APEX PINNACLE OR TWO OF THESE : ECBA & DNA STRATUS/ CAVALLI LG/ RSA DARK STAR - Page 6  

What I'd love to do is get a Pinnacle and a pair of Unity Audio active speakers, which use an ELAC tweeter and woofers and E.A.R designed amps internally. I'm not sure my wife would appreciate my spending the cost of our car on this though!

Quote:

Originally Posted by DarknightDK 

So the question is, if I've got money to blow, should I just go for a stax setup or invest upwards for amps driving dynamic cans? Which would be closer to the end game rig?

Wouldn't have a pre-amp for your speaker rig.  That the beauty of the Pinnacle, BA, GS-X, B22 and others that are both great head-amps and pre-amps.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DarknightDK 

Wait a minute. At the cost of a pinnacle, wouldn't a TOTL stax setup (eg. 009 and BHSE) best any dynamic setup available? This is the believe I have read from the numerous threads here.
So the question is, if I've got money to blow, should I just go for a stax setup or invest upwards for amps driving dynamic cans? Which would be closer to the end game rig?

There is always room for dynamics :)  

Its worth noting that I was able to order my Pinnacle and get it in my hands in a remarkably short amount of time.

I actually will be running both dynamics and electrostats down the road, because why not.  

For me though, I have the option of buying a (comparatively) cheap pair of top flight dynamic headphones while I save up for really nice speakers to go with my pinnacle preamp.  

My other choice would have been buying a different high end preamp and then having nothing functional while saving again for the speakers.  (So in the interim I have world class dynamic headphone bliss w/ the pinnacle) Thats an easy choice!

A little late in the thread, I know, but the DNA Stratus in addition to the ECBA (which happens to be my personal DHT headamp array) pretty much covers everything.  The Stratus was designed around the K1000s.  It has a gain switch that allows for use with those and the HE6s to stunning effect.  1/4 the cost of the Pinnacle and you get into the magical realm of the 2A3 instead of another 300B/PX4 combo, which you already know.  Also, if you don't think the ECBA can handle the K1000s/LCD-3/HE-6s adequately, I suggest using a 6SL7 variant instead of any 6SN7 as a driver and you will be blown away...

to sr71panaorama: get your hands on a $700 pair of HE500s and try it with the pinnacle. It's at the top of my headphone list with the pinnacle... pure joy, like you are in the middle of a music environment with 3d images in all sorts of places with each one palpable and full of nice texture.

I would never believe these were sub $1000 phones with the pinnacle. I just listened to this combo for 2 hours last night with my DCC Beach Boys CD and my Japanese-pressed ABBA Gold and I didn't even want to listen to my speakers.

Quote:

Originally Posted by rgs9200m 

And a lot of people still don't trust Stereophile/TAS/online-magazine reviews because they think they are influenced by advertising dollars or have conspiracy theories about payoffs...

Stereophile is OK. I think one needs to read between the lines (unlike SixMoons which was indecipherable in the past and "everything is good" now) and certain reviewers are more forthright than others. I like JA a lot because he measures stuff, and then provides commentary including his subjective impressions (and even notes when things don't jive). I heard JA speak at THE S.H.O.W., and he was definitely more forthright about gear in such a smaller intimate audience. He critiques in nice humorous, yet pointed way. Must be that British thing. Overall I could correlate what I heard at T.H.E SHOW with Stereophile reviews, that is if they had reviewed the gear in question.

TAS on the other hand was full of ****. I did not care for most of what they said was good. We are talking about a negative correlation here! LOL. It became such a such joke that whenever I would see a "Robert Harley's Super Award" banner in front of the room, I would want to turn back. (Too much to see / hear, too little time.)

That being said, I'd rather hear from fellow HF'ers who've had experience with similar levels of equipment (especially those most capable in describing and delineating sonic qualities so others can calibrate to their own preferences accordingly - obviously not an easy task!) rather than read articles from either Stereophile or TAS. (Personally, I think the references to such publications are weaksauce on an Internet forum because one comes to Internet forums such as this precisely to obtain alternative "on the street" viewpoints - and also because Google is our friend, and TTVJ's site makes it clear it received a TAS award.)

Now I haven't heard the Pinnacle setup as a pre-amp (only heard the head out), but based on my own experience and adventures in HF, and extrapolating things, I strongly suspect that it's nothing short of awesome.

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Originally Posted by SHAHZADA123 

K01>HEV-90>HE-90

The Orpheus? It's unobtainium, my friend...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Maxvla 


Understandable. Thanks and accepted. I wish I could have been more forgiving in my description, but as stated in the linked thread, center focus is my absolute #1 criteria and it was completely void in that rig. After reading Purrin's comments previous to today, I wonder if it was the Meridian. I'd be glad to give the Pinnacle another try some time with a different source, something I didn't want to bother you with at the show. Perhaps the Esoteric that was connected to the Peak that I liked. That amp is still on my short list of possible upgrades along with GS-X and a few others.
I should have stated it was a rig I didn't like, not just the amp. Apologies from me are in order. I linked my comments, but my first post was not descriptive enough. I knew the full story, and, as is common, the person writing doesn't always fill in the gaps which lead others to jump to conclusions.
Chris

Obviously a problem somewhere in the chain, and not a problem with the amp itself.

Your first hint should have been when you plugged into a system with an extremely well reviewed, high-priced amp that you had every reason to expect would make any pair of headphones sound outstanding… and yet they sounded flat, tinny, and extremely center focused, kind of like a transistor radio (not your words, but to that effect).  Essentially, it sounded “broken” to you, or just not right.  Hmm… something wrong, maybe?  Sound check, one, two…

Nah, just keep listening, or listen as best you can without damaging your ears.  You didn’t want to “bother” Todd with a simple reality check question, like, “This isn’t sounding right to me.  Can you have a listen?”  Instead, you found the time to write a scathing “review” of the ”amp” (not the system, which now you admit the amp was indeed just a part of). 

Hope the headphone plug was fully inserted.  That sometimes makes a difference. 

You must have been busy though, what with 68 other systems to listen to and evaluate and then somehow instantly rank order in a neat little orderly universe of headphone audio that will be of great help to anyone who has enough time to read all of that.  It must be exhausting to know so much, and yet so little. 

To not want to “bother” Todd with even a simple question, but yet to have no problem with bothering him at every turn whenever you find another thread with the word “Pinnacle” in it.  For someone who seems to take great pride in paying attention to detail, how could it even be fathomable to think that you were hearing this product in a system that didn’t have some other “technical” issue that needed to be fixed? 

It makes me sick that Todd has apologized to you in this thread, although I guess that’s what he’s supposed to do.  Customer always right, et cetera.

Well heck one of those rig you talked about could be obtained right now...from me. lol

Minus the K-01 anyway. No 22k CDPs for me.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SHAHZADA123 

Nothing, my friend, is 'unobtainium' when the wallet's full