sacd lover
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Aug 31, 2002
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Well the Ohio meet just concluded about an hour ago. I am starting the thread since I am home. Everyone has a multiple hour drive so the posts/ impressions probably wont be coming in until later tonight or tomorrow.
Tkam, grandenigma1, edipisreks, digitalbill, mikey01 and myself were the participants. These guys are all serious headphone addicts and I had a wonderful time. I was especially glad to see Tkam/ Todd come all the way from Pennsylvania and Gradenigma1/ Zach come all the way from Indiana .... just to attend.
This meet wasnt large in numbers but all the heavy hitters were all here. We had the balanced SFT Dynamight Signature, Moth 2a3, Eddie Current dual mono 2, several Singlepowers of mine, Musical Fidelity v3 and a SLAM ppx3.
We had the Grado HP-2, PS-1, 325, AT L3000, Senn 650 and 600, Beyer recabled dt990, a modded and recabled cd3000 and a couple of hybrids from the hands of Larry at Headphile.
Sources included four Eastsound E5's, digitalbill's Musical Fidelity X-Ray, two sacdmods 555es, a specially modded APL Philips sacd 1000 belonging to tkam, sacdmods cd-25, Zach's Nixon tube dac, Mikey's denon 2910 ??? and I believe a Yamaha cd/dvd player belonging to edipisreks.
Being the host I didnt get to spend a lot of time with any of the equipment but I still came away impressed with what I did hear.
I have become a big believer in commenting on products in the context of a system. Rather than saying this amp was great or this headphone wasnt .... I am going to confine my comments to the sound coming from the sytems I heard. To often I see certain products downgraded because they were connected to less stellar sources or headphones or amps.
System 1 was a BIG surprise to me. This included the Musical Fidelity X-ray cd player and MF v3 amp. I heard this before with my senns and didnt really like the sound. But this duo rocked with the Grado PS-1. The SLAM ppx3 driven by the Eastsound E5 was also just excellent with the PS-1. I preferred these two inexpensive amps over my old chassis supra and the Moth 2a3 ..... using the PS-1's. I have never heard the PS-1 sound better than with this MF combo or the SLAM. I had not been very impressed with the MF gear or the PS-1 until today. I love my senns but this grado was superb with the right combinaton.
System 2 with the E5 and the Moth/EC 2a3 was excellent. The synergy between the E5 and 2A3 was terrific. I thought the Moth had a little to much bloom before with mikey's Denon, but the more neutral E5 balanced the sound beautifully. I think this combo sounds a lot like my supra / E5 combo but with slightly more body .... where the supra sounded a tad cleaner and more neutral. This combo REALLY excelled when I paired them with the senn 600's and a magnet wire senn replacement cable. The bass hits on the Alice In Chains - Unplugged CD were the most realistic I have ever heard them.
I know digitalbill liked rocking out on this combo too.
I tried the beyer dt990 and the sound was very good .... but I preferred the senn 600's. The E5/ 2a3/ senn 600 combo was seriously good.
System 3 was the Yamaha connected to the SLAM ppx3 .... and later the E5. We did some tuberolling and tried some sylvania gold brand 5687's and the raytheon Square D getters paired with both a RCA 6cg7 and a sylvania 7n7. As has been my experience on multiple occasions, the SLAM sounded great with eveything. The SLAM even goes toe to toe with the 2a3 on percussion. The realness of drum hits on these two amps has to be experienced for you to understand how tight and impactful they can sound.
The PS-1 and HP-2 sounded awesome with the SLAM and E5 for the source. Furthermore the senn 600's are extremely synergistic with the SLAM ..... and I thought the SLAM even made the cd3000's sound good .... and I usually dislike the cd3000. The SLAM clearly drives the low impedence headphones the best of any Singlepower amp I have used. The SLAM maintained the strengths of all these headphones and has a clarity and musicality second to none. I dont think you can make this amp sound bad. I continue to be amazed how much sound quality you get from this amp..... especially for the price.
I have to stop here but I will post more impressions shortly.
Tkam, grandenigma1, edipisreks, digitalbill, mikey01 and myself were the participants. These guys are all serious headphone addicts and I had a wonderful time. I was especially glad to see Tkam/ Todd come all the way from Pennsylvania and Gradenigma1/ Zach come all the way from Indiana .... just to attend.
This meet wasnt large in numbers but all the heavy hitters were all here. We had the balanced SFT Dynamight Signature, Moth 2a3, Eddie Current dual mono 2, several Singlepowers of mine, Musical Fidelity v3 and a SLAM ppx3.
We had the Grado HP-2, PS-1, 325, AT L3000, Senn 650 and 600, Beyer recabled dt990, a modded and recabled cd3000 and a couple of hybrids from the hands of Larry at Headphile.
Sources included four Eastsound E5's, digitalbill's Musical Fidelity X-Ray, two sacdmods 555es, a specially modded APL Philips sacd 1000 belonging to tkam, sacdmods cd-25, Zach's Nixon tube dac, Mikey's denon 2910 ??? and I believe a Yamaha cd/dvd player belonging to edipisreks.
Being the host I didnt get to spend a lot of time with any of the equipment but I still came away impressed with what I did hear.
I have become a big believer in commenting on products in the context of a system. Rather than saying this amp was great or this headphone wasnt .... I am going to confine my comments to the sound coming from the sytems I heard. To often I see certain products downgraded because they were connected to less stellar sources or headphones or amps.
System 1 was a BIG surprise to me. This included the Musical Fidelity X-ray cd player and MF v3 amp. I heard this before with my senns and didnt really like the sound. But this duo rocked with the Grado PS-1. The SLAM ppx3 driven by the Eastsound E5 was also just excellent with the PS-1. I preferred these two inexpensive amps over my old chassis supra and the Moth 2a3 ..... using the PS-1's. I have never heard the PS-1 sound better than with this MF combo or the SLAM. I had not been very impressed with the MF gear or the PS-1 until today. I love my senns but this grado was superb with the right combinaton.
System 2 with the E5 and the Moth/EC 2a3 was excellent. The synergy between the E5 and 2A3 was terrific. I thought the Moth had a little to much bloom before with mikey's Denon, but the more neutral E5 balanced the sound beautifully. I think this combo sounds a lot like my supra / E5 combo but with slightly more body .... where the supra sounded a tad cleaner and more neutral. This combo REALLY excelled when I paired them with the senn 600's and a magnet wire senn replacement cable. The bass hits on the Alice In Chains - Unplugged CD were the most realistic I have ever heard them.
System 3 was the Yamaha connected to the SLAM ppx3 .... and later the E5. We did some tuberolling and tried some sylvania gold brand 5687's and the raytheon Square D getters paired with both a RCA 6cg7 and a sylvania 7n7. As has been my experience on multiple occasions, the SLAM sounded great with eveything. The SLAM even goes toe to toe with the 2a3 on percussion. The realness of drum hits on these two amps has to be experienced for you to understand how tight and impactful they can sound.
The PS-1 and HP-2 sounded awesome with the SLAM and E5 for the source. Furthermore the senn 600's are extremely synergistic with the SLAM ..... and I thought the SLAM even made the cd3000's sound good .... and I usually dislike the cd3000. The SLAM clearly drives the low impedence headphones the best of any Singlepower amp I have used. The SLAM maintained the strengths of all these headphones and has a clarity and musicality second to none. I dont think you can make this amp sound bad. I continue to be amazed how much sound quality you get from this amp..... especially for the price.
I have to stop here but I will post more impressions shortly.
