As always, it was great to see so many familiar faces and meeting so many new ones.
Thank you to the Detriot guys for really making a great day.
Also, thanks to Ray and Grace Samuels for allowing me to tride with them there and back. Lots of stories, talking "shop" with Ray, and purses/shoes/clothes with Grace. If you ever head over to Jude's, stay away from the Day's Inn. Never have I ever slept in such a fithy place in all my life. It was pretty late and the only two rooms they had availble were "suites". There was hair in my sink and in the shower, not to mention the stains on the sheets. I slept in a sweat shirt, pants, and socks on top of the covers. No Joke.
It was fun being over at Ray's place for a few hours before we left, talking in the workshop and going over the amp and PSU boards for the A-10 and a few others.
Unfortunately, I couldn't get my own gear to operate correctly and thought that my DAC was completely broken after trying the coax and optical inputs.
As a sub, there was the Lavry DA11, but it was having the same problems as my DAC, only to a much lesser degree. When I got home, I hooked every back up and there were no problems whatsoever. I am chalking that up to being at thhe end of a daisy chain of power extension cables. From the list of gear, you can probably assert that there wasn't enough current left by the time my gear was hooked up for anything to run correctly. Then again, I didn't really bring all that much in terms of "at home" equipment.
See guys, bluetooth can sound exceptional. It was funny to see some you guys walking around the building to see how far you could go. Grace spent a while with it hooked up to her music phone. Unfortunately, the proof of concept device can only handle music encoded at up to 560ish kbps before there starts to be compression. That is fine for if you are using an iPod for most people though. It is also using an integrated DAC with voltage output that is just using a combo of Muse, Cerafine, and Vishay output caps. Right now, I have it running on two rechargable Li-Ion batteries (charging circuit integrated and uses a microUSB) totaling ~1500mAH and the receiver gets a battery life of ~15-17hours. They are old used cellphone batteries, so I don't know how well it would perform with nice new batteries. I had teh reciever strapped to the P-51 since the DAC output is not really strong enough to drive headphones and the output impedance is right around 10 ohms. So, it has a low hiss with IEM's.
The ones I brought are simply "proof of concept" and were built from broken bits and pieces of things I had in my room. I really wish I had enough buttons to actually be able to use the remote feature since it does work on the bluetooth chip. Ahh well.
The one I am doing the work on will handle uncompressed CD audio and interact with all I/O types for DAC chips, even USB. Chip choice is done, as is the controller, but it is still in the design phase. Depending on production costs, the basic module will be open for DIYers to use in their projects.
Best part, I haven't missed a phone call while walking in over 2 and a half weeks!
Still need to wait for OS3.0 though.....
Big thanks to Grace for sacrificing a pillow for the sake of sound. I think I created by far the most mess with my tissues, poly stuffing, scissors, and tape. I also learned never to travel without an emory board. Literally changed the tonal balance 3 or 4 times of the CD1000 at the meet. I undid some mods right before leaving to try and get some more detail, but ended up making it spikey. When I got home, I redid the mods with the proper materials. Just Jammin now. I think Jeff was converted to being an CD3000 fan, as long as it has been given some TLC.
The A-10 with the He90 did actually sound a bit different from how I remember back in November, bit more balanced top to bottom. I know he did do revisions, but that was months ago so take it for what its worth and memory can be decieving. The amp and the He90 sound fabulous together, as it also did with the HeAudio Jade's. Personally, I still think that if you haven't heard an Orpheus, that you could live with the JADE forever. IMO, the JADE sounds much more balanced than the new Stax company SR-007.
With regards to the HD800, it was indeed a very nice headphone. Still, it wasn't much more detailed than my personal headphones. it did have better balanced and could extend farther in each direction. The sense of space reminded me of my SR-lamda's, only not quite as wide or as large. It handled everything very well and was a very comfy headphone.
The big question....is it worth the $1400? I say no.
I would much rather purchase the JADE at the same price. Considering that the amplification that you would likely use for the HD800 in terms of price...the performance of the electrostatic would simply be better in my own opinion. Here is to hoping that it really sees a huge improvement with balanced operation. Only when they start shipping will we be able to tell. The HD800, I think, saw time on most every amp there. Nothing really floored me about it. It isn't an R10 killer and I can say that after comparing both on the same amp with the R10 using a Balanced to SE adapter. Good news is the that the HD800 is a Sennheiser that I could live with! The Veil is gone along with the muddiness, etc. For the price difference and the slight performance difference, I am sticking with my Sony's.
My favorite setup that I might have a chance of actually owning in the future was the Luxman with the K340. Beautiful all the way around. The Luxman, to my ears, sounded like a slightly sweeter B22. It just "sings" a little more.
I ended up spending quite a bit of time with the Rudistor/Stello Setup. I really liked the Stello. Frequently found myself checking this setup as a reference since its' price tag as a setup was probaby right in the range of what many of the more serious headphone listeners would have. Plus, it had nice, noiseless operation with every headphone.
Sorry buddy, still not an Edition 9 fan. It clamps, has a small soundstage, and the bottom bass is a bit too present for my taste. The latter two just don't fit with my personal listening taste.
I was also using the B52/Meridian as a reference since it is the one setup I have heard consistantly for the past year and a half. Still affimed itself as one of my favorite setups.
While the Modded D5000's sound much better to my ears than the stock. It still isn't my flavor as it has some of that Audio Technica "driverness" where it does still sound like you are listening to headphone drivers. It is to be expected though.
I really liked the ESW10's. My Modded ESW9's had more low end extension, soundstage, and really the detail was the same to my ears. What the ESW10's had was balance and crispness on the high hat that I really wanted out of the ESW9's. Time to revamp the mod and try to make it sound more like a ESW10. Considering the difference between the two in terms of price...
If you already have a nicely recabled set and you did the mod I posted a while ago....best to keep the ESW9's. I will post if I can improve the balance of the ESW9's. If you listen to a lot of Jazz, Metal, Pop, etc. stick to the mod I already have posted.
The StyleAudio little Amp/DAC's were great little pieces for the money. I would see them being perfect in an office or desk environment where discrete is good. The price to performance is more than fair, it is indeed very good! Powered hungry headphones pretty well, even the K340 didn't seem really hindered. No, it wasn't the best piece of equipment there. They were probabaly near the very bottom at this mini meet. Solid, sound good and small? Totally ready for a college dorm room.
I hope to see all of you again. You couldn't ask for a more pleasant crowd.
Cheers!
