[BunnyNamedCraig]

A little late to the party... took the leap and bought an Elemental Watson.

Looking forward to try it out with my existing gears and see how much enjoyable it is.

According to the local vendor, it's one of the fastest moving gear they carry... yet, I don't see it readily available on second-hand market locally. It's a keeper to most? I wonder and I hope I'll share the same experience too.

Tell us what you think of it! We have sold a bunch of them locally but not sure what our online sales are like for it... I feel like most headfiers are afraid to make a jump on a product unless it's popular enough. I understand the logic, but In the end
There is great gear for a great price that won't get the time of day.

 

[grig]

A little late to the party... took the leap and bought an Elemental Watson.

Looking forward to try it out with my existing gears and see how much enjoyable it is.

According to the local vendor, it's one of the fastest moving gear they carry... yet, I don't see it readily available on second-hand market locally. It's a keeper to most? I wonder and I hope I'll share the same experience too.

update us asap

 

[chungjun]

Didn't manage to get much time into listening as I would have hoped for. Setting it up briefly over the weekend then real life takes over...

Initially experience is consistent with reviews here earlier. Plenty of power to spare... with HD800S, pot is around 10am. I wonder what you do with the rest? Speakers?

This is a first tube (or hybrid) for me. Rather green in this area so not really sure what to expect. At this point, my desktop setup is iFi iDSD Black Label which I do enjoy. Exploring what tube has to offer. Played around the setup of PC (Spotify) > iDSD Black Label (on Direct) > Elemental Watson > HD800S. The initial listening leave me with a singular take away experience of warmth and less clinical execution of the source I threw at it. Will post more after spending some more time with it.

Instructions sheet stated need a warm-up of 10 mins (up to 30mins to be 'optimum').

What keeps me wondering is also the official word on the two 'blue-switch/knob'? We have a conclusion yet what they do? I did not have much time to fiddle with it but at the moment aligned both to 6 o'clock position. Is there a default? Couldn't gather much info as the official website listed on the instruction sheet doesn't lead to any official web.

 

[chungjun]

Had another go at it last night with my HD800S.

I think my ears got accustomed to 'clinical' execution of the iDSD (BL), and what I hear is precise and clear sound signature with the iDSD driving the HD800S. And moving on, what I hear plugging in the Elemental Watson ("EW") is a touch / tinge of warmth (is this the 'tubey' sound everyone refers to?). I like the idea of it being a 'hybrid' (as oppose to being a 'pure' tube) and I felt that it pairs well with HD800S.

One take away last night was that I do find it enjoyable with classical music, strings, and listening to David Garrette doing his thing with his violin is quite satisfying through the EW.

I did played around with the 'blue-switch / knob'. Turning (clock-wise and counter-clockwise) to two extremes. At one of the extremes (I can't recall which), the sound of either the right / left will go away (i.e. silent). I've settled with the arrow pointing to 6pm for now.

 

[BunnyNamedCraig]

You're correct. We believe it's the tubes bias that you are moving

 

[grig]

Had another go at it last night with my HD800S.

I think my ears got accustomed to 'clinical' execution of the iDSD (BL), and what I hear is precise and clear sound signature with the iDSD driving the HD800S. And moving on, what I hear plugging in the Elemental Watson ("EW") is a touch / tinge of warmth (is this the 'tubey' sound everyone refers to?). I like the idea of it being a 'hybrid' (as oppose to being a 'pure' tube) and I felt that it pairs well with HD800S.

One take away last night was that I do find it enjoyable with classical music, strings, and listening to David Garrette doing his thing with his violin is quite satisfying through the EW.

I did played around with the 'blue-switch / knob'. Turning (clock-wise and counter-clockwise) to two extremes. At one of the extremes (I can't recall which), the sound of either the right / left will go away (i.e. silent). I've settled with the arrow pointing to 6pm for now.

You should try some old music '80-'90 like Ace of Base, Modern Talking and so on. In my opinion the EW does his best with this kind of music. Has you already mentioned this little amp has plenty of juice to virtually power any headphone on the market and who knows maybe speakers too. The small blue knobs should, control the pre-amp gain into your tubes. As you're probably familiar with adding gain will colour saturate the signal more and lower your noise floor, though easing off the gain will clean up the signal but raise your noise floor. Therefore changing tubes may reveal a different behaviour of this little amp.

 

[BunnyNamedCraig]

Speaking of, has anyone tried tube rolling with the Watson??

 

[chungjun]

Speaking of, has anyone tried tube rolling with the Watson??

Hmm... if I'm not mistaken somewhere page 3-5 of this Thread, there are discussions of tube rolling...

Anyway, so far, listening has been using iFi iDSD (BL) [switching between "Direct" or "Pre-Amp"] to Elemental Watson. To be honest, mixed feeling here and rather undecided if EW is a keeper for me (based on my current setup, YMMV). Don't get me wrong, EW is power-packed and I find it driving my HD800S with a lot to spare. Reservation for me is the iDSD (BL) seems to be driving it well enough too (perhaps in a different way from the EW).

Then again today, I just got my hands on a decent RCA cable to connect my DAP to Elemental Watson (Single Ended > RCA).

Hahaa! On one hand, I'm a little undecided. On the other, I'm spending on accessories for my EW.

 

[grig]

Hmm... if I'm not mistaken somewhere page 3-5 of this Thread, there are discussions of tube rolling...

Anyway, so far, listening has been using iFi iDSD (BL) [switching between "Direct" or "Pre-Amp"] to Elemental Watson. To be honest, mixed feeling here and rather undecided if EW is a keeper for me (based on my current setup, YMMV). Don't get me wrong, EW is power-packed and I find it driving my HD800S with a lot to spare. Reservation for me is the iDSD (BL) seems to be driving it well enough too (perhaps in a different way from the EW).

Then again today, I just got my hands on a decent RCA cable to connect my DAP to Elemental Watson (Single Ended > RCA).

Hahaa! On one hand, I'm a little undecided. On the other, I'm spending on accessories for my EW.

What's you're DAP ?

 

[chungjun]

What's you're DAP ?

DX200 by iBasso

 

[grig]

Okay, curious to hear you're thoughts after a few long long sessions, sometimes i use my fiio x1 with the EW

 

[chungjun]

Okay, curious to hear you're thoughts after a few long long sessions, sometimes i use my fiio x1 with the EW

Yup, for the moment, will be listening to it for longer sessions before my ears make up their mind.

Which headphone are you using with your EW? How do you find your pairing with EW so far?

 

[grig]

Yup, for the moment, will be listening to it for longer sessions before my ears make up their mind.

Which headphone are you using with your EW? How do you find your pairing with EW so far?

I use the HD 600 and the AT m40X and both they pair very well, i'm happy and even my dap is a good pair to the EW Listening to it right now How is going so far you're sessions ?

 

[grig]

Just bought a couple of those, 6Zh1P-EV the Russians, quite curious to see how will sound the EW with in a month or so i will know...

 

[chungjun]

Sounds exciting, those tubes 6Zh1P-EV. Do keep us posted! Then again... a month seems like a lot of time to deliver. Must be hard to get these tubes...