The second biggest surprise was the an upcoming Geek Out portable amp/dac. This was literally the last portable amp/dac I heard at the show and it was incredible. I couldn't use my own source because of driver issues but they sounded sublime with the provided DSD files on the Angies. I believe they used the same or similar components as in the 1000 (don't quote me) but they've resorted to 3D printing with vents which will help keep it cool. It's beautiful and definitely a conversation starter at a coffee shop.
Looks like LHLabs is getting pretty good at 3D printing! And are those different sound waves in the design? Pretty cool. Like the multiple colors as well.
Wonder what else they might 3D print? Maybe they learned something from Dan at Mr. Speakers? Easier to print then have someone machine something these days. And didn't they just show pictures of them acquiring a new industrial-grade 3D printer?
I have a question for n3rdling.
I listen to your sr-009 and stax amp and i think it sounded better than the Blue Hawaii SE, maybe it was the you had better music i don't know.
which do you think of all the amps for the sr-009 is the best?
Me like-not-so-much:
- PEOPLE PLAYING THE HE1000 AT 120 DB! For the love of all things holy, can people turn these things down? During one of my HE-1000 listening sessions I could hear the music of the guy sitting next to me better than what I was playing he had his volume turned up so much. The HE-1000 is a great can, but I was not able to listen as critically as I wanted to.
This. I totally agree. And in my experience, it wasn't just the HE-1000, it was with other headphone setups too. Literally one time I think I heard somebody playing so loud that I thought somebody was playing music through some speakers or something. How people are not deaf after listening to music so loud is beyond me.
This. I totally agree. And in my experience, it wasn't just the HE-1000, it was with other headphone setups too. Literally one time I think I heard somebody playing so loud that I thought somebody was playing music through some speakers or something. How people are not deaf after listening to music so loud is beyond me.
This. I totally agree. And in my experience, it wasn't just the HE-1000, it was with other headphone setups too. Literally one time I think I heard somebody playing so loud that I thought somebody was playing music through some speakers or something. How people are not deaf after listening to music so loud is beyond me.
Every time I tried a pair I always lowered the volume almost all the way down and slowly went up because some of the volume levels were insane and I go to concerts quite often though I wear earplugs. But some people were using the He-1000 like speakers I thought it sounded really loud and I was about 2 feet behind the guy using them in a noisy room.
I own K7XX too I was looking for closed back headphone under $400. I'm trying to decide between momentum, and PM-3. Those are both over what I would want to spend though $250 would be more like what I want to spend.
Just I have those looking for closed back pair now.
I have a question for n3rdling.
I listen to your sr-009 and stax amp and i think it sounded better than the Blue Hawaii SE, maybe it was the you had better music i don't know.
which do you think of all the amps for the sr-009 is the best?
The best amp I've heard with the SR-009 is probably the DIY-T2. I also loved Frank's amp with the SR-009 but that's another unobtainum amp.
Are you sure my SR-009 was plugged into my Stax amp and not the tube amp next to it? I had two amps: the Stax SRM-727 and the HeadAmp Aristaeus. I had the SR-009 plugged into the Aristaeus almost the whole time. The SRM-727 I had was a modified version with the global feedback restored (super high gain, probably a good idea) which makes it improve quite a bit over the stock version, especially for controlling bass. The Aristaeus is sold by HeadAmp, who also sells the BHSE. The Aristaeus is supposed to be a very very similar circuit to the HEV90 (Orpheus). From what I understand, the Aristaeus had an initial batch of 12 made at least 7 years back. Maybe 2 years ago Justin built 4 more, and I think he said he has enough parts to build 2 more of them and then they're gone forever. Most people who own the Aristaeus also own the Sennheiser HE90 Orpheus since it really pairs well with that headphone.
I think the SR-009 actually sounds really good from a lot of amps. I find the SR-007 is much pickier about amplification, and the SR-009 is much pickier about source. I was running an Assemblage DP-57 -> Stax DAC-X1t as my source and wouldn't be surprised if this was the difference you heard. I'm really thrilled with that front end as it's taken me almost 6 years to find that DAC since they don't come up for sale.
If you're sure it was the modded 727 that you heard my SR-009 from, then I'd recommend getting one of those or checking out the KGSSHV. I like the modded 727 because it's pretty compact for a stat amp and packs a lot of performance in that size. It's the best amp Stax makes once you mod it IMO. The KGSSHV is a very similar amp but with more power on tap. Be aware that there are several versions of the KGSSHV and they sound quite different from each other. The one thing they all have in common is great control of the drivers. Everything is super tight sounding with those amps.
If you heard the Aristaeus and are referring to that amp, you would have to wait a while to get one if Justin is even planning on building and selling the last 2. For something very similar, check out the Woo GES. Skip the upgrades, they're overpriced. It's a very solid amp, and for the price not much competes on the tube side of things. It's quite similar to the HEV90 and Aristaeus, and is likely in stock. You may also want to check out the KGST which is the latest DIY design by Kevin Gilmore. It's a electrostatic tube amp that I believe is similar to the old SR-X circuit on steroids. If you're interested in a KGST or KGSSHV I'd recommend checking out http://mjolnir-audio.com/ which is a site HF member spritzer runs. He sells DIY electrostatic amps he builds. Another solid option would be to PM headinclouds. Both of them do very fine work and will build you a killer amp.
- Meeting all the great people. Members, vendors, etc. Everybody was a blast to hang out and talk with.
- MrSpeakers: I finally got to hear a good Prime sample. Won't comment too much though. Ether is a great achievement by Dan. Amazingly comfortable, and his best sounding headphone yet.
- UE: Attended the headquarters tour on Friday. Fantastic staff.
I'll update as I finish gathering my thoughts. I don't like writing long writeups though.
The oppo pm3 was a disappointment to me. For a portable headphone it lacked bass, yet it also lacked treble detail. They were too mellow for me.
The he1000, wow. I much preferred the bass on these to the audeze. They sounded very fast, detailed, but not harsh. Overall these were easily on my top 3 favs that I heard today
My mouth dropped opened, and a tear almost came out of my eye when I herd the omega 2 mk2 on the cavali liquid lightning tube amp. I only heard one song on those because I couldn't try my own music but really listening to those changed my perspective on sound. I'm my personal opinion I preferred these to the sr-009
I've saved the best for last. I simply fell in love with the ether when I heard it. This was the one headphone that I kept coming back to constantly and spent the most time with. What first struck me was how light and comfy they were, the lcd x were like twice or even heavier. Each time I heard these I felt my heart warm up and I lost myself in the music. These are neutral headphones that arnt sterile. The bass is of good impact, rumble, and slam but didn't sound bloated like the audeze headphones. The mids were beautiful, both male and female vocals shined. The treble was very clean, articulate but most certainly didn't have any trace of harshness. Just a wonderfully smooth detailed treble. The ether caught my heart and once I save up enough money they'll definitely be the headphones that I'll buy.
This was my first meet and I had lots of fun enjoying all the gear plus meeting all the people there. Definitely looking forward to attending more meets.
Hmm, I must have been at a different event then?
I would not know a Mr. Speaker headphone if it came up ans bit me. Does it look exactly like the Audeze ones? If so, that would explain that.
Oppo only had the HA-1 as far as I saw, Fantastic amp/dac! Sennheiser only had The urban line, the wireless one and HD600, HD800 and HD 650 when I was there. There where no HD598 or 558 or anything else. I still found talking to the rep and learning about the company history interesting though.
I disagree with trickle-down economics for lack of hard evidence.
Agreed, good folk there.
Trickle down economics is whole different ballgame (and BS in my view). In technology however, there is this effect. Look at cars. My car form 2009 has radar based distance control and cruise control, active steering and adaptive dampers, double variable valve timing and a 8.8inch monitor (in 2009), LED lights all around, etc etc. Back then these feature were only available in top of the range cars. Now, a lot of even entry level cars have this. Features trickle down over time as they become cheaper to manufacture and mass produce, hence more affordable.
Same with headphones. Since production processes are handled more and more effectively and certain materials are also becoming more main stream, a titanium covered diaphragm is not anymore the "wow" thing it once was (just an example). So that's a very good thing.
Nowadays you can spend below $300 and get the performance of a top of the line headphone from a few years back. And with all the R&D that is now poured into personal audio, I have the feeling this trend will continue for some time... we all benefit from the "next big thing" as it makes the previous big thing outdated and hence harder to sell for full price = more affordable.
Alright, so here are some of my impressions. I wasn't able to get the chance to walk around and listen to stuff as much as I wanted to since I was talking to people at the member showcase for the majority of my time, but I still had a lot of fun overall.
Thank you to the people who set up this meet; I know it was a lot of work and I can't thank you enough for everything you have done. Thank you to all the vendors, especially those who put up with me asking them to let me borrow their headphones so that I could plug them into my own gear. And finally a big thank you to everyone at the member showcase, I had a lot of fun with you guys.
Ok, let's start with the member's showcase. Far and away, the best thing at the show was Frank Cooter's amp. I am usually not a huge fan of the SR-009s because I think that they are stale and not very fun to listen to. (granted they are an amazing headphone, I just don't think they are fun.) But Frank's amp is a whole different animal. For me it brought the Stax to life, and I have never heard anything so good. It made me want to get into electrostats and tube gear. Next is the R10; I have never heard one before so I was very excited to listen to it and it lived up to its expectations. Finally, I loved the modded headphones and the phono rig.
Out of the vendors, the one headphone that stood out to me was the Mr. Speakers Ether. It is Dan's best headphone thus far and first open one. That thing can sing! The sound stage and imaging where on point and the headphone was possibly one of the most comfortable ones at the show. The headphone is a neutral one and the mids and highs where phenomenal. For $1500 I think that these are a good deal and would easily compete with any headphone in that price bracket.
Other things I was impressed with: Yggy(need more time to listen to it though), Auralic Vega(man that thing sounds amazing.), Darma (not production version yet so can't say much about the build, but it sounded amazing with seemless transition between the two drivers.) Fulla (it is much smaller than I thought it would be)
Things I wasn't so impressed by: HE1000. I don't know. To me the sound stage was strange, because it didn't have any depth, the mids and the highs where lacking, but on the plus side the base was out of this world. Is it $3000 good though, not by a long shot, but then again it isn't the final version just yet and who knows, maybe I am just missing something. Either way I was really excited to listen to these, but came out very disappointed.
If I think of anything else I will write them down later, but for now this is what I thought. A huge thank you again to everyone who made this meet possible and everyone who attended; I had a blast.
Best in show for me was n3rdling's Sony MDR-R10... when he finally completed the last tuning at around 4:40PM, which was teardown time, so only 3 people aside from n3rdling himself got to hear it.
I thought it sounded fantastic. I never understood the whole cult behind the R10, because I could not believe that there exists a closed headphone that could perform to that extent.
But now I am a believer. To me, the Sony MDR-R10 is easily the best headphone I have ever heard. Without a doubt. Soundstage is beyond just "expansive". It sounded realistic. There was not a single headphone that I listened to up to that point that managed to create that illusion for me, which was why I took up modifying headphones in the first place. That Sony MDR-R10 simply makes everything else I have ever heard sound like... headphones, while that R10 in itself sounds like reality, presented without the visual contents. And just in case, all of that was achieved with a portable tube amp and a smartphone as the source. The R10 didn't need a crazy Yggdrasil system to shine.
See... the thing with high-end headphones costing more than $1500, as I look at them now, is that they are just about 5-10% better than the stuffs that can be gotten at around $1000 or lower. Some arguments can be made that maybe 10% is an underestimation, but... honestly, I think the R10 with its presentation is 1000% better than anything that even tries to compete with it. Open-back or not. It simply sounded like... "real life", and not like "headphone listening" or "speaker listening". It was not just an audition for me, it was an experience.
Second best in show for me was purrin's system. The Yggdrasil 1.0 > Eddie Current 2A3 > JPS Labs Abyss modified by Purrin himself was among the most tonally correct headphones I have heard. That tonal accuracy makes it sound very speaker-like when the right fit is achieved for the Abyss. Simply amazing. Although the R10 does better than that to me. The Abyss has the bass, and the weight necessary to convey certain types of music, though.
Third best in show for me was Frank Cooter's SR-009 setup. Simply amazing. Very musical, very relaxed, very easy to listen to, but without sacrificing the SR-009's technical capabilities. Frank did an amazing job with this setup, I think, and it looks stunning to boot!
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