Romanee
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- May 20, 2004
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This is an impromptu post -- not a full review -- and mainly relates to the excellent pairing of the new "M" Hornet and the Westone ES2 custom IEMs.
I've heard my ES2 IEMs with a variety of portable amps and cables: Original Hornet, AE-1, Portaphile PV2&2-LT1210 Maxxed, Total Bithead, MicroStack (MicroDAC+MicroAMP with Desktop Module), PA2V2, Portaphile X3, Portaphile PV2^2 (Non-LT1210) Maxxed, Z-Audio Mu, Z-Audio Epsilon, Z-Audio Lambda. Haven't yet heard the ES2 with PRII, PINT, any current Xin amps, Xenos amps, etc.
In transit to work via subway & walk, I was listening to Leon Russell's "Carney" album (on my iPod) -- and the "M" Hornet/ES2 presented it with a really wide and deep soundstage -- extending well beyond my ears. Firstly, I hadn't remembered that this ancient album had such great engineering, and secondly I was really surprised the ES2 was capable of so much dimension.
I've been "burning in" this new "M"-modded Hornet and it's only within the past day or two that I've felt it has finally matured and stabilized, and is presenting the beautiful sound I was hoping it would achieve. Those who don't have the patience for 350+ hours of play to get there will be missing out on a marvelous amp. It does take that long for this amp to blossom (about the same time required for the original Hornet), and along the way it will seem that there are deficiencies. One must perservere to hear the wide/deep soundstage, clean highs, and deep/punchy bass. When new it has tons of sparkle, and the bass is tight but rather lean. The soundstage seems wider than the original Hornet, but not dramatically so until well after 300 hours, perhaps because the highs have a bit of edge or fringe until they clean up towards the end of this period, which allows ambient and spatial cues to present the greater dimension, as well complex timbral information, and clean attack and decay.
"Carney" is aptly named -- it's really a musical circus with voices and instruments jumping all around. The imaging is spooky at times, with slide guitar and one drum kit way out left, Leon's voice front & center seated at the piano, grand piano extends L&R right of Leon, main drum kit center rear with kick drum to the left, cymbals rt. of center, electric keyboard left of center behind him, organ w/Leslie tone cabinet up rt./center (briefly), electric guitar rt. of center, and the engineer had fun extending a honky-tonk piano's keyboard rippling far L to far R.
On "Lost In The Woods", drum kits far L & far R, Leon front and left/center, his 2nd track voice is in an echo-y corridor far right (with a tambourine) way in the distance, organ down left, jungle birds far left. Final chorus far L & R.
Just plugged in my PXC300 at work -- and it's got the same very wide soundstage. Still lots of fun, if not quite as spooky as "M"+ES2. Actually I think the PV2&2_LT1210 is a bit more layered & lively with the PXC300 -- but doesn't come close with the ES2. Synergy is really a case-by-case issue.
"Carney" is definitely an acid extravaganza -- and the "M" Hornet provides great imaging, punch, detail, air, extend-yet-non-fatiguing highs, good separation and spacing, as well as precise positioning of performers (nice alliteration!), "bass-on-demand" so there's no overall "bloomy" bass presence, and the bass does not intrude into the midrange so the mids are rich and full, as is the sound space. The space has great width and height, as well as depth.
The "M" Hornet/ES2 combo has really great bass energy. Buddy Guy's "Sweet Tea" disk: "Baby Please Don't Leave", was really kickin! Los Lobos "Colossal Head" tunes were also a-boomin'.
Yesterday I spent a lot of time listening to "Bill Evans Trio Live at The Village Vanguard - Waltz For Debby". It's one of my reference recordings for the great soundstage width, room/audience ambience, and superb string bass tone & texture, as well as great test of snare drum, cymbals and high hat. Bill's piano sound isn't great here -- though his performance is -- since he had the disk produced to feature Scott La Faro's bass front and prominent, as a tribute to the bassist for his last performance before he passed away. As a result, Bill's piano is very recessed -- which is important to know if you hear this recording. The placement and imaging peculiarities are not the fault of your equipment. Also, the master tape suffered some damage here and there -- also present in the recording and not in your gear.
The "M" Hornet does a brilliant job of representing the rich tone of the string bass and its big wooden case as well as its size/dimension and placement, and handles the complex and subtle waveforms of the percussion instruments beautifully, keeping pace and maintaining a solidly placed image of the drum kit. The soundstage extends well beyond the ears, yet there is musical energy and ambient sound throughout the middle of the space, so that it's not all Left-and-Right with a hole in the center -- as this recording can present with many amps. The DAC1 is a prime perpetrator of this L-R only effect (on many recordings, and in spades with old recording).
The Portaphile PV2^2-LT1210 Maxxed extracts a little more timbral nuance and complexity, and a bit more of the volume and character of instruments (it lets you hear more of the shape/volume/material/notes of the snare and cymbals, for example) -- but it doesn't seem to have the great synergy with the ES2 that "M" Hornet has - and doesn't give the ES2 as much energy and PRAT -- read as pure fun.
What's even more impressive about the "M"'s presentation of the sound, soundstage and richness of the performance is that it can do that with an IEM! I wouldn't have thought the ES2 was capable of such rich texture and great dimension. The original Hornet produced a drastically different sound with the ES2 -- characteristically (for the original Hornet) warm, close up and intimate, and sweet but soft at the top, without the wide and open sound space. Deliciously lush and relaxed (except for it's capability for monster bass), but missing some of the nuance, as well as the openness and dimension some recordings possess.
I can't emphasize enough -- the "M" Hornet is a superb match for the Westone ES2.
I will write a comprehensive review of the "M" Hornet (which this is not), but I was too impressed with this pair to resist posting this hearty recommendation.
It's nice that the "M" Hornet turned out to be the best amp for the ES2, since it's so tiny, finely crafted, and so safisfying to hold.
Here's a snapshot from Sunday's (8/28) Midtown-Manhattan Portables Mini-Meet at Sony Plaza, showing how easy it is to fit into my jeans pocket, with my iPod -- though this was with my PXC300 (NR boosteroo-look circuit clipped to my belt). The Hornet is so tiny that if you didn't see my hand turning a volume -- and the ALO Cotton Dock connected to the iPod -- you wouldn't know anything was there behind the iPod!
Ah, the secret's out. I'm no longer a man of mystery.
No need for closeups of the Hornet, since it looks just every other (black) Hornet -- and there are pics-a-plenty to be found.
[EDIT: SORRY I COULDN'T BE WEARING THE ES2s IN THE MEET PHOTOS, BUT THEY ARRIVED BACK ON MONDAY MORNING, JUST A WEE BIT TOO LATE FOR THE MEET.]
A side note: at the Portables Mini-Meet we compared this "M" Hornet with Jahn's "Stock Hornet". Very surprisingly, his Stock Hornet sounded much closer to the "M" Hornet than the Stock Hornet I had (before it went back to Ray for the "M" mods). The Stock Hornet I had exhibited huge and rather round bass, had a warm/tube-y overall character, was much more close-up-and-intimate than Jahn's, and had softer/less extended highs than his. I wonder if the Hornet underwent any interim mods before the current "M" version? Jahn's amp has bigger (if less defined) bass than the "M", and I feel the highs are less extended and aren't quite as clean, as well as its being possessed of a less wide/deep soundstage -- but it doesn't sound like the original version I was familiar with. I think Jahn prefers the slightly bigger bass and more forgiving highs of his version. I definitely prefer the many "improvements" of the "M". I added the quotes on "improvements' since this is all a matter of personal preference, and some owners will certainly prefer the lush and bassy original.
Perhaps Ray can shed some light on this?
I've heard my ES2 IEMs with a variety of portable amps and cables: Original Hornet, AE-1, Portaphile PV2&2-LT1210 Maxxed, Total Bithead, MicroStack (MicroDAC+MicroAMP with Desktop Module), PA2V2, Portaphile X3, Portaphile PV2^2 (Non-LT1210) Maxxed, Z-Audio Mu, Z-Audio Epsilon, Z-Audio Lambda. Haven't yet heard the ES2 with PRII, PINT, any current Xin amps, Xenos amps, etc.
In transit to work via subway & walk, I was listening to Leon Russell's "Carney" album (on my iPod) -- and the "M" Hornet/ES2 presented it with a really wide and deep soundstage -- extending well beyond my ears. Firstly, I hadn't remembered that this ancient album had such great engineering, and secondly I was really surprised the ES2 was capable of so much dimension.
I've been "burning in" this new "M"-modded Hornet and it's only within the past day or two that I've felt it has finally matured and stabilized, and is presenting the beautiful sound I was hoping it would achieve. Those who don't have the patience for 350+ hours of play to get there will be missing out on a marvelous amp. It does take that long for this amp to blossom (about the same time required for the original Hornet), and along the way it will seem that there are deficiencies. One must perservere to hear the wide/deep soundstage, clean highs, and deep/punchy bass. When new it has tons of sparkle, and the bass is tight but rather lean. The soundstage seems wider than the original Hornet, but not dramatically so until well after 300 hours, perhaps because the highs have a bit of edge or fringe until they clean up towards the end of this period, which allows ambient and spatial cues to present the greater dimension, as well complex timbral information, and clean attack and decay.
"Carney" is aptly named -- it's really a musical circus with voices and instruments jumping all around. The imaging is spooky at times, with slide guitar and one drum kit way out left, Leon's voice front & center seated at the piano, grand piano extends L&R right of Leon, main drum kit center rear with kick drum to the left, cymbals rt. of center, electric keyboard left of center behind him, organ w/Leslie tone cabinet up rt./center (briefly), electric guitar rt. of center, and the engineer had fun extending a honky-tonk piano's keyboard rippling far L to far R.
On "Lost In The Woods", drum kits far L & far R, Leon front and left/center, his 2nd track voice is in an echo-y corridor far right (with a tambourine) way in the distance, organ down left, jungle birds far left. Final chorus far L & R.
Just plugged in my PXC300 at work -- and it's got the same very wide soundstage. Still lots of fun, if not quite as spooky as "M"+ES2. Actually I think the PV2&2_LT1210 is a bit more layered & lively with the PXC300 -- but doesn't come close with the ES2. Synergy is really a case-by-case issue.
"Carney" is definitely an acid extravaganza -- and the "M" Hornet provides great imaging, punch, detail, air, extend-yet-non-fatiguing highs, good separation and spacing, as well as precise positioning of performers (nice alliteration!), "bass-on-demand" so there's no overall "bloomy" bass presence, and the bass does not intrude into the midrange so the mids are rich and full, as is the sound space. The space has great width and height, as well as depth.
The "M" Hornet/ES2 combo has really great bass energy. Buddy Guy's "Sweet Tea" disk: "Baby Please Don't Leave", was really kickin! Los Lobos "Colossal Head" tunes were also a-boomin'.
Yesterday I spent a lot of time listening to "Bill Evans Trio Live at The Village Vanguard - Waltz For Debby". It's one of my reference recordings for the great soundstage width, room/audience ambience, and superb string bass tone & texture, as well as great test of snare drum, cymbals and high hat. Bill's piano sound isn't great here -- though his performance is -- since he had the disk produced to feature Scott La Faro's bass front and prominent, as a tribute to the bassist for his last performance before he passed away. As a result, Bill's piano is very recessed -- which is important to know if you hear this recording. The placement and imaging peculiarities are not the fault of your equipment. Also, the master tape suffered some damage here and there -- also present in the recording and not in your gear.
The "M" Hornet does a brilliant job of representing the rich tone of the string bass and its big wooden case as well as its size/dimension and placement, and handles the complex and subtle waveforms of the percussion instruments beautifully, keeping pace and maintaining a solidly placed image of the drum kit. The soundstage extends well beyond the ears, yet there is musical energy and ambient sound throughout the middle of the space, so that it's not all Left-and-Right with a hole in the center -- as this recording can present with many amps. The DAC1 is a prime perpetrator of this L-R only effect (on many recordings, and in spades with old recording).
The Portaphile PV2^2-LT1210 Maxxed extracts a little more timbral nuance and complexity, and a bit more of the volume and character of instruments (it lets you hear more of the shape/volume/material/notes of the snare and cymbals, for example) -- but it doesn't seem to have the great synergy with the ES2 that "M" Hornet has - and doesn't give the ES2 as much energy and PRAT -- read as pure fun.
What's even more impressive about the "M"'s presentation of the sound, soundstage and richness of the performance is that it can do that with an IEM! I wouldn't have thought the ES2 was capable of such rich texture and great dimension. The original Hornet produced a drastically different sound with the ES2 -- characteristically (for the original Hornet) warm, close up and intimate, and sweet but soft at the top, without the wide and open sound space. Deliciously lush and relaxed (except for it's capability for monster bass), but missing some of the nuance, as well as the openness and dimension some recordings possess.
I can't emphasize enough -- the "M" Hornet is a superb match for the Westone ES2.
I will write a comprehensive review of the "M" Hornet (which this is not), but I was too impressed with this pair to resist posting this hearty recommendation.
It's nice that the "M" Hornet turned out to be the best amp for the ES2, since it's so tiny, finely crafted, and so safisfying to hold.
Here's a snapshot from Sunday's (8/28) Midtown-Manhattan Portables Mini-Meet at Sony Plaza, showing how easy it is to fit into my jeans pocket, with my iPod -- though this was with my PXC300 (NR boosteroo-look circuit clipped to my belt). The Hornet is so tiny that if you didn't see my hand turning a volume -- and the ALO Cotton Dock connected to the iPod -- you wouldn't know anything was there behind the iPod!
Ah, the secret's out. I'm no longer a man of mystery.
No need for closeups of the Hornet, since it looks just every other (black) Hornet -- and there are pics-a-plenty to be found.
[EDIT: SORRY I COULDN'T BE WEARING THE ES2s IN THE MEET PHOTOS, BUT THEY ARRIVED BACK ON MONDAY MORNING, JUST A WEE BIT TOO LATE FOR THE MEET.]
A side note: at the Portables Mini-Meet we compared this "M" Hornet with Jahn's "Stock Hornet". Very surprisingly, his Stock Hornet sounded much closer to the "M" Hornet than the Stock Hornet I had (before it went back to Ray for the "M" mods). The Stock Hornet I had exhibited huge and rather round bass, had a warm/tube-y overall character, was much more close-up-and-intimate than Jahn's, and had softer/less extended highs than his. I wonder if the Hornet underwent any interim mods before the current "M" version? Jahn's amp has bigger (if less defined) bass than the "M", and I feel the highs are less extended and aren't quite as clean, as well as its being possessed of a less wide/deep soundstage -- but it doesn't sound like the original version I was familiar with. I think Jahn prefers the slightly bigger bass and more forgiving highs of his version. I definitely prefer the many "improvements" of the "M". I added the quotes on "improvements' since this is all a matter of personal preference, and some owners will certainly prefer the lush and bassy original.
Perhaps Ray can shed some light on this?
