[Tequilasunriser]

  There has been substantial poof that the 8 wire square knot lacks the neutrality of the 16 wire octoknot.  All has to do with flow.  Just as the garden hose speaker cable lack the flow, realism and neutrality of the fire hose speaker cable.  Even if using a 1.8 TRS connectors, nothing beats a 16 wire octoknot cable...except a 32 wire hexaflourocarbon cable.

And, yet, none of that matters if you don't have your audiophile grade acoustic stones and hangers.

 

[deafanddumb]

I'm lovin' my Alpha Dogs!
I wish I had something negative to say - wait, NO I don't!!
 

As I said in my Alpha impressions in my RMAF/CanJam coverage for Enjoy The Music & our collective
CanJam coverage for Audio360.org (where others shared their thoughts as well)

Sorry in advance for all the scrolling to get to them!!

They make a fantastic mate for the ALO Island (KILLER overall presentation)



They're comfortable and easy to deal with (man the cables snap into place so easily - no havin' to talk dirty to get
em to snap in like some of the other mini-XLR connectors).  And the stand is a great touch!  

The sound w/ the Island is superbly reproduced: Clean and coherent.  The low end is extended and free of distortion, but not too overwhelming.  The midrange is silky and detailed.  The highs open and engaging.

I've been transfixed listening to Radiohead in-particular over the last couple days (had a MAD writing marathon goin' on) and this combo draws me in.
Kid A on the Alpha's is an incredible sonic joyride.  

I had a ton of fun bumpin' the Radiohead TKOL Remix double-LP as well.  The bass waves of Carabou's remix of "Little by Little" (the track I picked for a group demo of the Audeze LCD-XC at Headmasters during the California Audio Show) were luscious and smooth with amazing power.  The vocals floated across the soundstage from left-to-right, right-to-left with holographic-like imaging.  I'm havin' a BLAST with these!

Also rockin' Four Tet's Pink is a head-knocker.  The drums pound with intense velocity, the transient attack is sublime.  All the various triggered sounds exist in their own space: Thus the headphones capabilities
for dimensionality.  The sound is warm, but not "warmed-over" - at least not to me.

The ear pads are like ear-muffs and I can wear em all day!!

Some further impressions coming, but I don't know of any other closed ortho cans I'd rather have anywhere near this price range,
personally.  I think Dan has a stunning achievement under his belt here.

I've also run them w/ my two top reference tube rigs: My ALO Studio Six & E.A.R. HP4 - and on both occasions I woulda listened alot longer had my wifey not come and grabbed me!  My only quandary is do I keep my Mad Dogs now??  I love those too.  It's a disease, though there are worse addictions!

I plan on doing a full review of the Alpha Dogs for my Sonic Satori column at Positive Feedback and bestowing a Writers Choice Award upon
these wonderful headphones for 2013!

mike, great overview. With all the nervous energy on this thread of whether the Alpha's have pretty much snatched the closed crown, especially in light of their terrific value, compared to The heavy weight XC and TH900...Could you give some sort of idea on what extra bang for your buck you get from paying more for the 2 big boys I mentioned? Thanks awfully.

 

[Greed]

  There has been substantial poof that the 8 wire square knot lacks the neutrality of the 16 wire octoknot.  All has to do with flow.  Just as the garden hose speaker cable lack the flow, realism and neutrality of the fire hose speaker cable.  Even if using a 1.8 TRS connectors, nothing beats a 16 wire octoknot cable...except a 32 wire hexaflourocarbon cable.

 
Good thing it isn't square knot then. Thanks for the info. 

 

[Lilsir64]

Any idea on how the AD would sound with a Pico DAC/AMP?

 

[sunneebear]

   
Good thing it isn't square knot then. Thanks for the info. 

 
I had a 8 wire on my HE-6 and LCD-2 before.  Even with good soft wire it still was heavy.  I have a 4 wire on my MD ATM.  Quality over quantity but for some reason that is not the mentality of the audio consumer.  Manufacturers seem to feed that mentality by investing and producing in vulgarly large components.  Very few produce high quality "normal" size item.  If your 1/8" plug's body is not the size of a XLR plug, then it is only crap that is the bottleneck of your signal. 

 

[Greed]

   
I had a 8 wire on my HE-6 and LCD-2 before.  Even with good soft wire it still was heavy.  I have a 4 wire on my MD ATM.  Quality over quantity but for some reason that is not the mentality of the audio consumer.  Manufacturers seem to feed that mentality by investing and producing in vulgarly large components.  Very few produce high quality "normal" size item.  If your 1/8" plug's body is not the size of a XLR plug, then it is only crap that is the bottleneck of your signal. 

 
I've tried both 8-Wire, 4-Wire, 16-Wire, etc. and it really depends on the wire, IMO (more the wires - the better it looks IMO). Sonic changes are a touchy subject around these parts but in reality cable swaps do make somewhat of a difference for me. Whether that is in my head or not no matter, I tend to buy or make aftermarket cables for aesthetics. I never expect any aftermarket cable to change the sonics, but if it does and I like it... great! As for 1/8 vs XLR, IMO that is amp and source (dac) dependent. As for weight, the stock cable is actually not much lighter than the 8 wire - it really depends on the jacket being used that adds most the weight. Ergonomics are also much better on this 8-Wire as well. 

 

[miceblue]

Welp, first impressions with a Sansa Clip Zip (with a few 320 kbps CBR songs from Lindsey Stirling and V0 LAME MP3s of Daft Punk's Discovery album; yeah go ahead and laugh at my inferior non-reference music tastes). Sounds pretty good to me. The soundstage does indeed sound pretty spacious for a closed-back headphone. No, it can't even compare to the HD800 in that regard. From the Clip Zip, its got a woolly bass response, but very good bass extension. Iono why, but on Daft Punk's "Voyager" song, I'm getting a good rumble from the sub-bass, but the bass guitar-like sounds are ill-defined. Very nice bass rumble.
 
Switching to the STAX SRS-2170 with the ODAC and , Daft Punk's "Voyager" sounds lacking in weight and the bass rumble has disappeared, though the bass guitar is better-defined.
 
Listening to Dr. Chesky's "Binocerous" and "Drum Solo" song/demonstration at 24/96 on the Clip Zip still, the snare drums sound a little plasticky/dull to me. Again, soundstage is pretty spacious for a closed-back headphone, but nothing at all like the HD800. The imaging on these binaural tracks is pretty good. I have the volume at -20 dBFS on the Clip Zip, so it does get plenty loud for me.
 
 

---

I'm not sure how the headphones are supposed to be on the head, but when I push the earcups closer towards my ears they definitely sound different.
 
Comfort-wise, I am pleasantly surprised. Despite it having more mass than the Mad Dog 3.2, the Alpha Dog feels more secure on my head and I don't think I'll have comfort issues.
 

 

[Wyd4]

  And, yet, none of that matters if you don't have your audiophile grade acoustic stones and hangers.

Too Funny.

Favorited

 

[koiloco]

  Too Funny.

Favorited

I fell off my chair upon clicking on that link.  

 

[hojomojo96]

  I fell off my chair upon clicking on that link.  

As did I. I can't even...

 

[koiloco]

  As did I. I can't even...

So much crystal wonder that I will start watching my stargate SG1 collection again tonite.  

 

[kstuart]

  And, yet, none of that matters if you don't have your audiophile grade acoustic stones and hangers.

A great satire.   I hope they at least get one rich guy to click on a "buy" link.

 

[kstuart]

Hey, while I am awaiting shipping of my Alpha Dogs, I am going to take suggestions for sub-bass and bass impact test tracks, in other words, tracks that are particularly good for checking whether headphones can produce sub-bass and/or good bass impact.
 
Most of my aforementioned acoustic instrument tracks have excellent bass quality and sometimes quantity, but rarely go below 60hz and never below 40hz.
 
So what tracks do you like to use ?

 

[IcedTea]

wait, I can't tell if that site is a legitimate one....?
 
It's not right?? o.O 

 

[miceblue]

Since no one uploaded a photo of the Alpha Dog on someone's head from the front (it's always been to the side...), here ya go:

 
Ottmar Lieber's Up Close album straight out of my iPhone 4S sounds fantastic! It has a nice warm sound.
 
Likewise, Lenny White's Explorations in Space and Time album sounds great. I don't get the same airy (gah audio terms; large soundstage) sound from a lot of open-back headphones, but still spacious. The bass of the drum pedal...dang that has a lot of weight and impact. The drum hits in this case are a bit strident to my ears.
 

---

Heeey there we go! iPhone 4S (aforementioned albums) -> FiiO L9 -> JDS Labs C5
The soundstage becomes wider and deeper, but more wide, and the instruments are more clearly-defined, as I found to be the case with the C5 in general compared to the iPhone's headphone-out. This is a great-sounding portable rig!
 
Switching out the C5 with the O2 (battery powered, 1.0x gain, 10 o'clock potentiometer position), the benefits from going to the C5 to the O2 are apparent as well: a more laid-back midrange, even larger soundstage both in depth and width.