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Originally Posted by Schrute /img/forum/go_quote.gif
I am using a HeadRoom Ultra Desktop and it sounds fantastic.
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I like this matchup, too.
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Originally Posted by Anouk /img/forum/go_quote.gif
. . . the phonitor was too much, too aggressive too artificla somehow... It is very difficult for me to explain.
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I don't know what your lineup was like, but this isn't close to my experience.
I've been living with the stock HD800 and the Phonitor since last night. Source, Digital Link III, stock. Interconnect, Silver Serpent II XLR balanced.
I normally use the computer as transport for lossless tracks so I first had it hooked up via USB. The result was thin, anemic. My other 'phones -- GS1K, HD650, K701 -- actually sounded just as good (or bad) if not better.
I then tried the coaxial, and all doubts disappeared. I played with the optical, too, but found it was very close but not as good.
Deep and powerful bass, dynamic even as it rolled off. Mids and highs, absolutely no doubts here.
With the limited comparisons I've done, the HD800 and HD650 synergize best. The HD650 sounds completely different. I actually reached up to touch the cups to make sure they were the 650s. No veil, no darkness. Sweet and clear. Articulate.
The GS1K synergizes well in its strong areas, but the deep bass tended toward flatulence, losing tightness and resilience. The K701 seems somehow anemic. But I've given the ones that sounded best more time, and so far, the K701 has had the least. The Senns, the most, and of these, the HD800.
[Update 7/30] I spent about an hour with the K701 this noon with coaxial input from the CDP and the SQ was excellent. In my earlier tests, I was on USB or optical from the computer. [end of update]
Initial impression -- the Phonitor and HD800, in this lineup, beats anything I've ever owned or listened to. I have to admit, though, that I haven't heard most of the high-end amps mentioned in this thread.
About the Phonitor's ability to simulate speaker direction -- from the literature, I couldn't really grasp what this meant. I've never been into speakers so my only orientation is 'phones. I set the crossfeed, speaker angle, and center level at random, somewhere in the "middle," and left them there. I'll be playing with these in the coming days.
But for now, my impression is that they make a huge difference in the listener's sense of location in not only the sound stage but the sound space. At one point this afternoon, I turned and looked over my right shoulder, thinking that I must've left the computer speakers on. They're actually in front of my desk, high up on the wall, but I looked anyway because I was hearing a piano from that direction, over my shoulder, outside my headphone sound space.
This is the first time I've experienced headphone sound from what seems to be beyond the space that 'phones usually cover.
So how does this all add up for the HD800 and the Phonitor? With classical music, the sense is of being in a live concert hall. The acoustics are remarkably real. The word that best fits is "alive."
For jazz, for piano, for acoustic guitar, for female voices -- again, alive.
If we're discussing great amps for the HD800, the Phonitor has to be in the mix. I believe it'll hold up extremely well against the best competition.
Sorry for the lack of coherence in this, but back to the USB -- I don't have decent cables so I'll need to get some to see if they make a difference.
I'm also using stock power cables. I ordered decent ones, they're still in transit. These, too, I think, will make a difference.
I haven't had time to do any other tests.
One last thing -- Brian Bromberg's "Cantaloupe Island," from Downright Upright, Artistry Music, 20 Feb 2007, is the toughest bass test I've found for my cans and equipment, and the HD800-Phonitor is the only pairing that does it justice.
