[MvRBE10]

Today the almost final monitoring board installed. The dc cables from the board to dave are now silver and shielded each and the connector is gold plated. Also ‘triode’ nick leaded me to another upgrade, he mentioned that on the dc4 the lenght of the cable mattered so we did some experiments. We want to keep some lenght so we added a few capacitors on the analog voltages and the digital line, upon the monitoring board. And this indeed gives it more blackness and openess. Its a little but it does and is noticable. This last version feels very musical and open on top of all my earlier findings. Needs some playing this week but first impressions is very good. Here some pictures. The pcb board is also very nice you truelly cant **** up any more however you apply the voltage or the abcence of it it wont let anything thrue if its not correct. Uber safe. Will try the utopia this week to figure out all the changes on this last upgrade on the farad lps.

First impression on the utopia is that the current setup gives the most natural bass sound i have heard on my setup. Also soundstage seems to be more backwards and slightly more open. I listen with original pads and a moon audio black dragon cable.

Very very nice combo now

 

[Powermankw]

So help me out guys... So now, with 6months, new gear, quality hi-res content... When it comes to stage and imaging... I have no clue what anyone is talking about.

The stage, is always between my ears. At best it is in front of my face. Left to right is obvious, but depth is not there. It is 2D, mostly in my head.

I have listened to binaural... Chesky spacial demonstrations... When isolated, and compared, you can definitely distinguish "space" in 3 dimensions. But it is near impossible "for me" to discern any real spacial difference in stage and depth of it, or layering of it. At best I can mentally project what I hear forward, but that is not something presented forward.

What's up with that?

 

[thecrow]

So help me out guys... So now, with 6months, new gear, quality hi-res content... When it comes to stage and imaging... I have no clue what anyone is talking about.

The stage, is always between my ears. At best it is in front of my face. Left to right is obvious, but depth is not there. It is 2D, mostly in my head.

I have listened to binaural... Chesky spacial demonstrations... When isolated, and compared, you can definitely distinguish "space" in 3 dimensions. But it is near impossible "for me" to discern any real spacial difference in stage and depth of it, or layering of it. At best I can mentally project what I hear forward, but that is not something presented forward.

What's up with that?

Have a listen to this WITH HEADPHONES for some fun and you will hear this all around you, further back and further forward.

 

[iamoneagain]

So help me out guys... So now, with 6months, new gear, quality hi-res content... When it comes to stage and imaging... I have no clue what anyone is talking about.

The stage, is always between my ears. At best it is in front of my face. Left to right is obvious, but depth is not there. It is 2D, mostly in my head.

I have listened to binaural... Chesky spacial demonstrations... When isolated, and compared, you can definitely distinguish "space" in 3 dimensions. But it is near impossible "for me" to discern any real spacial difference in stage and depth of it, or layering of it. At best I can mentally project what I hear forward, but that is not something presented forward.

What's up with that?

Maybe you need an amp with crossfeed? I’ve been listening to headphones my whole life, used to hearing recorded music more thru headphones than speakers. With the Utopia’s the soundstage is not that big but it’s still 3D for me. It’s like I’m at a small club and right by the stage so the singer is right in front of me but there is some depth and spacing of the other instruments. They are not just left and right but in the distance as well. The music extends out past my body in all directions. There has been a recording or two where it does sound like it coming from behind but not most music. The Chord Dave with Mscaler gave me the best feeling of depth.

 

[Powermankw]

Have a listen to this WITH HEADPHONES for some fun and you will hear this all around you, further back and further forward.

I will. Yes, binaural or other demonstrations of space are appearant. But I certainly will listen to this.

Like Amber Rubarths 17th Ward is definitely spacially defined... But even that it's like being front row in a small room. Totally cool... But still.

 

[Frankie D]

So help me out guys... So now, with 6months, new gear, quality hi-res content... When it comes to stage and imaging... I have no clue what anyone is talking about.

The stage, is always between my ears. At best it is in front of my face. Left to right is obvious, but depth is not there. It is 2D, mostly in my head.

I have listened to binaural... Chesky spacial demonstrations... When isolated, and compared, you can definitely distinguish "space" in 3 dimensions. But it is near impossible "for me" to discern any real spacial difference in stage and depth of it, or layering of it. At best I can mentally project what I hear forward, but that is not something presented forward.

What's up with that?

If you come from 2-channel and expect the same, forget it. The speakers are on your ears and not in front of you by 8 feet or so, and then, perhaps, have another 2 feet or so to their rear wall.

 

[Powermankw]

Maybe you need an amp with crossfeed? I’ve been listening to headphones my whole life, used to hearing recorded music more thru headphones than speakers. With the Utopia’s the soundstage is not that big but it’s still 3D for me. It’s like I’m at a small club and right by the stage so the singer is right in front of me but there is some depth and spacing of the other instruments. They are not just left and right but in the distance as well. The music extends out past my body in all directions. There has been a recording or two where it does sound like it coming from behind but not most music. The Chord Dave with Mscaler gave me the best feeling of depth.

Yes... Small space. This especially is not real important to me. It's a cool illusion, but still an illusion. It's not make or break for me... Fact is, space is recorded for 2 ch not HPs... And most of that is artificially generated. So it's just a trick. Really I'm just trying to reconsile what I read and what I hear.

 

[iamoneagain]

Yes... Small space. This especially is not real important to me. It's a cool illusion, but still an illusion. It's not make or break for me... Fact is, space is recorded for 2 ch not HPs... And most of that is artificially generated. So it's just a trick. Really I'm just trying to reconsile what I read and what I hear.

We’ll that’s why I didn’t end up keeping the Dave/mscaler. I don’t listen to a lot of live music or classical, so this extra depth wasn’t as high of requirement as extra weight to the music. I want to feel the impact of the drums, the texture of the bass. I don’t want clinical sound but emotional sound. I do like some depth but I’ve heard headphones where it sounds like I’m 15 rows back and I don’t feel connected. The Utopia’s are right up front and exciting.

 

[Powermankw]

Maybe you need an amp with crossfeed? I’ve been listening to headphones my whole life, used to hearing recorded music more thru headphones than speakers. With the Utopia’s the soundstage is not that big but it’s still 3D for me. It’s like I’m at a small club and right by the stage so the singer is right in front of me but there is some depth and spacing of the other instruments. They are not just left and right but in the distance as well. The music extends out past my body in all directions. There has been a recording or two where it does sound like it coming from behind but not most music. The Chord Dave with Mscaler gave me the best feeling of depth.

Oh... And yes I used cross-feed. It certainly cures the more obnoxious hard pans left/right and pulls to center... But that's the problem... It pulls everything to center even more narrow. I'll have to try using less and see if I can get a happy medium.

 

[hakunamakaka]

So help me out guys... So now, with 6months, new gear, quality hi-res content... When it comes to stage and imaging... I have no clue what anyone is talking about.

The stage, is always between my ears. At best it is in front of my face. Left to right is obvious, but depth is not there. It is 2D, mostly in my head.

I have listened to binaural... Chesky spacial demonstrations... When isolated, and compared, you can definitely distinguish "space" in 3 dimensions. But it is near impossible "for me" to discern any real spacial difference in stage and depth of it, or layering of it. At best I can mentally project what I hear forward, but that is not something presented forward.

What's up with that?

As Utopia has small drivers it is quite intimate sounding headphone. it won't give you that spacious experience with large images floating around you like some planars do, but Utopia's advantage is very precise instrument placement even in a small stage. I agree that utopias representation is a bit like tunnel in front of you, but it has depth just may require a bit more focus to hear it.

For example try koyoto connection tea house track and it shows people chatting in the back of your head at least -->
You need to remember headphone limitations, they won't give you the staging capabilities like speakers can, but I enjoy hp's because of different qualities that they can give.

As far as I know only abyss 1266 comes closer to speaker like experience

 

[Powermankw]

Nice. Oh I totally dig them. I would not pay more for a better stage. Now obviously reverb/echo... Sure echos are echos... Still hard to locate in space by point source positioning.

And while I don't consider this subject a negative, when I went to Harmon curve and relaxed the the upper mid/treble... It relaxed the in my face presentation to a social distance. That was a good adjustment.

 

[LCMusicLover]

So help me out guys... So now, with 6months, new gear, quality hi-res content... When it comes to stage and imaging... I have no clue what anyone is talking about.

The stage, is always between my ears. At best it is in front of my face. Left to right is obvious, but depth is not there. It is 2D, mostly in my head.

I have listened to binaural... Chesky spacial demonstrations... When isolated, and compared, you can definitely distinguish "space" in 3 dimensions. But it is near impossible "for me" to discern any real spacial difference in stage and depth of it, or layering of it. At best I can mentally project what I hear forward, but that is not something presented forward.

What's up with that?

IMHO, you're not wrong. To my ears, Utopia headstage is small and fairly 2-d although that varies quite a bit with different recordings, and different DACs (more than different amps to my ears).

It's also the most 'precise' stage I've heard (THAT instrument, RIGHT THERE).

 

[bluecar]

IMHO, you're not wrong. To my ears, Utopia headstage is small and fairly 2-d although that varies quite a bit with different recordings, and different DACs (more than different amps to my ears).

It's also the most 'precise' stage I've heard (THAT instrument, RIGHT THERE).

The liquid Platinum is no slouch, but so far with Utopia, I found I enjoyed the sound best using SE out of either a Nimbus US5 pro or (surprisingly) a Fidelice Precision Amp. Both delivered wider staging, without un-natural 'stretch' or compromises to the precision of the delivery. (the Fidelice is cheap too!) - good excuse to buy another amp and have a separate setup for dynamics vs Planars

No idea *why*, but that's my experience.

 

[LCMusicLover]

The liquid Platinum is no slouch, but so far with Utopia, I found I enjoyed the sound best using SE out of either a Nimbus US5 pro or (surprisingly) a Fidelice Precision Amp. Both delivered wider staging, without un-natural 'stretch' or compromises to the precision of the delivery. (the Fidelice is cheap too!) - good excuse to buy another amp and have a separate setup for dynamics vs Planars

No idea *why*, but that's my experience.

Yep, I can get some more air in the Utopia stage by fiddling w/ amps. Brimar CV-2492s vs Siemens CCa in my LP or Amorphous Core Transformers vs Nickel in my DSHA-3F.

Still think DACs made more difference to the stage.

 

[bluecar]

Still think DACs made more difference to the stage.

oh for sure- but its still nice to make sure nothing's left on the table, amp-wise