The diary entries of a little girl who is now 30! ~ Part 2 - Page 339

I'm wondering, for those that have heard/used/owned the MDR-7550, where can I go from there for similar signature and a bit more isolation than that.

That's a tough one lol. I've been asked this question before and really not sure what would be the same sound in another universal or Custom :). Maybe consider Westone 4 but they won't be the same per se. Both are on the neutral side though.
 

"That's not possible! She was sealed into the seventh obelisk, I was there at the prayer meeting."

I friggin love Doctor Who.

 

The friend who let me borrow his Tera Player also sent his ToGo 334 along, and I thought I'd share what I wrote to him today:

 

"Damn these are great IEMs! The refinement and smoothness in their midrange is stunning and even surpasses my UERM. And the best thing is, it doesn't come at the cost of detail, nothing gets smeared or glossed over, they just have an unoffensive and effortless way of presenting music in minute detail without sounding analytical in the least. It's been a while that I've had that LCD2 rev2 loaner I told you about, but from memory these two bear more than a passing resemblence to each other.

That said, like with the LCD2s, I personally would want a smidgen more treble presence and air from the 334s to fit my taste, and while the Tera Player can't work wonders on their highs, it takes the bass down by just the right amount to tilt their overall sound signature towards a better balance in my book.

So that's my interim result so far, one 'flawed' player and two IEMs that benefit greatly from said 'flaw' ;-) Things aren't always black and white, and your loaners are a prime example for that."

Edited by james444 - 1/26/13 at 3:05pm

 

What DAC are you using now?  

 

 

What input are you using into the M51, and are you outputting via xlr? Which dac are you referring to that has the treble issue?

 

The NAD didn't really change with burn in. It sounded excellent out of the box and was more than a subtle improvement over the Gungnir. I do find quite a difference in sound between usb and optical, more striking than other dacs I've owned. Some people swear by hdmi, but I've yet to try that. My MBP has thunderbolt but I don't like the notion of having a thunderbolt to hdmi adapter in the chain.

 

Obviously the degree of difference between dacs will vary based on what you've upgraded from. Perhaps your path meant that the jump in quality between components was not as large as mine. Even if that were the case for me as well, the end result (i.e. an HD800 chain with little to fault) would have justified it.

Edited by olor1n - 1/26/13 at 4:38pm

PC -> Aqox USB Power Supply -> Stello U3 -coaxial-> M51, outputting via XLR to my Balancing Act.  I upgraded from the same configuration with a W4S DAC-2, whose treble sounded off to me. 

Forget that the leap isn't as big as anticipated. Does that chain now present, or get you closer to, what you wanted to hear from the HD800? Have you tried going straight into the M51 inputs (sans the converter)? I don't know about the effect of these converters but I've read elsewhere that some have preferred the sound without (not specifically in regards to the Stello).

Yeah, they do sound just a bit more coherent since I added the M51.  

 

I haven't tried it sans Stello yet.  I might actually try AES/BSU out of the Stello first since I've read that NAD has a preference for that input.  I don't have any reason to believe the Stello has much of a sound signature; adding it to the DAC2 just made things a bit cleaner. 

 

Driver 8, did the Aqvox USB power supply make a noticeable difference in your audio chain? I'm using my Stello U3 directly from the computer using a twin USB cable. I wonder if isolating dirty computer noise and feeding clean 5V would really make an improvement.

Yeah, I think so. There are cheaper ways to do what the Aqvox does that you may want to look into, though. 

Hey guys, how do closed back woodies sound compared to open phones in terms of sound stage? was thinking ath-w1000x. Really easy on the eyes.

So nad m51 was more coherent than W4S dac2? I'm using AudioGD's top sabre dac at the moment, I want to try out the m51. I could probably order it next week but I want to sell my He6 first so I don't eat into my savings. I also want to try wireworlds top usb cable and bel canto's new usb transport. I feel like getting the m51 first though in case they decide to change the aussie rrp.

Am I alone in thinking that the new Harley Quinn figurine that Square Enix is releasing looks way to....well demented industrial gangland goth?

Don't get me wrong it looks like a very nice detailed figurine but come on that's not the Harley I grew up with in the comics. The Arkham Asylum video game Harley was rather neat but this one gives me mixed feelings.

Edited by DigitalFreak - 1/26/13 at 8:37pm

^Reminds me somewhat of Cassie Hack from the Hack/Slash comics. I prefer the old Harley.