Quote:
Originally Posted by ojnihs
Definitely looks like a nice comfy chair to do some extensive listening in...
Can't wait to hear impressions on how the balanced K340's sound out of the Lavry!
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I think I'd been checking the wrong section of head-fi, looking for this thread.
Yes, the chair was remarkably comfy. Excellent for listening sessions.
Impressions?
Where to begin...hmmm. Well, I do have one preliminary impression, and that is that Jay (Philodox) is in fact, Lucifer (
) , master of the underworld- because after listening to his heavily-modded K340's balanced, out of the Lavry, there is no way that sound that good is of this earth. Also the fact that he's forever ruined my ability to listen to mid-fi set ups- so my wallet is now in some serious jeopardy. Awesome guy, though...
The Lavry was amazing. It was hard to isolate what specific sonic attributes were directly attributable to what, because I got a chance to listen to the Eastsound, but with a somewhat sub-par older Corda amp, whose name I can't remember off the top of my head (h-1?). So the contrast moving from the Eastsound and Corda, to the Lavry, with the Eastsound as transport, using the Lavry's own very capable internal amp...was dramatic, but also difficult to pin-point, in terms of where the improvements were coming from.
I'm sure Jay could do an infinitely better job in projecting what is responsible for what, in the chain- so I defer to him, as far as any of that. I have been making due with a very ghetto set-up, until I can upgrade my home gear, and some of the complaints I've had about my primary (and only) current headphone, the HF-1, I've realized are not so much flaws in the headphone...rather they're directly attributable to my poor source/amp combo.
The HF-1 has great impactful bass, but on my system (if you can call it that), it is a little out of control and muddy. It is much more defined, resolved, and yet retains the same characteristic punch, through the Lavry. Any boom on the bottom end that was thought to be a characteristic intrinsic to the headphone, was clearly established to be a function of the system it is being heard with.
The Lavry brought forward the mids vs. my own system, and resolved the treble region tremendously. High hat cymbals became immediately 'shimmery' and the soundstage, even with the relatively compressed Grado, opened up tremendously. Imaging isn't a great strength of the Grado, but everything was improved, including imagine. However, as I was soon to discover, imaging and soundstage are the forte of the AKG K340.
Hmmm...what to say about the K340? I want one. If you mostly listen to rock, the Grado's are excellent...but I listen to a variety of styles of rock/metal/alternative...and also a lot of more ambient stuff, and stuff that would benefit tremendously from the strength of the AKG's.
My primary test CD was
The Mars Volta,
De-Loused in the Comatorium. Those that have heard The Mars Volta, know that, while not 'ambient', they make significant use of soundstage and imaging in their music. I had anticipated, considering that ultimately, they're still relatively hard progressive 'rock' (if they could ever be classified?), that I would prefer the Grado's for listening to them. Not when the imaging and soundstage of the AKG's, as well as their lush and forward mids, enter the picture. Unbelievable. I later listened to a bi-naural (sp?) track that's used with the STAX, and the AKG's are just so damned accurate, spatially.
The bass on the AKG's was immediately noted as deeper than that of the bass of the HF-1's, and although somewhat less impactful, is of a higher quality and better resolution. I'm in love with those headphones. Jay is using HF-1's and the AKG's for his listening, and I think they're a great compliment to each other. In fact, I'm going to stop talking about the AKG's now, because the last thing I want is to further fan the flames of the hot market for those headphones.
Suffice to say, eventually I'm getting one. Maybe not for another year, maybe not for longer- but eventually, it will be mine. Oh yes. It will be mine. *cough* Sorry- got a little overcome there...
One note, though- Jay's pair are heavily modded, and I don't think they're likely to be representative of the average pair of K340's floating around the market place. So if you do see a pair, don't buy them.
In conclusion, although I'll try to add some more thoughts if I get more time, later on...I have a hard time believing that the headphone-world gets a lot better than what I heard last night. The Lavry, the AKG's....the Eastsound as a transport....great synergy. The Lavry, in particular, deserves every bit of praise that it seems to have received. I'm not especially well-versed in sources, but it didn't really take someone well-versed in sources to identify the strength and quality of that all-in-one solution.
The AKG is awesome, but it's so specialized and unique, with what Jay and Larry at Headphile have done with it, that I don't think it's of great benefit to go on too much more about them- both because of my fear of driving up the market on myself
but more because it's unlikely there's another AKG K340 (and I would even venture to guess AKG, generally) out there that sounds as good.
