I'd like to thank Captain for his hospitality and the great food. We were talking in the car about the favourite things of the day, and for me it was mushroom quiche followed by the rest
I'll keep my comments brief.
I like the PS-1, but I wasn't blown away by my brief audition. However, I think tracking back the comments it's very possible that I heard the PS-1 out of the least suitable combination. If the Qualia doesn't come back sounding 'right', the PS-1 may be worth a go. The EarMax Pro Anniversary edition also was a notable, and I thought it was a nice partner with the ATH-W2002.
The Blockhead was very good, and I would definitely need more time spent with it to concrete my opinions of it, but I felt that the Blockhead+HD650 simply made the most of the HD650's capabilities but did not catapault it into a whole new plane of being... Although the HD650 was as ever it's agreeable self, I thought it was still very much an HD650, warts and all. I felt the scaling of the DT880 was technically more appropriate to the Blockhead than the HD650 in a comparison between the two.
I also felt that sort of doing a virtual venn diagram in my head of the response given by the HD650, DT880 and RS-1, it made me think that the Blockhead would make an excellent statement amp for the Qualia 010 if the specific problem I've experienced with the Q010 itself can be made to go away. This is completely speculation at this stage, but the sense of measured power felt with the Blockhead may well counteract the tendency of the Qualia to be over-fussy, and let it be a more 'effortless' phone while keeping the technical capability intact.
I've listened to the Max before and I liked it as usual. A very capable amp, and in terms of how it sounds, even compared to the DIY high-end amps I think it's reasonably priced.
I deliberately didn't go near the portable amps, because I really don't want to accumulate any more.
