[Pepsione1]

I got the Sony NS500V couple weeks ago (a present for somebody else but its in my hands for now

) and I just recieved my kimber mini-rca cable to hook it up to my dual 9v CHA47 JMT built amp.

Well the initial impression was, i didn't know my phones can sound this good. So far I've listen to about 1 1/2 album and I am really seeing the difference between this player and my D-25s. Compared to my D-25s the sony is clear, detailed, has smoother highs, has a much wider soundstage and has better imaging. I did a A/B comparison between those two using the same phones but only listened to one song over and over again. I think the differences were pretty obvious.

I don't know if the differences were because of the different ICs i used but i think it will most likely to be a combination of both. This player makes my MS1 sound better than ever and it brings me to another question for my next upgrade. I have been planning to get new phones (etys or senns) with a max-out meta42 (since they've been praised here so much). Would i be doing the wrong thing?

By that I mean should I get a better source first, then an amp and finally new phones so I can squeeze every bit of performance out of what i currently have. Or should I get phones, then source, and get the new amp last.

Oh yeah, how do you guys feel about the Sony NS500V player?

 

[Andrew LB]

Well... mine will be here on monday nov 3rd. From what i hear, its an awesome DVD/CD combo. I'm sure its going to sound a hell of a lot better through my new MG-Head OTL than my PC or X-Box does.

 

[bifcake]

Quote:

Originally posted by Pepsione1 I have been planning to get new phones (etys or senns) with a max-out meta42 (since they've been praised here so much). Would i be doing the wrong thing? By that I mean should I get a better source first, then an amp and finally new phones so I can squeeze every bit of performance out of what i currently have. Or should I get phones, then source, and get the new amp last. Oh yeah, how do you guys feel about the Sony NS500V player?

Pepsi,

My personal feeling on the upgrade priorities are as follows:

1. Headphones
2. Source
3. Amp
4. Cables

This is the order in which you will hear the most difference. If you have crappy headphones, get the phones first. If you have crappy phones and CD, get phones first. Once you've gotten a good set of phones, then upgrade your CD player. If you're going to get really good phones like HD580/600's or the like, figure on spending $1000-$1500 on a CD player to get the most of out these phones.

 

[Pepsione1]

To clarify this, what i want your opinions on is if the d-25s good enough to use it with what i have now.

Currently i have alessandro ms1, sony v6, ksc-35 and cha47 amp.

I am not quite satisfied with the sounds, so should i get new phones, or a new source or maybe a new amp first?

 

[bifcake]

Quote:

Originally posted by Pepsione1 Currently i have alessandro ms1, sony v6, ksc-35 and cha47 amp. I am not quite satisfied with the sounds, so should i get new phones, or a new source or maybe a new amp first?

Don't upgrade the amp yet. Do you like the sound you get from you headphones? YOu mentioned that when you hooked up a new source, you heard a big difference out of your set up. Did you like the way it sounded? Was it good enough? If it was, keep the phones and upgrade the source and then upgrade the amp. If it wasn't, then upgrade the phones, then upgrade your source and then upgrade the amp.

 

[DanG]

The way I see it, right now you have a balanced system. For that reason, I think that you should follow bifcake's great advice and follow the order he gave.

The only problem in your situation is that to get what I would consider a worthwhile upgrade in the sound from your headphones, you'd need to put down more cash than upgrading your source to the Sony NS500V. But keep in mind that you have quite a few headphones -- if you sell off your V6 and Alessandro (keeping the KSC-35 for portable use), you could get the Sennheiser HD580 (or HD600 if you find them for a good price), and then buy the Sony at the same time if you have the cash laying around.

It all depends on how much money you're willing to spend right away and the rate at which you get more expendable income. The value of each incremental source dollar does not always decrease with each dollar spent. The jump to a better portable player will give you a slight increase, but the jump from a portable to a CD deck is a major one. I haven't heard the Sony DVD player, but from the impressions I've heard from others who've used it, it seems like a great value. It's not surprising to me that you liked it a lot more than the Sony portable.

 

[FCJ]

Quote:

Originally posted by Pepsione1 Oh yeah, how do you guys feel about the Sony NS500V player?

I have the NS500V, and I recommend it highly. You should get it as a present for yourself. As you've already heard, an upgrade in source will make a large difference in the quality of what you hear.

The only problem that I find with the NS500V is availability; isn't it discontinued? I also have the Sony CE-775, which is an SACD 5 disk player that has good redbook performance. I bought mine from Musiciansfriend, although I don't know if they have any left. Either way, good luck.

Glad you bought the Kimber--it's a good cable.

 

[Andrew LB]

You can get the sony NS500V here for $125.00 + $20.00 shipping. http://shop.store.yahoo.com/mediasou...eldvdvdcd.html

 

[Nightfall]

Quote:

Originally posted by Andrew LB You can get the sony NS500V here for $125.00 + $20.00 shipping. http://shop.store.yahoo.com/mediasou...eldvdvdcd.html

Andrew, thanks for the link. I was buying a dvd/cd player for my sister and my nieces for Christmas and had a budget limit of about $150.00. This is a MUCH better option than I expected to find available within that budget. I placed an order with them this morning.

 

[Pepsione1]

I am always getting mixed feelings about my headphones. One day I might like it, then the next day I hate again. It's almost like I have mood swings with them or something.

I just found some bowel pads today from a local dealer to replace it with my stock comfy pads. After a brief listening, I find it to sound not as good as expected. The soundstage is expanded but it also makes everything sound brighter (too bright). I think I'll be more comfortable with the stock pads and the sony ns500v.

I really think I sound upgrade my source first too because I can see it as a major bottleneck even with what I have now. So it would be a waste of money if spent more on better headphones.

 

[wallijonn]

so what cd players have burr-brown dacs? so far i've found onkyo and sherwood dvd players with the burr-brown's. do any of you guys use the dvd players to listen to cds instead of dedicated cd players?

any dvd players with scda and/or dvd-a with burr-brown dacs?

bifcake, i'm not one to spend $1500 on a cd player. sorry. although the nad's look good, technology will always go obsolete. and buying used mechanical devices is always a risky proposition.

pepsione1, anyone you can borrow a set of cans from?

and has anyone tried the slim-x pcdp?

 

[wasifazim]

Quote:

Originally posted by wallijonn so what cd players have burr-brown dacs? so far i've found onkyo and sherwood dvd players with the burr-brown's. do any of you guys use the dvd players to listen to cds instead of dedicated cd players? any dvd players with scda and/or dvd-a with burr-brown dacs? bifcake, i'm not one to spend $1500 on a cd player. sorry. although the nad's look good, technology will always go obsolete. and buying used mechanical devices is always a risky proposition. pepsione1, anyone you can borrow a set of cans from? and has anyone tried the slim-x pcdp?

Why focus on just BB? They do make some good DAC chips (PCM1704) but also plenty of crappy ones (PCM1710)...

- Wasif.

 

[bifcake]

Quote:

Originally posted by wallijonn bifcake, i'm not one to spend $1500 on a cd player. sorry. although the nad's look good, technology will always go obsolete. and buying used mechanical devices is always a risky proposition.

Wallijohn,

The reason I recommend spending that much on a CD player is because players within the $1,000-$1500 range offer what amounts to the best bang for the buck IF YOU'RE LOOKING FOR AUDIOPHILE QUALITY

Otherwise, you will always feel as though you're missing that something in your music. That je ne sais quoi.

The Sennheiser 580s/600's, Grado 225 and up and other phones discussed here are audiophile quality. Some are better than others, and that's understandable, but they're all audiophile quality. Therefore, if you want to get the most out of them, you need all your components to be of the same quality. Would you spend $20k on a pair of speakers and drive them with a $400 receiver? Probably not. It makes no sense because you're not getting the most out of your speakers. Just as you're not getting the most out of your headphones. Don't let the price fool you. I have heard a lot of high end speakers ranging from $2500 to $100,000 per pair and most of the headphones discussed here sound very much like $10,000 speakers (I'm not talking about little portable phones, rather full sized ones).

Therefore, the type of fidelity that these phones are capable of deserves the quality of the rest of the components within the chain.

 

[Andrew LB]

A lot of people here know far more than myself when it comes to heaphones, but from my experiance, you should go with Sennheiser HD580 or HD 600s. The HD580s can be purchased for as little as $120.00 through various sites like www.hififorless.com or www.newegg.com . You can also find the HD600s for just a little over $200 (www.hififorless wants $220.00) and Sennheiser has a great mail in rebate on them which drops them another $50.00 (down to $169.00). They aren't the best heaphones for bass, but they are very accurate. I'm big into electronic music (BT, Paul Van Dyk, Tiesto, etc...) and they reproduce the music at an acceptional quality. Dropping another $280.00 on my MG-Head OTL (tube amp), even though it was a ton of cash, was one of the most amazing improvments in sound quality. When I first joined this forum to learn about headphones, I was very skepticle(sp?) about the gains from an amp (since nice amps cost 2x or more than nice headphones) when I first got my HD600s since headphones require such low wattage and high impedence (sp?), but im not gonna screw with you... A quality amplifier improves your music so much, it's like comparing a factory car stereo to a complete Boston Acoustics Pro Series system with McIntosh amplifiers in your car. Personally, from my experiance, I would recommend a tube amplifier such as the MG-Head OTL. The sound is warm, defined, adjustable (switching tubes makes a huge difference), and more.

I could go on for days but today (november 15th) was my 24th birthday, and my friends got me so incredibly drunk, i probably wont remember this message. What I said about the MG-Head OTL is the honest truth though. Its a phenominal amplifier.

-Andrew... so drunk he can hardly type. Thank god for spell check...

 

[Quincy]

Hi Pepsione,

The sony player was my first non-portable source and I was happily surprised that it made so much difference, I agree with you, it's an unmistakeable improvement.

Around the same time I upgraded to the HD600's with cardas and the Headroom max, and I'm patiently learning about high end sources. My interconnects are DIY unshielded silver wire. I can enjoy this level without spending any more money on a new source for a long time, I've never been this satisfied with listening to music. In meantime, I'm having fun learning more about the differences in recording quality in the different CD's in my collection.

Anyway, the other significant "upgrade" was the Murine Earwax removal system recommended by Tyll Hertsens in one of his recent Headroom ad's in Stereophile magazine. This stuff might be more significant to older folks who have more wax buildup... It seems silly, but for less than $10 nothing comes close for a budget improvement in audio detail. Big bang for the buck.