MikePio
500+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- May 6, 2008
- Posts
- 578
- Likes
- 82
Hey everyone,
After returning home for vacation to Canada I returned to my beloved home rig, the K701/EF5/1100HD, while in Poland I listened to the superb W5000/HA5000/Stello. I had lots of listening to do and it was apparent that the K701 rig was incredibly harsh at times while missing the smoothness I came to know and love from the W5000 set up. To my surprise I stumbled upon an old Playstation, which by the way I have heard as being used as a source but disregarded this as a HiFi myth... Well for 20 bucks I decided to go for it (what is there to lose right?) and it was the scph-1001, so I went for it...
Having listened to the scph-1001 as source driven by the HiFiman EF-5 to the AKG's for about 2 weeks I came to the conclusion that this setup has left me speechless, the sound has become smooth, lush and musical which is what I thought I would never say about the K701's. You could crank the volume on the EF-5 without cringing in pain for the first time and the most important aspect for me was that the general sound did not come off as muddy or veiled. Having said that, I have not tried this source with a warmer sounding headphone which I presume would not be optimal as with the K701's or any other brighter headphone.
After hearing the sound coming through my AKG's I no longer cared about the "distortion" of this source or how bad the technical graphs were represented, all that mattered was the sound and it blew me away. So if somebody is looking to tame their overly bright sounding headphones, give this a shot, you will be pleasantly surprised! Also don't believe the old hype that floated around in previous years that the Sony is equivalent to a 6000 dollar cd player, it is not! The sound is very colored and far from accurate, without a doubt being beaten in technical terms by almost any modern cd player but what it does possess is an incredibly pleasant sound that is as smooth as silk, also as gentle. To conclude, I have learned that listening to music is still a sensual experience not a technical one, these past two weeks have proved this.
I would like to know if any of you guys had experiences similar to mine regarding sources that create a pleasant sound, if so what were they? Also what is your stand on sources like these versus the modern ones available regarding the importance of technical accuracy vs producing pleasant sound... Thank you,
Happy listening!
After returning home for vacation to Canada I returned to my beloved home rig, the K701/EF5/1100HD, while in Poland I listened to the superb W5000/HA5000/Stello. I had lots of listening to do and it was apparent that the K701 rig was incredibly harsh at times while missing the smoothness I came to know and love from the W5000 set up. To my surprise I stumbled upon an old Playstation, which by the way I have heard as being used as a source but disregarded this as a HiFi myth... Well for 20 bucks I decided to go for it (what is there to lose right?) and it was the scph-1001, so I went for it...
Having listened to the scph-1001 as source driven by the HiFiman EF-5 to the AKG's for about 2 weeks I came to the conclusion that this setup has left me speechless, the sound has become smooth, lush and musical which is what I thought I would never say about the K701's. You could crank the volume on the EF-5 without cringing in pain for the first time and the most important aspect for me was that the general sound did not come off as muddy or veiled. Having said that, I have not tried this source with a warmer sounding headphone which I presume would not be optimal as with the K701's or any other brighter headphone.
After hearing the sound coming through my AKG's I no longer cared about the "distortion" of this source or how bad the technical graphs were represented, all that mattered was the sound and it blew me away. So if somebody is looking to tame their overly bright sounding headphones, give this a shot, you will be pleasantly surprised! Also don't believe the old hype that floated around in previous years that the Sony is equivalent to a 6000 dollar cd player, it is not! The sound is very colored and far from accurate, without a doubt being beaten in technical terms by almost any modern cd player but what it does possess is an incredibly pleasant sound that is as smooth as silk, also as gentle. To conclude, I have learned that listening to music is still a sensual experience not a technical one, these past two weeks have proved this.
I would like to know if any of you guys had experiences similar to mine regarding sources that create a pleasant sound, if so what were they? Also what is your stand on sources like these versus the modern ones available regarding the importance of technical accuracy vs producing pleasant sound... Thank you,
Happy listening!