[morphsci]

Has anyone seen the recent review by Dick Olsher of the ASL MG-Head OTL 32-DT and the RSA Stealth in Enjoythe music.com Review Magazine?

Mr Olsher does not like the sound of the Stealth with Grado's, Specifically with the Grado SR-80, he says, "The Grado was completely unrecognizable, as if it had a close encounter with a blood-sucking vampire. Its life energy was completely sucked dry. It sounded bland, polite, and devoid of dynamic nuances."

This is quite contrary to my extensive listening with the Stealth in my system. I have listened using the following phones; Alessandro MS-Pro, MS2, MS2i, MS1, Grado HP-1, SR325i, SR225 Woodies, Senn HD650, and AKG-340 (Headphile Recabled). I have also listened to the Grado GS-1000 and AKG-701's on my system but those are recent purchases and so I cannot really comment. In no case do any of the phones, especially the Grado's, sound lifeless.

Has anyone else experienced Mr. Olsher's mailaisse or do I just have tin ears? My system is listed down in my signature, I do not know what source(s) or the specific music Mr. Olsher was using.

 

[morphsci]

I guess I am the last of the Stealth owners on Head-Fi .... or the others simply can't tear themselves away from their systems to comment

 

[slwiser]

For my own opinion, enjoythemusic has very little credibility.

They more often than not simply rehash ad copy. So the problem with the stealth is that there is very little ad copy for him to copy for his review. Since the ad copy was not there for him to use, he had little to get his bearings.

 

[joelk]

Mr. Olsher was also infamous for taking any tube amp and deciding that he didn't like the factory supplied tubes. It wasn't until he tweaked the amp with his choice of tubes, that the amp became acceptable or reached its peak.

I believe that one of the Manleys of VTL took him to task for this, and told him that they selected their tubes for accuracy and the he (Olscher) just plain had too much nerve to mess with the amps.

 

[lan]

There are various incarnations of this amp. Unless you have exactly the same, it's hard to compare. Most amps to me are a bit on the soft, less dynamic side. I had another one here to compare vs. mine and I liked mine more. They are different inside. Hp2s in mine was a bit bland. HOw much dynamics you want/like depends where you coming from

 

[mulveling]

Perhaps he was really hearing the true sound of the SR-80's with the Stealth

Seriously, who the hell uses SR-80's as a reference in a "pro" review on a $2000 amp?

 

[lan]

But a Grado shouldn't sound like a Sennheiser

 

[slwiser]

Note this quote:

"So far, it was clear that if the HD 600 were the only headphones on the planet,.."

This had been the only pair of headphones that he had used and then he proceeded to use the SR-80s.

I take it that as far as he is concerned these are only two headpones on the planet.

 

[morphsci]

Thanks for the replies. I was pretty unfamiliar with Mr. Olshers reviews but I was not impressed. As a minimum, I like to know what the associated equipment is and specifically what music was used. In this case only the phones were identified. I do not have a problem with the HD-600 representing a typical Senn but I do not think the SR-80 is the best representative for Grado. I would have been much happier if he at least used a pair of Sr-225's.

Quote:

Originally Posted by lan There are various incarnations of this amp. Unless you have exactly the same, it's hard to compare. Most amps to me are a bit on the soft, less dynamic side. I had another one here to compare vs. mine and I liked mine more. They are different inside. Hp2s in mine was a bit bland. HOw much dynamics you want/like depends where you coming from

That is exactly why I asked. I assume a lot of variation exists among Stealths since they are handbuilt to order, have had several free upgrades over time and since they are built to order they can include custom requests (within limits). Therefore, I was trying to gauge how much variation in sound is out there. I am fairly confident in what I hear and like, even if I don't do equipment reviews for a living

.

 

[john_jcb]

I have a Stealth (#5001) and it sounds fine with my Grados. But how something sounds is a personal thing that is hard to argue especially when the sound is described in sweeping generalities as noted in morphsci's first post. I must admit that mine sees little use as a headphone amp anymore as I use it primarily as a pre amp in my speaker setup where it is one of the best I have heard. My components are in my profile for those with any interest.

I am not sure that there are all that many variations of the Stealth out there. There were a couple of minor updates that Ray made available for free to all owners early on and the changes are in all subsequently produced amps. If you run across an amp without these updates it will have a slightly different sound. Also you can roll in your own tubes and I have done this. Again a subtle change. Other than that I am not sure what changes have been made or could be made easily to the amp. It is built on PC boards and component changes are not taken lightly by Ray. Having discussed this with him at length I think I can safely say his philosophy is that he delivers the best he can do and uses the best available components. This is why there are no upgrade paths listed for his amps. The only exception I think I remember is where the buyer could specify the gain in a portable amp.

 

[Kees]

I know this is a very old thread, but I just got my Stealth today and I experienced something that is related to what is discussed here.
So I decided to resurrect it to see what others experienced.

My stealth arrived today. I bought it as a pre-amp and considered the headphone out as a nice bonus.
First of all:

It is absolutely wonderfull as a pre-amp in my system.

I have to say though: I read the article from Dick Ohlsen just now, and his findings correspond perfectly with my experience.....

When experimenting with several different headphones, I came to the conclusion that this amp does not like low impedance phones.
My (250 ohm) DT880 was absolutely OK, but Grados (SR325i and PS-1) sounded aenemic.

I know this is not uncommon for tube amps, when they are not specifically tuned to do low impedance loads (like Earmax needed a special "pro" edition that can handle low impedance cans).
I sent an e-mail to Ray to ask about this, but I actually expect it to be "working as designed".
This is no big deal to me, because it does admirably what it is supposed to do: be a pre-amp.

Remains my question to other Stealth users:
Is anybody aware of a way to do anything about this? Or is it just "as-is"?