[webstaa]

You should have talked to Dan. I left my Alpha Dogs with him & they were on the table hooked up to the CEntrance on the right. I tested side-by-side on Saturday afternoon.

 


I did talk to Dan, which was a great experience - and listened for probably close to 30 minutes total between the Crimson and the Hugo. But I stupidly didn't ask which cables he was using - the braided on had a bit of roll-off according to Dan, but after switching it out the Primes seemed to come alive.

Unfortunately didn't get the chance to talk to many other head-fiers there though, that's the problem of having work obligations.

 

[CasperBxl]

Hi all,
 
Would you have ideas about a portable AMP to go with my AK100 II to push the Alpha Prime?
I do have an E18 laying around but i suppose those will not be ideal.
 
Portability is important.
 
Is the Centrance Mini M8 a candidate?
Or the full M8?
 
 
Thanks for all the feedback,
 
Casper

 

[SteveloRCA]

I have pre ordered the Prime. On the head band bar it states Alpha Prime on a picture I received with an email stating that they are starting to ship weeks ahead of the December 8th original date. It states they have begun shipping the Alpha Prime in limited quantities, and expect to deliver our first 100 units ahead of the Dec 8th date. They then go on to say that they have been working on validating the upgrades from the Dogs to the Prime. The initial results have been good, but they need a larger sample set to confirm upgrades. They state some drivers fail in the upgrade and need to be replaced. In the event any units are damaged in the process Mr. Speakers says they will replace them. (That is huge in my mind and I am sure any people with the Dogs). They have 30 upgrades available currently. 
 
Happy Listening! 

 

[mikemercer]

 
I have pre ordered the Prime. On the head band bar it states Alpha Prime on a picture I received with an email stating that they are starting to ship weeks ahead of the December 8th original date. It states they have begun shipping the Alpha Prime in limited quantities, and expect to deliver our first 100 units ahead of the Dec 8th date. They then go on to say that they have been working on validating the upgrades from the Dogs to the Prime. The initial results have been good, but they need a larger sample set to confirm upgrades. They state some drivers fail in the upgrade and need to be replaced. In the event any units are damaged in the process Mr. Speakers says they will replace them. (That is huge in my mind and I am sure any people with the Dogs). They have 30 upgrades available currently. 
 
Happy Listening! 

 
Congratulations on pullin' the trigger on Prime!! For me, it presented itself as an altogether different sonic experience from my Alpha Dogs (and I dug the Dogs enough to give em Writers Choice in PFO last year). I was also honored to get to live with it long enough to form impressions that didn't feel rushed - and review this damn fine headphone just before Canjam at RMAF!!
 
LINK HERE if interested.
 
Since then its only been gettin' better at both extremes of the frequency spectrum (smoother, and better control, especially in the LOW-end) - and since the Cavalli Liquid Crimson arrived on Fri for review - I've lost so much sleep because of this rig again!! 

 
I've also discovered that I prefer the synergy between the Prime and Crimson to the Prime + LAu!!
But sometimes these things just happen, no grand formula for good luck - just try Everything!!
 
Psyched to hear what the Primes are gonna sound like next month!
As they break-in, since I've been GLUED to em for awhile now - I can hear the soundstage literally becoming more opaque, more wide-open/airy.
 
The Prime are reference-level headphones, but they're also fun as hell to rock. As I said in my review: I think the headphone is finally reflective of Dan Clark too! He's got his soul into this one. It's fun, it knows its s___, and it can be mellow and passive or rock the house: Just like Dan!!
 
I'm already wondering whats coming next...
 

 

[SteveloRCA]

Where did you get that sweet looking cable from? Is that the one that comes with the Prime or is that an after market cable? All the pictures I have seen with the Prime are all black cables. If this is an after market cable would be able to tell me where you get such a beast? I am in Canada and we are very limited to where we can get such beautiful items. 
 
I am new to this, a friend like you are to your friend got me into this and have been burning up going through cans and IEM's. Not really sure how much a friend you guy's really are now for I am hooked. I was going to buy the Alpha Dogs after all the great reviews, then they listed the Primes, well guess what, the Dogs where no longer an option!
 
How would you say the Primes compare to an open back Planar like an Oppo PM-1 or 2? I have a pair of Denon AH-D 5000's and comparing them with the PM-2 i had a hard time picking one over the other, this was just a test with my OPPO 105 using it's DAC and no amplification. The OPPO's I thought would sound more open then they did. 
 
Thank you for the link, I checked it out a bit and will look at it some more. I am hoping a get a pair of Prime's real soon, now they waved the carrot in front of me saying they are shipping early. 

 

[mikemercer]

  Where did you get that sweet looking cable from? Is that the one that comes with the Prime or is that an after market cable? All the pictures I have seen with the Prime are all black cables. If this is an after market cable would be able to tell me where you get such a beast? I am in Canada and we are very limited to where we can get such beautiful items. 
 
I am new to this, a friend like you are to your friend got me into this and have been burning up going through cans and IEM's. Not really sure how much a friend you guy's really are now for I am hooked. I was going to buy the Alpha Dogs after all the great reviews, then they listed the Primes, well guess what, the Dogs where no longer an option!
 
How would you say the Primes compare to an open back Planar like an Oppo PM-1 or 2? I have a pair of Denon AH-D 5000's and comparing them with the PM-2 i had a hard time picking one over the other, this was just a test with my OPPO 105 using it's DAC and no amplification. The OPPO's I thought would sound more open then they did. 
 
Thank you for the link, I checked it out a bit and will look at it some more. I am hoping a get a pair of Prime's real soon, now they waved the carrot in front of me saying they are shipping early. 

Hey there!
 
YES - that is one of my top/favorite reference headphone cables - the Molecule Extreme from Double Helix Cables.
You can goto their website, drop them an email, and say Michael Mercer sent you - for when you want to enhance your headphone listening experiences!!
 
I'm not a big fan of the Oppo cans. I'm an Audeze guy. The comment you made, about thinking the Oppos weren't as open as you thought:
I agree completely! They look great, but they didn't fit on my strange skull too well ( 

 ) so I could never really get into their music reproduction qualities. They also sounded a bit sterile to me - too polite and audiophily - to me, which is actually great that I didn't feel like I needed to buy a pair!!
 
I think the Prime has FAR more soul than the Oppos - and look, closed is closed - so, IMO, don't just consider comparing the Prime to open-back designs and their performance levels. They have that distinct advantage: They're OPEN.

 
But the Prime is exceptionally open and airy-sounding, especially for a closed-back planar! It's one of its strong suits sonically I believe.
It's also very comfortable, and with a cable lead to each ear-cup (unlike the Mad Dogs) you can run em with a headphone amp system in monoblock configuration!
I did it with the NuForce HA200s as mono-blocks and I almost lost it when I played Radioheads' Kid A. It was cosmic, and I'm no dirty hippie.
 
Whats your amplifier??

 

[pdrm360]

  Hi all,
 
Would you have ideas about a portable AMP to go with my AK100 II to push the Alpha Prime?
I do have an E18 laying around but i suppose those will not be ideal.
 
Portability is important.
 
Is the Centrance Mini M8 a candidate?
Or the full M8?
 
 
Thanks for all the feedback,
 
Casper

 
The HiFi-M8s are great for the AD, I assume they should be great for the AP too. 

 

[SteveloRCA]

Currently I am in the market for a stand alone AMP. The one I currently have is only for portable use and it is the Theorem 720 DAC/Amp. Any suggestions for an Amp that I can connect to my OPPO 105 player or anything else I may want to connect to it? 
 
Thank you for the line on the cable. Much appreciated! Last cables I had to buy out of Japan for my AKG cans.
 
Steve

 

[Mullet]

It looks like all upgrades are "out of stock". D'oh!

 

[Phonelaf]

Ordered

 

[mrspeakers]

  Hey Dan, 
 
Did you get to post the measurement comparison between all your headphones, especially AD vs ADP? (I think you mentioned you'd get to it, not sure if you did and I missed it, but browsing quickly, could not find anything).
 
 
Thanks.

No, just time.  I'll try to address this this week, production is our highest priority.

 

[reddog]

Currently I am in the market for a stand alone AMP. The one I currently have is only for portable use and it is the Theorem 720 DAC/Amp. Any suggestions for an Amp that I can connect to my OPPO 105 player or anything else I may want to connect to it? 

Thank you for the line on the cable. Much appreciated! Last cables I had to buy out of Japan for my AKG cans.

Steve

I would recommend the Schiit Audio's Lyr 2, which is a hybrid tube amp. I use the Lyr 2 to run my Alpha Dogs and Beyerdynamic Dt 880 600 ohm headphones, and they both sound great. You can roll tubes to alter the sound signature, to what ever makes you happy.

 

[SteveloRCA]

I do hear a lot of good things about the Schitt equipment. Thank you for the insight and I will go check it out now.
 
Steve

 

[grizzlybeast]

   

what dac are you using with the ha200's?

 

[john57]

I made some more comments in the  Alpha PRIME: Impressions and Discussion Thread
Would it make more sense at this time to combine the threads at this point?