[mikeg]

Quote:

Originally posted by rsaavedr Wonderful setup Mikeg, congratulations!! I remember once pmming you asking about your Marantz SA8260. Here's another question for you, if you've heard the Sony SCD555ES by any chance, and preferred the Marantz. I'm still on the lookout for a good source, and that Marantz seems reasonably priced for a Stereophile class A. Maybe there aren't many mods for it, but precisely because it might be already too good as it comes. PS. Wonder if your so far final conclusion between R10 and HD650 was influenced by possibly a bad amp-headphone matching for the 650?

agile_one brought his Sony DVP NC555ES SACD to our meeting, and we listened to all the headphones through various amps connected to this CDP. We did not do a comparison of the 555ES to my SA8260, however. As for amp-headphone matching for the 650, I've listened to the 650 through my AQ-1005DT setup, as well as though an RA-1, direct connection to the headphone jack of the 8260, and connected to agile_one's Rudistor RP5 amp. Although the HD650 sound when powered by the RP5 was best, its sound from my AQ-1005DT setup came a fairly close second. But, after listening for a while to the R10 plugged into my AQ-1005DT setup, and then unplugging the R10 and replacing it with the 650 (as well as the RS-1) the loss in sound quality was really dramatic. In this test the performance of the 650 and RS-1 was very inferior to that of the R10, and therefore extremely disappointing.

 

[mikeg]

Quote:

Originally posted by ServinginEcuador Mike, Even the best tubes Hirsch had in place using the EAR HP4 couldn't match up to the Supra. The amp was his limiting factor IIRC, not the tubes. The Supra, according to Hirsch, simply let's the higher quality tubes run right thru to the cans. So, in the case of the Supra, yes, the tubes will make the difference. In the case of the HP4 it appeared that the amp wasn't capable of pushing the R10s to their best sound.

I'm afraid that you may be right about the limitations of the HP4, and this saddens me with regard to agile_one's investment in this amp. As for the Supra, I'll look to it as an eventual alternative to my hookup of three components, where one could do.

 

[rsaavedra]

Quote:

Originally posted by mikeg We did not do a comparison of the 555ES to my SA8260, however.

Ah thanks. I didn't realize Agile's was the DVP-NC555ES, which is a dvd/sacd changer. I was more thinking about the SCD-C555ES, which is an audio-only, sacd/cd changer. But well the comparisons were not done anyway, thanks anyway.