Sydney Head-fi Meet Impressions (26/10/2008) - Page 4

Penance could come in the form of a woody.

I might post some more this evening, describe what I thought in more detail.. what I wrote last night was a little brief.

Jason, thanks again for organising the meet you are definitely an asset to the head-fi community

Unfortunately i did not get the change to listen to the balanced rig so the highlight to me would be the K1000.

Here are some of my noob impression:

Pro 750 – At first i thought there was something wrong with the source but it seems like that this is maybe the ultrasone sound signature. I guess now i understand why some people call them mettalic but after a few mins with them you sort of get used to them but i dont think sound natural.

Edition 9 – I was expecting the worst after being disappointed with the PRo705 but this is actually pretty nice. I cant remember much of this one except that to me they are just good.


K701 – I dont spend much time with this and i only tried it with one song on my Solo clone. I think it might be underpowered since the male vocal sounded kinda muffled to me when compared to the HD600.

AD900 – They sure have an airy sound but i think they are sort of boring in that i'm not sucked in to the music.

AD2000 – This one is nice. Its got a warmish sound to it just like the HD600 but with AT's signature. I'll buy these if they are at AD900 price

D5000 – Even with the Jena recable i still find their vocal recessed but i think they are still a good all rounder closed phone. Its just that since i have a D2000 i was hoping it would blow away the D2000 but i still think the D2000 fair very well with its brother. For some reason my mod on the D2000 makes the bass got more kick on it as well and it makes it more of a basshead can than the D5000

W5000 – Sounds like something is off. Vocal sounded nasally. Maybe its underpowered or need a tube amp maybe?

W11 jpn – Good all rounder prefer these than the W5000.

Benchmark DAC1 – nice sound even out of its HP out. Which model is this one? is it the one with built in amp?

DT150 – it deginitely sound better than it looks. Bass is like D5000 like but of course the D5000 is better in the other areas. After looking at the net the price for this is actually near D2000 so it might not be as good value as i thought it would be.

SOHA – Dark sound and upfront vocals. When compared to LISAIII it sounded a bit congested but at there price point they are pretty good.

Lisa III – nice warmish amp. Too bad its too pricy for me.

K1000 – This is a speaker not a headphone

Well at the end of the meet i think i am quite happy with my collection of D2000/HD600 can. I did not get the chance to listen to the HD650 on this meet but just like the last meet i'm sure i like them better than the HD600 but the HD600 is not half bad either.

I am disappointed that there is no NOS dac on the meet since i am quite curious how would they differ from the upsample/oversampling DAC. I think i would probably spend money on a DAC for my next step but unfortunately the AUD is not really helping

Pop - there goes my head-fi meet cherry, haha.

Sorry to say I wasn't paying too much attention to the different rigs I was listening to, but I succeeded in my mission of listening to some high quality gear. I'd have agree and say that yes, the balanced rig was quite the sweetness...

And that the K1000's, while being very very clear and crisp, didn't have quite the punch that I like. Practicality of an open head-speaker rig like that is another thing . Kudos for setting it up though, it was a good experience.

My favourite headphones from the meet though would have to have been the ATH-ESW9's ... the mix of practicality, comfort, style and of course sound quality all in one. Yes, if I wasn't so spendthrift, I'd snap up a pair straight away .

Was really glad to get some IEMs from the raffle, even if they are metrosexual pink... These Crossroads Mylar Bijou 2 do sound quite nice as an introduction to the world of ear insertions... I've had to EQ down ~150-300Hz though as they have a bit of a hump there - and that's from me being a bass head! That said though, I don't think I'll be catching upgraditus as far as IEMs go, at least not yet.

Thanks heaps to Covenant for providing the space for us... I can understand it's a bit of effort to organise these things - but it did all pay off . Thanks to Steve Kelby for bringing all his gear and some of the prizes, and of course the comic relief while drawing the raffle.

Also, thanks to Jaben for donating so much gear for the raffle... I'll be checking there first next time I'm looking to purchase some gear.

I did stay around for dinner, sorry I didn't get to properly say goodbye to everyone as it was getting quite late and I had a train to catch back to Newcastle.

I'm sure I'll catch up with you all again at the next meet - who knows maybe I'll have caught the higher-fi bug by then

Music Direct sometimes put demo 325i for sale at $225 USD, but they don't ship overseas, you may use Price USA if don't have a friend in US. I got my pair there virtually brand new, without a single particle of dirt on bowl pads. But you may want to wait until aussie dollar bounce back.

hrmm here are my brief impressions

Edition 9's these were definitely more revealing than the HD600s, I could really tell when a recording wasn't so great, or when someone was singing too closely to the mic. Decent comfort levels as well, which goes against what I had been reading. I can't say too much more as I went on a roll yesterday and Tried to hear as many cans as possible, so my memory isn't completely clear :P

Pro750s, eh something was weird with the sound stage iirc definitely not for me.

MS-Pros, these were a disappointment for me, it could of been because they were straight out of the box from headphonic, (I didn't know there was another pair of MS-pros until the end of the meet) but highs sounded overally metallic and bright, and instrument separation wasn't very good from memory, I felt the 325i's also had bad instrument separation, but this could have been the 414 pads being used, as I remember I didn't like using comfies/414's on my MS-2s. I'd be happy to hear a nice worn in pair to see if its was the actual headphone I didn't like.

W11JPNs weren't my cup of tea either, the bass seemed to sound wrong/slow/intrusive of mid range

W5000s I liked these more than the 11JPNs, because of the bass problem I mentioned before with the 11JPNs, as for the other frequenieces My memory is abit shady.

EWS10's 900 dollars for these? Jeebus

AD2000s I liked these more than the W5000s, but Still not enough for me to buy them.

As you can see I'm not a big AT Fan :P mainly because I found that the AT's had weird sound stage, and although they may have areas in which they excel, they also have an equally flawed area elsewhere...

MD5000s + Jenna wire
D5000s with Cardas

Not a big fan at all. After listening to these I quickly remembered why I sold my D2000s after listening to them for 1 hr

I also A/Bed back and forth with a blue dragon HD650 and Blue dragon HD600 (both the new versions, if anyone believes in this, I have no opinion on this though) and the difference between them were really small, the HD650s had a bit more bass impact, apart from that there wasn't much difference I could hear with the meet conditions. I recall the HD650s having slower bass than the HD600s in the last meet, but that was with stock cables for both of them, and different tubes in my amp.

I do regret not hearing the Lisa III though ! Or maybe it was a good thing I didn't hear it However I did make a mistake in hearing the Opera

*edit* oh god there are so many views on this thread :O!

First up, let me give major kudos to Covenant for a lot of hard work behind the scenes to get an impressive meet up and running - probably more work than most of us realise.

Much thanks also go to stevenkelby and qusp and Uncle Wilson for generously contributing great stuff to the raffle - especially the cool headphone stand which really takes away a lot of worry about handling woodies - everyone should have one! I'll have to take a photo with the MD5000s... And thanks to everyone who brought all sorts of interesting gear to share!

Quick impressions.

I compared stevenkelby's Jena'd MD5000s with mine (with Cardas cable) out of my Pico. I was surprised to find his were a lot louder than mine at the same volume setting! They also had noticably more in the mids. Based on limited comparison, I tend to prefer mine - but then I probably would, given that I've been listening to them for a few months. It would be an interesting experiment to also listen to the others for a while and see whether my preference changed. I don't know if the cable is causing all of the difference, but I did notice mine sit differently on the head (the headband is kind of bent in a little, and I have the cups pushed up high close to the headband assembly - on Steve's I had the cups a lot further away). It's also possible the different clamping or padding are causing an audible difference. I had 30 seconds to listen to the other (M?)D5000s that were there and those seemed like they had a more pronounced bottom end than mine, but I was using a different source and amp so who knows...

I compared the DAC1 headphone amp and the Opera Analog (fed by the DAC1). (At least in the noisy room) I couldn't hear any obvious difference (other than the crossfeed when it's turned on). I think it would be interesting to try the crossfeed for a while - I suspect I'd get to appreciate it.

I tried the Edition 9's (stock?) My first impression was that they sounded weird, but I listened for a few minutes and felt that they might grow on me if I tried them for a week or three.

I tried the W5000s but they didn't really grab me. They came across as nearly interesting but not quite right, if you know what I mean, and I think I felt the soundstage was more horizontally compressed than I'm used to with the MD5000s. I think the DT150s gave me a similar impression, as did the W11JPNs (hey, remember - these are brief impressions ;-)

I think I listened to two woodied Grados, although one of them could have been Allesandro. Can't remember model numbers, think I was talking to chilli at the time. I haven't liked Grado in the past (and I listened to a few models at the high end at CanJam '08), but the one with the big bowl cups sounded much more acceptable. I doubt it would grow on me enough to go for though.

I got pretty tired part way through and the amount of gear to consider was somewhat overwhelming. I would have liked to have listened to a lot more stuff - particularly open cans and higher end sources/DACs/amps, and even balanced gear - to see how much of a difference it would make to my ears - but I think I'd reached my limit. And I think this points out that I agree with Cameron - meets are really cool but it's hard to have a decent listen to too many items, or to things that make only a subtle difference. For a lot of it you really need to beg/borrow the gear for a few days and spend much longer with it (under quieter conditions). And I guess each meet we have has a valuable role in building up the community which improves our chances of doing so

So I didn't come away with any clear gear goals - still got to figure out how to handle headphones in the MythTV/media server/speaker rig, and I'm not clear on whether making headphone access easier will improve sound quality much over (say) the Pico. Perhaps it would also be interesting to try some open phones for a while too. That's the trouble with meets - gives you ideas ;-)

lol, if anything, the Ultrasones are living up to their reputation. Most of the people trying them for the first time thought they were wierd and didn't like them, and then some of us (like me and Zephyr) are immediately struck by them and have to have them

Lisa and Ed9 did have some serious synergy going on. I'm going to do more research into the former and perhaps pester Stevenkelby to use his leverage to get me a loaner unit for a while

Oh, and I wasn't really selling the PL750's to you for a bargain. I was getting the hook in your mouth that will lead you down the path to Edition 9

In the true Head-Fi spirit you need to convince yourself that new guitar acquisition can wait, and headphones are more important at this very moment.. Glad to see another ED9 convert. Mission accomplished.

Another mission was accomplished - to compare the difference between stock and re-cabled Edition 9. Somehow Jason and myself managed to gain access to my rig with both phones. We took an advantage of two identical HP outs on DAC1 (even though I'd prefer to have a go at it thru Opera, but the two outs have different impedance).

We've started with Dream Theater, very familiar to both of us. We did some listening and swapped headphones couple of times. At this stage I wasn't be able to tell difference - with a blind test I'd probably fail to tell these cans apart. The ambient noise, of course, wasn't helping us either.
Since this particular album is not DT's best mastered record, played at 320k CBR LAME MP3, we decided to change music.

I've looped Bela Fleck's instrumental jazz piece I often use as one of my reference tracks for bass guitar, drums and percussion. Great, very dynamic recording of his live performance in Johannesburg.

Three or four swaps later, Jason started to nod his head. Yes, definitely, there was a difference. Very subtle one, but, on blind test I'd most likely be able to pick these cans apart.

There was nothing that I could describe in quantitative terms i.e more or less bass, tighter bass, more sparkle in highs, faster decay or attack on the note.
More like Jason's sounded a tad more musical (for lack of better term), there was that little bit of extra body to the music. The bass lines sounded to be more rounded and a tad tighter. Very hard to describe exactly, and as I said very subtle.

I'd dare to say if it wasn't for direct A/B as we did, but let's say with listening to them few hours apart and trying to recollect it from one's audio memory it would have to be someone with damn good memory to make these two apart.

And so, the conclusion to me is - yes, Jason's APS recabled pair of ED9 is better sounding than stock cabled ED9.
How much better for dollars spent, is another question altogether. Boils down to expected price/performance ratio.

Works well for me, I've decided well before this meet that I'm going fully balanced, procurement for 4 channel Beta 22 components is already happening. Of course, it is going to cost me much, much more than re-cable job, but on other hand my expected price/performance ratio is different as well. Although, who knows? Maybe my expectations are too high and simple re-cable job will bring me to the same SQ point as sticking with current amp single ended.

Great meet, it is always nice to put real people behind their Head-Fi monikers.
I enjoyed it very much.

Sorry, I couldn't make it to the dinner. MilkyWay promised to shout couple of drinks...Hopefuly, next time mate.
Bringing car to CBD is always bad idea. My parking meter expired at 6:30 (and I'm not going to pay any more fines to the mayor's coffers, I paid enough while living in Sydney to buy me another pair of ED9, easy) and I had 3 hours drive back South Coast.

I'll post my impressions about the rest of the gear later, after I'll clear my foot long "to do" list.

Cheers,

Lad27

I'm quite surprised that some of you guys couldn't tell the difference between the amp on the DAC-1 and the Opera :/ I had a listen to both and the difference to me was quite big. Oh nose I'm cursed with golden ears!!1!one!