[headed]

May I suggest meanwhile you could pick an O2 amp combined with its DAC. It quite affordable. I just compared it with sennheisers latest offering - HDVD800. To me I really had to concentrate to hear any difference. I have had the o2odac around two years now. Happy listening since then

 

[Kiats]

On another note I returned the Lehman Linear SE thinking the Phonitor 2 was about 2 weeks from delivery, unfortunatly they are still on back order in the US, with no firm ship date So now I find myself amp less and feeling a little up the creek. I only have myself to blame, but this is for the birds. I've been using the 812 with my Sony ES reciever, but that's not cutting it. Oh well!

 
Sorry to hear that, macbob713! Too bad I don't fly across to LA any more. If not, I could pack in the Graham Slee Solo UL and drop it off with you, for you send back across when your Phonitor arrives. Since the arrival of the Bryston, I have packed away the Graham Slee and it's feeling a little neglected. 

 

[Sonido]

Vali didn't have too bad a noise problem with K812, but it doesn't really improve too much over straight into smartphone other than loudness you can achieve.

 

[Sonido]

That's a great description on what I hear withe the 812 and 800. They are both marvelous sets of cans, beautifully engineered and well made. The only difference I have with your summary is that to my ears, the 812's do great justice to vocals. But I could and do listen to both of them.

The silky smooth vocals is likely more about the Questyle and HD800 pairing. I mentioned I've never heard vocals like that before getting that amp on the HD800 thread. In fact, I found most of the time the HD800 has thin and spread out vocals due to its wide soundstage and sounds unnatural. The Questyle and HD800 is truly a synergistic pairing. The K812 by no means has bad vocals. It's quite excellent, but the Questyle and HD800 vocals are truly legendary to me.

I think I'm going to get a Bottlehead Mainline on the future and see how it is with both headphones.

 

[FritzS]

  So with classical, HD800 still reigns supreme because of its larger soundstage and because of that more open and slightly more refined sound. The imaging is also better, probably because of the larger space, or perhaps angled drivers. That said, I'm being nitpicky here more than anything else. I maintain the most audible difference between the two comes in genres like rock music. Whenever there are drums or bass, the K812 proves to sound better and livelier, whereas the vocals of the HD800 sound silkier and more natural to me. Still, overall these two headphones are sounding more similar than different to me.

 
I am one of the K812 'early birds'  here 

 
Now after many hours of hearing all my music CD/SACD's I wont miss my K812.
 
The K812 is one of the best headphones I ever heard. If I remember right - the very expansive Stax 009 family is not more better that their price suggest.

 

[macbob713]

Sorry to hear that, macbob713! Too bad I don't fly across to LA any more. If not, I could pack in the Graham Slee Solo UL and drop it off with you, for you send back across when your Phonitor arrives. Since the arrival of the Bryston, I have packed away the Graham Slee and it's feeling a little neglected. :tongue_smile:

That's a beautiful comment brother. There's still hope for humanity yet!

 

[macbob713]

Vali didn't have too bad a noise problem with K812, but it doesn't really improve too much over straight into smartphone other than loudness you can achieve.[/quote
Thanks for that Sonido, you just saved me $100!

 

[Kiats]

That's a beautiful comment brother. There's still hope for humanity yet!

 

[macbob713]

Phonitor 2 is here! The Marketing Manager was so nice he even met me here locally and we concluded the sale. So they are running now as I write this. Right out of the box they sound great. I'll post my impressions once I have had time to acquaint myself with all the features. For now, I'm running them straight with no adjustments.
SPL said they recieved a very large order and sold thru all but one. So as of 1 hour ago, they still have 1 if anyone here is interested. If so I suggest you order ASAP on the SPL USA website.

 

[M-13]

Phonitor 2 is here! The Marketing Manager was so nice he even met me here locally and we concluded the sale. So they are running now as I write this. Right out of the box they sound great. I'll post my impressions once I have had time to acquaint myself with all the features. For now, I'm running them straight with no adjustments.
SPL said they recieved a very large order and sold thru all but one. So as of 1 hour ago, they still have 1 if anyone here is interested. If so I suggest you order ASAP on the SPL USA website.

Wow! MAJOR CONGRATS Macbob! I feel so happy for you. Incredible news.

 

[Mambosenior]

Love happy endings (or beginnings). Great!

 

[macbob713]

Wow! MAJOR CONGRATS Macbob! I feel so happy for you. Incredible news.

Thanks bro. You can relate to the waiting game more so than most on this thread. Cool thing with this amp is the pitch black background. Music emerges and paints it's own colors. Makes the details in the music crystal clear, and although it's to early to really get my head around this thing, I have noticed that paired with the K812, the soundstage seems bigger and wider than I have heard it before. Anyway, you know what I'll be doing this weekend!

 

[MickeS]

Also got my Phonitor 2 this week. Paired with Benchmark dac2 hgc and K812

Compared to hpa2 (built in amp in dac2) it is more smooth, less harsh in the treble and very detailed.

However, beleive me or not - the pricey step for a dac2+phonitor2 vs the apogee duet2 with built in headphone amp doesnt make a world of difference to be honest.
Just a slightly different character, not necessarily better. For anyone considering k812 i recommend to give the duet2 some serious listening.
It's amazingly good!

 

[Kiats]

Phonitor 2 is here! The Marketing Manager was so nice he even met me here locally and we concluded the sale. So they are running now as I write this. Right out of the box they sound great. I'll post my impressions once I have had time to acquaint myself with all the features. For now, I'm running them straight with no adjustments.
SPL said they recieved a very large order and sold thru all but one. So as of 1 hour ago, they still have 1 if anyone here is interested. If so I suggest you order ASAP on the SPL USA website.

Woohoo!

 

[Sepp]

However, beleive me or not - the pricey step for a dac2+phonitor2 vs the apogee duet2 with built in headphone amp doesnt make a world of difference to be honest.
Just a slightly different character, not necessarily better. For anyone considering k812 i recommend to give the duet2 some serious listening.
It's amazingly good!

 
Interesting - can you describe a bit closer as to what you mean by not necessarily better?
I will be getting a K812 for a bargain, but can't spent that much money on an Amp/Dac right now (allthough the Phonitor interests me most) . So I have been looking at the Apogee for a while now.
Would you say it makes sense as a pure listening device (not interested in the recording features), or are there better solutions out there for that price?