Review: SPL Auditor - Page 11

A lot is also dependant on the dac, its output voltage is higher on some dacs than the other. And so with some lower powered DAC you have to turn the volume to the right a lot and people get the sense that amp is not powerful enough.

 

In my experience software/ hardware gain close to the 0db the better, and the volume all the way up.

Hi ZombieX,
My sistem is:
SENNHEISER HD800+SPL AUDITOR+BENCHMARK DAC+CALIFORNIA AUDIO LABS DELTA TRANSPORT.
I'm very happy with my Auditor, but do you know any amplifier with better transparency and with better resolution?
Thanks!
Edited by Enguera - 9/25/12 at 2:16pm

For better transparency you should look into the Sabre DAC.

 

And wich one based on "Sabre DAC" ? ODAC is built with sabre ESS 9023  , i know that you are speacking about units using ESS 9018 but hey , not all will be more "transparent" than Benchmark DAC , you have to explain further .

Edited by HaVoC-28 - 9/25/12 at 11:09pm

Anyone tried this amp with JVC DX1000 or Sony SA5000? Both are around the minimum impedance 'required' for this amp and almost the same as K702 that go well with it.

 

Hum i agree that K702 + Auditor pair well , but every one don't think soo as Zombie_X , DX1000 and SA5000 have higher sensitivity than K702 (if i am not wrong) , peraphs it could produce some huming have to wait for more impressions .

 

Right, I did not take sensitivity into consideration.

 

Would an impedance adaptor help with hum in that case?

 

http://www.head-fi.org/t/595632/review-spl-auditor/90#post_8369477   as you see don't look very good but 

 

I will try by myself ... just ordered an AT ATH AD2000 (always wanted to try this one ...) . I am exepting huge huming but will try an adaptater etc and will see what happen  and if so bad i have an HA Info U2 plus .

Edited by HaVoC-28 - 10/5/12 at 4:04am

 

Right, I missed it. 

 

Over and out.

Well AD2000 At home (since last fiday) , there was some huming yes , but it didn't sound bad at all ... i would say very good , a nice contrast with my K702 . 

 

But today i tryed a custom made 180 ohm adaptater and : No more huming ,  furthemore no noticeable change in sound ...  

Edited by HaVoC-28 - 10/16/12 at 8:29am

I tried it with the JVC DX 1000. I am not 100 % sure I had the SA5000 on it though. There is no humming but I didn´t feel the Auditor could do the DX 1000 justice. It really does give the impression with a lot of my low impedance headphones at the time that it couldn´t control the bass. Where on the T1 it controlled the drivers it appear better then anything else.

I have now owned the SPL Auditor and Violectric V200 for quite a while. Over time it's just becoming more and more obvious to me that the Auditor is the best of the two. With LCD-2, T1 and HD 800 the Auditor provides a higher resolution sound across the board and bigger soundstage. The Auditor has more than enough power to drive the LCD-2, so the V200 can't even win in any way with those headphones. With the Auditor, with all three headphones, the bass is deeper, has more impact, the mids are more transparent and the highs airier and more natural. It's just a clear cut case of the Auditor playing in another tier of quality. Both are driven via the Violectric V800 dac, and I've had both amps for more than a year now so my impressions are based across countless songs and long periods of listening to either one or the other.

Got my Auditor today, connected it to my Neko Audio D100 MK2 DAC with a Nordost blue heaven xlr connector, and WOW, I am amazed ! 

Volume only at 9 clock and already my T1 is loud enough, and never sounds so good! It's like a seal has been broken for the T1 cans, everything is fuller, more details in mid and treble, bigger sound stage. Texture and body appears with every instruments. Bass is really fast and well distinctable (Not sure that's a real word). However I do miss the slightly warm bass from my D100 dac, which seems disappeared, probably due to the Nordost xlr cable I am using.  

 

I am thinking of getting a Chord Chameleon Silver plus xlr cable to replace the Nordost, any other suggestions?

 

All in all I am very happy with my Auditor, money well spent. 
 

I completely disagree on the comments regarding the sound stage of the HD800 to be too large to sound natural. My studio recordings tell me otherwise. It is wide as the instruments were originally panned and after-effects added to create additional room and air.

 

I can see where you are coming from however because not all recordings sound equally good and sometimes the middle sounds too dense (typically with rock and rock derivatives). In these cases, additional reverb creates a sense of space where nothing is where it should be and the picture loses it's focus and sounds lose their origin. In every other case, especially with well produced classical, your comments are invalid.

 

I also know you are a Beyerdynamic T1 fan as am I. However, I would never consider using it for the final master now would anyone I know. They are excellent in what they do but natural they are not.