[JamieMcC]

Be honest, you didn't really read my post, did you?

 
Yes sorry I was reading to fast and a little mixed up in to whom I was replying to. certainly didn't mean to cause any offence.
 
You might find this interesting from a confirmed O2 officionardo
 
http://diy.koenigs.dk/2014/03/02/bottlehead-crack-and-speedball-review/

 

[JamieMcC]

   
I certainly wouldn't baulk at that.

 
Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

 

[JamieMcC]

I have the O2 / odac and benchmark dac 1 USB. They couldn't be anymore different in terms of build / topology / components used yet they sound IDENTICAL with all my headphones. It's not only in my opinion, nobody has yet heard a difference in a volume matched double blind test. How do you explain this? Maybe it's because the science doesn't lie or have any bias.

Perhaps its because they are both very good amps.  
 
How did you get on with the nad viso hp50 you had?
 

 

[James-uk]

Perhaps its because they are both very good amps.  

How did you get on with the nad viso hp50 you had?

 

Not very well. I found the sound to be a bit bass heavy and they had such a good seal they created a bit of a vacuum which have me discomfort on my left ear. They are also the most awkward looking headphones I've used so I couldn't go outside with them on without people just pointing and laughing. I sold them and got the momentums which lasted about a month, a friend loved them so I sold them to him and got the ie800s . The ie800s are amazing for and iem. I still prefer the hd650/600 and hd800 for 'critical' listening bit the ie800s are great for long walks and travel purposes.

 

[JamieMcC]

Not very well. I found the sound to be a bit bass heavy and they had such a good seal they created a bit of a vacuum which have me discomfort on my left ear. They are also the most awkward looking headphones I've used so I couldn't go outside with them on without people just pointing and laughing. I sold them and got the momentums which lasted about a month, a friend loved them so I sold them to him and got the ie800s . The ie800s are amazing for and iem. I still prefer the hd650/600 and hd800 for 'critical' listening bit the ie800s are great for long walks and travel purposes.

 
Thanks James that interesting to know, they where recommended to me the other day and had some favourable reviews the thing that ruled them out for me was their impedance, it was to low to suit both of my amps. I have been looking for some closed back cans that will also work well with both my Sex amp which is relatively easy and also something that would work ok out of the Crack which means high impedance which all of a sudden rules out a good majority of the normal closed back candidates.
 
I will most probably try the Beyer 770 250ohm version as a stop gap as they look reasonably priced.  The only other closed can I have had was the ATHW1000X which was a nice sounding set of phones but I just couldn't get on with the wing headband system or the shockingly bad ear pads that just felt plain awful to the touch.

 

[TMRaven]

There's nothing out there supporting the fact that the O2 is a 'wire with gain' and the 'highest possibility in fidelity' other than one guy's marketing-driven blog on his website. Sure, it has measurements that confirm it to be completely flat in frequency response, with distortion and noise-floor well below the human threshold of hearing, but so does nearly every other amp on the market.  Guess what?  All those different implementations sound slightly different as well.  Take the Magni vs O2, both measure perfectly flat and have stupidly low distortion, crosstalk and noise floors, yet both sound very slightly different (although not different enough considering they're both very cheap amplifiers.)   There's even been level-matched double blind tests where people could point out O2 vs Magni characteristics as well.
 
Again, the O2 is a great amp for its price, but shallowly assuming it's the end-all be-all in transparency while everything else is coloration is just plain wrong, and either a result of brain-washing or having a very narrow mind-set.  Every different implementation of amplification has its own unique signature, and the differences are very subtle, and the O2 is no different, especially in the HD650's case, which has long been known to scale with amplification extremely well.  Is there crap in the higher price levels?  Sure there is, but there's also good amps out there built from people who know what the hell they're doing as well.  That's all for me on that matter, talking with nwav-zealots never gets anywhere quick, and always leads to long-drawn out series of being off topic.

 

[pp312]

 

   
I certainly wouldn't baulk at that.

 
Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

 
Sorry, come again?
 
 

 

[JamieMcC]

 lol

 

[garunamodi]

  There's nothing out there supporting the fact that the O2 is a 'wire with gain' and the 'highest possibility in fidelity' other than one guy's marketing-driven blog on his website. Sure, it has measurements that confirm it to be completely flat in frequency response, with distortion and noise-floor well below the human threshold of hearing, but so does nearly every other amp on the market.  Guess what?  All those different implementations sound slightly different as well.  Take the Magni vs O2, both measure perfectly flat and have stupidly low distortion, crosstalk and noise floors, yet both sound very slightly different (although not different enough considering they're both very cheap amplifiers.)   There's even been level-matched double blind tests where people could point out O2 vs Magni characteristics as well.
 
Again, the O2 is a great amp for its price, but shallowly assuming it's the end-all be-all in transparency while everything else is coloration is just plain wrong, and either a result of brain-washing or having a very narrow mind-set.  Every different implementation of amplification has its own unique signature, and the differences are very subtle, and the O2 is no different, especially in the HD650's case, which has long been known to scale with amplification extremely well.  Is there crap in the higher price levels?  Sure there is, but there's also good amps out there built from people who know what the hell they're doing as well.  That's all for me on that matter, talking with nwav-zealots never gets anywhere quick, and always leads to long-drawn out series of being off topic.

Wrong, it's science-driven.
 
Most amps just quote their opamp's specs, not their own.
 
They can do because some amps have a lot worse distortion.
 
I'd be pretty happy if you could point me to this DBT rather than just saying it exists.
 
Correct, it's more than possible for others to be transparent. But the O2 is measurably transparent to the human ears. The whole scaling argument is bull, what matters, and what has always mattered, is how clean a signal the hp gets.
 
All that said, some colouration, like even-order harmonic distortion and a slightly rolled off treble can be nice.

 

[mcandmar]

Its amazing how none of these "measurements" can explain why the O2 and HD650 sounds so flat and lifeless. Music in real life doesn't sound that way..

 

[madwolfa]

  Its amazing how none of these "measurements" can explain why the O2 and HD650 sounds so flat and lifeless. Music in real life doesn't sound that way..

 
Because this is how you expect the cheap amp should sound.

 

[Anavel0]

At the end of the day I just want to enjoy my music. So, as long as you enjoy the sound of whatever amp you prefer then I think that's all that really matters.

TLR Quit being a bunch of buttheads and enjoy the music.

 

[madwolfa]

At the end of the day I just want to enjoy my music. So, as long as you enjoy the sound of whatever amp you prefer then I think that's all that really matters.

TLR Quit being a bunch of buttheads and enjoy the music.

 
Correct.

 

[castleofargh]

I have the O2 / odac and benchmark dac 1 USB. They couldn't be anymore different in terms of build / topology / components used yet they sound IDENTICAL with all my headphones. It's not only in my opinion, nobody has yet heard a difference in a volume matched double blind test. How do you explain this? Maybe it's because the science doesn't lie or have any bias.

I've almost bought a DAC1 too, just to be sure once and for all that transparent was transparent however good it is, and be done with the idea of endless upgrade. thanks for the feedback, I still might have to do it one day because nothing beats personal experience when it comes to metaphysical doubts like this, but thanks to you I might resist a little longer ^_^.
 

  There's nothing out there supporting the fact that the O2 is a 'wire with gain' and the 'highest possibility in fidelity' other than one guy's marketing-driven blog on his website.

lol, best post ever. to accuse nwavguy of being marketing driven, when he gave away the plans for the O2 not even asking to get his name on the box, and didn't make 1$ on that amp despite the months of work he spent to create it and how easy it would have been for him to make money from it.
ok so my guess is that one day he said something negative about one product, you had that product and were madly in love with it. and since then you just hate his guts because your audiophile ego was hurt.
that's ok, we all have those kind of unjustified hatred, but plz try at least to make some sense. we're surrounded by marketing, lobbyists, people bought with a free sample to make a nice review, on a sponsored forum, and the one guy you blame of marketing driven whatever is the only one known for never getting into that business. it's so ludicrous that it's fun.

 

[Byronb]

Please take these OT ramblings to another thread.