[Dick Danger]

Anyone heard both?

I never gave much thought to crossfeed until I heard Xin's version on the SM3, now I kinda like it. I'm looking for a desktop amp, so it's down to the Corda HA-1 MkII or the Headroom Desktop.

Thoughts anyone?

 

[patrox89]

http://www4.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=130858

a magazine guy did a review and compared crossfeed of both.

 

[drarthurwells]

I hate crossfeed.

Brings in interaural/phase distortion that smears and muddies tones, and causes congestion in complex passages.

I'll take the slightly smaller soundstage and better tone resolution and inner detail of no crossfeed.

 

[Dick Danger]

Quote:

Originally Posted by drarthurwells I hate crossfeed. Brings in interaural/phase distortion that smears and muddies tones, and causes congestion in complex passages. I'll take the slightly smaller soundstage and better tone resolution and inner detail of no crossfeed.

Thanks for that, I love it.

 

[Oliver :)]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dick Danger Anyone heard both? I never gave much thought to crossfeed until I heard Xin's version on the SM3, now I kinda like it. I'm looking for a desktop amp, so it's down to the Corda HA-1 MkII or the Headroom Desktop.

Hm, never heard the Corda, sadly, but they have a nice standalone crossfeed unit available as I see. The problem with the Headroom Crossfeed is that it is one-staged, and you are very likely to have to balance out what it does to the sound with the brightness settings, sth. that you cannot do with the HA-1. But maybe it is not necessary as it is 2-staged...

Coming to think of it - if you do like the Xinfeed, which is very well understandable since it is so subtle yet effective - why not use Xin's little adaptor? Of course it is more for portable units & looks a little crummy, but it is the cheapest form of adding crossfeed to any source/amp you want. All you need is some adaptors since it is 3,5mm only.

 

[cosmopragma]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Oliver but it is the cheapest form of adding crossfeed to any source/amp you want.

The cheapest way of adding crossfeed is (batch) preprocessing files utilizing the fully adjustable free "headplug" crossfeed DSP and a diskwriter function.

 

[Ticky]

In short: the Corda crossfeed is more neutral than the Headroom one. However, the Headroom crossfeed is more “fun” to listen to.

A while back, I auditioned the HA-2 and compared the Corda crossfeed to my headroom Supreme’s crossfeed. The Corda is very subtle. On some music, I could hardly tell the difference between crossfeed (medium processing) and no crossfeed.

The difference between having the crossfeed on/off on the headroom is much more apparent. The image shifts “up” more on the headroom and there seems to be more “blending” of the right and left channels. The downside to the headroom is that the crossfeed messes up vocals a bit. Even with the high pass filter turned on to compensate for the “duller” processed sound, vocals still seems a bit more weighted.

My suggestion would be: if you have a thing for vocals (bossa nova, jazz, opera, etc.), then the Corda crossfeed would be more suitable. However, if you are more into having a “fun” listen (by this I don’t mean that the Headroom is non-audiophile) then the Headroom gives more kick to the music.

Of course, the amps sections might have played a part in the sonic characteristics described. Personally, I preferred the headrom "house" sound.

 

[Oliver :)]

Quote:

Originally Posted by cosmopragma The cheapest way of adding crossfeed is (batch) preprocessing files utilizing the fully adjustable free "headplug" crossfeed DSP and a diskwriter function.

Ok, I correct myself, Xin has the cheapest *convenient*, or cheapest hardware based solution

... that I am aware of.

 

[acs236]

This won't help, but honestly, I don't think you can go wrong. I've used a Prehead for a while and a Corda Cross from my other amp, and love the crossfeed on them. I recently heard the Headroom desktop, and liked the crossfeed on that as well. I didn't A/B them, but I was satisfied with both. The HA-1 and Desktop are both excellent amps -- you can't go wrong!

 

[cosmopragma]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Oliver Ok, I correct myself, Xin has the cheapest *convenient*, or cheapest hardware based solution ... that I am aware of.

Well, to me it's more convenient to prepocess the files with the right amount of crossfeed instead of adjusting on the fly while I'm listening.On top of that I can live without another box and interconnects.
I've recently contacted the austrian programmer.I should try to convince him to program a version for foobar, 64 bit internal, 32 bit output to other DSPs, a more sophisticated dithering algorithm, that would be perfect and way beyond any plain old hardware crossfeed.

 

[Oliver :)]

Quote:

Originally Posted by cosmopragma I've recently contacted the austrian programmer.I should try to convince him to program a version for foobar, 64 bit internal, 32 bit output to other DSPs, a more sophisticated dithering algorithm, that would be perfect and way beyond any plain old hardware crossfeed.

We could also need such a gizmo for iTunes...

 

[recstar24]

Quote:

Originally Posted by drarthurwells I hate crossfeed. Brings in interaural/phase distortion that smears and muddies tones, and causes congestion in complex passages. I'll take the slightly smaller soundstage and better tone resolution and inner detail of no crossfeed.

wow - most blatant non-answering of original poster's question i have ever experienced

 

[warpdriver]

Just keep in mind that according to Headroom, the crossfeed in their higher end amps works more transparently than their lower end amps. I just bought a Micro (Desktop), and the crossfeed is amazingly better than the Airhead, so I would expect an improvement going from the Micro to the larger home amps.

 

[SunByrne]

Quote:

Originally Posted by warpdriver Just keep in mind that according to Headroom, the crossfeed in their higher end amps works more transparently than their lower end amps. I just bought a Micro (Desktop), and the crossfeed is amazingly better than the Airhead, so I would expect an improvement going from the Micro to the larger home amps.

That was my experience at the meet--I thought the crossfeed on the Desktop amp sounded better than on the Micro.

 

[calaf]

I have yet to listen to the latest generation of Headroom amps but I find the crossfeed of older Headroom amps (TAH, Supreme) to be stronger than CORDA HA-2's. Headroom crossfeed does project the soundstage out of your head more, but it also colors (darkens) the sound noticeably, while to my hears the CORDA crossfeed is tonally neutral. To compensate for that Headroom added (adds?) another switch to boost the highs frequencies.