Seasoned audio buff embraces Head-Fi opportunities as our club president reflects on the excellence in music reproduction offered by today's file technology and portable player systems.
Read on from John Morrison's comments in the A-VCOA club news:
[size=10pt]Members and Friends,[/size]
[size=10pt]After the meeting yesterday, I discovered that I had left some items in the office. I also wanted to hear the Etymotic In Ear Monitors (IEMs) that I missed yesterday. Mike was in the office and had not returned them to Etymotic, so I was able to listen to them on his desktop rig… which I ALSO missed yesterday! (It’s good to work in the same office with Mike!). After hearing the ER-4Ps I asked Mike to see what Etymotic would sell this ratty old pair of demo IEMs for. (Note derogatory language intended to make the case that they should sell them to me for a song!!) To say that I was blown away is maybe a little strong, but these things sound amazingly good and provide the ability to block out extraneous sound better than I have ever heard before. Waiting now on the bad news about the price. They are pretty expensive for an old retiree to contemplate. Especially since I now realize that I WILL be needing, at least, one of the really good headphone amps I heard yesterday… and today with Mike.[/size]
[size=10pt]So, after meeting with Mike, listening to his rig and on my way home, I had an epiphany… which I am about to share with the rest of you! For most of my life, really high quality playback of my music was something I felt was tied to my big, heavy and non-portable system. And, I was right… for then! Since the advent of high resolution digital, at least the source music has become much more portable. It’s easy for me to go somewhere carrying a major part of my music collection on my portable hard drive.[/size]
[size=10pt]No more grabbing a bag full of records or a hand full of CD’s that I had to select out of all the recordings in my collection to play at a friend’s house. Now I can come to your house and play my entire digital collection on your system as long as you have a few pieces of the right digital equipment. I will bring my hard drive.[/size]
[size=10pt]But, yesterday I heard music as good as any I have heard out of most full sized systems coming out of tiny boxes with flea watt outputs! The quality versus size argument was non-existent the with headphones and associated equipment we heard yesterday. Imagine a 24/96 DAC and headphone amp in a package the size of a pack of cigarettes that can produce sounds as good as your expensive speaker based systems without causing the neighbors (or your long suffering wife) to come unglued.[/size]
[size=10pt]Here comes the epiphany![/size]
[size=10pt]I no longer need a huge expensive system to listen to very high quality and truly enjoyable music. For a fraction of the cost of “the basement system” I can enjoy the same or very close to the same quality sound in my office… or in the living room, or even my bedroom. And, the best part is I have access to my complete library of digital music. While I am sure that I will continue to enjoy the benefits of the “big system”, especially when sharing it with friends, I will now be directing my efforts toward providing myself with a high quality desktop system that I can move from room to room. I don’t really think I need one so portable that I can take it in my car, but around the home or office, or even at a friend’s house I know I will be able to enjoy the sound of high quality music without being limited to “the basement”.[/size]
[size=10pt]If you haven’t given any thought yet as to how digital music can change the way you listen, it’s time for you to consider it! In order to help you with that, the attachments from the meeting yesterday will provide you with some insight on the building of a great sounding headphone system courtesy of member Horton McCurdy. His is a very lean presentation that will make you work to understand the message… but if you attended yesterday there will be no problem understanding. Pay attention to the Headphones Versus Speakers for some of the reasons they can’t replace speakers. Mike Lyles presentation is an outline of the information he presented… but here’s the good part. He has included links on just about every piece of technical information or equipment he researched. OK, so you missed the presentation! Start clicking on the links and by the time you are finished you too will be an expert. Think that headphone guys are not a tweak happy as we are? Guess again! There’s a description of the modifications done on the rebuilt tube headphone amp that Brent Lawson dragged all the way from Chattanooga to show us. Think tube power amps are sophisticated? Well, Brent’s headphone amp can be used either as a transformer coupled amp OR, an output transformer less (OTL) amp. I know of no tubed power amp that does that![/size]
[size=10pt]I encourage you to read through the information and bring yourself up to speed on the world of headphone listening. You may find that your listening habits (and costs) are about to change![/size]
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[size=10pt]So, here’s some good news! Next month’s raffle will include a terrific sounding headphone amp donated by our very own Andy and Kanda of AudioMercury. We also have a set of excellent IEMs donated by the online Miccastore that hid from us during this month’s raffle. We discovered their hiding place today and next month they go on the block! No fooling us, by gosh. If you are intended for the raffle, you WILL be raffled![/size]
[size=10pt]Enjoy,[/size]
[size=10pt]John[/size]
