The diary entries of a little girl who is now 30! ~ Part 2 - Page 323

Soundstage, sonic signature, sound sig... To many SS's in audiophilidom.

 

The ss is phenomenal in the 5k. And please note, the timbre of the 5K is the most natural I have ever heard, besting the Ultrasone Sig Pro ($850-1300) and my TH900 (~$1900) - granted, it is not as refined, but the timbre of the SA5K is unparalleled. I just recently acquired the Final Audio Design FI-BA-SS which is quite fantastic with classical, and I still wish I had my 5K to compare timbre.... but alas. 

 

The soundstage of the 5K is a bit set back. It's not intimate. It's more natural. It's like you're at a concert hall a few rows back. You aren't the conductor, you're not in the middle of it. You're center stage a few rows back, and soaking in the entirety. Nice cohesion, excellent timbre, while maintaining air and great imaging. 

 

I am making myself regret letting my 5K go 

Thanks again muppet and for telling me the ma900's characteristics!

Thanks sound, was looking for this kinda description! lose some, you win some? You've still got some sweet cans

While the amp is amazingly good for the size, it doesn't drive as well as most well regarded dedicated amps. The DAC section seems to be very good though, but paying the price for the unit just to bypass the amp seems wasteful. Surely there are DACs with the same or similar chip in a good implementation that are cheaper by themselves so you can match your own choice of amp to go with it. Which DAC, I don't know, I don't have enough experience with DACs since I'm really just getting started in my DAC journey only having had the DACMagic, Bifrost, and now Gungnir. I would say the BHA-1 clearly outclasses the amp section of the Invicta as do many other amps. For it's footprint, I am amazed at what the Invicta can do, but it's not perfect if you have the room for separates. If you had a speaker friend interested in getting into headphone audio and wanted to start with an all in one, and had a bit of a budget, look no further. The DAC could even replace the one in his/her speaker rig depending on their preference. As I said in my notes for RMAF, the Invicta is the ultimate bed-side rig since it would easily fit on a nightstand with room to spare for all the normal necessities. With tunes on a sdcard you have no moving parts vibrating or whirring to bother your partner so long as you have well isolating headphones or IEMs.

Makes me wonder if Grado will ever retire the PS1000 and re release the PS-1 or some sort of variant of it. Since enough people on these boards hate the PS1000 and the PS500's were very well received who knows maybe it will one day finally happen. Maybe they'll even wise up and not ship it to customers in a cheap looking cardboard pizza box? Nahhh, the pizza box thing is guaranteed to continue. It wouldn't be a Grado if it didn't ship out in a cheap looking pizza box.

Yeah, I figured that was your angle on it. It's genuinely a cool piece of kit, something I think you would enjoy messing with all it's neat features. As you say, though, there are DACs out there with the potential to equal or better at lower prices as long as you have the real estate. One thing that strikes me as odd though, is how can you update software and turn a SE amp into a balanced one?? I haven't really read up on the changes, but from what I understand it's entirely software. The M51 also peaked my interest, but I think the new Schiit will be similarly priced and offer similar performance with slightly different voicing. Also the promise of 'never been done before' tech is always a good way to hook me into waiting around a bit, heh. The praise of the PWD is almost unanimous over there, but I've heard some mixed reviews among another circle I know so I'm not sure I want to go that route. Also PWD is a bit out of what I feel comfortable spending on a DAC at the moment anyway, and then there's the updates you mentioned. The scaled back PS Audio DAC, the Nuwave, was a let down, so my hopes for the PWD are lessened (perhaps unfairly) because of that.

Btw, did you see that link to that Japanese rock group, Analog Paper in the shoutbox? The music is pretty good, and the singer is more than just a studio singer. Has good intonation and control. Link Link I thought it was an interesting coincidence, perhaps a relation there. I like how the Analog Squared Paper amps are fairly traditional, but also unique in a way that seems normal. Hard to put my finger on it. Prices seem more than reasonable for virtually custom made gear too. Would be nice to see what he could do with a stationary dedicated headphone amp. The portable tube amp is really cool, especially with the leather case, but not something I would imagine to be popular.

 

I'm curious what the opinions on the PWD were that weren't so praiseworthy. It's been pretty nearly unanimously positive hereabouts and I have to figure somebody feels otherwise.

 

The update/upgrade route doesn't set me off so much. It's probably going to progress like a Windows OS does: After the initial release, one service pack, and then possibly a second a long time later, and eventually it will be superseded by a new model. And at that I don't know whether the upgrade cycle will matter much; if there's something genuinely wrong that a board update will fix, the manufacturer should be doing that under warranty.

 

The Nuwave has me a little curious, mostly because of the modded versions I see floating around.

 

I wish there were other DAC's at the level of the invicta that cost less, but I think the Invicta is running some special sauce digital filters courtesy of being designed by the Sabre engineers.  The circuit design and feature set is no less impressive too.  I do wish it had an end game USB input though, as a friend of mine prefers to use his AP2/purepower, but I haven't had a chance to compare in person so who knows.  I think I will try to tee up a mini meet once I get an HD800.  

 

I agree that the amp is a bonus, and for someone like me who finds $4000 a stretch it means you can forgo the expense of an amplifier for a while.  That said sometimes I do wonder If I will ever save up enough for the Invicta  Not that my current setup is really bothering me... but I guess its good to have long terms goals.

I had a dream last night which began with me auditioning a new electrostat from Brazzers & Watsons: It looked like someone had smashed up an SR007 MKI and then tied it together with random wiring, but it sounded amazing to dumb dream-me.  Every object in its stage or whatever seemed to teleport in with afterimages, like Sigma from Mega Man X, meaning I'd hear echoes of it that would move toward its actual position.  I was going to buy them, but then an old albino man with 4 very thin spider legs coming out of his back crab walked past me, sniffing everything like a rat.  I figured that was bad luck, so I didn't buy the stats.

 

Then the same company was introducing their line of "customs made universal":  The entry-level model was called the "Walk Street" and was blue with pictures of the Simpsons all over them.  The next one, the name of which I can't remember, was red with that globe from Pee Wee's on each ear, and the last one was black with Brian from Family guy on them.  I thought they all looked like ****. 

 

My mom was pregnant with a mandrake, so I couldn't trust her advice on Halloween decorations.

 

I wish I had been... Not the biggest fan of the HD700 for the price.

 

The Leben is not super tubey compared to some others amps, but it's def not a neutral tube tube amp like a LF.

 

What the Leben does is to put some glory into the HD800 with just the right type of coloration to make it sound more alive and enjoyable.

With a flat amp I get a feeling that I'm listening to sounds really carefully, and that is not something I like my music experience to be. Of course as you say about different strokes.

 

Here is one of the best discussions about headphone I ever seen. Tyll was spot on at 19:20 and 15:52 . Really captured what this hobby is all about  

Btw does anybody know what the juicy in-ears he is referring to at 16:35 are?

 

 

Driver8 strikes again. I'll just be over here loling my ass off XD

An awesome (read very very very sad) mash up of Up and Dead Island's trailer song.
Spoiler for UP from Pixar (Click to show)
I can't finish it, stuck around half way. ;_;

Taken from the Audio Journal Of A DigitalFreak

 

Sound Byte: Low Ball Loser Larry (LBLL)

 

Awhile back I posted some items up for sale on Head-Fi's FS boards. Generally speaking, my experience with the FS forums on here have been mostly positive and I've pretty much sold almost everything I've thrown up for grabs save a couple of items. In an attempt to try and move these items I decided to give another sites FS boards that's local to my city a try and see if maybe I could run across someone with some interest. I threw up a fresh set of postings and sat back and waited. The ignorance that would later ensue would be far from amusing to say the least. The following conversation is only loosely quoted and the name of the guilty has been changed in an attempt to spare his family any ridicule.

 

LBLL: I'm interested in the earbuds you have for sale. Are they still available and can you send me some more pics?

DF: Yeah they're still available and I have a couple of extra pics available (posts pics in PM)

LBLL: These things are brand new and never opened?

DF: ?!??! How can they never have been opened if the IEM's are sitting in a picture outside of an open box? They've been opened and have maybe 60 hrs of use on them.

LBLL: Well their not worth that much if their used. I'll give you 125 plus shipping.

DF: That's barely half of what I'm asking. Not interested.

LBLL: Listen bud, you're probably a nice enough kid so let me fill you in on something. Once earbuds have been used they pretty much lose most of their value so you're not going to get that price for them.

DF: Oh well, guess I'll just have to keep them then. Bye.

LBLL: Hey kid, don't be a stubborn ass@#$% and hear me out. These are just earbuds who the hell spends 200 plus dollars on earbuds? You'll never get that much for them.

DF: One, I'm no kid I'm in my 40s. Two, I'll thank you to watch your language and stop behaving like a dick. Three, they're called IEM's not earbuds. An four, I'm not interested in your offer so goodbye.

LBLL: Whoa, you're 40 and you really think you can sell a pair of fancy looking used earbuds for $235? You're either one big rich idiot who doesn't know what to do with his money or just an idiot.

DF: (face palm) You know something, I've been little more then mildly amused since this conversation started and now I'm far from amused. It's become obvious to me your mom must have either dropped you on your head a few times when you were a baby or you were born already brain damaged. If not any of the above then I'm really impressed because it takes a lot of work to be that ignorant.

LBLL: Listen here old man, unlike yours, my generation isn't fooled by fancy packaging. Earbuds are earbuds and fancy packaging doesn't make them worth that much money. You're either a scammer or that dumb.

DF: Unlike your generation my generation knows the difference between an IEM and an earbud. Unlike your generation my generation knows what the term hi-fi really means and we don't waste our time with 99 cent Apple earbuds or spend X amount of money on bright red plastic rapper cans. Unlike your generation my generation knows how to use the words their and they're in a sentence. Unlike your generation my generation knows better then to run around shooting foul mouthed superlatives at people. Oh I'm sorry, I used a big complicated sounding word in my last sentence. Google is your friend, feel free to enter superlative in the search engine and you're sure to get it's definition. While you're at it I suggest you also look up the words ignoramus, buffon, and simpleton. This conversation is at an end now get lost.

 

I've since taken down the posting and have decided to not use those FS boards again and have since blocked any kind of email from that site to my gmail account.

Edited by DigitalFreak - 1/21/13 at 8:14am