[audioaffair]

We're introducing a dedicated headphones listening demonstration suite in our Audio Affair Birmingham showroom and are interested to hear what you feel would be the "ultimate" headphones demo?

For example...

- Would you want to bring in your own CD player or turntable/phono stage?
- Would you want to hear 2/3, 5/6 or even 7/8 similarly priced headphones within your budget?
- Which headphone amplifiers above £500 would you want to hear?

Any and all thoughts on this would be very helpful!

Alex
Audio Affair

 

[tintin47]

If you are putting together a room for people to get a taste of the phone world, it seems that you should have a little of everything, in the high end but not shockingly expensive.

I think that, as it seems like most of your clients will be speaker audiophiles, that you just need to give people a taste of what the phone world has to offer. Have at least one good tube and one good SS amp, and maybe a hybrid, and have phones from all different manufacturers. People want to do comparisons, so many options are always good. I don't think that I could demo more than 2/3 phones at one time without my ears being overloaded, but others might think differently.

I think that a couple high end senns, some RS series grados, and some ATs or Denons would give people a good taste and a lot to think about with phones.

 

[GuyDebord]

you need a really comfortable lounge chair, dim light, a sample of the very best available open and closed (like 007, 4070's, hd800, ed8's) paired with different types of amps (tube, SS, and hybrid). Then complement with the midfi (2/3) and samples of mid fi amp types. As for the source, cables...I dont mind if you provide them...

 

[audioaffair]

Thanks for your comments. What headphones amps have you heard above £500 in price that you'd like to see available for demo alongside cheaper models?

Alex
Audio Affair

 

[Uncle Erik]

Quote:

Originally Posted by audioaffair /img/forum/go_quote.gif Thanks for your comments. What headphones amps have you heard above £500 in price that you'd like to see available for demo alongside cheaper models?

That might be a difficult choice, since many of the more expensive amps are DIY or have very small production runs.

If possible, try to include several tube-based amplifiers. They're rather popular here and would draw interest.

 

[audioaffair]

Good point, though what do headfi'ers recommend which isn't home made over the £500 mark - Grace/Ear etc?

Alex
Audio Affair

 

[GuyDebord]

To name a few....

European: SPL (Phonitor and Auditor), Lehmann (BCL), Graham Slee (Solo SRG), Meier Corda (symphony), Naim (Headline)
American: Ear (HP4), Woo (5,6,GES,WES), Ray Samuels(Raptor, Apache, B52), Cary (exciter), Eddie Current (Zana Deux)
Japan: Luxman (P1, P200), Leben (CS300)
China: Cayin(HA-1A)

also try getting dac/headphone combos like the meier symphony, benchmark dac1, lavry da10,da11, Grace m902...

 

[audioaffair]

Guy - thanks for the reply - good selection there to have a look at and most of what we were shortlisting. It's always good to hear what people recommend.

Just out of interest what have you and others preferred the sound of from this list?

I agree also its good to have a few DACs to try - we might include this as well.

Alex
Audio Affair

 

[SleepyOne]

Probably good to have 2-3 tiers of DAC/ CDP, with Benchmark/Lavry service as reference point (base point) and something superior to show the headphone system's limits.

For amps, probably add Rudistor RP010B mk2 and Eddie Current Balancing Act to GuyDebord's list as well. As both have XLR headphone output as well as SE phono.

As for headphone, it would be nice to have a good selection of phones (Grado, Senn, AKG, Ultrasone, AT, Denon, JVC etc) as it is a pain to search for them, let alone be able to demo them at the same time! Just a few model (i.e popular or top model) from each brand would be fantastic. It would makes decision so much easier.

Personally if I am a customer I might bring my amp to the shop but I doubt I would bring a DAC/CDP to the shop as well.

 

[tvrboy]

If you can get yourself registered as a dealer of certain headphone brands, customers can find you through the brand's dealer map on their website. This could really drive traffic if you are the only dealer in the state for, say, Ultrasone. I would say that's a big advantage to carrying lots of brands, especially more obscure ones. There are so many newbie threads on here asking for advice cause they can't find a retailer to demo the brands they want. And +1 on a comfy chair ....

What kind of customers are you hoping to attract? If they are only spending $50 - $500 on a headphone they probably don't care if you have the most flashy Eddie Current or Ray Samuels amp. That would be a waste of money IMO. If you are planning to sell $1000+ headphones then yeah you do need an upscale headphone amp.

 

[audioaffair]

Thanks for the comments guys. I agree it would be a benefit to be able to demo these in one place. We're leaning toward the higher end of available models, though our plans are based on our UK showroom so unfortunately it'll only be of benefit to local head-fi'ers!

Has anyone compared Ultrasons's HFI-2200 to HD650s/RS1/GS1000s?

Alex
Audio Affair

 

[Ntropic]

I'm not sure who you're going to attract, but I'm pretty sure the ability to playback media from media players and computers would be great. iPod docks/LODs, USB (B to miniB) cables, and a computer (one set up for quiet/silent operation) to output to a good DAC. Foobar, ASIO/WASAPI, high sampling rates, all that. Might not be so great for low bitrate MP3s, but anybody with a FLAC collection would appreciate it.

Also, clean pads.

 

[audioaffair]

Good point about the clean pads - always an important aspect of any headphones demo!

 

[xenithon]

Quote:

I'm not sure who you're going to attract, but I'm pretty sure the ability to playback media from media players and computers would be great

I think this is a very good point. When I try out headphones I like to try various material in muliple genres. Easy and quick access to many albums/songs (with an easy-to-use interface) would be a big plus.