Thank you VERY much ASR. This was an awesome review.
Quote:
The OPA627/637AP paired with the T1 tend to sound a bit warm and maybe the bass control is a bit too loose. No idea so far what opamp could have the best synergy with the T1 ...
This wasnt an op amp review, this was a headphone review. The sound signature of an op amp in a buffered amp applies pretty evenly to all headphones IME. So everything (except the O2) is playing off of a level field.
As an effort of stating the strengths and weaknesses of each headphone mentioned relative to the others (detailed description/comparison of Omega 2 is excluded in condensed version, but taken as the definition of all that is awesome and correct, which is pretty accurate IMO) this review was outstanding, and the methods totally acceptable. The only way to do this fairly is to use the same op amp in the same amp for every headphone (or the same transistors in your transistor amp if you roll transistors, or same tube in same hybrid...). Certain changes to the system may improve the overall listening experience with certain headphones relative to the others, but thats not the point here. The point here is you say "I have a K701 but I dont like that they sound in the bass-less region" so you look down the chart and see that the T1 does everything the K701 does right but dosnt have the glaring faults where the K701 does. You buy the T1 and go on your merry way. Perhaps you have the T1 and think they have too much bass. Perhaps you dont like anything about the K701 but like how the description of the HD800 sounds compared to them. Buy them with confidence.
Something that I think is kind of off with these reviews in general (no offense to Steve, just a comment on head-fi) is that people who have the experience and patience to write a review this through seldom compare what I would loosely call "middle tier" headphones to high end ones. Not to say "low end" is inherently bad, but you know. There is far too much "this is good because I say so" (sorry, the definition of awesome and correct comes from the Omega2, not your loud mouth) and not enough legitimate in depth comparison. It has been many years since there has been a reallllllly good in depth comparison of the current FOTM VS a true top tier headphone. There is initially some resistance, to a review like this but it ultimately results in the FOTM becoming FOLM (flavor of last month) after a few people provide agreeable descriptions. Despite what we may LIKE to hear, most people with functional hearing can tear a headphone apart and say "this has more this, that has more that".
The rotation of FOTMs is actually quite good for the community & website as a whole. It encourages increased user participation and by encouraging people to listen for themselves discourages the power shills have to hock their wares.
I guess the death of the comparative review is probably a result of the fact that the majority of the people who used to write reviews like this have stopped frequenting this site, or have settled on their systems and stopped rolling FOTMs like mad, and the torch was not passed to enough people to keep the tradition alive.