[MooBin]

May I draw your attention to the Pawel Acoustics Headphone Processor HP-1 ? I am actually a bit surprised that I did not come across this unit in any of the posts I read here. Just have a look:

Pawel Acoustics

It is manufactured by a small Swiss manufacturer (Pawel Acoustics) and I had the pleasure to audit the unit once with a STAX SR-303 and its binaural mode was absolutely stunning ! Now they are working on a unit for the Senn HD-800 !

When I was listening to it (STAX-Version) I thought that Headphone reproduction could not be topped anymore. They had a relatively cheap Yamaha 2300 SACD player and the standard STAX amp - but with the HP-1 in between - WOW ! A-B -ing was easy with just the flip of a switch, so the effect was easy to spot. When I say "effect" here I mean a really natural behaviour, nothing "on top" or unnatural.

Experiences anybody ? If the HD 800 version comes out I will absolutely have to try it as my current system developped (more or less naturally) to a dynamic system with HD650 and a Woo Audio WA3+. Could not forget the STAX-Pawel experience though (and this is some years ago). Who knows what the unit brings for the HD-800 ?

I am not affiliated to Pawel Acoustics in any way - and no - I do not get any money from them either (better to state this right away to avoid accusations as recently brought forward in the Headphone (full size) category

Hope this might perhaps bring joy to the life of some happy (wealthy) fellow head-fier. THIS is the intention.

 

[cosmopragma]

For most members it might be impossible to audition it.
The german distributor for instance apparently doesn't even offer the headphone specific analogue diffuse field/crossfeed processors, but only the speakers.
BTW, do you know what those boxes do approximately cost in Switzerland?

 

[NiToNi]

I don't get it why a manufacturer of any kind of DSP add-on doesn't include digital input and output connections! The only right place for a box of this kind is between the transport and the DAC (sans vinyl). All the DSP processing is taking place in the digital domain anyway. I do not spend money and effort to pick the best DAC solution just to introduce another A/D and D/A step into my signal chain.

Just my $0.02.

 

[MooBin]

Quote:

Originally Posted by cosmopragma /img/forum/go_quote.gif For most members it might be impossible to audition it. The german distributor for instance apparently doesn't even offer the headphone specific analogue diffuse field/crossfeed processors, but only the speakers. BTW, do you know what those boxes do approximately cost in Switzerland?

I have a pricelist dated "since November 2004", and this one says CHF 2'300.-- for the HP-1 MK3 Headphone Processor - I hope you mean this box. It may be assumed that the price has not fallen since then

An audition is not easy even in Switzerland. I have tried the PAWEL at an audio fair in 2004 which is discontinued in this fashion - but believe me that the fact that I did not forget about it in 5 years is a very good indication how good it is. I thought back then: never without one and I did plan to buy a STAX combo back then. Could not because of the overall price and now I have a HD650 and a Woo WA3+. Not bad either - but I really would like to A-B this combo against a STAX-PAWEL combo (SR-303 with SRM 313 and of course the HP-1 MK3). The pricelist says their email adress is pawel-acoustics@bluewin.ch. Dont know if this is still valid, but it may be easy to obtain the current price from them.

 

[cosmopragma]

Quote:

Originally Posted by NiToNi /img/forum/go_quote.gif All the DSP processing is taking place in the digital domain anyway.

Why are you so sure it's DSP?
Many diffuse field processors and crossfeed processors of past and present are completely working in the analog domain.

 

[NiToNi]

I am not - but if it works in the analogue domain it is even less interesting IMO.