don't need to upgrade anymore!

[plonter]

Hello head fiers and headroom! i just feel that it's important for me to express my appriciation of the headroom gear i own,started with the total airhead and moving on to the ultra micro amp and than also the dac.
i also bought my denon's cans from headroom.
the ultra micro stack paird with the denons or the grado rs-1 is just spectacular! i know that i am a little over excited..but how can one not be whan listening to this great sound..?! even after almost a year that i own the ultra stack ,i amazed every time i put the headphones on my head and press play on the cd player.

it's maybe a little soon to comite to this..but i really dont think that i will upgrade my rig ever! i really think that i have reached the ideal sound for me, the sound that i have fantisized about from the begining (when my d2 player was my main rig along with a pair of pmx-200).

i also posted in the headroom appriciation thread but just wanted to start a little thread of my own here. i would like to hear from other happy head fiers that really enjoy their headroom rigs.

thx,assaf (plonter) from israel. (any reply for this spontaneous and noobish thraed will be very welcome! )

[Tyll Hertsens]

Well, I'd say that's pretty good, from "sorry about your wallet," to "congratulations, your wallet may yet have a life" in 415 posts.


You're living the dream ... to bad you're going to have to suffer all those comments from happy HD800s one of these days soon (I hope). Maybe that'll mess with your head.

Play it safe, run away to here now. Yarn is pretty cheap.

[plonter]

you may be right tyll..i may find myself one day looking for something better.
better cans is maybe the only thing i will want to upgrade i think, i will probably not want to upgrade my dac/amp. i think (and i hope you can agree with that) that the ultra micro stack can handle any headphone(at least any dynamic headphone) including the hd-800 in superb way. it's probably that if one day i still decide to get better cans it will be the hd-800, or maybe the new grado ps-1000.
at least my wallet is happy for time being, it has suffered a lot in the past year!
thx again.

[royewest]

My wife is as addicted to Tyll's "here" as I am to head-fi. Beware!

[plonter]

i am too addicted to head fi.. it's not that i am retiring from this hobby or something...the opposite! for some time i am really enjoying the music,
without worrying myself if the quality is good enough or not.

but it's still nice to read and learn about other gear,and even talk about other stuff that dont related to gear like music etc..

there will be always better and newer stuff ...it's still buisness. i guess everybody has to settle sometime.

[erikzen]

It's nice to get to a point where you don't feel like you need to upgrade anymore and that any new gear you buy is only because you want to buy it, not because you think you are missing any of the musical enjoyment you bought the gear for in the first place.

For me, I hit that point right about the $600 mark with the first MicroStack. Of course, that's when I should have joined the knitting forum but to my wallet's chagrin I chose to continue hanging around here.

If my wife calls, tell her I just left.

[Tyll Hertsens]

Originally Posted by plonter

i think (and i hope you can agree with that) that the ultra micro stack can handle any headphone(at least any dynamic headphone) including the hd-800 in superb way.

Yup, I agree with that 99%.

The left over 1% just has to do with using the 1/8th in mini-jack on the Micros. But that's fundamentally a quibble when compared to the price performance ratio of the Ultra Micros---which is fairly unbeatable, it seems to me.

[moogoob]

Originally Posted by Tyll Hertsens

Yup, I agree with that 99%.

The left over 1% just has to do with using the 1/8th in mini-jack on the Micros. But that's fundamentally a quibble when compared to the price performance ratio of the Ultra Micros---which is fairly unbeatable, it seems to me.

And I'd agree. It's sad they aren't more commonly recommended here on Head-fi. The fact that the power supply is separate is a good thing too- like being able to swap out the rectifier tube on a Woo Audio WA6, you only have to spend as much on that part as you need to and always have a small upgrade path to take if you feel like it.

I'm incredibly happy with my Ultra DAC and regular Micro amp. The things those two do with my SR325i goldies... *drool*

[Scottsmrnyc]

Plonter- I don't think they have too many meets or get togethers of Headfi Members in Israel, please correct me if I am wrong on this; but once you have one there or go out to other meets throughout the world, you will quickly notice that you are at the tip of a very huge opening that will drive you to make many more upgrades and new equipment purchases. Although your system is great for you now; you will be out there exploring soon enough; trust me when I say this. Scottsmrnyc

[Tryptonique]

I'm exceptionally satisfied with my Sennheiser HD-650s and my Ultra Micro Amp.

I'm having a hard time imagining how much an Ultra Micro DAC would really boost the sound for these babies...but hell, I know I'm already sunk and that I'm going to buy one at some point ANYWAY. So...I don't even know why I think about it at this point. Ha ha.

If it really doesn't do anything for me or it isn't even noticeable, I would obviously use that 30 day return policy. However, I just have this feeling that I'm missing out on something.

-E

[TheSloth]

Originally Posted by Scottsmrnyc

Plonter- I don't think they have too many meets or get togethers of Headfi Members in Israel, please correct me if I am wrong on this; but once you have one there or go out to other meets throughout the world, you will quickly notice that you are at the tip of a very huge opening that will drive you to make many more upgrades and new equipment purchases. Although your system is great for you now; you will be out there exploring soon enough; trust me when I say this. Scottsmrnyc

I don't know about that. Firstly, Israel has ME. If that isn't enough, I don't know what is... And let's not patronise those living outside the great USA - you don't need meets to experience different equipment.

Secondly, there can of course be a huge urge to explore upgrades and new kit, etc. I have bought a huge number of amps and cans. However, the first amp I bought new from HeadRoom was a Desktop Portable, and the first full size cans were HD650's.

Yes, I've had more expensive headphones, and MUCH more expensive amps, but after all the great excitement wore off, my current (and final (yes, seriously)) system, which I haven't touched for over a year is...

HR Desktop Portable -> HD650. Ok, so at some point I had my DP hot rodded with a Max DAC, but still, it's hardly king of the hill. Plonter's stack is actually very slightly better because of the amp section.

With those electronics I can see exactly why he feels he's gone as far up as he needs to.

[moogoob]

Originally Posted by Tryptonique

I'm exceptionally satisfied with my Sennheiser HD-650s and my Ultra Micro Amp.

I'm having a hard time imagining how much an Ultra Micro DAC would really boost the sound for these babies...but hell, I know I'm already sunk and that I'm going to buy one at some point ANYWAY. So...I don't even know why I think about it at this point. Ha ha.

If it really doesn't do anything for me or it isn't even noticeable, I would obviously use that 30 day return policy. However, I just have this feeling that I'm missing out on something.

-E

What source are you using for comparison? I went from Total Bithead to the Ultra Micro DAC and while the differences took a bit of listening to find (a credit to the surprisingly versatile Bithead), I was more than impressed with its detail and resolution, not to mention warm-ish sound signature.

[Tryptonique]

My source is (at the moment) my iMac at the moment. Most of my music is in lossless and that is being pumped into the amp directly via this:

Cardas 1M Mini to Mini cable @ HeadRoom - Right Between Your Ears

*braces for impact*

ha ha.

[pirate6955]

Originally Posted by Tryptonique

My source is (at the moment) my iMac at the moment. Most of my music is in lossless and that is being pumped into the amp directly via this:

Cardas 1M Mini to Mini cable @ HeadRoom - Right Between Your Ears

*braces for impact*

ha ha.

well since you have a mac .... with a dac that has optical input on it you could send the signal out of the mac via fiber at 24bit 96khz to the dac.
this is found in the midi audio setup app not in the system preferences.
as long as this is set before itunes is launched it will upsample to this rate
before sending the signal out the fiber. and thus you are bypassing the audio section of the mac, etc.... mac becomes just a transport.

if nothing else the electrical isoloation of the fiber connection should be a benefit. i use a macbook pro as i described above into a portable micro d/amp and the sound is quite good even with less than lossless files.

you just plug a toslink mini plug into your headfone jack. its a dual purpose jack both analog and s/pdif. [sorry if you know this already]. and the cable is cheap enough too....

[aimlink]

I moved from a FireStone Fubar III to MicroAmp with FireStone SpitFire DAC, to the Ultra Micro Stack and DPS.

I too feel that I'm now at the pinnacle of sound source in a DAC and AMP that I'd be interested in. The recabled HD 650's also sound superb to me now with a good burn in. When playing some 92/24bit music, the sound is absolutely wonderful.

The only thing that I've been thinking about is to get another set of cans, but the closed type for less intrusive listening for others nearby. I've been thinking of the Denon AH-D7000's. For some reason, I'm not yearning so much for the HD800's because of my upgrade path. The improvement in sound is really quite modest with these upgrades and I'm really happy at this point. Any further minor improvements would be gained at quite a lot of expense and it's not worth it for my wallet. The Denon's would be not only for sound, but a less intrusive solution.

I've gone the IEM route and though it's great and has its place, it doesn't hold a candle to the full can and Ultra Micro Stack rig experience. Not for my ears anyway....