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Vancouver area meet or get-together? - Page 8

post #106 of 205
5/9/11 at 9:56pm

Is the e9 powerful enough?

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post #107 of 205
5/9/11 at 10:06pm

I don't really have much to bring to the table, but can I drop by and check out other people's gear?

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post #108 of 205
5/9/11 at 10:48pm
ianmedium uses a hotrodded Corda Stepdance for his LCD-2 and it sounds great. The e9 should be fine, in terms of providing enough power.

The LCD-2 deals gracefully with almost anything you can throw at it, in fact. It's the gentler brother to the HE-6's rather demanding power needs.
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post #109 of 205
5/9/11 at 11:09pm

From milosz's "AMP A/B COMPARISON THREAD" thread. 

 

Quote:

Fourteenth A / B comparison:  Beta 22 & Fii0 E9  :: USING THE AUDIO-GD NFB-10ES AS THE SOURCE (instead of the earlier Cambridge DAC Magic)

 

THIS IS NOT A SCIENTIFIC TEST.

 

The Audio-Gd NFB-10ES uses a newer-generation, more sophisticated DAC, and it uses all discrete analog stages instead of IC op amps like the DAC Magic.  In addition, the Audio-Gd NFB-10ES uses "boutique" capacitors whilst the DAC Magic uses garden-variety electrolytics in it's signal path.  On top of this, the power supply for the Audio-Gd NFB-10ES is much larger, much more sophisticated and more tightly regulated / lower impedance than the "wall wart" that powers the DAC Magic.  PLEASE NOTE THIS IS NOT A COMPARISON OF THE TWO DACs.  That will come later, in another thread.

 

LCD-2: I heard a slight difference in bass, with the Beta 22 delivering more texture. Both amps had good bass extension.  Midrange was identical as far as I could hear. I could hear a minor difference in treble, but I am hard pressed to characterize it because the difference was so small.

 

HD800:  These headphones, with their treble emphasis, pointed up the high frequency differences of these two amps more clearly.  The FiiO had a more romantic sounding top end, while the Beta 22 was clinical.  The Beta had greater transparency and you could "hear through" to the original recording more- for good or ill.  On some recordings a more honest presentation helped me hear flaws in the recording.  On such recordings, any harshness present in the original material was clearly audible through the Beta 22 to the HD800s.  If the original recording was fine and sweet, then it sounded that way on the HD800's through the Beta. The FiiO had that small amount of romantic lushness.  Bass texture was also better with the beta 22 on the HD800s but this was not as noticeable as with the LCD-2's; HD800s just don't have the bass performance of the planar 'phones, and so the richer texture from the Beta doesn't stand out as much as with the LCD-2's.

 

I can't comment on the sound of the DAC Magic vs. the NFB-10ES, as I did not compare them directly; that will come later, in another thread.  I will say that with the DAC Magic I heard minor differences in the bass and treble between these two amps.  And now with the NFB-10ES I again heard minor differences between the amps.  Using a better DAC did not point out glaring differences between these amps.  I would be prepared to say that I MIGHT have heard a little more difference in the amps using th NFB-10ES as a source, but that it is really hard to say if that's real or something based on preconceptions.

 

Sounds good to me for a little bit of cash!  The LCD-2s did sound amazing on Ianmedium's Stepdance, hopefully it'll sound close to as good on the E9.  The E7 has enough power to power it, but just barely.  Probably didn't have enough power to give it it's full range of sound.
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post #110 of 205
5/15/11 at 8:46pm

Long-promised, long-delayed photos! Since I didn't take any notes during the course of the meetup, captions are from memory. If anybody provides corrections, I'll update this post accordingly. I haven't had time to clean up the photos properly, so I'm sorry for the rough quality.

 

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ianmedium, Travis, and ?? trying out Ian's Stax SR001-Mk2 in-ear phones. Travis is the proprietor of the Headphone Bar and our gracious host for the event.

 

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??'s Sony Walkman working as source for the driver component of ianmedium's Stax in-ears. At the left are ianmedium's LCD-2 and my HD25-1 II

 

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Another view of Ian's LCD-2, and his mobile sound lab: iPod, Cypher labs Algorythm solo DAC, Corda Stepdance with external battery pack. The whole ensemble sounded amazing!

 

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cegli's JH16 Pro, flanked by his FIIO E7 and HD595. One channel of the JH16 Pro has a universal tip added, and his hands are putting a tip on the other channel.

 

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cegli hard at work making his customs universal for our benefit!

 

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The table with cegli's, ianmedium's and my systems. In the pop-out drawer lower right is one of the Headphone Bar's demo systems; an iPod Nano and NuForce ??. The NuForce LOD connecting them was pulled so Travis could help me diagnose a problem with my own NuForce LOD (which, as it turns out, was a user error. Whoops.).

 

More photos in the next post. And apologies to Travis (@Headphoneabuser) for misidentifying him as "Trevor" on first edit. That was shabby of me...


Edited by ardgedee - 5/15/11 at 9:25pm
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post #111 of 205
5/15/11 at 8:46pm

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?? trying a pair of the Headphone Bar's Phiatons, PhaedraCorruption, and ?? - sorry I failed to get a good pic of your face!

 

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Some of PhaedraCorruption's system: NuForce portable serving as DAC for his M-Stage amp. The M-Stage has a secret...

 

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...it's got a couple thousand dollars worth of cables sticking out of it. The power cable alone weighs more than the amp. Unfortunately I failed to get a shot of PhaedraCorruption's modded Fostex T40(?) orthos - they sounded really world-class, a hair's breadth from ianmedium's LCD-2.

 

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My portable system: iPhone, Leckerton UHA-6s, HD 25-1 II. I bought a short interconnect while at the meetup, so I won't have to count on that long snarl of cabling between iPhone and DAC any more!

 

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Special bonus shot of the weather that tried to kill us. During the meetup there was a massive downpour followed by a hailstorm. The nearby side street washed out, requiring earthmoving equipment to clear the intersection and closing the side street for a couple days.


Edited by ardgedee - 5/15/11 at 9:17pm
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post #112 of 205
5/15/11 at 8:59pm
Art, thank you so much for these! Surprised your lens did not crack having taken a picture of me! The DAC I use is the Cypher labs Algorythm solo. It was so gratifying that everyone liked the sound of it, bit by bit we get there eh! Hope you managed to get to Gibsons!
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post #113 of 205
5/15/11 at 9:12pm

Unfortunately I didn't get to get to wander past city limits on this trip. But that's going to be a great excuse for another visit.

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post #114 of 205
5/17/11 at 2:57pm

Very cool, thanks for the photos!

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post #115 of 205
5/19/11 at 3:13pm

A shame I found this thread too late. However, I plan to make a trip to Headphone Bar for sure! Awesome stuff. Thanks for sharing.

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post #116 of 205
5/19/11 at 11:26pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by helluvapixel View Post

A shame I found this thread too late. However, I plan to make a trip to Headphone Bar for sure! Awesome stuff. Thanks for sharing.



Still time to make the the meet on June 4th!

 

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post #117 of 205
5/20/11 at 8:56pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by helluvapixel View Post

A shame I found this thread too late. However, I plan to make a trip to Headphone Bar for sure! Awesome stuff. Thanks for sharing.



Indeed, come out for the June 4th one!  That's the actual meet, the pictures were just from an impromptu mini-meet!

 

Oh, and SouLazee, I'm sure there's no problem if you want to drop by.  You have to start somewhere, right?

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post #118 of 205
5/21/11 at 6:40am

Quote:

Originally Posted by helluvapixel View Post

A shame I found this thread too late. However, I plan to make a trip to Headphone Bar for sure! Awesome stuff. Thanks for sharing.


Hey, those pics were of an impromptu mini-meet, since a few guys had their slates clear and I was passing through. You should definitely subscribe to this thread and make plans for the June event; the people are great and you'll get to see even more attendees and systems, try things out and ask questions.

 

And yes you should also visit The Headphone Bar too.


Edited by ardgedee - 5/21/11 at 6:42am
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post #119 of 205
5/27/11 at 10:32pm

So guess what everyone, LOL, it looks like the Canucks play game 2 of the final at 5:00pm on Saturday June 4th at home against Boston...

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post #120 of 205
5/28/11 at 12:25am

How about Sunday in that case? A week or more later in June and I can't make it :(

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