carlo
Founder of 5 in heavy rotation
- Joined
- Oct 9, 2001
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Big thanks to Edwin for the opportunity to hear his setup, for his hospitality, and for being a hell of a nice guy.
Equally big thanks to those who lent some of the gear below (I'll let you speak up if you choose to be known).
The setups:
Nakamichi CD Player
Tara Labs Air 3 Interconnects
EAR HP4 (stock tubes)
Sahuro Air Dielectric Power Cord
Nakamichi CD Player (According to Edwin its sonically the same as the other one. Only visual difference was track selection and a headphone jack).
Cardas Neutral Reference Interconnects
Heavily Modified Melos SHA-1 (Mullard 7308 gold pin)
Tek-Line PC5W Power Cord
Combinations listed in the order I listened to them. The farther you go the more I talk about each component's sound characteristics (I'm going from my notes).
R10+HP4
The magic of the combination isn't a myth, and the one word that describes it best is "intimate." The presentation is that of a small room, the boundaries concave (like looking through a fish-eye lens) and the instruments decay in space. On well recorded disks (specifically Steve Hoffman's DCC transfer of Joni Mitchell's Blue) sounded as if the performer was on my lap, her hot breath in my ear, while the accompanying musicians stood in opposite corners, their instruments sounding full and lush. Acoustic instruments shine here, the amp translates the body and purity of those notes as well as anything out there. And that's coming from someone with a speaker background.
For this listener there are two things that only show up in the best of systems: cymbals and Joni Mitchell. Inferior systems have sad imitations of each, either sounding too hard and brittle or too soft and hollow. All of these system combinations listed here get it partially right (which, in case you've never heard cymbals and/or Joni Mitchell in person, is depressingly rare) but this system got it the most right. Sounds float in space with air and wholeness and speed and believability and ******* its sexy. I commented to Edwin that I could listen to Blue all day on that setup and he responded that he's found himself losing hours to music... I was so lost in it I stopped switching albums for a while.
What the combination lacks, and its glaring, are balls. Electric guitar, kick drums, bass guitar, Mick Jagger, all of it sounds vacant. While notes decay with the time and feel that they should, their attack (the first strike or pluck of the instrument) is soft. As a result these instruments don't have the definition I need to consider the sounds passable, and while the combo is haunting and palpable on acoustics its awful on electrics. The soundstage and boundaries that were previously warm and inviting were now warped, and that small intimate room felt like it sucking the rock out of my rock and roll. Notes overlap and blend (in my opinion this isn't due to speed but to the attack characteristics above).
I can't really capture the frustration I had with that duality, the presentation and boundaries that sounded warm and inviting and intimate now sounded warped and annoying and distant. When I pushed play on any of my The Who or Aimee Mann disks I couldn't believe it was the same combination that sounded so *******ed good with Wes Montgomery. I spent most of my time with this setup and when it was good it was the best, but versatile it isn't.
HP-1+HP4
Going from the R10 to the HP-1, with this amp, felt like everything was put into focus. I felt as if I was 5th row back looking at a stage, the boundaries of each side well defined and straight. Cymbals sounded as good as they did with the R10, if sharper (not as shimmery, but certainly not bright). Joni was no longer on my lap and I missed her, but I was starting to understand that while the R10 seduces the HP-1 lets me see whats going on.
The HP-1 has the ability to layer notes and musicians, enough so those performers have depth and separation. The farthest instrument sounds farther with the R10 (and I do think thats important), but the space between is ruled by the HP-1. This headphone on this amp has the best soundstage I've heard from headphones, while the R10 placed the center right in front of me everyone else felt distorted. Now everyone took a spot and stayed there.
Bass lines, both in depth and definition, increased enough for double bass to be passable but deep drums still sounded weak and diffused. I didn't feel restricted by source material any longer, and while I still have major reservations about the attack of the amp the sharpness of notes and the lack of exaggeration on the sound (the amp feels effortless and relaxed, airy and unstrained) is special. While listening to this setup I wrote the best description I could:
Its like undressing a beautiful woman and the lights are off.
The HP-1+HP4 is too polite, a trait I've never associated with the HP-1. I lacked the mid-bass definition, the linearity in bottom octaves, and the whole deal sounded soft and inoffensive compared to what I usually get with the HP-1; but the soundstage was so large and defined that it was hard to pull away from the sound. Compared to the R10 with the same amp the HP-1 is a sharper, truer sounding headphone - but I kept waiting for the music to capture me... aggrivating.
---
Notes below are for a system incorporating a Melos SHA-1 I modified. Moderators please feel free to delete it if you feel its inappropriate, Members should always keep salt shakers handy.
Modifications list (at time of audition): Tantalum resistors at input stage, Auricaps at all signal path locations, Caddock resistors at output stage, Black Gate NX and Standard Series in power supply, ultra-fast soft recovery diodes, wiring modifications (all of the pervious is outlined in the "Melos Mods" post in the DIY Forum) and an Alps Black Beauty stepped attenuator. 40 hours of break-in (every cap and resistor in the signal path was changed).
---
R10+Mod'd SHA-1
There goes that damn intimacy again, but so help me I like it. Joni was back on my lap, but she wasn't whispering in my ear anymore and she wasn't making me lean back and sink like I did with the HP4. What I did hear was the room, her voice decayed down a hall and the rhythm guitar that's usually on the right sounded as if it was slightly behind me. The side to side soundstage sounded simply weird, but it was interesting and unique. Transients and percussion (microdynamics) sound crazy fast but spatially fuzzy.
Notes decay with a sense of fading into space that the HP-1 doesn't capture, its one of the things that adds to the magic of the R10. The headphone has a huge list of annoyances: its soft and weak at both frequency extremes, the soundstage feels unlinear and round, depth sounds exaggerated, its got very identifiable characteristics. None of those complaints apply to the HP-1, and its that headphone's greatest accomplishment. The R10 places music in a small setting and creates a space for the performers, just like speakers can. The problem is that room is the headphone's, not the recording's.
The mod'd SHA-1 gets attack, the top end, deep bass notes, and drive/speed better than the HP4 does. The HP4 can decay in a way that a Melos (including my heavily modified Gold-Reference) can't and probably never will. The HP4 is relaxed, the mod'd SHA-1 sounds closer in presentation and brings some excitement back into the music at the expense of the oh so great seductiveness of the EAR. The highest highs and lowest lows with the R10 benefited from the amp and it showed definition (if not impact), but I didn't get the body in acoustics that I did before. Wes Montgomery sounded palpable with the R10/HP4, here he has better placement and there's a groovy double bass. But I didn't get lost in it.
Rock and Roll through the R10 is groovy. Once again the HP-1 brings the stage but the R10 brings the guitars a little closer and is doing crazy things with space. Obviously I feel the HP-1 is the more accurate headphone, but the R10 brings something they don't. Edwin said, early on in the audition, that he felt the HP-1 was the perfect compliment to the R10. I agree with him, except I'd say the R10 would compliment the HP-1.
HP-1+mod'd SHA-1
Didn't listen to it at Edwin's place, not going to comment about it here (doing so is something I consider inappropriate).
Bonus comments about the Sennheiser HD-600
There was a Cardas'd HD-600 at the meet, and I did spend a few minutes with it, but compared to the R10 and HP-1 it wasn't worth my time. Edwin and I both have a speaker background when it comes to HiFi, and after listening to a lot of different amps we never thought headphones could come close to a moderately priced ($5k) smartly assembled speaker system. We were both using Sennheisers.
The difference between the R10 and HP-1 is significant, but what they both can do is sound really *******ed good. So good that speaker comparisons aren't in the back of my mind, I'm digging what the headphone and amp and system are doing... I spend as much time laughing at people who say Sennheiser HD600/580 are in the upper echelon of headphones as I do laughing at my stupid assumptions. Compared to the R10 and HP-1 the HD600 w/Cardas Cable sounds diffused, soft, and way too forgiving to ever be called neutral.
sorry this took so long,
carlo.
Equally big thanks to those who lent some of the gear below (I'll let you speak up if you choose to be known).
The setups:
Nakamichi CD Player
Tara Labs Air 3 Interconnects
EAR HP4 (stock tubes)
Sahuro Air Dielectric Power Cord
Nakamichi CD Player (According to Edwin its sonically the same as the other one. Only visual difference was track selection and a headphone jack).
Cardas Neutral Reference Interconnects
Heavily Modified Melos SHA-1 (Mullard 7308 gold pin)
Tek-Line PC5W Power Cord
Combinations listed in the order I listened to them. The farther you go the more I talk about each component's sound characteristics (I'm going from my notes).
R10+HP4
The magic of the combination isn't a myth, and the one word that describes it best is "intimate." The presentation is that of a small room, the boundaries concave (like looking through a fish-eye lens) and the instruments decay in space. On well recorded disks (specifically Steve Hoffman's DCC transfer of Joni Mitchell's Blue) sounded as if the performer was on my lap, her hot breath in my ear, while the accompanying musicians stood in opposite corners, their instruments sounding full and lush. Acoustic instruments shine here, the amp translates the body and purity of those notes as well as anything out there. And that's coming from someone with a speaker background.
For this listener there are two things that only show up in the best of systems: cymbals and Joni Mitchell. Inferior systems have sad imitations of each, either sounding too hard and brittle or too soft and hollow. All of these system combinations listed here get it partially right (which, in case you've never heard cymbals and/or Joni Mitchell in person, is depressingly rare) but this system got it the most right. Sounds float in space with air and wholeness and speed and believability and ******* its sexy. I commented to Edwin that I could listen to Blue all day on that setup and he responded that he's found himself losing hours to music... I was so lost in it I stopped switching albums for a while.
What the combination lacks, and its glaring, are balls. Electric guitar, kick drums, bass guitar, Mick Jagger, all of it sounds vacant. While notes decay with the time and feel that they should, their attack (the first strike or pluck of the instrument) is soft. As a result these instruments don't have the definition I need to consider the sounds passable, and while the combo is haunting and palpable on acoustics its awful on electrics. The soundstage and boundaries that were previously warm and inviting were now warped, and that small intimate room felt like it sucking the rock out of my rock and roll. Notes overlap and blend (in my opinion this isn't due to speed but to the attack characteristics above).
I can't really capture the frustration I had with that duality, the presentation and boundaries that sounded warm and inviting and intimate now sounded warped and annoying and distant. When I pushed play on any of my The Who or Aimee Mann disks I couldn't believe it was the same combination that sounded so *******ed good with Wes Montgomery. I spent most of my time with this setup and when it was good it was the best, but versatile it isn't.
HP-1+HP4
Going from the R10 to the HP-1, with this amp, felt like everything was put into focus. I felt as if I was 5th row back looking at a stage, the boundaries of each side well defined and straight. Cymbals sounded as good as they did with the R10, if sharper (not as shimmery, but certainly not bright). Joni was no longer on my lap and I missed her, but I was starting to understand that while the R10 seduces the HP-1 lets me see whats going on.
The HP-1 has the ability to layer notes and musicians, enough so those performers have depth and separation. The farthest instrument sounds farther with the R10 (and I do think thats important), but the space between is ruled by the HP-1. This headphone on this amp has the best soundstage I've heard from headphones, while the R10 placed the center right in front of me everyone else felt distorted. Now everyone took a spot and stayed there.
Bass lines, both in depth and definition, increased enough for double bass to be passable but deep drums still sounded weak and diffused. I didn't feel restricted by source material any longer, and while I still have major reservations about the attack of the amp the sharpness of notes and the lack of exaggeration on the sound (the amp feels effortless and relaxed, airy and unstrained) is special. While listening to this setup I wrote the best description I could:
Its like undressing a beautiful woman and the lights are off.
The HP-1+HP4 is too polite, a trait I've never associated with the HP-1. I lacked the mid-bass definition, the linearity in bottom octaves, and the whole deal sounded soft and inoffensive compared to what I usually get with the HP-1; but the soundstage was so large and defined that it was hard to pull away from the sound. Compared to the R10 with the same amp the HP-1 is a sharper, truer sounding headphone - but I kept waiting for the music to capture me... aggrivating.
---
Notes below are for a system incorporating a Melos SHA-1 I modified. Moderators please feel free to delete it if you feel its inappropriate, Members should always keep salt shakers handy.
Modifications list (at time of audition): Tantalum resistors at input stage, Auricaps at all signal path locations, Caddock resistors at output stage, Black Gate NX and Standard Series in power supply, ultra-fast soft recovery diodes, wiring modifications (all of the pervious is outlined in the "Melos Mods" post in the DIY Forum) and an Alps Black Beauty stepped attenuator. 40 hours of break-in (every cap and resistor in the signal path was changed).
---
R10+Mod'd SHA-1
There goes that damn intimacy again, but so help me I like it. Joni was back on my lap, but she wasn't whispering in my ear anymore and she wasn't making me lean back and sink like I did with the HP4. What I did hear was the room, her voice decayed down a hall and the rhythm guitar that's usually on the right sounded as if it was slightly behind me. The side to side soundstage sounded simply weird, but it was interesting and unique. Transients and percussion (microdynamics) sound crazy fast but spatially fuzzy.
Notes decay with a sense of fading into space that the HP-1 doesn't capture, its one of the things that adds to the magic of the R10. The headphone has a huge list of annoyances: its soft and weak at both frequency extremes, the soundstage feels unlinear and round, depth sounds exaggerated, its got very identifiable characteristics. None of those complaints apply to the HP-1, and its that headphone's greatest accomplishment. The R10 places music in a small setting and creates a space for the performers, just like speakers can. The problem is that room is the headphone's, not the recording's.
The mod'd SHA-1 gets attack, the top end, deep bass notes, and drive/speed better than the HP4 does. The HP4 can decay in a way that a Melos (including my heavily modified Gold-Reference) can't and probably never will. The HP4 is relaxed, the mod'd SHA-1 sounds closer in presentation and brings some excitement back into the music at the expense of the oh so great seductiveness of the EAR. The highest highs and lowest lows with the R10 benefited from the amp and it showed definition (if not impact), but I didn't get the body in acoustics that I did before. Wes Montgomery sounded palpable with the R10/HP4, here he has better placement and there's a groovy double bass. But I didn't get lost in it.
Rock and Roll through the R10 is groovy. Once again the HP-1 brings the stage but the R10 brings the guitars a little closer and is doing crazy things with space. Obviously I feel the HP-1 is the more accurate headphone, but the R10 brings something they don't. Edwin said, early on in the audition, that he felt the HP-1 was the perfect compliment to the R10. I agree with him, except I'd say the R10 would compliment the HP-1.
HP-1+mod'd SHA-1
Didn't listen to it at Edwin's place, not going to comment about it here (doing so is something I consider inappropriate).
Bonus comments about the Sennheiser HD-600
There was a Cardas'd HD-600 at the meet, and I did spend a few minutes with it, but compared to the R10 and HP-1 it wasn't worth my time. Edwin and I both have a speaker background when it comes to HiFi, and after listening to a lot of different amps we never thought headphones could come close to a moderately priced ($5k) smartly assembled speaker system. We were both using Sennheisers.
The difference between the R10 and HP-1 is significant, but what they both can do is sound really *******ed good. So good that speaker comparisons aren't in the back of my mind, I'm digging what the headphone and amp and system are doing... I spend as much time laughing at people who say Sennheiser HD600/580 are in the upper echelon of headphones as I do laughing at my stupid assumptions. Compared to the R10 and HP-1 the HD600 w/Cardas Cable sounds diffused, soft, and way too forgiving to ever be called neutral.
sorry this took so long,
carlo.
