[johnwmclean]

When equipment is coloured or voiced to a designers tastes I can see a conflict with exceptionally well recorded material. This is confusing to me as to why a piece of equipment should be altered or tweaked given the customer will have different tastes and recordings. Unless of course it’s targeted towards a specific genré, even then the recording should hold the information to let the system do it’s stuff.

Quote:

Originally Posted by atothex /img/forum/go_quote.gif I've never heard equipment that can turn a bad quality recording into something that sounds good, "hi-fi" or not. Thus, I define hi-fi as stuff that sounds good to me. Hi-fi is supposed to sound good. Period. Maybe you mean to say some people just have bad taste? I'll agree with that.

I don’t think your getting it, your response makes no sense in context to winks post.

Look at it this way, a neutral, revealing system that has great resolving resolution cannot be expected to turn a bad recording into something it’s not. I expect to get an unpleasant sound, that’s hi-fi, you take the good with the bad.

 

[atothex]

Quote:

Originally Posted by johnwmclean /img/forum/go_quote.gif I don’t think your getting it, your response makes no sense in context to winks post. Look at it this way, a neutral, revealing system that has great resolving resolution cannot be expected to turn a bad recording into something it’s not. I expect to get an unpleasant sound, that’s hi-fi, you take the good with the bad.

You're right; I don't get it. The implication here is that some low-fi equipment can somehow make bad recordings sound better. I've never heard any kind of magic tube or whatever that can do that. Bad recordings sound bad regardless of equipment, so that really shouldn't even enter the discussion.

Also, I don't care too much about "neutrality," and I think a lot of people don't quite understand what neutrality really is.

Anyways, that's enough off-topic discussion for me in this thread.

 

[Bones13]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ctemkin /img/forum/go_quote.gif Do you recall which op amps you have in the Apache?

Sorry, I don't. I have whatever was current, and shipping this past fall.

 

[davidxtb]

I do not know if Eddie Current's products have been discussed. yet its products shall be listed as the best amps for HD800,such as ZANA DEUX SE or the better one Balancing Act

 

[Geek]

Anything headroom makes.

The bass extension on my old Maxed Out Home is so good with the HD800s that I can hear the semi truck rumbling the studio walls...

 

[sillysally]

I don't get it, balanced or SE.

I was at RSA house and was using his personal B-52, I tried both balanced and SE HD-800s. We had two pair of HD-800s one balanced (Ray's) and one SE (Cardas cable) mine. Started off using all of Rays equipment.

Went back and forth to tell what the differentials where. Both the SE and balanced sounded good, but just a little different so imo it just comes down to preference. I really don't think balanced is a night and day difference.

ss

 

[davidxtb]

HOW ABOUT EDDIE CURRENT ZANA DEUX SE？ OR BALANCING ACT？

 

[Bilavideo]

Quote:

And with regard to the headphones not being fully burned in, I just don't buy it and neither do many vendors in the industry that I have spoken to about this. Headphones don't go from mediocre to greatness with burn-in. Yes, they can exhibit some change when the drivers loosen up but they don't turn into a completely different headphone. If you don't like the headphone before burn-in, you won't like it after burn-in. Anyone that says otherwise is suffering from the effects of placebo by way of mass opinion. The AKG K701/K702, hailed to be one of the most drastically altered headphones with burn-in, had very little difference from my listening at 0 hours, 100 hours, 200 hours, and 350 hours. What usually happens is that a great deal of people get their new headphones during the day and try them fresh out of the box during the daytime, when power output from the power plants is at the maximum and their home or work power is suffering from lots of line noise from all the equipment turned on in their neighborhood, apartment building, office building, etc. After the headphone has been burning in for the magical 300 hours, most people pick up their headphones in the late evening when the line noise is at a minimum and many people in their neighborhood or apartment buildings are asleep. If you think this isn't true, try it for yourself the next time you get a new headphone.

Congratulations on writing what may well be the lamest reductio argument I've heard regarding why so many people hear something different after burn-in. It's the electrical power grid! But of course! They get their headphones during the day, take their first impression during the day and then hear something different late at night when the electrical grid is better stocked.

I'm not sure you even convinced me that my electrical substation is in better shape at night. During the day, half the world is away at work. At night, they're at home watching TV, burning lights, playing with their Play Station 3 and maybe even listening to their headphones by way of a headphone amp. But since many of my experiences with burn-in were from headphones hooked directly up to an iPod, which went completely unaffected by fluxuations in the power grid, I'll have to simply reply to your explanation with the dignity it deserves. [This is me chuckling.]

 

[Currawong]

If I might get this thread back on track, one amp I can recommend is the Audiovalve RKV Mark II (with upgrades) for the HD-800s, though they are rather obscure. For a big, single-ended tube amp, it gives an impressively wide and clear soundstage.

 

[nikongod]

^ This.

In case you didnt see how its done the first time.

 

[Currawong]

Show-off.

 

[Henerenry]

what is it?

 

[El_Doug]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Henerenry /img/forum/go_quote.gif what is it?

silver ghost

 

[anetode]

Yeah, but does it put out the twenty watts that are necessary to make the HD800 really sing?

I'll stick to my 4-pin XLR'd Halcro, thank you very much

 

[pabbi1]

Cavalli has a new design that just might be what I was looking for wrt hd800. I won't know for sure until I ditch the rk27 and put in one of my incoming TKD (cp65 or a cp2511), but, even single ended, I think this has real potential. I have the first prototype, and two balanced versions are in work, hopefully in time for CJ. Mine will be there in any event, and we'll see how it holds up.