[genefruit]

When your Caldera doesn't resolve to Susvara levels but Susvara doens't resolve to your Shang Sr. levels...what do you keep. Keeping two

 

[goldwerger]

When your Caldera doesn't resolve to Susvara levels but Susvara doens't resolve to your Shang Sr. levels...what do you keep. Keeping two

 

[AudioDuck]

Haha…bringing 2ch in the mix as well and It gets really tough on wallet. I guess I will be in both camp. I mean I can’t let go of my ZMFs and Sonnet DAC… they just work for me and so do XE6 and Singularity with Walkman.

A lot of truth in the above.

 

[Roasty]

@warrenpchi keeps singing the praise of MSB dacs. I must say I'm afraid to try them exactly for the reason you mention Your feedback seems very consistent with what I've been hearing!! I'll have to walk into a local dealer one day and have a real listen.

please do! that dac is one I would consider truly end game. I'd take one in a heartbeat if money was not an issue. unfortunately reality kicks in and this is one game I can't participate in LOL.

It was excellent- and the Walker Mod version is supposed to be far better.

Thanks man! that's reassuring. communications with Tim/Axiom leave a bit to be desired though.. I assume he is quite busy and can't reply emails as often as he would like, but the process of ordering one specced for my gear is being drawn out a bit longer than I expected.

 

[Zachik]

@goldwerger my good friend, I will join the others thanking you from the bottom of my heart for the initiative, creating this new thread.

Since you brought up synergy... I will dedicate my first post here to a different type of synergy. The synergy between the original Watercooler thread and this new one:
Watercooler is mostly focused on mobile or portable audio.
This new thread is going to focus on headphones and desktop setups.
Here is my synergy between the 2 worlds:

Full sized headphones, driven by a DAP!!!
Photo taken last night, showing 2 of my latest toys: AWKG and N3Ultra. Good times

 

[warrenpchi]

I’ll start. My gripe is why does the ZMF Aegis have to be so dang heavy. I’m too weak to carry that thing upstairs so I can’t buy it.

Clearly, what you need to do is host a meet, so that a bunch of HFers can come and help!

The HE6 OG is few hours in.. so my impressions may change quite a bit. But I've realized it's mostly sub-bass (mid bass is very present) and in comparison to the Susvara.

When I had my pair I speaker tapped a 115 wpc vintage receiver.
I've still yet to hear another headphone slam with that much malicious intent.

I told you @goldwerger!

Just sharing what I am listening this morning: ZMF Caldera/ET Inferno off the SAEQ Hyperion Ge/Holo Spring 3 KTE, streaming Apple Music via Airplay.

YOU HAVE 768K MUSIC???

The MSB Select 2 dac really spoiled everything for me.

@warrenpchi keeps singing the praise of MSB dacs. I must say I'm afraid to try them exactly for the reason you mention Your feedback seems very consistent with what I've been hearing!! I'll have to walk into a local dealer one day and have a real listen.

@Roasty is right! And you're looking at it the wrong way. MSB Select will sit in your system for a loooonnnnggg time, and thus save you about 4-5 years worth of time and expenses messing about with other DACs. You'll come out ahead in the long run! Although, I have it on good authority that Linn Akurate stuff is pretty darned good too.

 

[goldwerger]

I told you @goldwerger!

yea yea.. I "hear" ya...
tomorrow I'll try some new combos. fresh ears, new tubes, who knows?

 

[BassicScience]

When your Caldera doesn't resolve to Susvara levels but Susvara doens't resolve to your Shang Sr. levels...what do you keep. Keeping two

Probably the two you reach for most often...?

 

[salwani8888]

Loving these big rig pics !

 

[AcousticMatt]

Recently got the Innuos ZENith (a CD ripper and music server) and the Holo May KTE and it's transformed my listening experience in my system.

Especially with the Feliks Envy. I've had that and the Woo WA23, have almost always preferred the WA23, but having the Innuos/May behind it has unexpectedly shifted it into "whoa - this sounds amazing" territory. Interestingly, the WA23 is helped too, but that has always spoke to me without having the source being so spot on. The problem for me was that the Envy always sounded lacking in the midrange and too tilted towards the bass. And it also sounded too wide in the soundstage - lacking cohesion that the WA23 has.

Now, the Envy sounds technically superior in a way that I assume it was designed to be, but in the emotional way I need to it to be to be moved and, apparently more dependent on the source than I thought!

Also have the Aegis in right now, so I've been using this same Innuos/May chain to listen through and compare it to the Envy and WA23 and it's been fun and fascinating how each engages me in different ways.

Glad to be part of this thread. Thanks @goldwerger

 

[maegnificant]

What a cool idea, this thread! It took a longer while for me to really fall in love with a headphone, much longer than with IEMs. But at the very latest after I visited the Sennheiser plant in Tullamore and tried out most of their models, I found that I really love the sound of the HD 600. And with the Neumann-NDH-30 I bought before that, which I use as my mixing and gaming headphone, that is also pretty cool for music, I accidentally owned another, kinda - Sennheiser, definitely Axel Grell designed headphone...
So I was really excited for the release of the Drop + Grell OAE1. Now sadly the release fell on a time where I just plainly cannot afford this headphone, but to me it is interesting how divise the feedback from the people is. The people who like it seem to agree that it does something new and special, that seperates it from other open headphones. And the people who don't like it find it to be a horrible experience. Most of those people habe only tried it at shows, so there are almost no real impressions out there. But I would be very interested in your guys' opinion here, if you have tried it or will do so AND if you own it once it releases and HATE it, please contact me. Would love to take over and try them out.

So- any new and interesting artists with decent- or better recording quality in the genres of rock, pop, folk, funk, jazz, or electronica that any of you all would like to share?

Since you love to buy your music as I do, I would like to recommend using bandcamp!
Artists/Labels get about 80% of the profits, even more on certain days called bandcamp fridays! Qobuz is also a good platform, if something is not on bandcamp, I mostly find it there.

Three recommendations from me:

Ghost-Note is the funkiest band alive imo. I saw them live once, there were like 20, people there, which was crazy to see as the drummer and the percussionist of this band alone share about 7 grammys together, but it happens to the best of us apparently. Nothing more to say about them, one of the best bands out there, I love their second album
more than this one, but this one is also great.


Not new artists at all, but a crazy super group has formed here to release a superb Jazz album.


Since you mentioned pop music, I saw Johan Lenox performing before Polyphia, a prog-metal band that is quite successful. He mixes chamber music with modern trap-pop music, which is something I have never heard before. There are also chamber versions of some of his albums available, but not on bandcamp, sounds like this:

A really unique artist I find, even if the lyrics are somewhat stuck in ongoing adolescence (which I can sympathize with) and the live perfomance was pretty great, too.

Honorable mention goes to WILLOW, who released her new EP Empathogen just recently, not on bandcamp though. A pop song in 7/4?! Yes, please!


(also click on my title)

 

[goldwerger]

Also have the Aegis in right now, so I've been using this same Innuos/May chain to listen through and compare it to the Envy and WA23 and it's been fun and fascinating how each engages me in different ways.

I'd be super interested in your impressions who they compare. I have the Aegis as well as you know. The Luna has always captivated me every time I demo-ed it. One of the most beautiful builds, but also makes everything sound good good, liquid smooth and rich (that's the spot in my rack the Nirvana occupies and my aforementioned struggle as I need to keep for my L5000 and AWKG). One day.. The Envy alwasy sounded good but never moved me. What you describe is really interesting and an indication this amp is much likely to be so much better than I thought, revealing a new weak link in the chain in the source. Would be so interesting to see how you compare them.

Ghost-Note is the funkiest band alive imo. Nothing more to say about them, one of the best bands out there, I love their second album
more than this one, but this one is also great.

That is a funky track!

 

[theveterans]

YOU HAVE 768K MUSIC???

Most likely he's using HQPlayer to oversample 44.1/48KHz or 88.2/96 to 768KHz with 9th order noise shaper

 

[DenverW]

So, today, sitting at my son's baseball game I started musing on making some major changes to my headphone or amp inventory. This thread couldn't have been more timely for me, thank you for making it!

I recently made some moves to the location of my system, so I'm not longer bound by needing longer cables. Headphones like the bravura (with a max cable length of 6 feet or so) are no longer unworkable for me. There have also been some amps in the classified section that are just creeping down into the end game but still doable range. So basically, nothing in my current inventory is safe, and there is nothing like talking out a decision with an awesome group of people like the watercoolers . I'm looking forward to it.

In the meantime, here is some headphone pron that I've posted of my current headphones in different threads. Lots of ZMF, but who doesn't like a sexy wood cup?

 

[AudioDuck]

@goldwerger my good friend, I will join the others thanking you from the bottom of my heart for the initiative, creating this new thread.

Here is my synergy between the 2 worlds:



Full sized headphones, driven by a DAP!!!
Photo taken last night, showing 2 of my latest toys: AWKG and N3Ultra. Good times

Great combo!

I enjoy my ZMFs with my Walkman WM-1A (high gain via Mr. Walkman’s custom firmware), too- that works surprisingly well!