[Plautus001]

And my Schiit Lyr is another value match up.

If I were to do it all over again, I would consider the Schiit LYR3 with built in Multibit or a Bifrost too instead of having an amp collection.

 

[elira]

My Flux FA-12 is a very nice pairing with my Grados (Hemp and PS2000e), but it's kind of huge.

 

[jonathan c]

If I were to do it all over again, I would consider the Schiit LYR3 with built in Multibit or a Bifrost too instead of having an amp collection.

But amp collections are fun……

 

[jonathan c]

My Flux FA-12 is a very nice pairing with my Grados (Hemp and PS2000e), but it's kind of huge.

On a desk, yes. On a shelf, not so.

 

[jonathan c]

Grado x-series question: are there any broad generalizations that folks are comfortable making about x versus previous iterations across the different models? Waiting patiently to hear the PS500x. Jonathan.

When new materials/techniques are involved (e.g. three wood blend in RS-1x) in some but not all product lines, generalisations are hard to make…

 

[Bernard23]

Exactly!

Horsepower does not tell you whether or not a car is fun to drive.

Basically many of his recommended products do not sound better than the products he rails against.

Amir, and tbh the science community generally does not tell you that. It just tells you how much horsepower you have. The rest is up to you, FWIW people are paid a lot of money with the skill to intepret the data! Over to you!

 

[Plautus001]

Amir, and tbh the science community generally does not tell you that. It just tells you how much horsepower you have. The rest is up to you, FWIW people are paid a lot of money with the skill to intepret the data! Over to you!

I'll bite...

I do not think Amir has the knowledge or skill to interpret how good a headphone sounds.

He can read his graphs on the limited parameters he utilizes; however, his parameters do not always equate to real world results.

In addition, I don't trust his "ears" he really doesn't seem to understand how his graphs relate to how the headphones "sound" while listening to MUSIC.

I worked in the home/car audio industry for 20 years as a salesperson, manufacture representative, importer, distributor, and consultant.

We used to install, design, and sell subwoofer systems for cars and speakers for homes. We used the most up to date and utilized software at the time, along with a spectrum analyzer. My head installer had an Electronics degree and we found that if we followed the graphs the program suggested, the box would sound like "ass".

We had to use the program by adjusting the raw results with real world application.

1. A speaker or subwoofer that look great on a graph may not sound great in a room or car.
2. A subwoofer that sounds great on a showroom floor may not sound good in a car.
3. A speaker that sounds great at a shop may not sound great in your room.

Sidenote, many of the best speakers and subwoofer boxes we designed ended up being designed with a calculator and looking at the room or car it would be used in first....

Over to you....

 

[movinIron]

I found that once I had it straightened out it stayed that way unless I did a lot of moving around. I also found the length was very manageable. Not important but I think it looks better and does afford protection to the cable.

Not so good if you get past tapping and start dancing around.

I knew I got something wrong…

Many thanks for your insights and experience.

My pleasure.

I have difficulties in having to put words on sound impression and sound quality. I'm way past my thirties and have relatively recently tried to explore this (expensive) fascinating forum. Being climbing "up the ladder" so to speak. After getting some decent gear, the first wow was trying 24 bit vs. 16 bit. : Couldn't put a word to the difference, but I felt it

The easiest way to say it is saying it the way it was designed: 16 bit means a dynamic of 16 steps.
24 bits one of 24 steps, 32… so you receive a better overall dynamic and the thing you instantly sense but what feels like you can lay your hand on it. Better microdynamics. The microdynamics, especially in the roll-off of a note, tone, vowel is part of the body of a sound. And this ‘body’ is one of the things making a sound organic, the so called warmth.
An effect you can sense best on ‘cold‘ sounding stuff as Yamaha, Lehmann, AKG, the Hifiman Sundara.
(If we hear cold, we tend to think it’s bad, which is a gut feeling and completely Bullschiit. Think about the AKG 701/702, which is an extremly fast, precise, analytical, spatial and very good sounding headphone. It‘s overall sound signature is cold. Best combine this with warm sounding stuff like the Marantz HD-DAC1 or the Mojo. If something (phone, amp, DAC) gets to cold it becomes hard, harsh. Not till then it becomes bad. Too warm is also bad: soft, muddy, unprecise. Too long/ artificial roll-offs and extreme crossfeeding can have this effect.)

(yes I am aware of snake oil and I like it if it adds to the SQ).

Yeah, the good old snake oil. Voodoo. Even more this bad, bad psycho-acoustic thing, pure grifting…
(I‘m kidding, psycho-acoustic is the science of how your brain processes hearing. MIMI Hearing, Sennheiser, especially Bose are doing pretty much research about what happens in your brain while hearing.) Of course some can do very …lucrative things with that. (Watch out for Phonosophie. For example: A glass stick under your CD player, catching free photons… Uh, yes… oookaayy?)
There are things, that works. Some can hear, it some can‘t, some don’t like the effects and some don’t want to hear it. It‘s a never ending discussion.
Interconnect cables, headphone cables, speaker cables work, but they can not just improve your sound, they can even make it worse.
Digital enhancers sometimes work. The Jitterbug has audible effect on the Mojo.
Power filters work.
Having a separate power circuit for your H(ead/)igh Fi-, home cinema system works.
Sound bases, damping and coupling feet work. Wall mounting works.
The things I tried pretty hard, but could not sense the slightest effect:
- powercords
- silver solder (I bought it, so I will go on using it)
- shielded optical cables
- the Jitterbug with Oppo HA-2SE
- plugs
… coffee this morning.

…. Probably I'll wait a bit before deciding to mod the Grados. They sound very good indeed through the SE output

overly stiffness, no comfort due to the material, poor lenght and the way after the split cable that both cables seem to want to tangle together asap once they are put on stands. its really all pathetic
at least they sound great. ill get used to it but *** I look at the HD650 cable and that cable is 15$. why not use those type of simple cables?

Uhm, as spare parts? Ok, kidding. They work. In the lengendary Steve G.‘s words about cables that were in the box/by-packed :‘These are good, these are fine.‘ And he is right! Most can live with that.
The most audible effect, more than switching to balanced, I expierienced, was changing the Night Owls (‘Nightbird’-) cable into a Cardas Cross. It instantly became another phone.
The original reason was - it is the most horrible cable I ever carried around. I swear this thing has it’s own will!

…
another question: what source are you using out there?

Vinyl - 2 record stores around here. One is also my favorite café.
Flac - 24/192, 24/96 downloads, mostly Qobuz. Notebook/pad/ DAPs.
Audible - mobile phone. It‘s some mpeg1 Layer4 codec, I guess.
CD
Tape
DSD - Discs. A few Rock, Blues and Jazz discs

no DXD
no streaming. Tried Spotify for 2 years, Amazon Music 1 year, Tidal 2 years. Currently no streaming.

Never MQA! Downloaded a few tracks, bought several CDs - result: flac sounds much better.

is it worth to try anything over 24-44.1?

Jepp!

MQA?DSD?DXD?

DSD - ‘bout 30 discs, asingle DSD64 download somewhere…
DXD - none
MQA - Quoth the raven, “Nevermore.“

 

[murphythecat]

Amir, and tbh the science community generally does not tell you that. It just tells you how much horsepower you have. The rest is up to you, FWIW people are paid a lot of money with the skill to intepret the data! Over to you!

Amir aint telling any long commers anything my friend

he prays on newbies in this hobby with his pseudo science

I'll repeat. Avoid Amir as much as you can. He's full of it. and I wont even try to convince you. We are already about 5 guys to tell you and you seem to want to insist he's not that bad. Trust. we know.

EDIT: oh, I missed that part where you said that interpreting Amir data is worth something. lol. is that what he tells his audience? Didnt he ask for money recently?

 

[punkmanmatthew]

Sounds like I’m really there only Grados have done this for me!

 

[Stevko]

One day I gonna try tubes with my Grados!

 

[Bernard23]

I'll bite...

I do not think Amir has the knowledge or skill to interpret how good a headphone sounds.

He can read his graphs on the limited parameters he utilizes; however, his parameters do not always equate to real world results.

In addition, I don't trust his "ears" he really doesn't seem to understand how his graphs relate to how the headphones "sound" while listening to MUSIC.

I worked in the home/car audio industry for 20 years as a salesperson, manufacture representative, importer, distributor, and consultant.

We used to install, design, and sell subwoofer systems for cars and speakers for homes. We used the most up to date and utilized software at the time, along with a spectrum analyzer. My head installer had an Electronics degree and we found that if we followed the graphs the program suggested, the box would sound like "ass".

We had to use the program by adjusting the raw results with real world application.

1. A speaker or subwoofer that look great on a graph may not sound great in a room or car.
2. A subwoofer that sounds great on a showroom floor may not sound good in a car.
3. A speaker that sounds great at a shop may not sound great in your room.

Sidenote, many of the best speakers and subwoofer boxes we designed ended up being designed with a calculator and looking at the room or car it would be used in first....

Over to you....

I think we're in violent agreement here, as in use measurement to inform a decision. I don't trust anyone's ears, they're pretty poor as measurement instruments.

 

[movinIron]

One day I gonna try tubes with my Grados!

Haven’t done yet???

 

[Bernard23]

Amir aint telling any long commers anything my friend

he prays on newbies in this hobby with his pseudo science

I'll repeat. Avoid Amir as much as you can. He's full of it. and I wont even try to convince you. We are already about 5 guys to tell you and you seem to want to insist he's not that bad. Trust. we know.

EDIT: oh, I missed that part where you said that interpreting Amir data is worth something. lol. is that what he tells his audience? Didnt he ask for money recently?

I think you're missing my point. I have many reservations about the data that he publishes, it's incomplete and not really scientific. What I do applaud though is the attempt to do something, and it simply spout unsubstantiated subjective twaddle like so many reviewers do.
I'm not an amir fan boi, I'm a fan of measurement science, which is generally lacking in the consumer audio industry.

 

[Stevko]

Haven’t done yet???

Nope. No tubes and no vinyl