Thanks to everyone I met, chatted with, and who allowed me to listen to their rigs.
And thanks to decentLevi for hosting.
I haven't been to a headfi meet in many years - it was great to see a familiar scene, and to be greeted by my friend Peter, representing Team HeadAmp, right as I walked in
Overall, a fun meet, and it reminded me of the earlier days of headfi (~2003/2004). The force is strong with this hobby
I came in curious to hear the
Chord HUGO and MOJO, especially as compared to directly plugging into a MBP or iphone. I also wanted to conduct more extended listenings to the
Audeze, Stax, HiFiman, and HD800 gear and related equipment.
Thanks again to Peter/Headamp and Jazzfan for allowing this to happen.
Most of my high end listening experience is in combination with
HE90/HEV90 (orpheus); I owned this combo for many years (in fact, 2 of them at some point - and they sounded different); HD600/650 with various balanced amps, and my etymotic ER4's. I've owned various headphones, sources, and amps over the years but those phones represent the sound signature I tend to gravitate towards. For example, I used to own an AT L3000, but I didn't like their warm lower mid-forward presentation. I have also spent a good amount of time over the last 15 years recording and mixing records at various studios (www.airshiplaboratories.com is my current spot).
Having said all this, which, outside my own head, probably means very little to everyone else -
I will say the highlight of the meet to me was hearing the HE1000's. I usually like to conduct a rather fast round robin of headphone listening - about 30 seconds for each can, and then switching to another phone driven by the same electronics. This activates a sort of 'working memory' a non intellectual visceral feeling of the sound. What usually happens is I will naturally gravitate to a certain sound signature from the lot -- or phones with a similar one. This usually represents the way in which I like the sound reproduced. It's usually based on the headphones present, but sometimes I'll reject all of them - but usually my ears work with whats available and calibrates to that for its 'working memory'.
Having done this with HE1K, Stax 009, Stax SR-007 (OII MK2), Audeze LCD-3 -- I immediately gravitated towards the HE1K's. Going to any other phone from those emphasized weaknesses in those phones to me.
Compared to the HE1K on the Headamp Rig:
009: Clean and Clear, but with a sort of disjointed representation between the bottom, middle, and top end. It's very revealing, and while this analytical nature let me hear into the music and textural representation on a macro and micro level very well, I could also seemingly hear a disjointedness between the big 3 frequency ranges as humans we are most sensitive to. I find good headphones allow us to get out of the way of the music, and not pick it apart .. unless we want to. The stax seemed to invite this level of discernment, and I didn't feel as 'wowed' by the immediate impact and feel of the sound -- as compared to the HE1K especially. Lastly, concerning this comparison, I felt the Stax had the 'usual' Electrostatic bass - which is clean and fast and not necessarily very weighted or impactful. This was noticeable in comparison to the HE which had more of a dynamic headphone representation - or at least split the difference a bit, in that it delivered more solid and tactile low-end.
Compared to the SR-007:
I like this headphone. It's not as extended as the 009, or as detailed, but it has a more contiguous presentation which pulls you into the music, and not the analysis, more to me. It also tries to combat some of the 'intellectual bass' of many electrostats with a more meaty reproduction. It's definitely the stat with the best and most fun bass - and its not necessarily all that dishonest about how it sounds from a reference perspective... I have mixed recordings with the OII's before, and other engineers I know use them as well. They can translate pretty well once you are familiar with how they in turn translate your raw audio.
Compared to the LCD-3 (with Fazor elements/foam):
To me I've always wanted to like this headphone, and its the phone I hear most casually recommended to me. Unfortunately its the one I usually can't stand the quickest. Compared especially to the HE1K, I noticed a hollowness in the upper midrange, a sound I usually try to EQ out of my own recordings. This exists somewhere between 950hz and 2300khz. The positive side is that it tends to convey more energy in this band, which is the area, as humans we are extremely sensitive to. But its just not right to me. Hihats, snare decays, certain aspects of vocals.. they sounded hollow, or exaggerated in a way in this range. Some people may be able to alter this sound with tubes, and certain source material may not convey this - classical, EDM. But rock and pop definitely had these elements in excess to my ears.
HE1K themselves:
These headphones are very comfortable and remind me of the Orpheus the most - both in terms of their velvety earpads, and relaxing feeling on the head. They are BIG headphones, and somebody else had questions as to weather it would sit on his head properly. Fortunately at the lowest setting, he didn't have issues. They don't sit loose, but they do have a lightness to them. In terms of sound, they do seem to have a somewhat U shaped signature like Senn 600/650's, and many other popular headphones. There are many reasons headphones with a bit of this sound good, but I tend to mix this way a bit myself. That doesn't mean the midrange is necessarily recessed at all, frequency and amplitude are different things - albeit very related (more than just an X/Y access relationship, human psychoacoustic perception will also make certain frequencies seem louder). These headphones sparkle on top, with a brilliant and extended treble. Like the 009, but with a much more cohesive sound to me. The lower bass is more palpable and seems to envelope the listener. The entire U shaped reproduction cushions the sound around the midrange which is natural and very clear. As other reviewers have stated before, this is a headphone where you might find yourself pushing up the volume into much louder territories than normal and not necessarily even notice. This may be because of the low distortion/hollowness in the midrange as well as the low's and high's. We tend to pull the volume to a level that is most comfortable for us, and this usually means we stop once we start noticing some aspect of the recording that is peaking out at us and causing greater ear-based intermodulatory distortion - and hence discomfort. These headphones, similar to the 600/650's do this very well, in that, they seem to produce, FOR ME, a much less fatiguing overall presentation to my ear - and similar in feel (if not necessarily in overall sound), to the Orpheus. And this is the highest praise I can give to a headphone.
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The other item was the chord MOJO. I hate carrying around extra stuff with me, and the idea of my phone + IEM when on the road is very attractive. Couple this with the fact that I use IEM's in the studio, and the feeling of being able to work with a very similar sonic signature to what I am listening to casually is great. The chord could be added as one way to homogenize this by adding this dac to my playback system at the studio and well as on the road. So does it sound better to me? The answer with various combinations of headphones, and from plugging directly into the MBP (2011), directly into the MOJO, from the MOJO as a dac into another amp... was that in all cases the Mojo, especially in the midrange presence and clarity as well as transient speed and attack, was much much better. The Apple products seem to have a certain euphonic but darker and veiled lower midrange which makes casual listening nice but also buries retrieval and liveliness in this important frequency range. The mojo keeps the euphonic laid back sound signature, but brightens up the mid range and unveils that spectrum in a very pleasing way. Very nice! I didn't compare the Hugo to the Mojo directly, but they did similar things, with perhaps more bass weight on the Hugo and a slightly larger sound.
Neil
