Jahn
Headphoneus Supremus Prolificus
- Joined
- Jul 2, 2004
- Posts
- 21,333
- Likes
- 40
I guess I'm the only one who's a beast enough to start posting so soon after this minimeet, especially crazy considering that I lugged my desktop to Oski's place and back - setup took me awhile, lol!
Anyhow, first I'd like to thank Oski for graciously hosting a second minimeet so soon after his first. I missed the first one, so I'm really glad I made this one. I know Romanee was looking forward to going to Oski Part Two once the new portable amp wave blew in, and indeed we had a spankin' new Headamp AE-1 on the premises. No Hornet, but that will have to wait for the Fall meet, eh?
Now these are only my shotgun impressions, so take them with a grain of salt. But with my personal listening preferences, and using 320AAC tracks from my ipod 3G 40gig with sik din lineout with right angle Xin mini adapter, into either a KSC-35 or a Senn PX250 (noise cancelling is cool) my own consensus is as follows, from "best" to "worst" -
Worst - Headamp AE-1. Don't kill me! But I couldn't help it. This amp seemed too distant and was playing "find the instruments" with me. It's one thing to be like a Sennheiser and be in the audience, but it's another altogether to be in the audience and having the curtain down, and you're peeking under the curtain and seeing people shuffling around back there. You know something's going on, but you can't quite tell.
Portaphile V2. This is the 2nd gen Portaphile. I heard the Portaphile V2x2 at the big NYC meet and that one kicked butt, and I hear a Portaphile V3 is coming out soon. But this V2 holds its own and presents everything in the forward manner that I prefer when walking around town to cut through the ambient noise. I also felt like all the information on the tracks were making their way into my ear.
JMT CHA-47. This baby brings the bass, hehe! I told you it would be a biased ranking! Anyhow, this lil guy was also forward, probably the most forward, and detail cut through the mix too - but it could be due to the highs being a bit too bumped. Really over the top with Koss KSC-35!
Evilfire Cmoy. I heard this right at the end of the meet, and on the spot tried to buy it from Oski because it kicked so much butt (and the CHA-47 is on loan, it's not mine!) Too bad he got it as a gift so he couldn't sell it! This thing has all the things I like about the CHA-47, but is smoother up top and warmer in the mids, so the overall effect is less fatiguing. Melikes! This is telling, that there is a certain point where a simple amp sometimes beats a "busy" amp.
RS Audio Emmeline SR-71. This is simplicity in a military box. Great match with the KSC-35, not so much with the Senns. The reason being that with both cans you could tell the realism/detail blew everything listed above away. Also, the noise floor is WAY lower than the CHA-47 and Cmoy. But the KSC-35 brings the bass to the table, and Senns don't. With the Senns you could tell the SR-71 wasn't as bassy as...
Best - The Headroom Coda with Desktop Reference Module. Nice bass! Plus low noise floor and just as good detail as the SR-71. The best overall sounding portable amp of the bunch. The only problem? It's not practical as a portable amp. It's a tad biggish, and the Desktop Module will suck your battery dry quicker than you can say "Hawaii-Five-O!"
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Oski had us listen to this "Best rig under 50 bucks" thing (he has a thread on it somewhere) and he was right - for a usb Turtle Island sound thingy for 20 bucks, and a Senn HD201 for 20 bucks, you can't find better sound. Well, unless you substitute the HD201 for a KSC-35, but that's my personal preference lol. The headphone out on that thing doubles as an optical digital out, so that's another bonus. Oski said that it might not be the most jitter-free alternative out there tho, but just plugging into a laptop and listening to some nice euphoric tunes, this usb thing is hard to beat for the price. I'm glad I heard the HD201 through this rig, because my initial impressions of it straight into, well, anything else, were very unfavorable!
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I'll let other folks talk about my home rig (DEFINITELY not portable, or even transportable, but somehow I trucked it over) which consisted of my 0404, my Solo, and my HP2, all modded. But I'll say this - I came away reaffirming what I like to hear, and the fact that my rig gives it to me. Yay!
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Yep I said Semi-Electrostatic meet. Because Lan brought his baby orpheus rig, and his AKG K4. The Orpheus was nice and bassy as usual, if I had to go electrostat I would seriously consider the HE60 as a personal preference. But I don't think I groove on the electrostat sound, it seems to be superfast for me (other than the Daddy Orpheus rig, which is so organic it's scary!) The K4 just didn't seem to mesh with my ears on anything I tried it on, which is too bad, since Oski and Lan liked it. To my ears, the highs and mids were nice in an electrostatic way, but the lows just seemed wonky and muddy.
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Pinkie still spits out all other cans but the Grados. It hated the K4, and still isn't on speaking terms with the Sony SA5K, lol! But you know, I liked the fun factor of the recabled Alessandro MS-2i on my rig, and the recabled DT880 was an eye-opener, especially since I didn't like the stock DT880. The recabled version reminded me of a wide open Darth Beyer - it still brings the bass, folks! But the highs/mids are nice and clear and the soundstage is wide too. Dare I say, it was a "fun" alternative to the HP2? No joke! Not as accurate but very engaging. That goes for the MS-2i as well. For the price, either of these cans is hard to beat - recabled of course!
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Maybe it's just the Kevin Gilmore sound and I don't match or something, but folks say the Gilmore Lite (this one was the new version) is a perfect match with Grados. But let's just say that on my rig the Solo was a better match for my ears.
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That should do it for now, I'll report later as things come to me and such. Thanks again to Oski, and Lan and Romanee and JJCha (he double-dipped on minimeets this weekend!) for an entertaining afternoon!
Anyhow, first I'd like to thank Oski for graciously hosting a second minimeet so soon after his first. I missed the first one, so I'm really glad I made this one. I know Romanee was looking forward to going to Oski Part Two once the new portable amp wave blew in, and indeed we had a spankin' new Headamp AE-1 on the premises. No Hornet, but that will have to wait for the Fall meet, eh?
Now these are only my shotgun impressions, so take them with a grain of salt. But with my personal listening preferences, and using 320AAC tracks from my ipod 3G 40gig with sik din lineout with right angle Xin mini adapter, into either a KSC-35 or a Senn PX250 (noise cancelling is cool) my own consensus is as follows, from "best" to "worst" -
Worst - Headamp AE-1. Don't kill me! But I couldn't help it. This amp seemed too distant and was playing "find the instruments" with me. It's one thing to be like a Sennheiser and be in the audience, but it's another altogether to be in the audience and having the curtain down, and you're peeking under the curtain and seeing people shuffling around back there. You know something's going on, but you can't quite tell.
Portaphile V2. This is the 2nd gen Portaphile. I heard the Portaphile V2x2 at the big NYC meet and that one kicked butt, and I hear a Portaphile V3 is coming out soon. But this V2 holds its own and presents everything in the forward manner that I prefer when walking around town to cut through the ambient noise. I also felt like all the information on the tracks were making their way into my ear.
JMT CHA-47. This baby brings the bass, hehe! I told you it would be a biased ranking! Anyhow, this lil guy was also forward, probably the most forward, and detail cut through the mix too - but it could be due to the highs being a bit too bumped. Really over the top with Koss KSC-35!
Evilfire Cmoy. I heard this right at the end of the meet, and on the spot tried to buy it from Oski because it kicked so much butt (and the CHA-47 is on loan, it's not mine!) Too bad he got it as a gift so he couldn't sell it! This thing has all the things I like about the CHA-47, but is smoother up top and warmer in the mids, so the overall effect is less fatiguing. Melikes! This is telling, that there is a certain point where a simple amp sometimes beats a "busy" amp.
RS Audio Emmeline SR-71. This is simplicity in a military box. Great match with the KSC-35, not so much with the Senns. The reason being that with both cans you could tell the realism/detail blew everything listed above away. Also, the noise floor is WAY lower than the CHA-47 and Cmoy. But the KSC-35 brings the bass to the table, and Senns don't. With the Senns you could tell the SR-71 wasn't as bassy as...
Best - The Headroom Coda with Desktop Reference Module. Nice bass! Plus low noise floor and just as good detail as the SR-71. The best overall sounding portable amp of the bunch. The only problem? It's not practical as a portable amp. It's a tad biggish, and the Desktop Module will suck your battery dry quicker than you can say "Hawaii-Five-O!"
----------------
Oski had us listen to this "Best rig under 50 bucks" thing (he has a thread on it somewhere) and he was right - for a usb Turtle Island sound thingy for 20 bucks, and a Senn HD201 for 20 bucks, you can't find better sound. Well, unless you substitute the HD201 for a KSC-35, but that's my personal preference lol. The headphone out on that thing doubles as an optical digital out, so that's another bonus. Oski said that it might not be the most jitter-free alternative out there tho, but just plugging into a laptop and listening to some nice euphoric tunes, this usb thing is hard to beat for the price. I'm glad I heard the HD201 through this rig, because my initial impressions of it straight into, well, anything else, were very unfavorable!
----------------
I'll let other folks talk about my home rig (DEFINITELY not portable, or even transportable, but somehow I trucked it over) which consisted of my 0404, my Solo, and my HP2, all modded. But I'll say this - I came away reaffirming what I like to hear, and the fact that my rig gives it to me. Yay!
-----------------
Yep I said Semi-Electrostatic meet. Because Lan brought his baby orpheus rig, and his AKG K4. The Orpheus was nice and bassy as usual, if I had to go electrostat I would seriously consider the HE60 as a personal preference. But I don't think I groove on the electrostat sound, it seems to be superfast for me (other than the Daddy Orpheus rig, which is so organic it's scary!) The K4 just didn't seem to mesh with my ears on anything I tried it on, which is too bad, since Oski and Lan liked it. To my ears, the highs and mids were nice in an electrostatic way, but the lows just seemed wonky and muddy.
------------------
Pinkie still spits out all other cans but the Grados. It hated the K4, and still isn't on speaking terms with the Sony SA5K, lol! But you know, I liked the fun factor of the recabled Alessandro MS-2i on my rig, and the recabled DT880 was an eye-opener, especially since I didn't like the stock DT880. The recabled version reminded me of a wide open Darth Beyer - it still brings the bass, folks! But the highs/mids are nice and clear and the soundstage is wide too. Dare I say, it was a "fun" alternative to the HP2? No joke! Not as accurate but very engaging. That goes for the MS-2i as well. For the price, either of these cans is hard to beat - recabled of course!
------------
Maybe it's just the Kevin Gilmore sound and I don't match or something, but folks say the Gilmore Lite (this one was the new version) is a perfect match with Grados. But let's just say that on my rig the Solo was a better match for my ears.
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That should do it for now, I'll report later as things come to me and such. Thanks again to Oski, and Lan and Romanee and JJCha (he double-dipped on minimeets this weekend!) for an entertaining afternoon!
