phidauex
Sees your every move. Eats your potatoes.
- Joined
- Mar 19, 2002
- Posts
- 203
- Likes
- 10
Hey hey, I got back from the St. Louis stop this evening, and man-o-man, it was everything I dreamed of and more. I say once again, do whatever possible to go. This tour is for us. Its for lots of things, of course, but we were a driving motivation for them to pack up and drive thousands of miles with a quarter million dollars worth of equipment. You owe it to yourself to take this wonderful opprotunity!!
Tyll is a real character! He knows his stuff too.
It was a real pleasure working with him, and talking with him, and watching him give the straight dope to all the visitors. Venzuel00 took the Greyhound bus (!!!) all the way from up near Chicago to make the tour (finals kept him from the actual Chicago tour, I believe). He came up on Saturday, crashed at my place, and then we spent the day at the show. As I write this on Sunday Night, he's on the greyhound bus, trucking it back for an early morning arrival back home, to go to class early monday morning. THAT, my friends, is dedication! And he says it was all worth it.
Anyway, some people have given some great descriptions of equipment, but I'll add a little more commentary (of course).
First off, lets get the big stuff out of the way:
Orpheus vs. Blockhead /w HD600s n' Cardas. Man oh man. When you die and go to heaven, they let you pick one of these setups to go along with your halo and harp. Tyll was insistent that I listen to both, and he feels that the Blockhead setup is superior. Now, I gave them both some good listenin', and I feel he is mostly correct. The Orpheus, when playing female vocals, or a nice acoustic guitar, just sings. Its so lush and sweet and delicious. I felt like Bjork was just whispering sweet music straight into my ears. I thought I could close my eyes, turn my head, and give her a kiss. My god it was beautiful. Plus, the amp just looks staggering. All glass and chrome, it looks like its WORTH every single one of those 12,000$ (Tyll told me an amusing story of a man who purchased THREE of them for his house, because he loved them so much, ask him to tell you about it when you visit the show
). However, when the man with the upright bass in the corner started to get down, and baritone sax started dropping octaves to hum you a tune, the Orpheus didn't keep up. The man in the corner with the bass stayed in the corner, playing politely. The sax didn't wail and grind, it just played politely. I don't like that. I play bass, and let me tell you, I don't like polite bass. I like bass that really gets in there, that really pumps out a groove to carry the music along on. Thats where the Blockhead took off running. Switch to the Blockhead w/ HD600 and cardas cables, and all of a sudden, that bass player got out of the corner and started to wail, and the bari sax player kicked up the energy a notch, and wobbled your brain with sweet, toneful, musical, DEEP bass. All of a sudden, the vocals still sounded fabulous, but they were surrounded with all the other instruments. But it didn't sound busy, each instrument kept to its own area. Turn on the processor, and things imaged even more realistically. I found that the brightness switches made things too bright, I preferred to leave them off. Now, admittedly, the Blockhead had a bit of an advantage in that it was getting the balanced outputs directly from the CD player, whereas the Orpheus was getting an input off of the distribution amp (a very bitching distribution amp though, remember). But hey, if you've got balanced dual mono-blocks, flaunt it baby.
Anyway, I would kill a man for either of those systems, but if I had to buy one, I'd take the Blockhead w/ HD600 n' cardas cables.
Other stuff in the hi-end cabinet? Stax Omegas were very nice, but I found them to possess absolutely not slam, which ain't no good. I like punch. They were detailed as all getout though, you could hear Wynton Marsalis's spit valve draining onto the floor. Anyway, nice, but not my style. The Cary amp was nice also, a solid performer, but it didn't really attract me too strongly. A/Bing with the Max and the Blockhead, there is definately a difference. When you take two Max's and slap them together, and make them balanced, its really worth it.
Other cabinets? Who needs em! Just kidding! The 'all dynamic' headphone cabinet was nice, just comparing headphones, not listening to the amps. Finally got to listen to most of the Grado line. I like the SR-60s, a really solid phone for the price. The rest of the Grado's until the RS-1 were too bright for my taste. The 325 made my eyes water. I suspect they would be great for rock, but I didn't prefer them for my music. The RS-1s tamed down quite a bit though, and they were a real pleasure to listen too.
The HD590/580/600s, well, the HD600s are super duper, of course, they really were nice. But I'm once again confirmed in my enjoyment of the HD590s. They are a bit different of an animal than the 580/600, but I think it sounds very good. The slightly brighter character is definately appreciated by my ears.
Portable land was neat, I was unimpressed by the Grado RA-1, but it definately matches the RS-2s in appearance. The JMT amp was definately nice, it was a bit better than my cmoy amp, but my cmoy has crossfeed, which I like. The airhead and the total airhead are very different. Well, not VERY different, but I think the Total would be worth that extra 80$ for sure. Its a real world example of the drastic change made by just adding better individual components. I now have a TAH as well, for helping out for the day, and for the record, its pot doesn't scratch at all while changing volumes, nor does it noticablely mistrack at lower volumes. I think the build quality on the case is actually slightly less than my cmoy, but the cmoy's case is slightly larger (I'm using a Serpac H-65-9V transparent blue case, its quite solid). The right angle mini-mini that comes with it is also a very nice addition.
Damn its late, I have work tommorow!! More info up tommorow, as well as pictures I took! Venzuel00 will also probably put up some of his pictures, he got some nice ones (there is a great one of him and Tyll studiously comparing the Orpheus and the Blockhead/HD600).
Anyway, I'm totally stoked up. Thanks Headroom, for doing this for the community. Take advantage of them, people, this **** is for you. You deserve to hear this stuff.
Peace,
phidauex
Tyll is a real character! He knows his stuff too.
Anyway, some people have given some great descriptions of equipment, but I'll add a little more commentary (of course).
First off, lets get the big stuff out of the way:
Orpheus vs. Blockhead /w HD600s n' Cardas. Man oh man. When you die and go to heaven, they let you pick one of these setups to go along with your halo and harp. Tyll was insistent that I listen to both, and he feels that the Blockhead setup is superior. Now, I gave them both some good listenin', and I feel he is mostly correct. The Orpheus, when playing female vocals, or a nice acoustic guitar, just sings. Its so lush and sweet and delicious. I felt like Bjork was just whispering sweet music straight into my ears. I thought I could close my eyes, turn my head, and give her a kiss. My god it was beautiful. Plus, the amp just looks staggering. All glass and chrome, it looks like its WORTH every single one of those 12,000$ (Tyll told me an amusing story of a man who purchased THREE of them for his house, because he loved them so much, ask him to tell you about it when you visit the show
Other stuff in the hi-end cabinet? Stax Omegas were very nice, but I found them to possess absolutely not slam, which ain't no good. I like punch. They were detailed as all getout though, you could hear Wynton Marsalis's spit valve draining onto the floor. Anyway, nice, but not my style. The Cary amp was nice also, a solid performer, but it didn't really attract me too strongly. A/Bing with the Max and the Blockhead, there is definately a difference. When you take two Max's and slap them together, and make them balanced, its really worth it.
Other cabinets? Who needs em! Just kidding! The 'all dynamic' headphone cabinet was nice, just comparing headphones, not listening to the amps. Finally got to listen to most of the Grado line. I like the SR-60s, a really solid phone for the price. The rest of the Grado's until the RS-1 were too bright for my taste. The 325 made my eyes water. I suspect they would be great for rock, but I didn't prefer them for my music. The RS-1s tamed down quite a bit though, and they were a real pleasure to listen too.
The HD590/580/600s, well, the HD600s are super duper, of course, they really were nice. But I'm once again confirmed in my enjoyment of the HD590s. They are a bit different of an animal than the 580/600, but I think it sounds very good. The slightly brighter character is definately appreciated by my ears.
Portable land was neat, I was unimpressed by the Grado RA-1, but it definately matches the RS-2s in appearance. The JMT amp was definately nice, it was a bit better than my cmoy amp, but my cmoy has crossfeed, which I like. The airhead and the total airhead are very different. Well, not VERY different, but I think the Total would be worth that extra 80$ for sure. Its a real world example of the drastic change made by just adding better individual components. I now have a TAH as well, for helping out for the day, and for the record, its pot doesn't scratch at all while changing volumes, nor does it noticablely mistrack at lower volumes. I think the build quality on the case is actually slightly less than my cmoy, but the cmoy's case is slightly larger (I'm using a Serpac H-65-9V transparent blue case, its quite solid). The right angle mini-mini that comes with it is also a very nice addition.
Damn its late, I have work tommorow!! More info up tommorow, as well as pictures I took! Venzuel00 will also probably put up some of his pictures, he got some nice ones (there is a great one of him and Tyll studiously comparing the Orpheus and the Blockhead/HD600).
Anyway, I'm totally stoked up. Thanks Headroom, for doing this for the community. Take advantage of them, people, this **** is for you. You deserve to hear this stuff.
Peace,
phidauex
