Isabellina HPA - Owner's Thread and Impressions - Page 13 - Head-Fi: Covering Headphones, Earphones and Portable Audio

Combat Audio · #**181** (**permalink**) 11-02-2009, 10:49 AM

From what I have read on Stax, it seems that their proprietary amps are really underpowered. Singlepower seems to make some great amps for them but there seems to be a horrible delay on getting Mikhail's amps...not to move off thread here...I had looked into a Stax set up for awhile but it was just too much of a leap of faith for me without listening to them. Another positive thing about working with Vinnie is that he keeps you in the loop and he sticks to his timelines, if there is a problem you know that he is going to make it right...I really appreciate that. The detail is of course suppose to be amazing with Stax but I think I would miss the tacticle feel of the music for what you get from a dynamic set up.

The Isabella was pretty tempting and I am always close to moving to the tube side as I do tend to like warmth but at teh same time detail and clarity...but I know that for me trying to find the perfect tubes for a set up would drive me crazy...haha. So, I am going to wait until I am settled down somewhere in the States before I move from SS to the joys of tube rolling.

All this HD800 love is almost enough to convince me to give Sennheiser another go around!

I ran out of time to plug the 650's in last night but I will get to it, promise.

I can second silverlight's sentiments about being off grid...we run off generator power here and it is nice to not have any hum introduced into the audio path! The background makes me think of the metal t-shirt "I'll stop wearing black when they make something darker"...just you and your music.

Bredin · #**182** (**permalink**) 11-11-2009, 11:59 AM

Is the buffer in the HPA small and slow? Noticed something yesterday. When I got my HPA I reacted on that I couldn't use over 1000ms buffer in foobar with WASAPI, and that skipping tracks and seek in tracks was slower than before. Slower = a moment of silence. But yesterday I put the buffer down to 100ms, and everything was as fast as it should be. Is that due to the Isabellinas buffer or something else? If anyone else is noticing this, test 100ms buffer length.

HeadphoneAddict · #**183** (**permalink**) 11-11-2009, 08:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bredin

Is the buffer in the HPA small and slow? Noticed something yesterday. When I got my HPA I reacted on that I couldn't use over 1000ms buffer in foobar with WASAPI, and that skipping tracks and seek in tracks was slower than before. Slower = a moment of silence. But yesterday I put the buffer down to 100ms, and everything was as fast as it should be. Is that due to the Isabellinas buffer or something else? If anyone else is noticing this, test 100ms buffer length.

I thought the buffer is in the computer that is running foobar, not in the HPA or other external DAC.

GreenLeo · #**184** (**permalink**) 11-12-2009, 02:19 PM

I think HPA is correct. Also longer buffer means worse SQ according to the manual.

Bredin · #**185** (**permalink**) 11-12-2009, 02:23 PM

The question is why can I have max 1000ms buffer on my HPA, 6000ms+ with my ESI maya44, and 16000ms with Direct Streaming instead of Wasapi. And why is the HPA slower when set to 1000ms than the rest?

HeadphoneAddict · #**186** (**permalink**) 11-12-2009, 08:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bredin

The question is why can I have max 1000ms buffer on my HPA, 6000ms+ with my ESI maya44, and 16000ms with Direct Streaming instead of Wasapi. And why is the HPA slower when set to 1000ms than the rest?

Maybe because the others don't use USB and so the interface is faster? (Maya is a PCI card, right?)

Bredin · #**187** (**permalink**) 11-13-2009, 07:12 AM

yes, the maya is a pci card. But if it's not using the buffer in the dac, why woulden't the buffersize go up over 6000ms? And why is the isabellina slow using Wasapi with 200ms+ bufferlength, when it's fast as anything else with 16000ms & direct streaming.

Combat Audio · #**188** (**permalink**) 11-15-2009, 07:14 PM

I plugged in my HD650s about a week or two ago....man, they had sort of been in a drawer collecting dust for a long time in truth. I moved to Grado's a couple years back and every time I upgraded my set up I would pull the Senns out to A and B them and ended up putting them back in the drawer. I sort of like them with the Isabellina though...the soundstage is different and though I still think the veil is there in the cans, the Isabellina smooths them out and opens them up a bit. I miss the mids of the Grado but the Senns just sound better with the Isabellina than with any of my other set ups...it probably has to do alot with the music that I am listening to but they are getting their playtime. If you find yourself in a similar situation, you might want to dust of the old Senns and give them a listen....

Todd over at TTVj has received his shipment of PS1000's from Grado and they are enroute, the mail is slow here though...patience, patience, patience.

ranma172 · #**189** (**permalink**) 11-16-2009, 12:19 AM

I'm thinking of selling my Isabellina HPA.

It came with an european cable.
I don't know if you can get a cable for your country or maybe Vinnie can provide one.
Not sure if the charger is universal or needs replacing too.

GreenLeo · #**190** (**permalink**) 11-16-2009, 12:06 PM

Any reasons?

ranma172 · #**191** (**permalink**) 11-16-2009, 12:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GreenLeo

Any reasons?

Well, it's too expensive for me. I mean, I've seen I don't enjoy it as much as it costs (taking into account the "law of diminishing returns", of course). I've compared it to my cheap Sony/Pioneer stereo system and, to me, it's good enough.

I know it's a question of preferences so I'm sure some people here will enjoy it much more than me.

mrarroyo · #**192** (**permalink**) 11-17-2009, 01:01 AM

ranma172, sorry you are not enjoying your Isabellina HPA as much as some of us have. It is a very nice piece and one that I enjoyed so much I am in the process of getting the funds together to upgrade to the Isabella fully loaded. I hope you fully burnt-in your unit (at least 400 hours) and that you are feeding it lossless files from your computer via an USB cable to get the most out of it.

ranma172 · #**193** (**permalink**) 11-17-2009, 08:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrarroyo

ranma172, sorry you are not enjoying your Isabellina HPA as much as some of us have. It is a very nice piece and one that I enjoyed so much I am in the process of getting the funds together to upgrade to the Isabella fully loaded. I hope you fully burnt-in your unit (at least 400 hours) and that you are feeding it lossless files from your computer via an USB cable to get the most out of it.

I am feeding it WAV (CD-Audio) or FLAC files through USB.
It hasn't reached 400 hours; it must have around 200. But I suppose I should anyway find it significantly better than my cheap amp, shouldn't I? Or will it change dramatically within the next 200 hours?

Thanks for your comments

GreenLeo · #**194** (**permalink**) 11-17-2009, 01:42 PM

I'm not a gold ear. But I must say that I've enjoyed the the DAC section of the HPA a lot. I'm not saying that the amp section of the HPA is not good but ES3X hiss on it. I've used the amp of the HPA for my K701 RAL recabled and the sound is great.

Make sure that you've tested the HPA thoroughly before the decision of selling it.