To start, again I'd like to thank Lee for opening up his studio for all of us to gather together and listen. This was my first time driving out 9 hours and I must say I 'm very glad that I did. Sadly I've been super busy over the last few weeks Non the less, let's get right to my impressions!
The LCD 4 was nice, sadly with all the noise in the room I couldn't quite discern how much better it was from my own LCD 2. How ever, even with the noise it had a nice full sound, excellent tactility and that amazing Audeze planar bass!!!
I tried out the Diana from a Vinyl Setup, an sadly the on/over ear comfort combined with the odd headband style lead to a disappointing first listen. I imagine with a little more time I could properly adjust the headband and cups in such a way that they'd better fit my ears. Doing so would likely result in a much more memorable listen!
The Dharma D1000 was quite nice, easy to wear and pleasant to listen to. It had a nice tonal balance and amazing tactility! I enjoyed this with some Rush straight from Vinyl and I remember the mid range having this amazing naturalness and edge. Very enjoyable, so much so that I've been on the fence about getting one of these for my self!
Also pictured here is the Ether C Flow pair'd with the Yggy & Rag combo from Schiit. An honestly I wasn't a fan of this set up. It was much to dry and a little harsh almost.
The Audeze EL8 is a love or hate headphone from what I hear, for better or worse I how ever really enjoyed it! I did try it with two amplifiers, the Jot and the Asgard 2. The warmer thicker Class A Asgard 2 really helped balance out the aggressive sound of the EL8. It reminded me of the LCD XC in a lot of ways, and honestly it's price and similar aggressive sound were more acceptable in this price point. As far as resolution goes I couldn't tell how much better it was from the XC but I can say that I both enjoy it and would recommend it for any one that wants a good aggressive sounding closed back!
I ran the Focal Clear from my HM901 & Pico Power, from what I heard it's presentation was similar to the Elear but with none of the Elear's problems. So the bass was lowered and not so boomy, additionally there was a nice sense of presence in the upper mids! A very proper sounding open back for sure.
Now my Eikon was really magical with this Feilks Audio Tube! So much so I purchased a Psvanne tube for my own amp. I listened to Stevey Ray Vaughn's Voodoo Child with an AK 240 as a source and it was divine! It would be hard to describe what made it so great, but just trust me it's awesome! If you own any of the ZMF Dynamics I highly recommend getting a Feilks amp with some Psvanne tube upgrades!
Now, I got to hear the Ether C Flow out of both the Yggy & Rag and my own HM901+PB2, an frankly I liked it better out of my portable set up... maybe it was because I had full res 24/96 lossless local files and not 44/16bit Tidal as source, but from the right set up the Ether C Flow sounds very much like the HD 800, but with planar bass and a smaller sound stage. Still it was airy, tactile, quite resolving of both micro details and ambient noise! I liked it enough that I do intend to purchase a pair for my self in the future!
Sennhesiers HD 660S very much embodies simplicity, this being my first listen in a quite corner of the room I found it to do nothing wrong, and it sounded about the same out of my HM901 and Shanling M3s, so while it scales it doesn't scale too drastically. It's very much a plug and play device, sound signature was a fairly balance with just a touch of that Sennhesier mid range magic. Though frankly, given the price it didn't really impress me. Still there's something be to said for the convenience of not having to fuss with "pairing"!
To start, I want to thank
@justin w. from
@HeadAmpTeam for bringing his Blue Hawaii Build, he's taken a lot of time in carefully choose both the components and PCB for this model and it sounds wonderful! Honestly, I didn't like the SR 009 very much the first time I heard it, this time EVEN with the noise and only Tidal I was floored! There was a clean sense of power in the lows, both a sweetness and tactile presence to the mid range plus a nice sweet sparkle up top! Honestly one of the BEST headphones I've heard ever from an amazing amp!! Hopefully I'll own one of these one day.
The iBasso DX200 was also very impressive, given the single box solution and balanced modular amp I could certainly live with it as my only DAP. Sound wise was a touch dry with a nice sense of clarity and presence! It wasn't really dark nor bright just a bit lean with good clarity overall. Hopefully I'll get a chance to demo this again'st my HM901 here in the future!
This was my first time hearing an HE 6 and what struck me the most was the sound stage! I had never heard Miles Davis' So What presented with such a vast sense of space! It was something else, tonally I can't say I was a big fan of how these two pair'd together... but the sound stage alone was mind blowing.
An finally we have the second best system for last, second best in comparison only to the SR 009. Otherwise this was one of the best "universal" set ups I got to hear. While I wasn't a fan of the PS2000E in my own system, out of the WA 33 the PS2000E pair'd it's amazing aggressive sound with a beautiful sweet naturalness. Really something amazing, an while it was clearly a bit faster than reality to my ears or rather the envelope lacked some naturalness, it was still very pleasurable to listen to. I wouldn't want to have to be forced to choose between this or an SR 009 as the last thing I get to listen to/own.
