[Whazzzup]

I’m waiting to pony up for a new dac before I buy susvara or its successor. My senn scales well enough till then.

 

[ThanatosVI]

I’m waiting to pony up for a new dac before I buy susvara or its successor. My senn scales well enough till then.

Tbh the HD800S has a very unique sound.
If this is the best you found for your taste it's unlikely that the new Hifiman will change anything about that

 

[Whazzzup]

Tbh the HD800S has a very unique sound.
If this is the best you found for your taste it's unlikely that the new Hifiman will change anything about that

best i found? well if not looking is finding...lol i haven't tried any new hp with my woo/ phoenix additions. i just figured until a new dac, ride the painted pony and let the spinning wheel spin....

 

[chesebert]

FWIW, I have active ATC SCM-19A towers on IsoAcoustics Gaia footers (~$4,000 used) plus a Totem Storm sub on an IsoAcoustics Aperta sub stand (~$800 used) running off a Wyred 4 Sound STP-SE preamp ($1,000 used) with cables to taste/match.

About $6,000 plus cables (using my existing front-end/DAC) and frankly I’d put it up against systems costing loads more (and reviewers agree). And the only thing I’d consider changing is adding another Storm sub for perfect stereo on the low end…

Point being, you could get near-reference grade even buying new for $12-15,000.

Since you have a great pre/source, ATC actives plus a sub or two as needed would work wonders. Just a thought.

Adding a vote for using music as a therapeutical tool, especially with movement/dance.

The brain chems triggered by music and light exercise together can really help, at least with light- to moderate depression in my experience (years as a clinical depressive, though everyone is different!).

Very sorry to hear of your challenges and battles, @Ciggavelli . It takes guts and trust to share what you have, kudos.

I am a believer in the importance of moderation (to your points about alcohol)- but totally understand that addiction short-circuits this notion completely.

Do you mind sharing a picture of the internals of CFA3 and headspace? I am a bit skeptical that another class AB amp can have noticeably better blacks.

 

[Whazzzup]

i dunno wa33 elite looks to me like the biggest fattest landing strip for just about anything and anyone. i couldn't leave don't care about no solid state s--t. lol

 

[Ciggavelli]

Interesting since I’m debating on upgrading my WA33 to a WA33 EE or the AIC-10.

How’s the Head space amp compare to the WA33 EE?

I mostly listen with my Sus to metal, edm, hiphop.

It's very good. I need to A/B against the WA33 EE JPS more, but the Head Space is blacker with better bass, the WA33 has better 3D sound. The Head Space sounds better with the TCs than the Sus, but I need more experimentation still. I'll try both out for the next week

 

[Ciggavelli]

The Headspace sounds better with rap than it does metal, but it's still very good with metal. I need to do more testing.

 

[Ciggavelli]

I was listening to some old Kyuss, stoned and drunk. The Headspace is a good amp. I'm probably gonna buy as a transition amp, until I get something better. But what occurred to me, was as audiophiles, we really only care about small changes. Like is this Headspace really that much different than the WA33 EE JPS? I mean it is, to a degree, but both play music really well. If music is the answer, a lot will do. If you want the best way to do it, it's a whole science. Science is based on only one genre though, and there are an infinite amount of genres to study. I don't know what the average person thinks about music. Is music the answer? Is music important? I think it is, but I'm not sure why.

Then I think about the term "musicality." It's a whole different way of thinking about audio. It's easy to assess bass, mids and treble. It can be done with a machine. But, musicality is a whole different ballgame. What does musicality really mean? I'm into interactions, so it's an interaction between the listener and the music. But that leads to even more questions. The listener could be anybody, right? The music stays the same, but the listener changes. When looking at reviews, this seems to imply that we should really be looking at the reviewer first. How the interpret music. The things they like. Their frame of mind. Their favorite genres. Their listening ability. Their familiarity with sound. Their everything.

So, that brings me to auditioning equipment. People often say, only use your own ears and audition as much as possible. If it was easy to audition, this is clearly the best answer. However, it's not easy to audition headphone equipment, give how small the community is, in comparison to speakers. Also, who has the time, and frame of mind, to listen to everything? It's just not possible, so we lean on reviews. I think the metacritic way of doing things might be the answer. We can't just rely on one reviewer. He or she could be anybody, with any past history, with any addiction, with any preferred genres. But a collection of reviews gives us a good way of evaluating. If we could collect all the reviews for a pair of headphones or equipment, we can get a good idea of what is likely the "best" for the most amount of people. Individual differences of course come into play, but on the average we could more objectively determine what was best. It could even go further and we could use AI to assess forum discourse.

I say all of that, to say: we need a metacritic like website for head-fi.

 

[genefruit]

I say all of that, to say: we need a metacritic like website for head-fi.

I did something like this for my own use with a limited population. I took the scores from the "GIANT headphone tier list" - and scored the headphones I've also owned or listened to for an extended period. I then calculated correlation scores with each of the three reviewers to assess which of them I'm most in alignment with. A simple exercise of curiosity but I suppose I've taken note of their latest reviews due to it.

 

[chesebert]

I did something like this for my own use with a limited population. I took the scores from the "GIANT headphone tier list" - and scored the headphones I've also owned or listened to for an extended period. I then calculated correlation scores with each of the three reviewers to assess which of them I'm most in alignment with. A simple exercise of curiosity but I suppose I've taken note of their latest reviews due to it.

Good idea in theory. But in practice because influencer reviewers are affected by their own and employer’s financial interests in addition to their sound preference, their ranking will never align with you, even if you both share the same sound/music preference. Sometime you will wonder What were they smoking.

 

[psy472]

There is the issue of “grass is always greener on the other side” effect. So having a variety of amps is better than just having “the best”.

 

[genefruit]

Good idea in theory. But in practice because influencer reviewers are affected by their own and employer’s financial interests in addition to their sound preference, their ranking will never align with you, even if you both share the same sound/music preference. Sometime you will wonder What were they smoking.

The data/statistics is the first step. The why and how it applies to you is the next step. I wasn’t blindly advocating the applying the results nor was any one reviewer a 1.0 correlation to my scores.

 

[Ciggavelli]

So my girl dropped me, saying I was too anxious. She couldn't get over the anxiety attack, which was related to alcohol withdrawal. If she knew it was alcohol withdrawal she woulda dumped me too. I was screwed either way. Alcohol got me the girl, and then alcohol made me lose the girl. It was a lose lose situation.

Listening to Lana del Rey, being sad, while I drink these Miller Lites.

I think I'm gonna sell my Valks too. The bass issue, is just an issue. I'm gonna focus on maximizing the TCs and Sus. Then ribbons for the resolution. Maybe the new Hifiman $8k will replace the Sus...we'll see.

But things aren't great with me. Thankfully there is music for sad times and breakups. I don't know what I'd do without music. I went on this date with this Nigerian girl today. I played her my music. Xasthur and Esoteric. She said it was very negative. I then played Mannequin Pu$$Y and she liked it a little more. She suggested I listen to Christian music. . That sh!t will never happen

I'm gonna go to intensive outpatient rehab starting Thursday, if I can stay sober until then. I need it. Life is just not good at the moment, but I'm a negative person, so I take it in stride

 

[psy472]

So my girl dropped me, saying I was too anxious. She couldn't get over the anxiety attack, which was related to alcohol withdrawal. If she knew it was alcohol withdrawal she woulda dumped me too. I was screwed either way. Alcohol got me the girl, and then alcohol made me lose the girl. It was a lose lose situation.

Listening to Lana del Rey, being sad, while I drink these Miller Lites.

I think I'm gonna sell my Valks too. The bass issue, is just an issue. I'm gonna focus on maximizing the TCs and Sus. Then ribbons for the resolution. Maybe the new Hifiman $8k will replace the Sus...we'll see.

But things aren't great with me. Thankfully there is music for sad times and breakups. I don't know what I'd do without music. I went on this date with this Nigerian girl today. I played her my music. Xasthur and Esoteric. She said it was very negative. I then played Mannequin Pu$$Y and she liked it a little more. She suggested I listen to Christian music. . That sh!t will never happen

I'm gonna go to intensive outpatient rehab starting Thursday, if I can stay sober until then. I need it. Life is just not good at the moment, but I'm a negative person, so I take it in stride

Hang in there.

 

[Roasty]

ah.. sorry to hear, dude..
have u tried finding someone who shares your tastes in music?