[iFi audio]

Well-made attenuators provide the simplest path and the purest signal, IMHO.

If only it was this simple. Passive volume attenuation has its upsides and some setups and topologies benefit from them far more than everything else. ?I see them as an alternate route worth taking just to know what passives are all about. But would I like to have one in my setup as the main one? Nope, I like tubes in preamps too much

 

[pataburd]

Your post has made me muse over the excellent [tube] Kora Triode preamp, the [tube] Melos MAT-180 amp and PSB Stratus Silver speakers that I listened to back in the days of yore. Definitely a milestone along the audiophile odyssey.







Here was my full rig at the time:
Theta Data Basic II transport
Modified MSB Link DAC
Kora Triode pre-amp
Melos Mat-180 amp
psb Stratus Silver loudspeakers
MillerSound speaker cable and interconnect
Virtual Mode power cords and a.c. line filters

My first passive was a custom-built Virtual Mode [now defunct].

[Listening to The Best of David Newman,a great rendition of Cedar Walton's "Holy Land".]

 

[pataburd]

Some David Newman, Eric Gale and Blue Mitchell for a Friday evening:



: )

 

[pataburd]

The HEDDphone do psychedelia well, too:

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?...210127&q=country+joe+and+the+fish+eastern+jam

 

[jarnopp]

Just hooked the HEDD up to the [all-tube] Sophia Baby integrated with some MillerSound [similar to--but a lot more affordable than--the JPS Aluminata] interconnects. No problem with perceived front-to-back depth. Individual images, as well as overall soundstage, are very large and 3-dimensional.

[Jack MacDuff and David Newman: Double Barrelled Soul Atlantic CD: Furman PL PRO C conditioner/EVS-modified Sony BDP-S780-->MillerSound RCA interconnects-->Sophia Baby-->4x 22 AWG Neotech UPOCC solid copper cable [via speaker outputs]-->HEDDphone]

Depth of stage with headphones is an illusion, anyway, compared to speakers in 3D space that can resolve depth. I find the Heddphones seem to present each instrument in the mix as if you were at the mic position. But they still do offer the complete sense of space and reverb for each instrument. For live acoustic, of course, you will get the most natural presentation. Multi mic’d and mixed will be different. FWIW, I think using crossfeed helps, and on the Chord TT2 xphd 2 (of 3) seems to work best for me.

 

[JaZZ]

Depth of stage with headphones is an illusion, anyway, compared to speakers in 3D space that can resolve depth. I find the Heddphones seem to present each instrument in the mix as if you were at the mic position. But they still do offer the complete sense of space and reverb for each instrument. For live acoustic, of course, you will get the most natural presentation. Multi mic’d and mixed will be different. FWIW, I think using crossfeed helps, and on the Chord TT2 xphd 2 (of 3) seems to work best for me.

The mechanism for the reproduction/illusion of depth is the same for speakers and headphones: The distance of an instrument from the microphone/listener is encoded in the amount of reverb.

One main factor for the discrimination between dry sound and wet (= reverberative) sound is the dryness of the headphone itself, i.e. the presence of inner reflections within driver and ear cup. The more of them, the stronger the masking effect in view of these spatial cues.

To my ears the HEDDphone isn't exemplary in this respect, as it shows a distinct wetness (→ driver concept, large closed chamber between driver and ear) by nature. After all it's not excessive enough to prevent it from displaying spatial depth to an acceptable degree. Which means I like it nonetheless.

 

[buonassi]

Detracting from the depth perception on headphones is the lack of binaural consumption.

Speakers - played in stereo, heard binaurally

Headphones - played in stereo, heard in stereo

Similar to depth perception of your sight...as two eyes must focus on the same object.

But as @jarnopp mentioned , crossfeed can help make it more binaural, especially if it is cross feed with inter-aural delay mimicking the shadowing of the face and head.

Can opener studio by goodhertz is very high quality cross feed software that I think takes my rig to the next level. But I understand why some purists would shy away from that.

 

[iFi audio]

Your post has made me muse over the excellent [tube] Kora Triode preamp, the [tube] Melos MAT-180 amp and PSB Stratus Silver speakers that I listened to back in the days of yore. Definitely a milestone along the audiophile odyssey.







Here was my full rig at the time:
Theta Data Basic II transport
Modified MSB Link DAC
Kora Triode pre-amp
Melos Mat-180 amp
psb Stratus Silver loudspeakers
MillerSound speaker cable and interconnect
Virtual Mode power cords and a.c. line filters

My first passive was a custom-built Virtual Mode [now defunct].

[Listening to The Best of David Newman,a great rendition of Cedar Walton's "Holy Land".]

If I had what you have, I wouldn't throw away that Kora pre, that's for sure

Very nice setup btw. Not accidental.

 

[JaZZ]

Detracting from the depth perception on headphones is the lack of binaural consumption.

Speakers - played in stereo, heard binaurally

Headphones - played in stereo, heard in stereo

Similar to depth perception of your sight...as two eyes must focus on the same object.

But as @jarnopp mentioned, crossfeed can help make it more binaural, especially if it is crossfeed with inter-aural delay mimicking the shadowing of the face and head.

Can opener studio by goodhertz is very high quality crossfeed software that I think takes my rig to the next level. But I understand why some purists would shy away from that.

Purist headphone listeners should only listen to binaural recordings – speaker-based recordings aren't compatible with headphones. Or accept that you can't listen to them (without serious aural irritation) without eliminating the most striking incompatibility: channel separation at low frequencies. Personally I can live with channel separation of mids and highs. So classic crossfeed will do it for me. That said, I also need it on the go, with compact DAPs without this feature, therefore I use my own, applied to every single track via Wave editor. The more so as I wasn't happy with the (early) Meier crossfeed, and Chord's implementation unfortunately is coupled with a bass boost that I have no use for; add to this that I prefer a steeper low-pass filter for the crosstalk...

...on the Chord TT2 xphd 2 (of 3) seems to work best for me.

I would probably favor this one, too, if there wasn't the bass boost.

Your (buonassi) «CanOpener Studio» sounds interesting – I'll have a look at it, maybe there's something to learn. Sadly I can't use it with my music collection, which is already fully crossfeeded.

The HEDDphone is indeed somewhat further away from speakers than most open-back headphones. The distinct occlusion effects are a clear hint to the relative un-openness of the system, that's why it reminded me a bit of IEMs, as posted earlier. Nevertheless, I really enjoy its unique sound characteristic. It's a bit like the equivalent of HDR images in photography (from the impression, not the technical effect).

 

[buonassi]

@JaZZ - for mobile solutions give Neutron a go (android). I find that it works well as a crossfeed, but not as realistic as goodhertz (unfortunately, goodhertz is only on Mac last I knew). Neutron's is based on the Bauer crossfeed equations, but has two controllable paramaters to dial it in. I find that crossfeeding up to 5k cutoff with an 8 db difference sounds the least confusing to my brain. You will gain a smidge of bass, but nothing overbearing.

 

[JaZZ]

@JaZZ - for mobile solutions give Neutron a go (android). I find that it works well as a crossfeed, but not as realistic as goodhertz (unfortunately, goodhertz is only on Mac last I knew). Neutron's is based on the Bauer crossfeed equations, but has two controllable paramaters to dial it in. I find that crossfeeding up to 5k cutoff with an 8 db difference sounds the least confusing to my brain. You will gain a smidge of bass, but nothing overbearing.

Thanks, buonassi! I use Neutron with my only Android DAP (FiiO M11 Pro) and like it a lot, particularly for its extremely versatile equalizer function. I have detected its crossfeed and would probably use it – if my music collection wasn't already crossfeeded. However, the M11 Pro is reserved for excursions by train and the like, most of the time I use the X3 II for jogging and strolling.

 

[iFi audio]

I use Neutron

It's a good app, yup

 

[newworld666]

I just received a direct XLR4 to Amp Speaker's output cable from LQICables.com... and got also a pure Silver XLR4 Cable to connect the heddphone (Audeze compatibility, with Neutron, I can invert the Phase/polarity with a single switch).
Now I think I have to wait a few days/weeks to burn all of this as LQICables recommend 50 hours burning time (it should maybe be necessary with the Hifiman HE Adapter too.
I am not sure that burning will improve anything for sound results, but at least, I will do it. It will also be rather simple for me to make some A/B comparison as my Sony's amp can use two sets of speakers.

After a few minutes listening, I was expecting a bigger difference of sound pressure between the Hifiman box and the direct Cable.. for sure sound quality seems to be very good.
I use my amp at more or less 20% of the power attenuator on the TA-N55ES, which is rather comfortable and make easy to adjust to volume when necessary (It gives me some room to increase vol with some DSD)

 

[Najam]

I'm looking for a high quality cable for the heddphone, is the wiring different in the connectors or can i just get a 6.35mm single end to mini XLR cable?

Thanks

 

[LCMusicLover]

I'm looking for a high quality cable for the heddphone, is the wiring different in the connectors or can i just get a 6.35mm single end to mini XLR cable?

Thanks

Yes, standard -- I use my Auteur cables. LCD also uses that termination.