Meet at Bozebuttons

[immtbiker]

Originally Posted by nikongod

I spent some time with the Krell amp that i didnt buy off of ebay last week The sound with the RS-1 was very good indeed. Not quite up to standards of melos/hp1000 synergy but certainly holding its own for a synergistic system.

Ari, it's i mportant to note that Tom's Krell has been seriously modded (someting like 45 Black cap upgrades) and any Krell bought used will not come close to sounding like this one-off component. The Krell also has speaker terminals and a line out pass through so it contains a lot of value-add to the consumer.

Tom, if you ever want to sell the Krell, you know that I'm first in line.

[vcoheda]

it's funny but every time i asked boze about a piece of equipment (amps, CD players), the first thing he said was this unit has been "heavily modded" and then preceded to reel off the huge list of mods. i asked him if there was anything stock that he enjoyed. his answer was along the lines of between the two, why not go for modded - assuming you can find someone reliable to do it. he said my KGSS would benefit from some mods (blackgates or something similar). got me interested. but for headphones, it seems he preferred to keep them as original as possible (no recabling). a lot of this, i think, has to do with the rarity of the items and retaining their value which makes sense. also, as noted by all there, the R10 sounds so good with the stock cable why change it. it seems that unless you are dead set on balanced, then the better course may be to keep rarer headphones in their stock form. and in boze's case with a melos and Cary 300B around, there is really no strong reason to change anything. although i must say the RS1 really benefited from balanced, so that is one (even if vintage) i would probably be inclined to balance out.

[bozebuttons]

It was great hanging out with everyone yesterday.

I finally got my my living room back together,packed up the gear & put my speaker system together.It was a long day but went by in a blink.

The last piece I packed up was the ES1 this morning ,I gave it a listen & with all the other gear disconnected & the distortion problem was still there so after some investigation the problem turned out to be one of the 5687 tube adaptersr. I popped in a set of VT231s,problem solved in the driver position. I listened to the OIIs fo about a hour this morning.
Sorry about that guys,it took me ten minutes to find the problem ,I should have checked it a little more during the meet instead of shutting it down.

Aaron glad you liked the cake,you know I had to do something for your birthday

The RS1s do bene
fit by being balanced,nikongods balanced vintage pair was sounding mighty fine on vcohedas Apace(note to Apache owners GREAT synergy ),nikongods balanced HP2 out of the Apache seemed to have better depth,but the RS1s where much fuller sounding.Give this one to the RS1s.

Another surprise was my ED9s with nikongods modded 708b amp & my SACD1000 as a source. The ED9s where sounding especially good,nikongod was enjoying them for quite awhile with a smile on his face
sitting on the couch & after listening to the combo I could see why.

Nikongods Supra was also on top of its game,listening to the R10s huge soundstage /very detailed.

It was pleasure having everyone over & sharing what I have available to listen to day to day.

Gotta go food shopping with the wife now,catch you later

[jinp6301]

Originally Posted by Usagi

Was anyone able to recall the sonic differences between the woody SR225 at your meet and a stock SR225?

well the woody 225s are mine so I'll just make a few points.

The woodied 225s have better more controlled bass, better soundstage and a slightly reduced treble. but sadly the RS-1s outclasses it, especially the vintage ones

[foo_me]

Thanks for the impressions...I have a pair of vintage RS1s myself and agree completely what's been mentioned as compared to non-vintage.

Nice to hear that the RS1s do improve going balanced...been somewhat reluctant to alter my vintage pair.
But with these impressions and Eddie Current's upcoming balanced amp, I'm leaning towards balanced.

Nikongod or anyone else know what cable was used to balance the RS1s? Stock cable or some aftermarket brand?
Thanks!

[nikongod]

Originally Posted by foo_me

Nikongod or anyone else know what cable was used to balance the RS1s? Stock cable or some aftermarket brand?
Thanks!

It is a stock cable re-terminated with a 4-pin XLR. I didnt want to mess with taking these apart. My last woodie grado disassembly was a success, but I did not want to risk damage to such a pristine old-production pair. I also think particularly highly of grado cables. Used grado cables make great upgrades compared to stock sennnn and AKG cables.

The adapter to go from 3-pin to 4-pin is silver plated copper.

edited:
my HP-1000, Grado-beyer hybrid, and akg k240sextet are terminated similarly.

[foo_me]

Cool, thanks for the info...that seems like the safest route to take.

[Usagi]

Originally Posted by jinp6301

well the woody 225s are mine so I'll just make a few points.

The woodied 225s have better more controlled bass, better soundstage and a slightly reduced treble. but sadly the RS-1s outclasses it, especially the vintage ones

Thank you for the quick juxtaposition. Has anyone somewhat deduced what manufacturing changes accounts for differences between the vintage and current production RS-1? (die adhesive amounts on reverse-side of driver, change in cable, etc.)

[bozebuttons]

Originally Posted by nikongod

.

My big listening fun at this meet was the ED-9 and the qualia 010.

The last time I heard the ED-9 was at the great R10 mini meet last year: same pair but with only about 10 hours on them. Suffice it to say that they have broken in well since then. At the first meet, my impressions were not entirely great, with a weird overemphasis in the bass that caused the image of a cello to break-up and move front to back in the soundstage. In an effort to hear them on a rig I am totally familiar with, I ran them off of my 708B amp because it was off by itself near the very comfy couch and other people were using the supra. I must say they were ROCKING off of this little amp. The sound from them was good with great overall balance from all of the other amps I tried, but this little guy just matched up with them and they were singing. I tried the ED9 off of the rudistor 5.1, and was not overly impressed. They just didnt get me into the music like the other combos did.

im not sure what to say about the qualia that has not already been said. Most of it is true: they sounded thin, squeeky, and bright when I first put them on. Moving them around and finding "the spot" pulled up the bass and just brought everything together correctly. These are easily the most "position sensitive" headphones I have ever worn. They are solid, and I want a set.

I spent a decent chunk of time with the Zana and the qualias, and they certainly got in the groove quickly.

The ED9s have about 400 hours on them now,they did sound great out of your little amp.

The qualias are very sensitive to placement & fit no doubt,lucky for me my pair fit me perfectly.They mate extreamely well with the Zana.

I consider the 010s to sound like Wilson speakers,when locked in very detailed with great focus & placement.

[vcoheda]

just a quick note on powering the HE90, HE60, and O2.

i generally prefer using the HE60 on my KGSS with SE inputs (RCA) over the Balanced inputs (XLR). the SE inputs give me more - i.e., more precise - volume control. the HE60 via XLRs have a somewhat overblooming fullness to them and i find that the sound is a bit cleaner on the RCAs. but now, i am using my O2 with my KGSS and find that they almost cannot be used with the SE inputs. they just sound underpowered, even with the volume around 1-2PM. they need the extra power/current of XLR. with the XLR inputs, they sound very good. but the O2s need power! the HEV90 has two jacks, both controlled by one volume control. at one point during the meet we had the HE90 and O2 connected to the HEV90 at the same time. i was listening to the HE90. the head-fier using the O2 said the volume was too low. i put the volume as high as i reasonably could. he said it still wasn't even close to where it needed to be. at another time, we had the HE90 and HE60 connected to the HEV90. in this case, the HE60 got way too loud when you put the HE90 at normal volume.

so it seems that the O2 is very hard to power, the HE60 is pretty easy, and the HE90 is somewhere in the middle, but closer to the side of the HE60.

[jinp6301]

Originally Posted by bozebuttons

I consider the 010s to sound like Wilson speakers,when locked in very detailed with great focus & placement.

Most likely I havent got the correct fit with the qualias but I havent gotten the feeling of Wilson speakers (which I like quite a bit) at all. I'll have to try to get a better fit next time I listen to them

[vcoheda]

been spending last few days listening to my O2/KGSS. they are great.

i forgot how amazing these headphones sound. the O2 has crystalline precision - possibly the best resolution i have ever encountered with a headphone. the sound is just so clear. you go through the song and notes, effects - details big and small - jump out in quick succession from a deep black background. quite an experience. the bass on the O2 is of very good quantity and pretty focused too. the sound stage is only average. things are pretty close together but the imaging is good, so there is no congestion. the HE90 definitely has a more expansive and airy feel to it - a greater sense of space and height. but the bass and resolution is probably better on the O2. i definitely prefer the O2 with rock and as i mentioned before i thought the HE90 excelled (was slightly better) at classical. but i'm starting to think that the O2 - esp if paired with a great amp (maybe, BHSE) - is right on par with the HE90/HEV90.

[vcoheda]

still digging the O2s.

glad i decided to have a little work done on my HE60. sometimes you only change headphones out of necessity. now i just need an HE90 so i can do some more comparisons. :P if any other meet attendees want to comment on O2 v. HE90, go ahead. posting is free.

[jinp6301]

My ranking of the stats were

1. O2 with KGSS (tied)
1. HE90 with HEV90 (tied)
2. HE60 with HEV90
3. HE60 with KGSS

The O2 stands pretty much toe to toe with the 90s. They are both amazing phones but each have their own strengths and weaknesses. The O2 is more intimate and dark sounding and the 90s are open and airy, with a focus on the highs. Both of them are extremely enjoyable. The 60s are basically little 90s. Just 90s with much less of everything. Still great, but I much prefer the high end dynamics to the 60s I think.

[immtbiker]

Wow, saying the O2's with the KGSS is equal to the HE-90's with the HEV-90 is a bold statement.

The KGSS is a pretty average sounding stat amp, regardless of what you thought about the Omegas.