Quote:
Originally Posted by smeggy /img/forum/go_quote.gif
The orthos will have trouble keeping up with good 'stats, but then, they are generally a lot cheaper, poorly tuned and small-ish drivers. We aspire to get some level of stat sound on the cheap (that was the original plan anyway) now that ortho prices are rising to 'stat levels the goal has become somewhat twisted. That's why I'm now recommending new Fostexes to get back to that ratio of good to cheap.
The K1000 is on an even plane to the 'stats. They are extremely capable and sound great. Not too much low bass but we forgive them that because the rest is so good.
|
The K1000 are all they've been hyped up to be, and yes, they do everything else so well that I can forgive the poor sub 40Hz performance. They are fast and transparent and spacious with good positioning and good timbre and tone. I liked them as much as the best stats. And, the HE Audio 1.2b and Jade were as good as any Stax we had, with the APS modded and Stax cabled ESP950 way up there too (despite the more compressed soundstage). We felt the Jade offered the wide soundstage of the Lambdas with the precise positioning, tonal control and frequency response of the ESP950 - like a mix of the two. The Woo GES with the early 60's GE "Wurlitzer" 12AX7 really stayed nice and open and spacious with all the stats and are the best for the Jade, while the other stats were not as picky about tubes. The Smegma Pro (woodied gamma pro with SR-007 ear pads) were better than the Lambda and SR-5NB, and close to the modded Koss ESP950 as well (just slightly less transparent with slightly less bass).
Quote:
Originally Posted by mypasswordis /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Interesting. What do you mean by transparent?
|
By transparent I mean that the drivers disappear and you don't focus on the sound coming from a little speaker next to your ear, but the sound seems to come from farther out than the 1" away driver, possibly due to fewer colorations. The Yamaha were more colored and fun and musical, but you could at times be aware of the driver making the sound. The Smegma SFI are also fairly transparent except for the mids were a little forward vs the Fostex and modded Yamaha. The modded Yamaha seemed to pull back the mids a little and slightly tip up the treble in relation to the mids. I would still say I prefer them over all the other orthos. The wiatrob modded HP-3 were fairly close to the modded YH-100, so I was surprised there as well. While the unmodded orthos sound fun at first, they are not technically as capable as the modded ones. The congestion was especially easy to hear in some hard rock or metal, and with some complex passages of classical. The stats can tease out every individual detail and then present them all together as one coherent piece of music.
Quote:
Originally Posted by dBel84 /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Thanks for getting the ball rolling Bill , sure looks like you had enough to keep yourselves busy yesterday
I hadn't really expected the orthos to come out on top of this challenge but I had hoped that they could stand their own. If my reading between the lines is correct, they didn't completely tank
I called them the most technically accurate as transparent does have different meanings for different people. I would highly recommend this CD for anyone who wants to conquer audiophile termiology. They describe transparency as "an open window to the sound"
My own feeling however is that the yamaha or more "musical" and make for a better listening experience. I would be curious to hear what people thought of the YH100 (modded) relative to the other orthos. They are just so tricky to damp that I am always left feeling that I have made compromises to achieve the end result ( usually layers of base for midrange accuracy )
It seems that I really do need to hear a K1000 now - hopefully one is coming to our local meet.
thanks for impressions thus far ..dB
|
I think we agree on definition transparency, and Fostex vs Yamaha. No, the orthos did NOT tank at all, they just aren't as high on the path to the full presentation, transparency and immersion in the musical experience as the stats. I was starting to think my modded woodied recabled D2000 and APS cabled Edition 9 were high up there as well, and the stats all put them in their lower place as well - switching from one to the other and doing an A/B is more dramatic than I recalled.
The meet brought me back to reality and realize that they are still closed headphones that make your brain acclimate to them before they start to sound transparent and open again. I actually felt that the APS V3 RS-1 and balanced APS V3 HD600 were more transparent than the D2000 and Edition 9 that I was spending a lot of time with lately.
Other Stuff:
The loaner K702 were better than I remember my K701 from over a year ago, and maybe better than the Cardas AD2000 I sold recently, but they still didn't take me there. Comparisons of the K702 and naamanf's K701 proved them to sound the same, so it was my memory that was faulty.
I still liked the transparency of the HD600 more than the HD650, and I liked the modded woodied recabled D2000 more than the stock D5000 or wiatrob's MD5000 (formerly naamanf's MD5000). The stock D5000 are still fun and laid back, and a nice change every once in a while, but I don't see using them for the long run like the modded woodied recabled D2000. Nobody liked the Milian SVT as much as all the other headphones, sounding closed and rolled off at the top with forward mids.
I missed listening to the AKG Sextett, ooops. I wanted to compare them to my K240M 600 ohm which sound very good on my WA6 and have no trouble keeping up with the best orthos we had there. I also didn't listen to the HP-1000 or PS-1 since I've had plenty of experience with them. The PS-1 sometimes have too much bass but are fun, and the HP-1000 are great but not that much better than my RS-1 or my woodied re-cabled HF-1 with flats. I vaguely considered Blutarsky's offer to trade the HP-1000 (HP2) for my O2 Mk1, but he'd want new ear pads and elastics, and he still only has a normal bias transformer for them so it didn't seem likely to happen.
Lastly, I still feel the Travagans Red with AD743 opamps and SRD-7 Mk2 SB was still a nice sounding stat rig, and I liked the Travagans more than the Moscode tube soeaker amp for stats, since I felt the O2 Mk1 and Mk2 were too rolled off in the highs with the Moscode. I think the tubes needed to be rolled to get better synergy for driving stats.
