might beat the Codex.
The prototype Cavalli portable is insane. Must be heard to be believed. If the production model is as good as the prototype, Alex has hit a five-run home run.
Closed EL-8 did nothing for me. It doesn't do anything horribly wrong, but it's just dull.
On the other hand, given how much I dislike the PM-1 and PM-2, the PM-3 was a real surprise. For what it is and what it costs, it is a solid value. Sounded really good with the Pono Player. Gets instrumental timbres almost entirely right. Doesn't get congested in big orchestral climaxes. Soundstage isn't spectacularly wide or deep, but it's good enough.
Lastly, the Noble N9 bluetooth gizmo is a steal at $99. Music coming out of iPhone sounds much better than I expected it to. Phone audio on the prototype is a little grainy, but per Brannan the production models have a different chip than the prototype and do a better job of noise reduction. If you have a use case for something like this, don't over-think it, just buy it.
Gotta do what I did, buy a bigger (separate) shelf. It also solved the related problem of a groaning desk, which apparently could only handle 150 lbs. Cheap-ass swedes...
Also, are there any additional impressions on the DIY electrostat amp? That amp alone was amazing enough eye candy to make me regret not going to the event. It completely made up for the headache the pictures of Chord gear gave me.
-
6) Stax-Sigma : It's the best estat I've ever heard. Definitely better than their newer and more expensive siblings such as 007 and 009. Yes, Sigmas are also ethereal-sounding headphone, but I feel they are just... right. Unlike other estat headphones except HE90, I don't sense any weirdness that stemmed from ethereal-sounding of estats. It is hard to describe but they do this sound 'correct.' If I were to buy, I will prob try buy one of these.
These things must really improve with amplification, but with my T1 they were the weirdest sounding stat' I ever owned.
-
Tried the Stax-Sigma in another meet. Did not like. Really weird indeed.
Also, I was on a hurry but Milos gave me a chance to hear his R10s. I think the first thing I said was "these are bass light" or something like that. IMO not very resolving. Switched to his Aristaeus + SR-009s which were right next to the R10s, and the Sony's got owned. R10s may do OK with certain classical music, but even then the Stax combo shamed them. Didn't try other dynamics or planar side to side, but in most cases I don't think the R10s would fare very well. The R10s seem to be rare though, and IMO a unique collector item.
-
Ultra, it was the foam Milos used. He used closed-cell foam, I think. Today he got some open-cell foams and tried them out. We finally got to hear the R10 sounding holographic and big. Definitely bigger soundstage than the HD800 for sure. Nice trick. But it measured like... :(
The measurements were made with a make-shift and weird baffle, but we got the general idea.
-
Pretty fun show.
Great Stuff
Riva Audio - They fill a room with authority and sound damn good. At $349 retail, I haven't heard anything that compares in the wireless realm. The room was barren day 1 when I checked it out, and when I stopped by day 2 to talk to the founder I saw 3 people buy a pair in the 30 mins I was there for a chat. I get the feeling these are going to blow up soon.
Yggdrasil - Much to my sadness, I really like what I heard. Or didn't hear, because the two Yggy setups I heard really just sounded like the headphone. Not much to say, listen to it yourself and form your own opinion.
Cavalli Liquid Silicone - Not sure if I got the name right. I was really impressed with the portable unit (less so the transportable Carbon). Price point isn't solidified, but it rocked out pretty hard and had a black background with the UERMs. Current unit didn't have a low/high gain and had a lot of power to swing around, they mentioned that was something to look for in the final production unit so people playing with IEMs have more knob space to work with.
Philips Fidelio X2 - I had never heard the headphone before, and our booth just ended up next to Philips. Holy shit. These are amazingly good consumer grade headphones. Super sexy aesthetics, good build quality, and a fun sound? Yes please.
Sony R10 - Damnnnnnnnn. My new favorite dynamic headphone. Perhaps the best headphone period for my personal preference. Why the hell is it not still in production? If I had one of these I'd probably call it a life and stop looking for can upgrades.
Code-X - My new favorite headphone from LFF.
Interesting Stuff
Sony ZX2 - Sounded good to my ears. UI was super intuitive, build was good and it looked really sleek. Worth $1200? Not sure, need to spend more time with it.
1964 ADEL 6-10-12 - I preferred the 10, which was probably the most neutral of the lineup to my ears. 12 seemed to be a more consumer-friendly tuning a la Noble Kaiser 10. Interesting. A/Bed it against my UERMs and can't tell if I prefer it. I think the UERM won out in detail, but the 10 has a compelling... not sure if soundstage is the right word for it. It sounded full, in a good way. I'd be interested in learning more. THAT PRICING THOUGH. They did mention they were looking to roll out the ADEL tech to their current lineup without adding too much cost (which is now discontinued), so trickle-down tech is a thing. Applause for that.
-
c/p from HF and then some CS stuff after:
MrSpeakers Ether: I liked this quite a bit. My typical complaint with most planars is that they sound closed in and congested. These were one of the few that didn't (others being the Abyss and original Paradox). The sound was airy, the soundstage was a nice size, and the mids were neutral. They sounded kind of like an ortho driver with more of a lean towards electrostats. These were a little light on the bass, but overall a clean and neutral headphone. Also very comfortable. This is my favorite headphone by Dan thus far and one of my favorite orthos.
HiFiMan HE1000: I have to admit I was pretty underwhelmed. I was expecting these to impress me but I didn't hear anything special. They look much better in person than in photos, but they did feel a little cheap. For that matter, so did the rest of the chain...the scroll wheel on the portable player often took ~7 clicks just to register once, and the pot on the big amp was smooth like a normal pot but sounded like it was a stepper as I could clearly hear jumps in the volume level and couldn't really get the level I wanted. There were a number of HE1000s there but I only listened to the single ended pair from the big amp. Like the Ether, it sounded like a planar that was stepping towards electrostats. There wasn't a ton of impact like a lot of other orthos, and it didn't have the detail I was expecting from a lighter diaphragm. The soundstage also seemed off...instead of being able to pinpoint sounds from different areas around the head, the headstage on these seemed like a rectangle over your face without much separation. Almost like listening in mono but with that center image stretched out to your ears if that makes sense. Overall pretty neutral response. One person told me he had very similar impressions to mine but then he tried one of the other HE1000s and they sounded completely different. Fang said they all sound the same though so who knows. My impressions of this headphone really didn't match what I expected to hear from a "nano" diaphragm, so I asked Fang how thick the diaphragm was and he said "I can't tell you." I guess it's on the nanoscale, but that could mean anything. It sounded more like 3,000-7,000 nm thick though so maybe the nano thing is to generate some buzz.
Riva Turbo X: These definitely deserve the attention they're starting to garner. Very convenient and well thought out design, you can tell most of these guys have probably been doing this stuff for a while now. For being so small it has no business sounding as big and good as it does. It threw me off guard the first time I heard it because it didn't seem possible. I guess this is what happens when that application gets designers that are most concerned with the sound quality instead of marketing, etc.
Abyss: I listened to purrin's modded set and they sounded better than before. The treble was a lot cleaner sounding and strings sounded much more 'right' than they do on the stock Abyss. I had a theory going in about the "speaker like" presentation/bass that this headphone is known for and pretty much verified it in my mind today. It seems everybody listens to the Abyss with a partial, very weak seal (the designers even encourage this) and I think this is a huge contributor to the speaker-like stuff. I spent my whole demo kind've pushing the cups in and pulling them out so that I could compare a full seal to the normal seal in rapid succession. With the partial seal, as with most electrostats and orthos, you get more mid bass kick and less sub bass extension; with the full seal you get a more linear bass response. This is nothing new so it didn't really surprise me, but there was one other thing that had a surprising result from the different seals: soundstage. With the full seal, you get a normal headphone soundstage, though these suffer a little from the "3 blob" effect (left/center/right without much fleshing out in between). With the partial seal, the center of the soundstage basically disappears and you get a "2 blob" headstage with much more crosstalk than a normal headphone. So ya, definitely "speaker like". These would be a nice upgrade over the HE1000 if they lowered the price by offering it with a normal or no cable, and implemented some of Marv's mods. I'd wear them with a full seal, YMMV.
Had a good time chatting with people. It was nice seeing everybody again, see you all at the next one.
______________________________
Unless that really was a bad HE1000, I've gotta say I'm fairly certain Fang is BSing us with the nano stuff. I'm guessing by "nanoscale" they mean "less than 1 micron", and having heard headphones with various super thin diaphragms and having worked with the stuff directly myself in experiments I can say "no way." Super thin diaphragms don't sound shitty like that. It would have been ultra resolving. I tried to say it in a nice way on HF, but I think he's trying to generate buzz with all the nano talk since that's all the rage in pop culture today. I also don't even think a <1 micron diaphragm would survive in a planar without tearing easily. His response to my question was weird, I don't know what he has to lose by saying the spec.
Bill thanks for measuring the R10s with various foams. What I forgot to mention is that the R10 actually has 2 sets of foam: one ring over the ports and one ring that goes between the frame and outer cup. Like I was telling you at the meet, by changing the foam on that inner ring above the ports you're able to alter the size of the soundstage. I think messing with the outer foam ring will give different results in the bass and it wouldn't surprise me if that ring is the biggest contributor to determining what makes up a "bass light" or "bass heavy" R10. Unfortunately, my R10 has no outer ring right now (all disintegrated) and so they roll off hard in the bass, which is why they sounded a little bright to me with all the foam setups. Day 1 with the closed cell foam, a lot of people were talking about how the R10 sounded closed in. Day 2 a lot of people were amazed by how open they sounded. :& Anyways, I have some machinable urethane foam here and am talking to another R10 owner about measuring his outer ring so I can restore them fully.
You guys have all been doing legitimately good work modifying your headphones for better performance. Marv has improved the Abyss a lot from stock, Mike has made the HD800 listenable, Bill really surprised me with both the LCD2 and Z7 linearity, and origami ( ;) ) made his HE-6 sound more open with a much more pleasant treble. I really like seeing when people DIY their rigs with more thought than simple tube rolling, cable swaps and boutique fuses. Was nice seeing you all, but now I feel like a jerk because I didn't realize how many of you were actually at the meet and on CS pretty regularly. They need to put usernames on badges next time in very large font.
-
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 :'(
-
Riva Turbo X
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/413EM7TOqEL._SS445_.jpg)
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.
-
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?
-
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.
-
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.
-
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).
-
I think Jason was pushing it with some of the ads.
-
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.
-
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 R10 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!
-
How do the Nighthawk and Ether compare to the Slants?
-
You guys have all been doing legitimately good work modifying your headphones for better performance. Marv has improved the Abyss a lot from stock, Mike has made the HD800 listenable, Bill really surprised me with both the LCD2 and Z7 linearity, and origami ( ;) ) made his HE-6 sound more open with a much more pleasant treble. I really like seeing when people DIY their rigs with more thought than simple tube rolling, cable swaps and boutique fuses. Was nice seeing you all, but now I feel like a jerk because I didn't realize how many of you were actually at the meet and on CS pretty regularly. They need to put usernames on badges next time in very large font.
LOL. I came back to my table after a visit to Donald or somewhere else; and someone had nicely lined up all these headphones people left on my table. I thought it was kind of funny when I realized that all of the headphones on my table were tweaked / modded in some way.
-
This is what we do toward the end of the day at meets. Try out different combinations of stuff. From left to middle: Theta Data III transport (Laserdisc based). Eddie Current 2A3 Custom. On right from bottom to top: Theta Gen V, Schiit Yggdrasil, Sigma 22, Beta 22. We threw in a KSA Klone amp after that.
-
Poor table.
-
Ans whats with the bottle :)?
-
Feel kind of down I couldn't stay for long Sat, and couldn't come Sun. Had to take care of other commitments :(.
-
Hope we will meet another day. In fact, if I get the chance next time, I'll get to SoCal again to hang with you guys. Love the company! The crew here is like... really tight!
-
Too wound up after an evening of excellent conversation with OJ, Mike and Luis, must type up impressions.
*Obrado AMT hybrid - hot mess. Little bits of the frequency spectrum sound good, however the crossover is a prime example of messing up phase response so much that the result sounds hollow and images like someone is playing kittycorner across a wall. Yet then the song hits the right notes and for a few seconds the headphone sounds promising. Let's call it a work in progress as the rep was very welcoming of critical commentary.
*Audioquest Nighthawk - muddy, indistinct, warm in a boring way. Looks cool, comfort's all right, but the plankton have been buried under a layer of cement.
*Hifiman HE1000 - A solid effort. Very good bass impact and definition, precise layering of instruments. It is sort of an HE-6 by way of the 560; and while the sound is not as troublesome as with the 560, there's still that treble edginess that the HE-6 has. The pricing is ridiculous and while it feels substantial, the design is gaudy and the peeling veneer is a bad joke.
*EL8 Open - OK, a little grainy, not a huge departure from the Audeze house sound. Excellent European industrial design, though this one should also ditch the woodgrain veneer. Yes, I get it, there's a visual signature. It doesn't inspire the desired response.
*EL8 Closed - weird, underdamped and yet bass light. Wispy ethereal sound with some medium peaks which may be corrected by modding. Sadly it seems that Audeze took the minimalistic byerdynamic approach of sticking a decent driver in a metal cup and letting those two fight it out. Also the overly complex many-pinned connector kept cutting out the sound in two of the pairs I've listened to.
*Fritz speakers - Great down to earth design, Fritz's minimalistic approach is to get as much of the crossover out of the way of the drivers' sound and the results are as good as fancy bookshelves which cost three times as much. I am now lusting over the aircirc.
*Edelstrow's modified 007 - it's an interesting idea to decouple the tensioned metal headband arch from the driver cups with a layer of sorbothane. I'd like to experiment with something like that and I think the effects are both audible and beneficial.
*Stax Sigma/404 hack - I just can't get behind the sigmas.
*SRX Pro hack - nice smooth tonality, rolled off bottom octave. Good deal for a couple hundred dollars if you aren't a basshead and you can find one for sale to begin with.
*Frank's new amp with the 4070 - beautiful at lower volumes, lush and intimate. Listen loud and you have to deal with a strong forward upper mids (~1khz).
*ES 10 - enjoyable, not neutral but still satisfying tonally (apparently despite the measurements). Good headstage for a small closed 'phone.
*PM3 - careless v-shaped EQ ruins vocals with sucked out mids. The bass and treble are merely adequate, so I prefer the HE400 for the money, where the 400's excellent bass makes up for its crude brightness and fuzzy midrange. I'd love a good sounding beautifully built headphone for 400 bucks, but with Oppo's lineup you really have to step up to at least the PM2.
*1964 A12/A10 - the A12 has a tasteful bass boost and satisfying heft, while the admittedly more neutral A10 does not sound quite as endearing. Both roll off a little too early in the treble for my taste. Otherwise they are solid enjoyable headphones. Their high price lowers the value proposition, leaving the UERM as the better deal with better sound.
*Geek Wave - I spoke to Gavin about their engineering choices and it is clear that these guys know what they are doing. Because of this I have regained some confidence in their ability to deliver, but I also hope that they will decide to strive for greater humility and a sharper focus in their business practices.
It was great to see everyone and to meet more pirates. Unfortunately it was sad to see the new CanJam accompanied by a dwindling community spirit and tainted by crass commercialization. If this is the way that things are headed then I'd rather stick to smaller meets. Nonetheless I'm thankful for the effort so many people put forth to make the best of the situation.
-
Feel kind of down I couldn't stay for long Sat, and couldn't come Sun. Had to take care of other commitments :(.
There'll be more and better meets :)
-
My impressions of this headphone really didn't match what I expected to hear from a "nano" diaphragm, so I asked Fang how thick the diaphragm was and he said "I can't tell you." I guess it's on the nanoscale, but that could mean anything. It sounded more like 3,000-7,000 nm thick though so maybe the nano thing is to generate some buzz.
One possible thing to consider in case of he1000, compared to stats would be the added weight of voice coils on that diaphragm. It is entirely possible that the HE1000 even if it has a sub-micron diaphragm, turns out to be a lot heavier if you consider the coupled mass of etched coils compared to a similarly thin stat diaphragm.
I wonder if that can explain some of your findings.
-
One possible thing to consider in case of he1000, compared to stats would be the added weight of voice coils on that diaphragm. It is entirely possible that the HE1000 even if it has a sub-micron diaphragm, turns out to be a lot heavier if you consider the coupled mass of etched coils compared to a similarly thin stat diaphragm.
I wonder if that can explain some of your findings.
^
This.
I don't know how wide / thin the copper traces can be but I can't imagine them not being the dominant mass on that surface.
Then, who cares if the membrane is 1, 50 or 500 nm.
Also, I just love the wording on the website to avoid being caught blatantly lying :)
<<1nm=0.000...mm
World’s First Headphone Ever Utilizing Nanometer Grade Material>>
-
oh about the riva speakers, please chime in if youve heard either the marshall stanmore or the peachtree speakers for comparison. I was thinking that these were only around the same ballpark as the bose soundlinks and wouldnt compete with those two above.
-
HiFiMan HE1000: I guess it's on the nanoscale, It sounded more like 3,000-7,000 nm thick though so maybe the nano thing is to generate some buzz.
if that's true he should have called it microscale technology. Wish I could have been there. Lots of different takes on this phone. Will have to find one to listen to at some point. Any bets that zero's the first to buy one? :)
-
oh about the riva speakers, please chime in if youve heard either the marshall stanmore or the peachtree speakers for comparison. I was thinking that these were only around the same ballpark as the bose soundlinks and wouldnt compete with those two above.
As a guy who has heard and auditioned tons of these, I can honestly tell you that the RIVA Turbo X stands in a class of its own. It's really damn good. Peachtree isn't even close!
-
Where possible, impressions using mine or other known desktop (both tube and SS) and portable upstream gear. Sometimes vendors do themselves no favors with their demo rigs.
Dharma-Bass and woofer were too slow to keep up with electret. However, better integration than the K340. I'd prefer a little more speed and precision down low. Might be good if you listen to slower, less complex music.
Obravo-The bass and woofers on both versions are sill very much behind the speed and sound of the air motion tweeter. The vocals were also sucked out and severly recessed on the protos I heard. Not quite up to par of the K340 or Dharma yet. I gave them my opinion on them and they said it was still a work in progress. Hope for the best.
Nighthawk-Pretty decent and neutral response with decent spacing. For the $$ definitely competes with more recent phones who feel they are worth 4-digits. Be aware that proficient solid state amps tighten up the signature with the exception of leaving a little upper bass accentuation which makes it stand out. I'd prefer if it wasn't there or if shifted lower to the mid bass as I know they were going for a room gain effect a la speakers. Via some tube amps, the overall signature becomes a little looser blending the upper bass to the rest of the signature for a more coherent overall sound. Not quite in my top 3-4 ToTL phones out there atm, but better than many who claim to be up there and cost a lot more. Has that sweeter bio-cellulose timbre that some of us quite like.
HE1000-Heard this as organic, relatively quick with slamming and extended low bass that was tight and clear during CES. On the Hifiman amps, it sound slower, softer and honestly nothing special. I was able to ninja a set for our own comparisons using our own amps at our tables. Via our SS and tube amps, everything improved. Speed, detail, extension, space, clarity. In fact, from the Gungnir/Mjolnir it was one of the most resolving phones I'd ever heard next to the modded HD800 and I'd say better than the 009 easily. HOWEVER, The overall timbre seems to have become more dry and analytical in tone with a more stat like ethereal note weight unlike the meat and heft to the CES version that was so natural sounding. To be continued....
R10 v.1-Bleh, grainy, mid-fi, veiled wtf. Basic rudimentary measurements were posted. Would have liked to hear the final version Milos came up with at the meet. Honestly, I've never been moved by any R10 in a transformative way so far (bass heavy or bass light, prefer bass heavy myself of all the degraded samples I've heard). I tend to put it up there with the K1000 as a vintage iconic phone whose praise escapes me. They're okay. Love the engineering and craftsmanship of the cups though!
Sony Qualia-Saw one, looked away and it was gone. Oh well.....
Kingsound stat-On their SS entry level amp, very thin, dry and brittle signature. Sounds just like the TH500RP from Fostex but with a smoother overall texture. Still has a very low-fi mp3-ish signature (on both of them). The higher end tube amp helps to flesh out the Kingsound which makes me wonder how thick and 'tooobey' that must sound. However, it still sounds relative thin and ethereal with no real weight. These make the modern stats and Stax sound like orthodynamics in comparison. I can also hear something like an aluminum can resonance coming from the enclosure, not good.
Ether-Dan's best phone yet to my ears. Surprisingly, the overall tone was similar to my modded HD800s which others who compared the two commented on as well. Keys differences to my ears were the HD800 still being notably more resolving of micro detail/inner harmonics and decays, precise in imaging, and articulate in transients. The Ether has a more extended low bass but it's a bit bloomier and softer in the mid bass and the transients a tad less articulate. it's like comparing a hard open hand slap (Ether) to a fist punch (modded HD800). This not just unique to the Ethers but many phones to be fair less competent than the Ether.
Stax 007 mk1 via BHSE-Very boring to me yet again. Dynamically blunted and uninvolving. I can see the attraction to those wanting a pleasing and forgiving sound to just zone out. This is what I call a Muzak phone. Suitable for background listening only while I do more meaningful tasks. Actual live music just doesn't sound like this to me no matter how impressed people seem to be with this phone.
EL8 open-Seemingly somewhat linear but very thin and dry sounding. Another lower-fi mp3 phone guaranteed to turn you Redbook audio to artifacted mp3s. Just don't like this sort of sound. No dynamicism really either.
EL8 closed-This was a phone I was hopeful of at CES despite having a clear narrow band treble peak and resonance. It was smoother and more clear than the open version despite this major flaw which seemed to me could be fixed. This version at Canjam sound exactly like the EL8 open version but with a cover slapped over the grill and resonances and peaks bouncing around all over inside the cups covering all the frequency bands. Hot mess! This was the most unpleasant and unrefined thing I heard that Canjam. I suppose the sample I heard at CES was a special good one that was already damped or there's a QC issue. Just wow. Speechless....
LCD-XC-Still a little wonky in the mids compared to the LCD-X. Synthetic timbre.
Cayin EL34 amp-A bit too smeared and blurry with a slightly romantic sound that's essentially compressed in dynamics and tone. A common type EL34 sound I'm not fond of in quite few power pentode amps.
Stax 727-Sounds like a more powerful, more refined 323 to me. Equally veiled lacking in clarity and resolution. No inner detail, articulation or plankton. Boring.
Chord TT via HO-Warm and gooey. WTF? Worse than the Hugo even and I'm not a huge fan of that. No thanks.
Grace 920 via HO-Very solid state sound and Sabre treble! Hash, etch and sizzle everywhere. Pretty offensive and mechanical sounding to me. Needs a lush phone to hide this stuff (if possible).
Grace 905-Much better than the 920 but completely different sound with that unique old school Burr Brown tone. Warm but clean and clear with good punchy and overly precise bass impact. Not very resolving and tonally compressed a bit but pleasant, clean and smooth sounding.
Ayre Codex-Bleh, nothing special
Auralic Taurus-Definitely not as bright as before. Retuned to be warmer absolutely. Clean but rather clinical in presentation.
Liquid Carbon-Very clean and dynamic. Involving and pleasant sound with power and drive in a package and price point that's hard to beat. People looking for balanced drive in a smaller form factor without breaking the bank should consider this. I was expecting a more overwhelming euphonic coloration based on some impressions but didn't find this to be the case. What was euphonically colored was the Cypher Labs in front of it. Nothing my Geek Pulse Xfi didn't fix when I brought it from home on Sunday.
Liquid Crimson-I was not a huge fan of the original Liquid Fire, I thought it was okay with a certain exciting signature that I could understand people being attracted to. However, this Crimson is a much more pleasant sounding, resolving and transparent sound I can get behind more so than the Fire. Impressions are not complete, but this amp was one of a few that myself and others used to compare my modded HD800s with other phones. it did that job quite honestly and splendidly driving everything well, dynamic or ortho. It's actually showing off the limitations of the upstream Resolution Cantata quite well. That's a good sign for an amp.
Riva Turbo X-If anyone is looking for a small portable bluetooth speaker rig, look no further. Clean, clear and dynamics with good SPL, coverage and overall performance. Built in DSP to ensure clean, non clipping performance preserving fidelity in way many of the other options out there have yet. I've actually been testing a unit at home for the past 3 weeks and will offer a dedicated comprehensive review in future. If not only for sonic performance, for the superior UI and number of refined performance features that are too plentiful to count here. This is a recommended blind purchase for people in need that prefer fidelity over euphony or degradation.
Cayin N6-Too warm and euphonic for my tastes for a reference DAP. UI is typical basic format from China. Only if you like relaxed and warm sound and care not for technicalities much.
Luxury and Precision Gold LP5-Much better execution of the Colofly steampunk'd motif in my opinion. Quality is improved and more refined over the C4 abomination. Sonics have likewise improved. I was ready to dismiss this outright based on past Colorfly experience. However, this provided a smooth and pleasing relaxed listen that was rather technically competent. While not quite as precise and ruthless as my reference rig (Venue 8 Pro>GO450>Leckerton 4627), it was smooth, coherent, linear, pleasant and committed no major audio gaffs. It was reminiscent of Bill's modded TTVJ hybrid tube portable but cleaner and more precise to me. Major drawbacks? It costs a ridiculous amount, targeted for a non hyper-critical listeners like myself, it ate my 64gb sdxc card. We actually had to disassemble the whole chassis and work around the board to get it out of the reader.
Questyle QP1-Best of the DAPs I heard at Canjam and no contest for the recently degraded AK players. Closest to my reference rig but still a bit less precise and immediate dynamically when using only the integrated amp. LO from the QP1 to my Leckerton still showed notable improvement. However, this allowed me to see how competitive as a source it was to my tablet>GO450. I actually preferred the QP1's vocals quite handily in comparison. Build quality and UI is superior or equal to other offerings that were here. I wasn't made aware till the end that the other color option was the QP1R which is an upgraded reference model. Things could get interesting wrt my portable status quo once I get a listen to it...
ALO Continental v.?-This thing is really beautiful to me. I mean really. I didn't notice the kind of microphonics you get with Todd's old hybrid amp. Sonically, I was able to get the amp to perform closest to my reference amp in single ended mode by using it's balanced output. There is potential here. However, it NOT your typical tubey sound some would expect. The treble is it's major flaw atm and it sounds very SS overall. I talked with Ken Ball who was very gracious and he is aware of the issue, they will make tweaks. We'll see how that translates in the future.
Aurender Flow-Meh, average performance for a alot of money. Consider it if the looks and packaging appeal to you.
Peachtree Nova-It's okay. Slightly better than the Grace 920 I suppose.
Peachtree Shift-Also just okay. Better than the Aurrender but not up to the refined and more technical performance my rig was providing. Both Peachtrees seem to have a similar house sound to me.
Wilson Sabrinas-Most impressive speakers here and sounded fantastic with the right tracks and right gear. The best I've heard from Wilson so far. Dynamics, tone color, resolution, everything was just spot on 'you are there' engagement. Definitely had some significant issues with some less than stellar popular tracks though.
Fritz speakers-As always, great performance at the right price. Please ditch the Cayin gear that's holding back your speakers Fritz!
Schiit Yggdrassil-DO NOT listen to it cold out of the box or even a day old for the love of gawd. DO listen to it after 2-3 days of constant power. It's my next DAC.
Final Audio FI BA SS/Heaven VII-Of all their stuff, I preferred the Fi BA SS which was my favorite single BA IEM and the closest to my reference UERM two years ago. Nothing has changed. Still the most resolving, linear, accurate of all their offerings so far. I thought the Heaven VII was the closest signature they had to the SS as my preference so I could recommend that as well. However, I am beginning to really zero in on single BA drivers struggling to maintain clarity and refinement in complex, busy pieces of music. I notice it in Etys and others immediately compared to my customs. I had a nice chat with the wonderful folks at Final Audio about this and I hope I'll be able to hear something using their expertise with a dual BA with either a simple or crossover less design in the future.
RHA T10-I met these folks two years ago at Canjam. They made some pretty darned decent sounding IEMs at great prices. They remind of the folks at Meelec who started making decent sounding really cheap phones years ago before the industry started to get ahead of itself. Along comes RHA and they do the same but also elevate the products aesthetic to match their performance and price ratios. Cheap doesn't have to equal bad, boring or ugly and these folks get it. I had a quick listen to their latest flagship which is the first to break 100 pounds sterling. It came with three tuning filters, wonderful strain reliefs and nice feeling construction. I preferred the treble filter as it seemed to match more with my prior preferences for a diffuse field tuning curve in IEMs and they seemed to match pretty well to their published curves below. I hope to have more in depth to say about them in future.
www.rha-audio.com/uk/headphones/t10.html
-
Great impressions Mike popcorn
-
Yup great impressions. Very insightful and well illustrated with appropriate examples. :money:
Thks for all your impressions guys. Very helpful popcorn
-
Anax, did you happen to try your HD800's with the Liquid Carbon? I'd be interested if they drove them well for the price point.
-
Anax, did you happen to try your HD800's with the Liquid Carbon? I'd be interested if they drove them well for the price point.
That's interesting. Hadn't thought about that possibility as I tend to have my ToTL blinders on for that phone so went straight to the Crimson. Let me talk to Alex about making that happen as I know many want a value proposition for the 800 while they wait for something higher up the food chain. I know I suffered for 4 months waiting for the S7 using just a DACport which was an unbearable pairing for more than 2 minutes. I'll get back to you...
-
That's interesting. Hadn't thought about that possibility as I tend to have my ToTL blinders on for that phone so went to the Crimson. Let me talk to Alex about making that happen as I know many want a value proposition for the 800 while they wait for something higher up the food chain. I know I suffered for 4 months waiting for the S7 using just a DACport which was an unbearable pairing for more than 2 minutes. I'll get back to you...
Thank you! I really appreciate it :)
And I agree that many look for better amps, but need something good in the meantime. I use Valhalla 2 as "for now" HD800 amp, and also have a friend's Auralic Taurus MKII (good pairing tbh) that I use as well.
I have money saved up for a Yggy, but can't quite decide (or have sufficient funds for) a TOTL HD800 amp yet. Of course, also waiting for your commercial version of the mod :)
The Liquid Carbon is interesting to me since it is a solid state from a reputable amp designer, AND it has proper balanced topology for under $1000, also very versatile with a variety of transducers.
-
Anax, did you happen to try your HD800's with the Liquid Carbon? I'd be interested if they drove them well for the price point.
I did at one point. Was bomb-diggity. Going to grab one when it drops. And I expect it to be even better in my system rather than plugged into mediocre Hugo DAC.
-
I did at one point. Was bomb-diggity. Going to grab one when it drops. And I expect it to be even better in my system rather than plugged into mediocre Hugo DAC.
Yes, I brought my Geek Pulse Xfi on Sunday to help do some justice to the Carbons being demo'd.
-
Didn"t understand clearly : is the Liquid Carbon the most portable amp or is it the transportable one ?
-
Didn"t understand clearly : is the Liquid Carbon the most portable amp or is it the transportable one ?
Transportable Balanced I/O.
-
Roger. thks
-
I'm on to getting the carbon as well. Cavalli at the price range I'm hearing? I'm listening. Just a matter of wait time for finished build.
-
Yes, I brought my Geek Pulse Xfi on Sunday to help do some justice to the Carbons being demo'd.
Oh so the Pulse was yours... I really liked the combo with the Ether.
-
Where possible, impressions using mine or other known desktop (both tube and SS) and portable upstream gear. Sometimes vendors do themselves no favors with their demo rigs.
EL8 open-Seemingly somewhat linear but very thin and dry sounding. Another lower-fi mp3 phone guaranteed to turn you Redbook audio to artifacted mp3s. Just don't like this sort of sound. No dynamicism really either.
EL8 closed-This was a phone I was hopeful of at CES despite having a clear narrow band treble peak and resonance. It was smoother and more clear than the open version despite this major flaw which seemed to me could be fixed. This version at Canjam sound exactly like the EL8 open version but with a cover slapped over the grill and resonances and peaks bouncing around all over inside the cups covering all the frequency bands. Hot mess! This was the most unpleasant and unrefined thing I heard that Canjam. I suppose the sample I heard at CES was a special good one that was already damped or there's a QC issue. Just wow. Speechless....
You really hit the nail on the head with these two IMO. I heard both at Stereo Exchange's headphone open house a little while ago. I found the open version merely "meh" but your description as it being "thin" and "dry" is very accurate. I thought the closed was just poo. But the big qualification was that I was listening out of a portable (as was everyone else) with the big boy Auralic stacks being reserved for the LCD line on display. So, I gave Audeze the benefit of the doubt but my impressions on a compromised setup are consistent with yours on an undoubtedly much more favorable setup. Plus, they are advertising these as portable. So they should at least not stink off of a portable even if they scale up.
I went back this weekend in the hope of hearing one or both off of a real DAC/amp, but again was only able to listen to the closed EL-8 off of my phone. It was just a terrible mess. So much so that I have a hard time believing it would be enough better off of a good setup to be a purchase at even half the asking price. I mean there are a lot of enjoyable choices at $350 for either open or closed.
-
Ok, my turn.
Once again, I left the show with the impression that a lot of the new stuff was mediocre at best, with exception of the following products:
Cavalli Liquid Carbon: This thing just rocks! Paired with the Pulse Xfi and Ether, it was a very good sound for my own taste and limited listening time. Actually, it was possibly - and surprisingly - the best setup I heard the Ether on (I heard them on the Vega + Taurus at Auralic's booth, the Vega + LAu and Yggy + Rag / WA5 at MrSpeakers booth). Excellent value at the expected price. I'm buying one.
MrSpeakers Ether: A better and much more comfortable LCD-2.?. A bit more romantic than my warmish HE-6 and technically not as proficient, but more comfortable and much easier to drive. Vocals are really, really good (life-like). Bass is on the romantic side (not the tightest, but not overpowering like the LCDs). Treble was just right for me on most setups (only the Vega/Taurus didn't do well for me).
Not a super good value on its own (I would buy one instantly at $1,000. At 1,500 I will need to think hard), but the easy-to-drive factor makes it a viable solution for the Carbon. ~$2,000-2,200 for the pairing is a good value in today's $$ (where everything tends to be overpriced).
UERM: I actually never listened to any UE iems before, so I jumped on the occasion to do the demo. Was always switching back and forth between the UERM and the UE5; the others didn't do it in the demo. The UERM had that "reference" quality that stood out and made me actually believe I was "there". The punch and clarity is very, very good. No peakyness I could detect, just very linear. It's basically what I expected the HD-800 to be.
I bought the UERM and did the 3D ear impression at the last minute. We'll see if the sound is similar to the demo pair at the meet (well, how I'll remember it).
For the highly anticipated, but disappointing overall:
Hifiman HE-1000: Probably the biggest disappointment for me. Not that this is a bad headphone per se, but I cannot understand how they can sell that for $3,000. First, I need to say that the gears and music selection at HFM booth were terrible. Since the EF-1000 monster was busy when I first sat at the booth, they offered me to try the HE-1k on the EF-100. What a craptastic idea... I'm not even gonna talk about it. The pairing with EF-1000 + 901S was probably OK overall, but one thing stood out: this setup had no sound-stage depth whatsoever, let alone center imaging. Most of you already know sound-stage and imaging are the most important aspect of headphone rendition for me (I know some of you don't even believe headphone are capable of having a believable sound-stage ;D) and just for this, the HE-1k was a let down. The sound signature was linear, with fast and clear treble but no annoying peakiness. Gave it a 'stat' like sound, indeed. The bass was not as good as anticipated: it was actually a bit loose, akin to the Ether on some setups. I was expecting a deeper, tighter and more thunderous "HE-6 like" bass presentation. Well, this was not it! This could be the amp (the EF-6 was pretty bad at this already...), the DAP, my mood, the recording... Vocals sounded thinner than natural on that setup, too. The look was okay. The finish was pretty bad (man, get rid of that ugly veneer, seriously... The HE-400i's finish looks better than the 560/1000).
ENIGMAcoustic Dharma: treble is too elevated to be considered neutral (my neutral) and the bass was of the "mediocre dynamic" kind. The drivers integration was *probably* well executed; couldn't hear a transition in the mid-range (where I expect the x-over to be). I actually felt the treble was disconnected a bit from the mid-range (slightly U shaped). Ohhgourami liked its presentation, as expected. I like warmer sound (you can tell from our respective HE-6).
And then the rest:
Ayre Codex: Definitely had a USB issue somewhere! The sound was cracking and full of noise when I moved the mouse on the Macbook facepalm. Despite that, I found the sound agreeable. Had some qualities of the QB-9 DSD, but don't expect the same quality for an all-in-one DAC/amp at half the price...
More to come, maybe.
-
Thanks everyone for the impressions! Really wish I could go to canjam one of these days. I just don't have the time/money to make it to one as a college student :(. I'd love to meet you guys in person sometime.
-
Stax 007 mk1 via BHSE-Very boring to me yet again. Dynamically blunted and uninvolving. I can see the attraction to those wanting a pleasing and forgiving sound to just zone out. This is what I call a Muzak phone. Suitable for background listening only while I do more meaningful tasks. Actual live music just doesn't sound like this to me no matter how impressed people seem to be with this phone.
I would agree with this... until you take that spring out. I think the seal improves without the spring, and everything sounds a great deal more realistic/involving too.
I always thought it sounded that way because I needed better gear, but it always felt like something was off before, even compared to my old SR-5 + SR-007 pads.
-
I'll have to remember to look for a spring modded 007 someday then.
-
no more pm3 impressions
-
i have one at home. need to open it up.
-
cool I'm staying tuned for that since Ive been looking for a good portable for a while now.
-
Me too. I hate this head because of how great it is.
-
As a guy who has heard and auditioned tons of these, I can honestly tell you that the RIVA Turbo X stands in a class of its own. It's really damn good. Peachtree isn't even close!
That's quite a statement since the Deepblue 2 is absolutely fantastic. How much does the RIVA cost?
-
That's quite a statement since the Deepblue 2 is absolutely fantastic. How much does the RIVA cost?
It definitely was very impressive for a bluetooth speaker! Lots of people picked up a pair or two at the show!
It's $349 MSRP, and $299 show special.
-
I'll have to remember to look for a spring modded 007 someday then.
I don't think its a mainstream thing to have the spring removed completely, the existing spring mod is meant to make the mk2 more "mk1 like".
-
This came up a while ago
http://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/show-report-southern-california-canjam-2015-part-1/
-
Ok, so who is it that I met who had the modded PM1s at Purrin's table? We had an awesome talk about psychoacoustics, neutrality, etc...find me bro :)p17
-
That was Alex / AZ here. You should definitely talk to him more if you are interested in this stuff.
-
Any thoughts on the ALO RX or Cavalli portable compared to the UHA-6S?
-
Ok, so who is it that I met who had the modded PM1s at Purrin's table? We had an awesome talk about psychoacoustics, neutrality, etc...find me bro :)p17
Hi there,
Good to know you are here :)p1 Pm was sent... .
-
Anybody hear the Kingsound stats and amps? Any impressions? For the price, I'm interested :)
-
Late on the draw with this, as I was too much of a zombie after getting back home last night to write anything even semi-coherent. Cool to meet some of you. :)p14
Yggy: I listened to Yggy quite a bit over the two day duration of the event, as I needed to decide if I was going to purchase one. It sounded pretty rough Saturday morning: thinnish, kinda dry and grainy...off. By Saturday 5pm it was much improved. Fast forward to late Sunday afternoon and I was back again with Schiit’s Rag/Yggy setup (I own a Rag, thus I wanted to reference this setup vs. Marv really yummy EC 2A3). Conclusion: Jaw dropping - loads of staging cues that I’ve never heard before, low level detail that I’ve never heard before, incredible impact, dimensionality, texture, growl...and this was with show noise going on around me. Insane. Returning back home to Gungnir has been tough.
HE-1000: After Yggy, this was my most anticipated new release of the show. Ultimately I was disappointed, especially after referencing Ohhgourami’s modded HE-6 back to back with the HE-1K (thanks man). The HE-1K sounded marginally faster and more transparent to me (edging a bit closer to stats territory), but the soundstage lacked depth and there seemed to be a bit of microetch in the definition region (not sure if this was a source issue). Bass quality wasn’t better to my ear than the HE-6 off of the EF-1000 demo amp. No balls with the demo setup. The HE-1K’s tonality was definitely a step up in the right direction from the stock HE-6, but not nearly enough of an upgrade over a modded HE-6 to justify the real problem - the $3000 price. HFM’s amp/source probably wasn’t helping the situation, and I didn’t get a chance to hear it off of any other amps. I’ll have wait for further evaluation from the pyrates on this one. Mods and proper power/sourcing could probably address some of my gripes.
Audioquest Nighthawk: Almost unlistenable through AQ’s demo setup (WA7/Dragonfly 1.2). Colored and muddy, with a upper/mid bass boost and a significant upper-mid/low treble dip, pulling back up to the definition region. I felt like I was wading through a swamp. Trustworthy pyrates seemed to think well of it off of Marv’s reference rig, so I’m willing to give it another try. Great design, but damn...really poor showing with what I heard it on. Sidenote: some fool was informing Skylar that it needed more bass right before I jumped in for a listen.
EnigmaAcoustics Dharma: I enjoyed this quite a bit, overall presentation was very much to my taste: spacious, clarity/separation on the top end. Fit needed work, as it wouldn’t seal above my ears, which they claimed they’re going to address. I demo’d it twice, once on Saturday, and again on Sunday when there were less people. As with the HE-1000, the upstream gear was an issue, making it tough to meaningfully get a sense of what the headphone was capable of. They had a stock HD800 to compare with on Sunday, and the HD800 sounded like shit off of their amp/dac (thin, no bass body). I tend to listen to slow/pretty music, so I didn’t hear much in terms of speed issues in regards to the low end of the FR that some of the lvl 40 pyrates picked up on. Crossover is at 10K apparently, and seemed well integrated.
Mr. Speakers Ether: These were better than I anticipated. I listened to them on a variety of setups (Dan got them on a lot of other tables); they always sounded at least decent. I thought Dan did a great job with the tonality, neutralish and slightly warm. Good stage size for a planar. Sub bass extension seemed to be a weak point, especially when compared with the LCD’s. Comfort and weight were great. All this said, I’d feel much better if they were priced at 1k, vs. 1.5k.
Bill P’s Modded LCD-2.2: Really nice job with this mod, more linear than any LCD-2 I’ve heard thus far. It made me tempted to go buy one (again) just to mess with it. Hermetic seal those pads Bill! ;)
Anax 3.0 mod: Look mom! I can listen to the HD800 at high volume off of the Mojo without my ears bleeding! Want.
Vinnie Rossi LIO amp: Modular ultracapacitor SS/Tube hybrid. Spacious staging and some tube wetness, without striking me as mushy or too soft. Nice balance between romance/directness, good impact. Not sure how it compares to other amps in this price range (it’s not cheap), but I really enjoyed my time with it.
ALO Audio Studio Six: I don’t know why this amp garners as much praise as it does. Sounded harsh with the HD800, price struck me as a huge problem.
Cavalli Liquid Silicon: A fitting new product name for a show introduction in LA. I didn’t spend a lot of time with it (I’m more of a desktop gear guy), but it had enough balls to drive Bill’s LCD-2 with satisfying bass impact. Smooth, slightly laid back and effortless sound with the LCD-2. Not sure how it stacks up with sensitive IEM’s but it struck me as nice for a portable amp for full size cans.
Audeze EL8: Listened to both versions...didn’t care for either one. The closed version had hardness in the lower treble that I couldn’t get passed. Bass seemed less mushy than the open version, but didn’t have as much body. The open version reminded me a bit of the LCD-2 when driven off of a craptastic amp: kinda sloppy/loose, slightly grainy and too dark. No dice.
LFF’s headphones: I was able to finally get up to speed on a number of models that I hadn’t heard. Really nice, excellent value. Screw the EL8, buy a Paradox. Probably not much reason to reiterate what’s already been said elsewhere on the forum, but they’re an easy recommendation if looking for closed headphones. The Code-X was also badass...didn’t anticipate hearing it at the show, but boy I’m glad I did.
Modded Abyss: This headphone did a lot of things right, not perfection, but about as good as it gets in certain area’s (dat bass) - goofy design, way too expensive, but a very memorable listening experience. Thanks to Bill for showing me how to get the fit right - made a significant difference.
Frank Cooters Tube Amp W/009: A very interesting counterpoint to the HA Blue Hawaii, more romanticized to my ear, but also more body, which I personally preferred. Beautiful works of audio art.
Dragon Inspire IHA-1 (Moon Audio booth): Not sure wtf was going on at the Moon Audio booth, but all was not well. When I first listened, Drew had the gain turned up on the Chord Hugo, resulting in all kinds of crazy distortion. After I addressed him and got him to turn the DAC gain down, the amp had zero headroom. With maxed volume, the LCD-3 was way too quiet for my normal listening level. First amp I’ve ever had that issue with, really weird experience. Sounded flat and lifeless to me with the Hugo...still not sure if the problem was with Drew, with the amp, or both.
Wells Audio Headphone Amp (don’t remember the model name):Sounded excellent with the LCD-3, but at $7000, they can blow it out their rear end.
-
Yggy: I listened to Yggy quite a bit over the two day duration of the event, as I needed to decide if I was going to purchase one. It sounded pretty rough Saturday morning: thinnish, kinda dry and grainy...off. By Saturday 5pm it was much improved. Fast forward to late Sunday afternoon and I was back again with Schiit’s Rag/Yggy setup (I own a Rag, thus I wanted to reference this setup vs. Marv really yummy EC 2A3). Conclusion: Jaw dropping - loads of staging cues that I’ve never heard before, low level detail that I’ve never heard before, incredible impact, dimensionality, texture, growl...and this was with show noise going on around me. Insane. Returning back home to Gungnir has been tough.
Nice impressions, what headphone did you try the Yggy with?
-
Nice impressions, what headphone did you try the Yggy with?
Primarily the HD800 on the Rag, but also LCD-3. I own the former and am pretty familiar with the later. I tried more out with Yggy at Marv's display with the EC 2A3 (Abyss, Paradox, Code-X, etc)
-
This was a terrible disappointing show. If things keep going like this I am pretty sure head-fi industry is heading for a collapse. Out of all the vendors (granted I didn't listen to everything) only five had anything worth listening to and only two of them were actually new designs.* With most the vendors having new gear you would think that some of it would be good but nope it pretty much all sucked or was super expensive. 80% of the gear was herald as the gear for the next generation of head-fiers ugh. None of the new headphones are worth purchasing and their tunning was horrific and massive amounts of compromise where made.
To be honest if your looking to set up a new mid-fi rig don't, get a good low end and save your money for a high end set. Get the o2 dac/amp, none of the other stuff up to $600 is worth the price increase at most you'd get like 5-7% increase in sound quality. You want open back? get the phillips x2. You want closed back? get the focal spirit pro. Guess what you can run both out of anything from an iphone to the liquid carbon. Feeling flush and want a open back? get hd800 want a closed back paradox slants. Want a stats like sound from a normal amp PM Bill-p and ask about his s10 mod (you don't even need a dedicated amp). The dharma, he-1000, ether aren't worth their price and the LCDs are super unconfortable for their price. Want and amp with no roll off? Liquid carbon. like some roll off? DNA sonnet 2. Need a better dac WAIT!!! the Yggdrasil's roots will reach the lower realms, including midgar.
The other disappointment of the show when the pirate lords sat down for dinner they didn't pull out there 9 pieces of 8.
*yggdrasil, phillips x2, o2 dac/amp, cavalli anything,focal spirit pro.
-
Before my work schedule sets in completely and puts me into a whirlwind, I would like to thank Purrin and LFF for allowing me to demo the Yggy/EC 2A3/ Code-X for an extended time on Sunday. While this set up doesn't have the soundstage like R10 or speed of stat, it has the sweetest mid-range that I crave for. I'm not sure if it's each component or the combination of three that makes it so.
And thank you to OJ and Anax for bringing Anax 3 HD800, great improvement from Anax 2.0.
And thank you to all new friends I've met and had dinner/breakfast with, especially Bill with his measurement knowledge. I hope to hear some prototype of the Odin in the near future, before the sun explodes.
@audiofrk: it was a great pleasure listening to your pirate talk on Saturday.
-
Yggy: I listened to Yggy quite a bit over the two day duration of the event, as I needed to decide if I was going to purchase one. It sounded pretty rough Saturday morning: thinnish, kinda dry and grainy...off. By Saturday 5pm it was much improved. Fast forward to late Sunday afternoon and I was back again with Schiit’s Rag/Yggy setup (I own a Rag, thus I wanted to reference this setup vs. Marv really yummy EC 2A3). Conclusion: Jaw dropping - loads of staging cues that I’ve never heard before, low level detail that I’ve never heard before, incredible impact, dimensionality, texture, growl...and this was with show noise going on around me. Insane. Returning back home to Gungnir has been tough.
I know it's in a noisy show, but could you tell me a bit on the difference between the 2a3 and rag on yggy with hd800. Is there a 2500$ improvement over the rag? :P
-
Any thoughts on the ALO RX or Cavalli portable compared to the UHA-6S?
I a/b the uha-6s, alo rx, cavalli, and vorzuge pure II against my cypherlabs picollo with my uerms and rwimod as source will write impressions for cavalli portable thread on head-fi. basically
cypherlabs(plankton hunters*)=alo rx (basshead) < uha-6s =vorzuge (more bass less tremble) < cavalli
with bill-p lcd2mod
triad>cavalli portable
with cypher labs algorythm + paradox slants
liquid carbon > cavalli portable
Anybody hear the Kingsound stats and amps? Any impressions? For the price, I'm interested :)
I didn't this show but in a previous show I was impressed light and comfortable great clarity in the sound get the tube amp its better. Another pirate I drag to the table at this show liked it but i couldn't listen as I was trying to audition other stuff. Same stats problem as other from midbass down the sound disappears.
*not really plankton, its a portable for christ sake, but good tremble.
-
Before my work schedule sets in completely and puts me into a whirlwind, I would like to thank Purrin and LFF for allowing me to demo the Yggy/EC 2A3/ Code-X for an extended time on Sunday. While this set up doesn't have the soundstage like R10 or speed of stat, it has the sweetest mid-range that I crave for. I'm not sure if it's each component or the combination of three that makes it so.
And thank you to OJ and Anax for bringing Anax 3 HD800, great improvement from Anax 2.0.
And thank you to all new friends I've met and had dinner/breakfast with, especially Bill with his measurement knowledge. I hope to hear some prototype of the Odin in the near future, before the sun explodes.
@audiofrk: it was a great pleasure listening to your pirate talk on Saturday.
it was the combination at the la meet last year I hear the codeX out of Greeds liquid glass+ bricast M1 and it sounded a little mushy. Greed agreed (haha) that this wasn't the optimal set up for it.
-
no more pm3 impressions
I listen to the pm3 the best way to describe it is polite. The soundstage is small the detail retrival is minimal it will never disagree with a song but it won't wow you either. Like I said the focal spirit pro was better.
my award for the biggest missed opportunity goes to the nighthawk.
it was the most comfortable headphone I ever used and the best looking but as for the sound? here is what I said in another thread:
I dont know why people keep saying that the nighthawk is a step up from the hd650, the tremble is still there it doesn't fade away. The bass is so strong that it kind of hides the mids and the highs so that every now and again it peaks thru kind of like a kidnapped person screams. I keep telling people that it felt like the sound wave was inversed the bass hit you first, then the mids, and finaly the tremble. And this was out of a hugo. Hugos aren't know for their strong bass.
Its a shame when the tremble and mids did peek thru they were pretty good, if they fixed it I wouldn' just recomend the headphone I'd buy it day 1.
-
What did everyone think of the Pendulimic Stance S1? It seems that most people were gushing it over it, but I wasn't that impressed. I like the design, but it felt like the bluetooth had thrown away lots of detail and didn't seem that engaging.
-
Finally got around to type up my impressions:
First, it was great seeing you all again and meeting the new and putting a face on the username!
HE-1000: The most anticipated piece of gear to hear and the most disappointing. Some technical aspects were better than my HE-6 but it didn't sound like a complete headphone. Fang as a lot of stuff to work on if he really thinks he can sell it for 3k. The demo rig and music selection he had did him no favors either. I also had a really hard time borrowing it from the booth to try on Marv's rig. Shoved my modded HE-6 in Fang's face and told him this is still the true benchmark! All I want is a true upgrade to HE-6, but some of you guys say there will be one which isn't and HE-1000. I guess there's hope.
Dharma: Having not heard any news about this thing before, I was pleasantly surprised after I gave it a listen. I like the presentation (spot on Clem and Marv!). It's got the speed and details in the high which I like. The down side is the bass was a bit bloomy. The guys at the booth were pretty cool saying "holy shit this guy likes our headphone!" It was a good laugh.
Nighthawk: Didn't know about this headphone before the meet and I was pretty disgusted when I heard it on their demo rig. Is this thing worth $10?! It's supposed to be pretty good on a nice rig though. Will have to revisit, but my hopes aren't high.
Vinnie Rossi: Didn't know about this modular DAC/amp beforehand either (yup, I'm out of the loop). This thing surprised me. The AIO unit impressed me as it was very clean sounding and imaged well (very important to me). I wish they could bypass their tube section. ~3k for an AIO is not bad at all.
N3rlding's R10: Holy shit the mids on that thing are AMAZING!!! It sounded really funky because of the closed cell foam, but those mids just overtook everything. It was REAL because it had the best imaging I've ever heard. I really hope that type of sound could be replicated in a modern headphone that doesn't cost an insane amount.
Best part about any meet is seeing you guys though! :)p1
-
Did anyone have a chance to listen to the new Noble bluetooth thing, the BTS?
-
Finally got around to type up my impressions:
First, it was great seeing you all again and meeting the new and putting a face on the username!
HE-1000: The most anticipated piece of gear to hear and the most disappointing. Some technical aspects were better than my HE-6 but it didn't sound like a complete headphone. Fang as a lot of stuff to work on if he really thinks he can sell it for 3k. The demo rig and music selection he had did him no favors either. I also had a really hard time borrowing it from the booth to try on Marv's rig. Shoved my modded HE-6 in Fang's face and told him this is still the true benchmark! All I want is a true upgrade to HE-6, but some of you guys say there will be one which isn't and HE-1000. I guess there's hope.
Dharma: Having not heard any news about this thing before, I was pleasantly surprised after I gave it a listen. I like the presentation (spot on Clem and Marv!). It's got the speed and details in the high which I like. The down side is the bass was a bit bloomy. The guys at the booth were pretty cool saying "holy shit this guy likes our headphone!" It was a good laugh.
Nighthawk: Didn't know about this headphone before the meet and I was pretty disgusted when I heard it on their demo rig. Is this thing worth $10?! It's supposed to be pretty good on a nice rig though. Will have to revisit, but my hopes aren't high.
Vinnie Rossi: Didn't know about this modular DAC/amp beforehand either (yup, I'm out of the loop). This thing surprised me. The AIO unit impressed me as it was very clean sounding and imaged well (very important to me). I wish they could bypass their tube section. ~3k for an AIO is not bad at all.
N3rlding's R10: Holy shit the mids on that thing are AMAZING!!! It sounded really funky because of the closed cell foam, but those mids just overtook everything. It was REAL because it had the best imaging I've ever heard. I really hope that type of sound could be replicated in a modern headphone that doesn't cost an insane amount.
Best part about any meet is seeing you guys though! :)p1
Did you try OJ's HD-800 (Anax 3.0) on Marv's setup? That is definitely the best imaging / staging I've heard. I didn't really enjoy the R10. To lean for me :(.
So you actually liked the LIO? It was a disappointment for me as it lacked depth and was brighter than anticipated. Vinnie was nice and comprehensive, though. I like his Italian style ;D.
So the Dharma's crossover is actually 10k? Then I shall go back on my words: the cross-over is not that well integrated, as I could hear the treble was disconnected with the rest.
-
uha-6s =vorzuge
i knew the leckerton is good but this is impressive. have you ever listened to the Chord Hugo?
-
i knew the leckerton is good but this is impressive. have you ever listened to the Chord Hugo?
Hugo is inferior. I actually still rank the Leck ahead of audiofrk's ranking myself.
-
i knew the leckerton is good but this is impressive. have you ever listened to the Chord Hugo?
yes many time what you curious about
Hugo is inferior. I actually still rank the Leck ahead of audiofrk's ranking myself.
really you'd put the leck ahead of the cavalli? can you eloborate a little (rest of setup, songs)?
I'm curious as to why?
-
hmm, we should clarify what we're discussing exactly, as the Hugo and the Leck are both DAC/amp units whereas the Vorzuge is a standalone amp. i'm considering upgrading my midfi headphone rig (LFF Paradox + O2/ODAC) to a Noble K10 for home use. the Hugo is one of the options i've been looking at, but it seems to be overpriced (DAC section specifically) and has a very unattractive design. my main choice right now is a Vorzuge Pure II, along with something like Wyrd + Modi 2. the Pure II and the Leckerton are the only amps with absolutely zero hiss when used with sensitive IEMs, and if they're similar in sound quality then i'll opt for the latter
you have any advice audiofrk? from the many reviews i've read, Noble K10 outperforms a well driven HD800 in many departments (not soundstage obviously), at a much cheaper price point since one doesn't have to spend another $2k on DAC and amp. if anyone has a good reason as to why a IEM-based desktop rig is worse than a traditional headphone setup, i would love to hear it
-
Having not heard the K10 myself, I can't say this with any more confidence than a simple, half-assed guess, but. I don't see the K10 being an all-around upgrade to the Paradox, unless you just don't like the sound signature of the Paradox.
Perhaps a few more people who have heard both can elaborate on why this IEM is a considerable upgrade over the Paradox, but I don't even think most full-sized headphones are a real upgrade to the Paradox until they can match or beat the technical performance of something like the HE-560s. And even then, you have to consider whether their stock tonality is appropriate and how well you can mold the tonality of the headphone to achieve a good balance.
-
@fillerup
I have to ask have you heard the noble k10? and what was it that you liked from it? The paradox are really good and I actually auditioned the entire noble line except the k10 facepalm.
You think you need more technicality or are you looking for a set-up you could use at home and on the go? Either lets break it down
noble k10 - $1500
hugo- $2500
vorzuge or lekerton- $500 or $300
total=$4500 or $4300
thats a bit much don't you think?
or
modi 2 + wyrd= $200
vorzuge or lekerton = $500 or $300
total = $700 or $500
What do you feel like is the weakest point of your setup? And what did you think that the n10 can do for you?
Maybe we can help you tune it without getting rid of your whole setup.
by the way with all the amps I tested I heard no hiss in my custom Ultimate Ears Reference Monitors.
-
you have any advice audiofrk? from the many reviews i've read, Noble K10 outperforms a well driven HD800 in many departments (not soundstage obviously), at a much cheaper price point since one doesn't have to spend another $2k on DAC and amp. if anyone has a good reason as to why a IEM-based desktop rig is worse than a traditional headphone setup, i would love to hear it
You got links to these hd800 experts? That is just ignorant nonsense. Its just cheaper and easier to get a good rig for IEMs. Maxed out potential, no contest versus hd800.
-
You got links to these hd800 experts? That is just ignorant nonsense. Its just cheaper and easier to get a good rig for IEMs. Maxed out potential, no contest versus hd800.
Did your UERMs have any aspect that did better than the HD800?
-
Did your UERMs have any aspect that did better than the HD800?
They isolate better .
:)p8
-
They isolate better .
:)p8
Pretty much it. That, and they can fit in your pocket.
-
haha i wasn't meaning those two.
-
They are lighter
They are more comfortable
They look like hearing aids rather than a Star Trek prop reject? (Maybe debatable)
-
Anax: this might sound blasphemous to the HD800 owners here (like 110% of you guys? i signed up here when i was researching them) but K10 > HD800 is a common sentiment expressed by the majority of owners who have auditioned both
(http://i.imgur.com/VZvho6C.png)
audiofrk: i love the Paradox, but i want a more 'open' sound/bigger soundstage and more details first and foremost. the Paradox bass is also not the best imo, it doesn't come effortlessly and i have to slightly strain my ears to notice it. HD800 was my main choice until i read about the K10. them being IEMs also give me much more options in terms of usage, but i'm focusing on the sound quality for now. and yeah the Hugo is out of the question
-
As a K10 owner, I would never say that K10 > HD800 withq straight face, especially with regards to technicality ... They just sound so different it's hard to come up with a comparision. I prefer my K10 over HD800 but it's my personal taste, even though there are times I wish K10 has a bit more details.
Or maybe it's just my K10, it sounds much more bassy than the demo unit, and the guy with the Prestige K10 said that his one is brighter than the same demo unit. Weird.
-
I wish K10 has a bit more details in the higher frequency band
yeah the K10s has slightly rolled off treble. i wonder if that's a good thing as i don't like dealing with vocal sibilance?
-
Anax: this might sound blasphemous to the HD800 owners here (like 110% of you guys? i signed up here when i was researching them) but K10 > HD800 is a common sentiment expressed by the majority of owners who have auditioned both
(http://i.imgur.com/VZvho6C.png)
audiofrk: i love the Paradox, but i want a more 'open' sound/bigger soundstage and more details first and foremost. the Paradox bass is also not the best imo, it doesn't come effortlessly and i have to slightly strain my ears to notice it. HD800 was my main choice until i read about the K10. them being IEMs also give me much more options in terms of usage, but i'm focusing on the sound quality for now. and yeah the Hugo is out of the question
Lehmann...that's a noob. Yeah, 'auditioned' both. That's a laugh. Tossing the LCD3 in there is an even bigger joke. Sorry these are people with limited experience. I gather you are relatively new to this stuff so by all means listen to headfi or whoever makes you happy. Most of us here have been endgame for awhile and are too familiar with 007s,009s, Omegas, R10s, K1000s , Abyss and every LCD ever made under the sun to take that comparison seriously. HD800 is a long term commitment to endgame. If that's a problem, best to look at other easier and cheaper alternatives.
People who will say that have basic to mediocre hd800 upstrems (lehmann, grace, violectric, woo, etc., etc) and/or prefer euphonic colored sound like the lcd3. These are not resolution whores and have no clue what the 800 can do.
-
Nothing beat my HD800 + EC 445 setup for a long long time until I got a KGSSHV for my SR009 - even then HD800 kills the SR009 for orchestral pieces and anything which excels in stage depth.
Then there's the YMMV disclaimers of course. Maybe soundstage, imaging and timbre mean nothing to people.
-
Nothing beat my HD800 + EC 445 setup for a long long time until I got a KGSSHV for my SR009 - even then HD800 kills the SR009 for orchestral pieces and anything which excels in stage depth.
Then there's the YMMV disclaimers of course. Maybe soundstage, imaging and timbre mean nothing to people.
That's it exactly and where we can begin to have serious conversation.
-
I gather you are relatively new to this stuff
you're not wrong, i have listened to a number of entry level and midfi cans but am out of my depth as far as high end models are concerned. living in the middle of nowhere in Europe makes it slightly impossible to audition gear. maybe when i move to Canada..
i have another question for the guys with megabucks HD800 rigs: would you trade it for a similarly priced speaker setup if given the chance?
-
i have another question for the guys with megabucks HD800 rigs: would you trade it for a similarly priced speaker setup if given the chance?
No Sir. Really different experiences . Apples and oranges IMO. I wouldn't trade my entry level Speaker system for any End game HD800 rig neither.
-
you're not wrong, i have listened to a number of entry level and midfi cans but am out of my depth as far as high end models are concerned. living in the middle of nowhere in Europe makes it slightly impossible to audition gear. maybe when i move to Canada..
i have another question for the guys with megabucks HD800 rigs: would you trade it for a similarly priced speaker setup if given the chance?
Don't give up on the HD800. It scales like f**k and keeps improving as your front end and amp does. Unlike some other headphones (LCD-3 comes to mind) it can sound pretty terrible with the wrong amp and DAC. Yes, it sounded like shit out of the Little Dot Mk IV and Naim DAC I first drove it out of.
-
Anax: this might sound blasphemous to the HD800 owners here (like 110% of you guys? i signed up here when i was researching them) but K10 > HD800 is a common sentiment expressed by the majority of owners who have auditioned both
audiofrk: i love the Paradox, but i want a more 'open' sound/bigger soundstage and more details first and foremost. the Paradox bass is also not the best imo, it doesn't come effortlessly and i have to slightly strain my ears to notice it. HD800 was my main choice until i read about the K10. them being IEMs also give me much more options in terms of usage, but i'm focusing on the sound quality for now. and yeah the Hugo is out of the question
:)p13 sorry it's funny because out of the two twins you chose the wrong one. You should have gotten the slants they have more depth and more bass. When I auditioned the noble line as the numbers started to Go north Of 4 I noticed that the sound go more and more colored. If you like the tonality of the slants you might be disappointed by the syrupy sweet nature. The comment you pasted is reminding me of a certain reviewer that loves Colored sound.
Don't take offense to being new I think some of us forget we are lucky enough to be at a place where we can audtion multiple setups. Colored sound is a sound that imparts the same tonality to any song played regardless of whether it should be there or not in most case it's a bloat in the bass (kind just like more boom not more detail) and thick mids (smeared mids were parts of one instrument rub into the next). This is good for some genres but not all. A good rule of thumb to have is to not relate cost to performance jus because something is expensive doesn't mean it's good.
Sorry dude You said soundstage and detail so I can only really recommend one headphone the hd800. I heard a $10000 planner setup and and a $10000 electrostatic setup but neither had the soundstage of the hd800. The hd800 he a bad rep because you don't reAlly hear the hd800 they sound like whatever you plug them into. Very few headphones do that so most listen to the there setup with hd800 they hear there equipment and don't like that (because there setup isn't that good, remember cost doesn't equal quality)The LCD 3 will always impart it's own sig to the chain.
Yes the ec 445 probably sounds amaze balls with the hd800, but you don't need it to like the hd800. If only there was some way you could get to France to audition sorrodje setup. ( I'm volunteering you sorrdje) setup you'd see what we mean about scalling and soundstage. If what I know about nos dacs and the DNA sonnet is true that setup you sound like an intimate venue.
-
1) Very annoying and dangerous trend of ever-increasing the price of headphones and associated equipment. One of the headphones I heard was absolute disaster, yet it is priced at whooping 900 bucks. There is some unknown planar headphones from a company whose people have not even decided a name of the company. But I was told they were going to sell at +1K USD. Just... yeah. I do have feeling the bubble is going to burst soon or later, and similar fate may happen to high-end headphone market like current high-end audio ended up.
Saw this from earlier in the thread and yes, I've noticed this too. That, combined with the general lackluster impressions of a lot of newer stuff so far is not a great sign. I mean, I like Hifiman and Mr Speakers for their products AND value (Mad Dog is indispensable for me, HE-500 is an easy impulse buy despite its weight), but I don't care for the idea of their $3000/$1500 offerings.
-
( I'm volunteering you sorrdje)
My home is open . Welcome :)
-
If only there was some way you could get to France to audition sorrodje setup. ( I'm volunteering you sorrdje) setup you'd see what we mean about scalling and soundstage. If what I know about nos dacs and the DNA sonnet is true that setup you sound like an intimate venue.
OK, I've to go to Dijon to have a mini-meet with Sorrodje. I'll take all my Staxen's with me :)p5
Ali
-
OK, I've to go to Dijon to have a mini-meet with Sorrodje. I'll take all my Staxen's with me :)p5
Ali
You can keep all your Stax Stable at home :spank: .. your travel will be easier then ! :)p13
BTW , I don't think the Sonett 2 is the last word for the HD800... very good synergy for sure but not the last word. ;)
-
Still better then most amps though. Plus there seems to be a lot of possible amps that I didn't know about before the tie that spring to mind
Liquid carbon (ojneg recommendation)
Ec red top (probably)
Even the vali will do (though it's far from the holy grail)
-
^
This.
I don't know how wide / thin the copper traces can be but I can't imagine them not being the dominant mass on that surface.
Then, who cares if the membrane is 1, 50 or 500 nm.
Also, I just love the wording on the website to avoid being caught blatantly lying :)
<<1nm=0.000...mm
World’s First Headphone Ever Utilizing Nanometer Grade Material>>
So, I don't know if you guys watched the video about Dr. Fang on Tyll's website with the links to the sunday planar panel monologue?
As was pointed by someone on head-fi, it would appear the conductive traces can be deposited on the diaphragm and their thickness is in the same order as the diaphragm itself.
The other interesting bit was Fang's comment that all he had to care for in terms of motor design was to keep a low surface mass density on the diaphragm / trace assembly such that the inertial forces are small compared to the emag force.
I still think Tyll was right questioning the behavior of the diaphragm in those regions where there are no traces, the thing must be wabbling all over the surface but the point was not addressed.
Last surprising point for me was Fang's apparent lack of understanding of the resistive & (lack of) reactive impedance an ortho driver presents as a load to an amplifier (maybe some language barrier issue but he seems quite fluent in English). The fellow in the audience who asked the question seemed, uh..., taken apart by Fang's candid response on relying on his electrical engineers for this bit :).
Anyhow, am still quite interested to hear the HE1000, this usage of thin diaphragm + conductive trace deposition seems like a good idea. Isn't that the first of the kind in the world of planar headphones?
arnaud
-
Questyle QP1-Best of the DAPs I heard at Canjam and no contest for the recently degraded AK players. Closest to my reference rig but still a bit less precise and immediate dynamically when using only the integrated amp. LO from the QP1 to my Leckerton still showed notable improvement. However, this allowed me to see how competitive as a source it was to my tablet>GO450. I actually preferred the QP1's vocals quite handily in comparison. Build quality and UI is superior or equal to other offerings that were here. I wasn't made aware till the end that the other color option was the QP1R which is an upgraded reference model. Things could get interesting wrt my portable status quo once I get a listen to it...
Any more impressions on the Questyle QP1(R)?
-
I still think Tyll was right questioning the behavior of the diaphragm in those regions where there are no traces, the thing must be wabbling all over the surface but the point was not addressed.
Anyhow, am still quite interested to hear the HE1000, this usage of thin diaphragm + conductive trace deposition seems like a good idea. Isn't that the first of the kind in the world of planar headphones?
arnaud
Are there pix of the diaphragm? Just curious of trace density. I know the Audezes have insane trace density and the older HFMs such as HE-500 have very primitive trace density, but make up for it with moar magnet power.
I thought Audeze used a vapor deposit process on their latest? Not sure.