First of all, thanks Zanth for his great great organizing.
It is me who has been seizing the Shanling CD player for almost all the time. (
Sorry guys, I just can't help hearing its truly beautiful sound all along.
I have to mention the software I used for the AB switch compare. Because it is important that HIFI records will bring everything you need and you want to hear.
Classical:
Carmen-Fantasie, Anne-Sophie Mutter, WPO, Levine, DG 437 544-2 (test string music, orchestra)
Danses Anciennes De Hongrie, Clemencic Consort, Rene Clemencic, HMF 1901003 (test music extension, space, stage and bass)
Pop/Rock:
Eagles - Desperado, 1973 Elektra (test drum, voice band)
Faye Wong - Sky, 1994 Decca (Chinese songs, test voice, stage)
Folk:
Janis Ian - Breaking Silence, 1992 Morgan Creek (test voice, bass, foot drum)
New Age:
Enya - Watermark, 1988 WEA (test electric synthesizer music)
Here is the AB switch listening configuration.
1. Shanling CD (RCA out) --> Cardas Neutral Ref --> Corda HA-1 --> Equinox --> HD-600
vs. Shanling CD (headphone out) --> HP-1
I spent the most time on this config, try to tell the distinction. One thing really made me depressed is that when I listened Eagles, the last song contains so deep drum sound, I always got cracking sound which is playing on my own potable CD player. I thought Shanling CD player will fix it but I still heard cracking drum. Now I just believe this is the recording problem, not cd player problem. This album was on award lists on both TAS and Sterophile recommandation. Now I am wondering if there has a Hi-End player which can handle this album well enough.
The sound has NO DIFFERENT between HP-1 and HD-600 when I listened Eagles and Faye Wong. Guitar, bass and mandolin, all instruments are amazingly truely . All are the same for two headphones. Vocal is same, bass is same, high range is same. HP-1 didn't come with heavy bass but a bit more than HD-600's (<2%). When I switched to classical music, listened Mutter played Sarasate (track 01) and Danses Anciennes de Hongrie (track 04 & 05), slightly different came up to my ears. HD-600 comes with a bit more details than HP-1 (2% more). I have to say this, sorry about it Zanth.
HD-600 is really made for classical music. I had a bit more confidence about my HD-600 then. I continued to listen Janis Ian (track 01), HP-1 comes with warmer voice than HD-600. That type of voice is really attractive, breaking through, HD-600's behavior is a bit cold (less than 1%). Now I am very impressed by Shanling's headphone output. I switched two headphone. I heard the different immediately. Corda HA-1 with HP-1 showed same performance as with HD-600, but Shanling headphone output with HD-600 is not as good as with HP-1. It seems that Shanling headphone amp is not power enough to drive HD-600, the sound lacks vivid, high range is not bright, bass is loose, not tight. Now I am very pleased with Corda HA-1. Maybe it is good for any headphones. Shanling's inner headphone amp maybe suit for low resistance headphone not high resistance headphone.
2. Corda HA-1 --> HD-600 vs. Grado RA-1 --> RS-1
Not much to say, RS-1 has more colored bass than HP-1, which conceal music details in mid range and high range. In my opinion, RS-1 is not as good as HP-1. It is good for pop/rock music. If you listen some HIFI records, you will tell much more differents between RS-1 and HP-1.
3. Equinox, Clue Red and Cadas cable with HD-600.
I had chance to compare with different cables. I originally don't believe the cable with bring that much different. But I am a believer now. I plugged three cable with HD-600. For classical music, mid and high range are nearly no different. When I listened Janis Ian, in the same output gain from Corda HA-1, Clue Red brought much more bass, this is making HD-600 just like RS-1, even more than HP-1's. The bass is not loose, still tight but louder.
The Equinox brought balance sound. Really balance, I have to say that.
Cadas's resistance maybe higher than other two's. So in the same output gain, the sound is less clear than Clue Red and Equinox.
If listening a lot string music, Clue Red and Equinox are par, myself doesn't like that Clue Red brights a lot bass when I listen pop/rock.
From the facture arts and crafts, Equinox is the best, so soft. Clue Red is a bit stiff, hard to bend.
All in all, I give the score as followed.
HP-1 --------------------------------- 10
HD-600 with Equinox ------------------ 10
HD-600 with Clue Red ----------------- 9.5
HD-600 with Cadas -------------------- 9
RS-1 --------------------------------- 9
The best combo is Corda HA-1 + HD-600 with Equinox cable.
Thanks Zanth for his great hosting and so nice people. Thanks all you guys. Forgive me to grab all Hi-End phones and Shanling CD player really a long time.
I missed the porable amp part. And I didn't compare them with some nice sporty earphones. Really too short for the meeting and too much stuff to listen. Next time, I can bring more HIFI CD records. And we can spend more time get together to listen some really nice music recording. I promise I will not hold Zanth's cd player all the time.
Happy listening!!