And another installment of equipment impressions:
HeadAmp Blue Hawaii SE w/ Stax SR-007 Omega II MKII
Pure sonic bliss this was. This rig definitely convinced me that I need to go electrostatic, put simply. If there's any one dynamic headphone that could come even remotely close to the sound I heard on this, I'd say it was my personal balanced Beta 22 & balanced Audio-Technica AD2000 pairing. Not
too dissimilar-sounding between those two pairings. The OII/KGBH SE was clearly way better in every way - from delineation in soundstage to bass impact to treble, and even speed, which the AD2000 already excels in. My ears heard the stars.
I also heard the Omega II MKII in the TTVJ/Stax room (the amp there was a Stax) and that experience confirmed that I like the basic sound of the MKII.
DarkVoice 336 w/ Grado HP-2 (APS V3)
I tried this just for kicks and the sound was large and impactful. The DarkVoice drove the HP-2 with surprising authority. Big impact and slam for a
very immediate sound. With the rock music that was playing, it was really something of an air-guitar experience!
Audio-Technica AD2000 (mine), W5000 (mine), and W2002 (agile_one's) on Yamamoto HA-02
The Yamamoto was agile_one's, sourced by a swank Thorens TCD 2000 player. Of course, with these three ATs within spitting distance of each other (his table is across from mine), I was compelled to do a personal shoot-out.
The HA-02 really brought a helpful hand of lower mid-range to both the W5000 and W2002. I found the W2002 relatively more treble-tilted than the W5000, and indeed, it seemed to benefit more from the amp's lower mid-range boost. The amp also seemed to deepen the bass for an extra satisfying bass-crunch type response.
The HA-02 also really made the W5000 come that much more alive, with greater "chestiness" to vocals and overall fuller body. The added richness was almost intoxicating.
I really didn't think the AD2000 paired with this amp that well. On this amp, it didn't have the speed and agility that I'm accustomed to, and bass wasn't controlled enough either. I found the HA-02 to not deliver a lot of bass control, rather it seemed to merely deepen the lower register. Others may prefer that, I just prefer the AD2K's bass to be controlled and fast.
Sleek Audio SA6
If the current results of the poll linked in my sig are an indication, I probably won't be reviewing this in the future...but not that I really need to now.
The SA6 was a very musical-sounding IEM, no particular treble tilt on it that made it sound "detailed" or "analytic" or "neutral." In a way it resembles the sound of the Klipsch IMAGE X10 (the new name of Klipsch's IEM released in November '07), with a warm mid-range and low & plentiful bass impact. I found the SA6 to have relatively more mid-bass impact though while the IMAGE X10 is slightly leaner in that area. The IMAGE X10 may also have more treble tilt, because I asked one of the Sleek guys how to get more treble, since I know it's customizeable in that aspect.
After a different part was installed, the treble increased to a more satisfactory level that seemed fairly well-balanced.
After hearing these I felt no compulsion to side-grade from my Klipsch IMAGE X10.
Stax closed headphone on Call of Duty 4 (Xbox 360)
At least I think this was Call of Duty 4. Someone brought a nice smaller widescreen TV to set up a mini-videogame system, I guess to demonstrate a certain Stax headphone's soundstage and bass. My gaming skills are terrible (haven't played anything in years, really) so someone much more experienced than I did the game-playing while I sat and watched.
HOLY CRAP!
The gunfire, explosions, voices, etc, were all so paranormally un-headphone like, it was literally like sitting in a mini home-theater. The gunfire came from everywhere and my immediate first reaction was a turning of the head to look back.
I pretty much just sat and listened in awe. The game's soundtrack lept off like a movie in 5.1 surround!
Grado GS1000 ALO-recabled w/ EarMax (Silver?) @ ALO Audio
I've heard the GS1000 before so I was curious how this one performed.
Um, I'll just say I took the headphones off in under 5 minutes. I found this amp did nothing helpful for the GS1K's sound. It didn't push enough tubey mid-range and still sounded relatively thin, and the treble etch was still there too.
Head-Direct's HeAudio electrostatic headphone
I'm not familiar with HeAudio's headphone model but this was the same one as at Woo Audio's table.
On Head-Direct's system, it just didn't sound as good, which to me showed the Woo Audio GES is a better amp for it than the amp that Head-Direct was using (forgot what it was, it was in an unlabeled prototype-type form). Head-Direct's sounded thinner and had more treble edge. I also detected a slight "static warbling" effect in the left driver with no music playing...
Shure SE530
I went through 3 different tips to find a good seal with these and the triple-flanges gave me the best results.
Overall I found these in a similar class to the Klipsch IMAGE X10 and Sleek SA6 based on my ~10-minute audition. Warm-sounding, with plentiful mid-bass impact. I'm sure there are key differences between the Klipsch, Shure, and Sleek, but with short audition times for the Sleek and Shure I can't really go into any details, but they do seem to share at least a mid-range & bass centered sound rather than something like what I read about with Etymotic IEMs (which I haven't heard, merely going off of what others have said).
Equinox-balanced GS1000 on Millett 307A/Meridian 808.2
This system made me like the GS1000 again. There was detail with no treble etching, and the sound was simply nice and relatively flat. A nice holistic presentation, akin to a more evened-out K701. In this sytem, I found them better balanced-sounding than the K701 with more bass impact and less treble peaking.
I found the gain of the Millett 307A too high for this headphone though, getting good control of volume was frustrating and shifted channels on certain settings.
And the Meridian was stunning to look at.
Random Musings
Ray Samuels confirmed that he has indeed been working on an electrostatic amp. He did not bring it though as he mentioned some tube-related issues with its production.
Singlepower did not show up until the afternoon. They brought two new previously unseen and unknown products. I will take pics of both new monstrous machines tomorrow. They were beastly.
I also found that most people seem to listen louder than I do. I found that I I kept having to turn the volume down in repeated scenarios. A note to my fellow Head-Fiers: please don't damage your hearing, especially if you want to stay in this hobby.
