[cerebrous]

Thanks Don...
 
Appreciate the effort in getting the pics up

 

[geetarman49]

cerebrous, it was my pleasure... i only wish i had time to re-edit a couple of them for better contrast and glare elimination... hmmm, maybe i can still  do that ..
 
any recommendations for a glue that will work with cf material (instant crazy glue)?   altho the 'blutak' is holding up for now, i feel it is inevitable that it will give way.... a very small dollop of adhesive would work wonders and still make it fairly easy to remove when desired.
 
coming next --- sonic impressions (whoosh, whooosh .... a bit more listening required...)

 
Quote:

Thanks Don...
 
Appreciate the effort in getting the pics up

 

[geetarman49]

i should have initial impressions up by very late evening -- also, just added a bit of commentary to the pix previously posted.

 

[apatN]

Quote:

Hey apatN would you say they need to be 2mm bigger the flanges?
 

 

Sorry for not getting back to you... Totally missed it.
 
The outer diameter is a good 5,5cm with my distancers. I recommend you do the same with your carbon fiber ones.
 

 

[geetarman49]

sorry, missed my deadline on sonic impressions (it's coming) & here's another pic to illustrate the need for a bigger flange as identified by apatN above.
there's almost nothing for the stock cushions to hang on.

 
SONIC IMPRESSIONS BEGINS
 
 
1. michel jonasz - le temps passe from the live recording "la fabuleuse histoire de mister swing".   long a staple of CES demos of yesteryear, this 11 min. opus of french pop crooning (think chas. asnavour amped up to 11 with up-tempo beat) features bass, fingersnaps, rimshots, drums, congas, strings (likely synth), keyboards, what sounds like electrified autoharp and did i say bass?!  The default HF2 puts midrange emphasis at the expense of the bassline - gets about 30% of the bass imho. fingersnaps are more rounded - perhaps this is more realistic but some of the 'drama' is lost.
 
with the g-cush installed, there is a better sense of soundstage, an auditorium/concert hall stage with supporting air around the instruments  - things are not as 'crowded'. is there a slight increase in bass volume? perhaps, but this might be due to increasing the volume level to match up to the mids in default configuration.
 
with liberators and g-cush - now we're getting somewhere... we're hitting about 75% of the thunderous bass lines that are present throughout this cut. even my stock, but rewired hfi-780 only gets about 85% of this. on a good loudspeaker system, in a hi-rise late at nite, this will reverberate your foundations and have the neighbors threatening to have you be comfortable amongst the fishies.
 
with (beta) liberators and normal cushions - ok, this is an awkward fit, the cups are loose but once positioned against your ears, the headband pressure keeps everything in place. previously i believed that removing the much larger g-cushions would cause a detrimental effect to both the soundstaging and bass, but i'm happy to report that this is not so bad sonically.  there is some collapse of soundstaging, instruments are slightly crowded than previously, but bass is mostly untouched.
 
 
 
(more later).
don
 
edited: 16/09/10 11 PM 

 

[geetarman49]

SONIC IMPRESSIONS CONTINUE
 
2. grace slick & the great society - white rabbit (the original).  a rather strange choice for impressions, to be sure, but this album illustrates what slick brought to the airplane before they hit the big times. it is not a bright recording; it is a thin recording (this is a poor choice of wording on my part - not thin, but sparse sounding), captured live on amateur tape (good quality) at a coffee house stage. grace's voice appears to the left and slightly back, organ (sounds almost like a recorder) on the left and drums/guitars on the right and back (this is an illusion; drums and guitars are also present on the left channel but at a lower level). unlike the commercial release of white rabbit, this original features a 4 min. bolero-esque instrumental prologue which segues into a more familiar early rendition of white rabbit. grace's voice is more youthful, enthusiastic and less controlled, but you can sense the raw power.  this is not a bad live recording (for an example of that, try the doors live at the matrix ... ugly, ugly, ugly...) but one that is obviously freq. and dynamics limited.
 
here, liberators and g-cush don't bring as much to the table, 'cause the table is pretty bare to begin with.  yes, the liberators and bigger cushions will improve things --- but only slightly ... slightly better stage, instruments spaced a bit better, but no impact, no true weighty foundation ... the beat melody is carried by the organ on the left channel and drums and a good bass line (a rather mono-tone-ish one at that) provide the beat - primarily to the right and back. 
 
3. k. richards - wicked as it seems from the album "main offender".  temporarily divorced from jagger, we see the true blues rocker of the stones & now the greatness of the grado mystique is revealed. although there is a lack of finesse in the very upper ranges (checked via k701), the hf2 scores mightily in the mids, capturing the snap & impact of drum shots and just enough of the shakers/triangles & how can it be that keith's voice shows remarkable form compared to the crassness of the chorus? some studio tinkering in the sweetness dept methinks.
 
adding the liberators and g-cush brings more weight to the drums/bass - greater extension in the upper frequencies revealing more texture/tone to the guitars & the chorus mix is revealed to be very rough indeed - what the heck did they do here?  put marbles in their mouths?
going back to the std. cushions brings the stage a bit closer and narrower, but the impact and dynamics are largely unaffected.  a great blues/rock recording that almost sounds live.  the guitars and drums sound just great regardless of cushion type.
 
EDIT:  17/09/10  10:16 AM --- additional remarks in bold italics.

 

[cerebrous]

Thanks Don
Thanks for the awesome reviews...
 
Any other beta testers have pics or impressions.
 
 
 
Quote:

SONIC IMPRESSIONS CONTINUE
 
2. grace slick & the great society - white rabbit (the original).  a rather strange choice for impressions, to be sure, but this album illustrates what slick brought to the airplane before they hit the big times. it is not a bright recording; it is a thin recording, captured live on amateur tape at a coffee house stage. grace's voice appears to the left and back, organ (sounds almost like a recorder) on the left and drums/guitars on the right and back. unlike the commercial release of white rabbit, this original features a 4 min. bolero-esque instrumental prologue which segues into a more familiar early rendition of white rabbit. grace's voice is more youthful, enthusiastic and less controlled, but you can sense the raw power.  this is not a bad live recording (for an example of that, try the doors live at the matrix ... ugly, ugly, ugly...) but one that is obviously freq. and dynamics limited.
 
here, liberators and g-cush don't bring as much to the table, 'cause the table is pretty bare to begin with.  yes, the liberators and bigger cushions will improve things --- but only slightly ... slightly better stage, instruments spaced a bit better, but no impact, no true foundation ... the beat is carried by the organ. 
 
3. k. richards - wicked as it seems from the album "main offender".  temporarily divorced from jagger, we see the true blues rocker of the stones & now the greatness of the grado mystique is revealed. although there is a lack of finesse in the very upper ranges (checked via k701), the hf2 scores mightily in the mids, capturing the snap & impact of drum shots and just enough of the shakers/triangles & how can it be that keith's voice shows remarkable form compared to the crassness of the chorus? some studio tinkering in the sweetness dept methinks.
 
adding the liberators and g-cush brings more weight to the drums/bass - greater extension in the upper frequencies revealing more texture/tone to the guitars & the chorus mix is revealed to be very rough indeed.
going back to the std. cushions brings the stage a bit closer and narrower, but the impact and dynamics are largely unaffected.  a great blues/rock recording that almost sounds live.
 
 
to be continued ...

 

[geetarman49]

i'm glad to be able to participate.  there does seem to be a dearth of response in this thread - why?
i have edited my previous posting & will continue to post some more impressions.
 
don
Quote:

Thanks Don
Thanks for the awesome reviews...
 
Any other beta testers have pics or impressions.
 
 
 

 

 

[geetarman49]

MORE IMPRESSIONS
 
4. "thin red line" & "todo sobre mi madre" - original soundtracks. my descriptions can't do justice to these cd's - i lack the experience and vocabulary to provide anything but cursory impression; however, let it be said that if you look carefully, both carry the appelation "this is good great crap."  thin red line is an expansive soundscape beginning like the sun just peeking over the mountain, filling the valley with light; but the mood turns, an ominous foreboding creeps in ...  
"todo sobre mi madre" (all about my mother) -- here the songs reflect the moods and swings of life; the atmosphere is more intimate; the music is more reflective of individual(s) rather than the epic scope of thin red line.
 
good music will sound good even if all u have is a dixie cup and a string ... with liberators and g-cush, the hf2 just opens up ... i could listen to this all day long ... could use a tad more bass, a bit more extension in the highs but that's just nit-picking.
 
5. j. cash - hurt & personal jesus from "american iv: the man comes around"  nothing much to say except some great cuts from a legend.  vocals center and behind, closely miked with instrumentation to either side.  liberators and g-cush open up the space a bit, but is it an improvement in this instance? i don't know --- the cuts are un-demanding of the frequency extremes and the more intimate nature of the stock hf2 works well.  it's a toss-up & i'm happy either way.
 
6. t. waits - 9th & hennepin and gun street girl from the album "rain dogs"  a classic tone poem of sorts followed by blues a la tom waits - at once whimsical, stark, and then brutally cutting here is one musician to whom i spend more time listening to lyrics as opposed to just enjoying the musical composition. a gravelly growl accompanied by metal bar (?) strikes, double bass and drums and various other assorted instruments.  the smaller default cushions lend a slightly more intimate reading of the event with a touch of mid-frequency glare -- this glare is greatly reduced with the larger g-cush, but some of the intimacy of the performance is lost; the voice is only slightly back but the accompaniment moves back more so.  in this situation, again, it's a bit of a toss-up.  a slight preference of liberators with default cushions ... but jeez ... that grating pressure on the ears.
 
7. c. orff - fortune, empress of the world intro to "carmina burana" conducted by r.shaw, atlanta symph. on telarc label - truly a monumental work made all the more memorable by its countless incorporations into film. visions of arnold battling a snake king ...... anyone?  here the choice seems to be one of sitting approx. 3rd row vs 15th row; i prefer 3rd row so score another for regular cushions over the far more comfortable g-cush.
 
8. v. williams - "sinfonia antarctica (symp #7)" conducted by k. bakels, bournemouth symph. on naxos label - another superbly recorded classical masterpiece (ok -- imho). here the hf2 make massed violins sound a bit steely. the g-cush doesn't totally remedy this although it does deepen the stage. this annoying steeliness is even more evident on the bloch concerto grosso 1 & 2 (mercury living presence - hanson conducts bloch).  for these cd's, i prefer the g-cush. 
 
 
well ... that's it for now ... if there are any questions or requests, i'll see what i can do. maybe some additional commentary with a tube hybrid using the same dac stage of the compass?
 
in case it was missed:
1. source is 100% cd --> sony dvp-ns700p  dvd/cd player --> audio-gd compass with dac enabled (settings: neutral with earth hdam) --> grado hf2 (stock & g-cush) : reality checks - akg k701 rewired, ultrasone hfi-780 rewired.  interconnects and power cords with eichmann bullets, furutech connectors, and cryo'd continuous cast copper wiring.  all ac filtered via lightspeed powerline filter cls reference. 
the hf2 was purchased last year and freshly opened for this beta test.  i put approx. 80 hr prior to any initial listening tests.  i am fully aware of my hardware limitations.
 
HTH,
don
 
some general commentary & a bit of venting <edited: it would be unfair to sully this thread of cerebrous' with my commentary concerning grado; the man/the company>:
-- the liberators are a very positive influence on the sound of the hf2.  the use of stock cushions vs g-cush weighs heavily in favor of the g-cush although there are instances when the reverse is preferable however uncomfortable that may be.
-- the price of liberators and g-cush add > $100 Cdn to the cost of a grado/allesandro 'phone. overall, i think this is a must have  beneficial combo if your interest is not solely rock, small combo jazz or folk. i can't speak about cost/benefits for other grados, but i really have to question my own decision <edited>
 
<edited: see post #240>

 

[olor1n]

Is there an eta on these and is there likely to be an adjustment to the dimensions based on feedback on the flange size?

 

[geetarman49]

i have made a large addition to my previous posting regarding sonic impressions.
 
 
i would hope that this is a given; w/o a change to the flange of the liberator, the stock hf2 cushion barely hangs on... it's wobbly and doesn't take any effort to remove.
Quote:

Is there an eta on these and is there likely to be an adjustment to the dimensions based on feedback on the flange size?

 

[geetarman49]

cerebrous: you have pm.

 

[olor1n]

I wonder if there's a more viable solution to temporarily afixing the distancers to the cans other than blue tak, tape or glue. Would it be possible to have the distancers clip onto or overlap the existing flange of the driver housing to better secure it in place?

 

[geetarman49]

olor1n: an idea was forwarded earlier to cerebrous via pm.
 
Quote:

I wonder if there's a more viable solution to temporarily afixing the distancers to the cans other than blue tak, tape or glue. Would it be possible to have the distancers clip onto or overlap the existing flange of the driver housing to better secure it in place?

 

[geetarman49]

upon review, my closing remarks in post #234 sound too much like fotm to me... i have listened again & i need to temper these comments for the time being.
why?  "traffic on the road"
this live recording emphasizes certain characteristics which i do not recall being so prominent with the default hf2. i need to recheck this with the default configuration.
hence, another edit to post #234.... sorry, my bad ....