[kartik]

Following the flame-ridden Phillyaudio thread from last week, Lan decided to come over to my place to try my current rig. He was kind enough to make the arduous and extremely dangerous trip to the bronx braving the cold and the muggers on the subway (just kidding about the muggers) with some of his really interesting cables and of course his K1000s.
We started out by first assessing the system in terms of the speaker playback of the SACD and later the redbook. I'm going to let Lan post his impressions but in brief he felt that the SACD playback was definitely superior to the redbook playback. We then proceeded to attack the Phillyaudio preamp, headamp with the Grado SR-325s. Strangely enough, he found the SR-325s to be fairly rolled of at both the high and the low end. Quite an ungrado sound in this combination. We also tried a variety of ICs between the source and my DSD amp and found that his ghetto cables sounded best in my system when assessed both with the K1000s and the PA-SR325 combo. Unfortunately, my reference combo cables were out for review so it was hard to assess what those might have sounded like.
Overall, upto this point he was not terribly impressed with the system or its potential. Then we delved into his magical back to try his SECRET WEAPON cable. Insane. Simply insane. On SACD playback on any of the components the improvement was palpable and dramatic on both the Grados and the SR-325s performance. In particular when using the Ghettos in the analog position in the DSD setup while powering the K1000s there was a dramatic increase in clarity along with a definite reduction in the grunge with a huge soundstage that I didn;t believe possible with this amp. I really need to get myself a pair of these earspeakers. He then agreed that with a power cable/conditioner upgrade these two amps and the source might be an interesting proposition. My precious headphile cables also seemed to hold their own against most of the stock cables he had while sounding somewhat thinner than his "ghetto" cables. But the star of the evening was undoubtedly his power cable. The man knows what he is talking about. It IS all about power.

In conclusion, I would like to really thank Lan for coming up to the Bronx and helping me come up with a few real tweaks. He is a real stand-up guy and a smart one to boot.

 

[lan]

I'd like to first thank kartik for hosting.

I was interested in hearing a digital amp system and wanted to hear kartik's SR325s on the controvesial phillyaudio amp in the other thread. We would have the potential "treble gone wild" headphones, K1000, SR325, and V6 showing their goods.

I heard digital amps have good clarity and control over the bass. I got a sense that it did the job through his speakers. Usually when I have no comments, it means that there's nothing really outstandingly "wrong". I'm not sure if I liked his speakers though as I couldn't move or else the sonics would change. I think it needs some better placement.

We could definitly hear the changes I was expecting of various cables I brought. I felt that was a good sign that the system was fairly neutral and resolving.

The SR325 was pretty warm sounding in this phillyaudio amp. I usually dont like Grado headphones but I know they could have drastically different presentations in different setups. This is not what I was expecting as the bass and treble were not really prominent as they were sort of overshadowed by the midrange. When I hooked up my power cable, things changed a lot on this amp. It opened up, extension was better, bass was greater and more articulate. The headphones were sounding more alive now. I felt it was being held back too much before. I predict this amp may also like a swap of the rectifier tube. I didn't feel enough resolution coming out though. Maybe I'm too used to my K1000s or the amp or it's other tubes were still holding it back.

The K1000s on the sharp digital amp had a full sound. It sounded pretty neutral and extended unlike let's say the RKV. It sounded well integrated from the bottom to the top. This made the soundstage pretty good. This is important because I think when the soundstage on K1000 isn't "complete" it feels fake. The power cord upgrade opened up the amp abit but it had more resolution than before. Nevertheless it still didn't have the last ounces of resolution and texture. I'm wondering if this is a noisy power issue again. I would assume a digital amp IS digital but I'm not sure if it would respond better or worst to "digital" AC filtering. Experimenting would be needed.

The interconnects didn't have that much difference on the system probably because it was still held back by AC power. I'm sure you could hear the difference more if you had good juice flowing in. My other cable is better than the Ghettos. See the "advanced" materials really work.

 

[kartik]

Maybe you should start two companies then: Cleartape cables and Notsocleartape cables. You need to look at these cables with your ears. The detail I heard from these were as good if not better than that of my silver ICs. I'm looking at a bunch of different power solutions, but of the available millions what is the pricerange of power cable I should be looking at? Is there any point in changing the type of the rectifier tube or do I need to stick with a 5AR4. If I do make a leap which rectifier do you reccomend?

 

[Music Fanatic]

Quote:

Originally posted by lan The K1000s on the sharp digital amp had a full sound. It sounded pretty neutral and extended unlike let's say the RKV. It sounded well integrated from the bottom to the top. This made the soundstage pretty good. This is important because I think when the soundstage on K1000 isn't "complete" it feels fake. The power cord upgrade opened up the amp abit but it had more resolution than before. Nevertheless it still didn't have the last ounces of resolution and texture. I'm wondering if this is a noisy power issue again. I would assume a digital amp IS digital but I'm not sure if it would respond better or worst to "digital" AC filtering. Experimenting would be needed.

Just for the sake of completeness, which digital amp was this?

 

[kartik]

Sharp SM-SX1. http://www.sharpusa.com/products/Mod...58,662,00.html

 

[lan]

The amp was Sharp SM-SX1 I believe.

The best 5AR4 tube is a Mullard one. Some people like to change the rectifier last. I like to change them all

There are a lot of power cables. You should just try a bunch. I would save until I got a conditioner and 2 cords (mayber a better and lesser one just to try). That way you can really hear how they all jive together.

I'd get cables one step above the basic ones. See if they have any added advantages and just not higher priced though.