Tassie Devil
100+ Head-Fier
These arrived the other day and I listened to a variety of music ex the Sooloos system (FLAC FILES) fed into a modded Benchmark DAC1. The verdict was yes, better than the Jays and Etymotic E4s. Very comfortable and quite sensitive. All types of classical music sounded fine & jazz/pop was exceptionally good. But maybe because of impedence matching, they sounded best via the Cowan although the heavier than usual cabling was more challenging.
Fed from the Vaughan DAC the AQ was similar to that via the Benchmark BUT put on the Sennhjeiser HS800 and a different and more airy sound emerged. Not a fair comparison I know as the more expensive HD800-s were fed a balanced signal from the Blockhead HeadRoom amp but it was an interesting exercise.
Maybe they will improve when broken in more and they could represent a peak in ear speaker transducer at the $400-$500 price level. But for non headphone listening, particularly with the portables, the Cardas will take precedence over others in he cupboard.
Recommended,
Fed from the Vaughan DAC the AQ was similar to that via the Benchmark BUT put on the Sennhjeiser HS800 and a different and more airy sound emerged. Not a fair comparison I know as the more expensive HD800-s were fed a balanced signal from the Blockhead HeadRoom amp but it was an interesting exercise.
Maybe they will improve when broken in more and they could represent a peak in ear speaker transducer at the $400-$500 price level. But for non headphone listening, particularly with the portables, the Cardas will take precedence over others in he cupboard.
Recommended,