mhamel
500+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Jan 30, 2003
- Posts
- 626
- Likes
- 135
I actually wasn't expecting it for a few days, so it was a bit of a surprise. The mailman rang the doorbell this morning and was waiting on my porch with a rather large box. At first, I thought it might be the Musiland DAC I ordered, but that's not due for a couple of weeks.
The first thing I'd like to comment on is how friendly and helpful Jan Meier has been in the process of buying this. He shipped the amp right away, and all things considered, 9 days to get here from Germany is pretty quick.
As I said, the box was HUGE compared to what I was expecting the size of the amp to be. Double boxed, packed like something from Fort Knox - it took 5 minutes of opening, removing padding and cutting tape just to get to the amp. The amp itself was tightly wrapped in plastic Again, huge kudos on really taking the extra time to make sure it arrived safely.
The build quality on the amp is very impressive as well. The finish is excellent, the chassis is built like a tank - and weighs about as much as one. Neutrik jacks,
I'm running with the included Chinese tubes for now. I'm going to let these tubs (and the amp) break in fully before I start rolling, but I've got some Bendix 6385's, some GE 5670's, and some Sylvania and Philips 6360's to try out once I get there.
I don't have the ideal source set up at the moment - still waiting for some things to come in, but for now I'm running a Slim Devices Squeezebox V3, connected on the back end to a dedicated music server with about 200G of music primarily in Apple Lossless format.
I'm using the analog out on the Squeezebox through a set of Blue Jeans cable interconnects.
Of course, on to the important stuff... Listening time!
As for my impressions on the sound, take ALL of this with a grain of salt -it's just initial thoughts, as the amp is brand new and has a long way to go before it's really broken-in.
I also don't have as varied a frame of headphone/head amp reference as a lot of people on here, but for comparison I've got various flavors of CMOY amps I've built, my portable "mouse amp", a modified Velleman pre-amp with a pretty decent headphone output, various receiver / preamp headphone outputs, and the headphone output of a Klipsch ProMedia preamp (which really isn't that bad, all things considered). I do have a pretty long hitory of being involved with audio be it with home systems, car systems and running live sound for bands.
When I first set up the amp, I gave it a few minutes to warm up and then gave it a listen with a pair of Sony MDR-7506's. I usually wear these while I'm working as they're fairly light and super comfortable with Beyer velour pads. Unfortunately, I did NOT like the sound at all. Seemed overly bright and harsh, without much low end at all. They lasted about 10 minutes before I'd had enough and unplugged them. I'll re-visit them once the amp has had some more break-in time.
Next up - my DT-770's, re-cabled with Canare cable. I like the sound of the 770's, they're very smooth, somewhat laid-back midrange, LOVE the bass, despite it being a bit sloppy at times. My Meta42 (4x buffers, crossfeed, external Gilmore power supply) drives them VERY well - slightly warm sound, tightens up the bass, good soundstage, etc.
So - all of that to say that the DT-770's seem to fit the Eartube MUCH better than the MDR-7506's at this point. The Eartube's midrange presence opens up the mids on the Beyers nicely without making them harsh at all. The sound is, for lack of a better word... liquid. Very smooth, very detailed, not harsh or fatiguing at all.
I would still like a bit more bass, but I can say that the usual sloppiness I've heard with these cans is gone. The bass has tightened up considerably, and while it doesn't quite have the authority I've heard them produce, I'm quite happy with the sound, and really looking forward to following through the break-in period to see where it goes. I've also got the DAC on order and a Behringer DEQ2496 sitting in the other room waiting to get checked out, so that might be a route to help a bit.
Another thing I noticed initially that is already changing for the better is the soundstage. My initial impression was that the soundstage was pretty narrow, but it is already starting to open up... so I don't want to comment too much on this yet other than to say it's definitely moving in the right direction so far. *grin*
One thing I immediately noticed and absolutely LOVE about this amp.... I listen to just about everything under the sun, but the primary genres I listen to are jazz, rock, classical, alternative, electronic, blues, and heavy metal. I'm still working my way through genres to see how things sound, but for the last hour of so I've been stuck in some rock/metal.
By it's very nature, there's a "wall of sound" feeling with metal, and metal guitar can get pretty harsh after a while. Oddly enough, listening to it helps me concentrate when I'm working, so I end up listening a lot.
There's a much more three-dimensional feel to the sound than I've heard on other amps, and a smoothness and musicality to sound that I've NEVER heard before. In the beginning of "Cemetary Gates" by Pantera, the detail this amp is reproducing is stunning. I'm hearing details in the acoustic guitar that I've never heard from this recording, and in this genre, this band and this album are probably one of the things I listen to the most. I have so much other music I want to listen to and comment on, but I just can't bring myself to switch just yet... so stay tuned.
-Mike
The first thing I'd like to comment on is how friendly and helpful Jan Meier has been in the process of buying this. He shipped the amp right away, and all things considered, 9 days to get here from Germany is pretty quick.
As I said, the box was HUGE compared to what I was expecting the size of the amp to be. Double boxed, packed like something from Fort Knox - it took 5 minutes of opening, removing padding and cutting tape just to get to the amp. The amp itself was tightly wrapped in plastic Again, huge kudos on really taking the extra time to make sure it arrived safely.
The build quality on the amp is very impressive as well. The finish is excellent, the chassis is built like a tank - and weighs about as much as one. Neutrik jacks,
I'm running with the included Chinese tubes for now. I'm going to let these tubs (and the amp) break in fully before I start rolling, but I've got some Bendix 6385's, some GE 5670's, and some Sylvania and Philips 6360's to try out once I get there.
I don't have the ideal source set up at the moment - still waiting for some things to come in, but for now I'm running a Slim Devices Squeezebox V3, connected on the back end to a dedicated music server with about 200G of music primarily in Apple Lossless format.
I'm using the analog out on the Squeezebox through a set of Blue Jeans cable interconnects.
Of course, on to the important stuff... Listening time!
As for my impressions on the sound, take ALL of this with a grain of salt -it's just initial thoughts, as the amp is brand new and has a long way to go before it's really broken-in.
I also don't have as varied a frame of headphone/head amp reference as a lot of people on here, but for comparison I've got various flavors of CMOY amps I've built, my portable "mouse amp", a modified Velleman pre-amp with a pretty decent headphone output, various receiver / preamp headphone outputs, and the headphone output of a Klipsch ProMedia preamp (which really isn't that bad, all things considered). I do have a pretty long hitory of being involved with audio be it with home systems, car systems and running live sound for bands.
When I first set up the amp, I gave it a few minutes to warm up and then gave it a listen with a pair of Sony MDR-7506's. I usually wear these while I'm working as they're fairly light and super comfortable with Beyer velour pads. Unfortunately, I did NOT like the sound at all. Seemed overly bright and harsh, without much low end at all. They lasted about 10 minutes before I'd had enough and unplugged them. I'll re-visit them once the amp has had some more break-in time.
Next up - my DT-770's, re-cabled with Canare cable. I like the sound of the 770's, they're very smooth, somewhat laid-back midrange, LOVE the bass, despite it being a bit sloppy at times. My Meta42 (4x buffers, crossfeed, external Gilmore power supply) drives them VERY well - slightly warm sound, tightens up the bass, good soundstage, etc.
So - all of that to say that the DT-770's seem to fit the Eartube MUCH better than the MDR-7506's at this point. The Eartube's midrange presence opens up the mids on the Beyers nicely without making them harsh at all. The sound is, for lack of a better word... liquid. Very smooth, very detailed, not harsh or fatiguing at all.
I would still like a bit more bass, but I can say that the usual sloppiness I've heard with these cans is gone. The bass has tightened up considerably, and while it doesn't quite have the authority I've heard them produce, I'm quite happy with the sound, and really looking forward to following through the break-in period to see where it goes. I've also got the DAC on order and a Behringer DEQ2496 sitting in the other room waiting to get checked out, so that might be a route to help a bit.
Another thing I noticed initially that is already changing for the better is the soundstage. My initial impression was that the soundstage was pretty narrow, but it is already starting to open up... so I don't want to comment too much on this yet other than to say it's definitely moving in the right direction so far. *grin*
One thing I immediately noticed and absolutely LOVE about this amp.... I listen to just about everything under the sun, but the primary genres I listen to are jazz, rock, classical, alternative, electronic, blues, and heavy metal. I'm still working my way through genres to see how things sound, but for the last hour of so I've been stuck in some rock/metal.
By it's very nature, there's a "wall of sound" feeling with metal, and metal guitar can get pretty harsh after a while. Oddly enough, listening to it helps me concentrate when I'm working, so I end up listening a lot.
There's a much more three-dimensional feel to the sound than I've heard on other amps, and a smoothness and musicality to sound that I've NEVER heard before. In the beginning of "Cemetary Gates" by Pantera, the detail this amp is reproducing is stunning. I'm hearing details in the acoustic guitar that I've never heard from this recording, and in this genre, this band and this album are probably one of the things I listen to the most. I have so much other music I want to listen to and comment on, but I just can't bring myself to switch just yet... so stay tuned.
-Mike
I have to say, I'm REALLY happy with the Squeezebox so far. I picked it up recently and I'm hooked. I love the live archives and Squeezebox network stuff. Sound quality on uncompressed source is pretty good. It'll definitely be interesting to hear it through the DAC vs the analog outs. I'm still on the fence about using the Squeezebox as the source vs the digital out on one of my Macs.
