[spritzer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Beefy /img/forum/go_quote.gif ...... and the Exstata, right?

Yup, plus a host of other amps I really need to case up...

 

[Orcin]

Bonjour. Sorry I missed this again, but I had to go to Paris for my annual boring management conference. It looks like a great time was had by all. I'm glad Al managed to continue the tradition of loud pops and burning plastic smell.

 

[ktm]

The He-5's were a pleasant surprize. A pretty good headphone
priced in that big void between the common cans like hd-650's
and the high end over $1000.
The big draw for me was the exstata. And it didn't disappoint.
It beat both my current units, the srm-313, and srm1mkII.
The srm-313 has too much high end and the srm1mkII too little.
The srm1 seems to roll off very early in the highs.
The exstata covers the whole range very well with good bass
and wide soundstage. I tested it with stock 404's.
I could live with that combo very well.
I spent some time with the AKG-1000's, and am reminded why
they are still a popular headphone. The hd-800's were good,
but maybe not 1400 smackers good. They seem to expand out
the standard Senn sound with a greater soundstage and clarity.

Goal for this year: get a set of boards and build an exstata.
If that fails, stake out pabbi1's house and wait for him to thin
out his collection!!!!

 

[Hopstretch]

Would like to hear about Exstata + O2s from someone who does not hate O2s, plz.

 

[swt61]

I spent last night and this afternoon at Marc's in Austin. Just getting back home and checking in.
It was a really fun meet. I enjoyed meeting some new people, and was really happy to see that ASR made the trek from Colorado. You had some great gear Steve, and it was fun to get a chance to finally meet in person. Especially enjoyed dinner!

The BHSE OII combination was my favorite rig of the meet, especially with the addition of Steve's world class Ayre DAC.

The big surprise for me was Maxvla's Little Dot balanced amp! His amp w/HD800 was quite impressive. Soundly beating the β22/HD800 combo, which for my taste is too dry. Others were impressed with this amp too.

Tried the HE5 through an unknown amp that Alex had on hand. It was much more layed back than I expected. I preferred Marc's LCD-1, even though he has it tuned a bit hotter on the high end than I like. Unfortunately I did not have a dual 3 pin to single 4 pin XLR adapter to even the playing field by running the HE5 through the β22.

Major props to Marc for staying up 'til midnight Friday to get the β22 up and running (and sounding superb I might add).

 

[zenzog]

I'd just like to say thanks to everyone who showed... it was a great experience as always!

 

[Asr]

Pics only for now. Impressions to come later (probably tomorrow).

Little Dot MK VI

[AK]Zip's Rega Apollo

[AK]Zip's self-built Millett Hybrid

swt61-built headphone stand

luvdunhill's Muse Model Nine and custom-built balanced all-FET amp

Elekit TU-882AS

unknown HF-er's Stax setup with two computers and SRM-1 MKII

NAD C521i and Harmon/Kardon HK560 vintage amp

Bazile's CIAudio VHP-2 and VDA-2 stack

Cavalli SOHA II SSE Hybrid amp

some of the cookies that [AK]Zip brought

unknown HF-er (forgot his username) @ the Little Dot MK VI / CA DacMagic setup

one of the two eXStatA amps that were in attendance

esoteric headphone alert: Lighthead F-700

 

[FrankCooter]

Al, your comments on the HE-5 were quite interesting. The HD-800 is a wonderful headphone. It's got detail, soundtage, extension, neutrality, etc. It hits all the audiophile buttons. But for me at least, it just doesn't "boogie". I find it cool, thin, and lifeless in the middle no matter how much I try to warm up to it. On the other hand, the HE-5 doesn't go particuly deep, has an average sound stage, and an unbalanced, upward tilted, presentation. But these things "boogie" like there's no tomorrow. Best presentation of guitar driven rock music I've ever heard. Same with female vocals. They scale up greatly with power. I'm driving mine with a GM70 based set amp originally intended for K-1000. You might want to think about building an amp for these. Apparently a "statement" model is in the works. My O2 fund is now on hold in anticipation.

 

[hvu]

Quote:

unknown HF-er (forgot his username) @ the Little Dot MK VI / CA DacMagic setup

Hehe, that is me hvu was to distracted checking out all the audio gear.

 

[swt61]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hopstretch /img/forum/go_quote.gif Would like to hear about Exstata + O2s from someone who does not hate O2s, plz.

It's a pretty nice combo Hoppy. Surprisingly nice considering the cost of the amp.

 

[luvdunhill]

Quote:

Originally Posted by FrankCooter /img/forum/go_quote.gif upward tilted, presentation

wow, I'm surprised to hear that! I sort of wrote them off all together, as I thought they were very laid back in the upper treble region.

I listened to them on a few amps and preferred my modded LCD-1 pretty much in every single facet, except for looks

I'll probably have to reevaluate them down the road, as I've talked to a few people I trust and they suspect large production variances, which could explain some of this.

 

[swt61]

A few more pics of the resurrected/re-cased β22.

 

[Voltron]

I need more impressions of my amp, er, I mean Marc's FET amp creation! Who listened and what did they hear?

 

[Jon L]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pabbi1 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Caveat: I just don't like the OII, and listened to unmodded and modded versions today - just not for me. Not now, not ever. This makes about 20 experiences with OII over a dozen units. So, using the HE60, I compared the 5 amps.

I've always felt similarly but would say I could live with O2 if I had a BHSE, but the only problem is HE60 doesn't exactly synergize great with BHSE, so you're looking at yet another powerful but liquid amp just for HE60.

Then there are those who claim HE60 sounds best out of HEV90(!), and who has one of those? So then one looks for similar-circuit Aristaeus, but O2 is not so hot with that.

Perhaps a super tweaked-out eXStrata with different tube complement for HE60 and O2 is the answer; at least I hope so.

 

[spritzer]

I for one loved the HE60 out of my old BH, easily beating the HE90 by being more focused, more linear and with a much cleaner bass output.