I did some A-B listening tonight with guillaume's GS-1, my HB1, my AD2000s and my HD600s, and here are my thoughts so far (remember, this is with my Raysonic as source):
- I hadn't heard the HD600s with the HB1, but it was a revelation for me tonight. After hearing the k701 with it as the SSI, I thought they had wayyyy too less power to make them justice, but oh boy was I wrong. Although the volume dial is at 80% of the max, the HB1 seems to have plenty enough of juice left to put some muscle into the Hd600s. Dynamics were really satisfying, bass was tight and strong while retaining its el84 delicacy, and it had a fair amount of air around everything while keeping good imaging.
- Going back to the AD2000s with the HB1 made them sound really DEAD in comparison. I've just realized I had lived with that kind of sound for around two years now (with various sources but the same amp/phones combo) and enjoyed it as is. Reminds me of my speaker setup : I lived with NO room treatments for about a year, but hearing the same speakers in a treated room made my jaw drop, and I could never go back. After a full year of experiments and about 250 pounds of room treatments later, I can enjoy speaker listening again... I think the same is going to apply here. The ATs had a very collapsed soundstage, everything was smeared and blurry, complex passages made everything worse, no extension at both extremes, which is supposed to be a strong point of the ATs... The phones seemed to draw everything to the midrange, with a MASSIVE down-smiley frequency curve, and that was noticeable on every kind of music I put. Details also were harder to pick, but strangely I could still hear them after going back from the GS-1. I just had to focus a lot more on the details to make them pop. Did I say NO dynamics at all? Exactly.
- Switching to the GS-1 didn't really seem to help, although things sounded less blurry and more focused. Details were also more obvious, but it still was boxy, and dragged towards midrange. Bass was tight but not very extended, had no power whatsoever and wasn't strong enough to bring any kind of texture. After trying both low and high gain, nothing happened so I guess the GS-1 just seemed to under-power the AD2000s, just as the HB1 does.
- The GS-1 was an upgrade over the HB1 using the HD600s, but not by much. More instrument separation, a bit more focus on every note, tighter imaging but the soundstage remained the same size in all directions, bass was just as strong, had a tiny bit more power but less texture, and it seemed to have less PRaT than the HB1. Voices seemed a little bit more distant than on the HB1, and it had about the same amount of micro and macro-dynamics. Overall, the GS-1 seemed to be more precise but the HB1 had bigger fun factor, which doesn't mean it was over-coloured or not technically good. The HB1 has a clean sound, but it seems to subtly retain more texture onto everything. For now I'll happily stay with the HB1s after I give back the GS-1 to Guillaume, but of course I'll have to compare it with the Twinhead (battle of the ASLs!).
- I hope the Einar sound will have a better match than these two with the ATs! According to what has been written already about it, it seems to give a lot of power to all the phones INCLUDING LOW-IMPEDANCE. Really, the things I've heard with my ATHs really reminded me of what people say an under-powered can sounds like. Also maybe balancing will shove some energy up their butt.
- Maybe these problems are just a source//phones mismatch. I will try to make the same A-B using my Denon as a source. It has a very punchy sound with especially strong bass so maybe it'll bring back the AD2000 to life.
Anyway it has been a very enlightening evening, and I hope things will get better.
