[sbulack]

As to which amp I like best, irrespective of cost, I'd have to say that it's the Headsave PPA I currently own in its place in the rig in my sig. After that, comes the PPX3, followed by the MPX3. When I go to a wine tasting, I like the $7 a bottle table wines better than the $60 a bottle fine wines. I can appreciate the refinement of the MPX3, and I would love to be given one for classical listening. But for all around listening, my tastes go with the detailed, warm, clear, liquid, but earthier (in that sense, more organic) overall sound of the PPX3. It's kind of the liebfraumilch of the Singlepower line. The MPX3 is a really fine and nuanced chardonnay. I've already told you where my tastes lie.

 

[sacd lover]

Thanks for your opinion sbulack.

Anyone else?

 

[CD44hi]

Quote:

Originally posted by taylor CD44hi, how did you like my IC FET?

Hey taylor, it was nice meeting you yesterday. ok, you ask about the FET...

I am still digesting the sound from the Bradford IC FET. It sounds soo different from any piece of gear I have heard before. And in a very interesting way: I played a CD I am very familiar with. Yet it took me a quite a few seconds to actuallly put the sound I was hearing into a familiar prospective.

Sound stage is cavernous in the FET. I felt I was standing at the entrance of a cathedral with the band playing somewhere in the middle. It gaves a colourfull reververation to the sound, which on first impression was a bit distracting. However as the music evolved, I felt that the strong point of the FET, for my ears, is precisely that ability to expand soundstage and set a mellow presentation to the music. One has to be a bit careful with the selection of cans as bass is huge here. Also perhaps a faster source could provide a more fluid image, since some complicated passages seem to loose a bit of dynamism due to that mental image of sound traveling from far. I tried the HD-600s and the Grados. I thought the Grados sounded better. As a package, the FET is not the usual suspect, but delivers a soundstage worthy of "the wolf" or punchy bass that only "the cleaner" could hope for and deliver.

 

[RYCeT]

Hi guys, I would like to thank's to everyone who's been in philly meet. So far, I've enjoyed my collection from eggo, with this meet, I've heard several different setup in this meet and I'm impressed to heard what a good headphone setup can actually performed.
Thank's guys, with this meet, I'm able to explore my own preferences and know what kind of headphone setup that I want and hopefully I can afford

I guess I've got to do some serious overtime here.

 

[Hirsch]

Quote:

Originally posted by lan People liked the HE60 connected to the HEV70 and MP3 player? Most of use didn't like it that much with that amp. Did it have an adaptor to use with 007T amp?

Heh. The HEV 70 has got to be the Rodney Dangerfield of electrostatic amps. It gets no respect at all. It was sounding just fine at the meet, and I use it regularly. It was indeed hooked to a Nomad Zen, and producing rather good quality sound IMO.

[size=xx-small]I forgot the adapter to hook it to the 007t. Luckily, we didn't really miss it

[/size]

 

[minya]

Canman, what are the dimensions on your KGSS? It looks pretty small to me. (compared to other KGSS's I've seen...)

BTW, Larry's custom faceplate is gorgeous. Very, very nice!

- Chris

 

[TrevorNetwork]

Taylor:

You found the V6's to be more musical than the HP-1000? I have not compared them directly, but when I auditioned the V6, I did not find it musical at all. I found the highs piercing, and harsh, and the bass uncontrolled, with no texture. This was with a Gilmore and Teak VRDS CDP. What setup did you hear the V6 in? I found them to be almost unlistenable. I could understand how they could be fun phones to show off due to their bass, and maybe even fun with certain bass heavy music. But musical? I don't think so.

Trevor

 

[Canman]

Quote:

Originally posted by minya Canman, what are the dimensions on your KGSS?

Hey Chris, the chassis is 16" W x 12" D x 4" H. The Wadia is very deep so it makes the KGSS look small. How are you enjoying your KGSS? My amp has been burning in non-stop since friday and it's getting better every day.

 

[minya]

Quote:

Originally posted by Canman Hey Chris, the chassis is 16" W x 12" D x 4" H. The Wadia is very deep so it makes the KGSS look small. How are you enjoying your KGSS? My amp has been burning in non-stop since friday and it's getting better every day.

Oh, hah, yep, it's not as small as I thought. Mine is 16x16x4, so just four inches deeper than yours.

I'm loving the KGSS. It's very nice to be back in the Stax world. It did make me respect my little SRM-313, though; the KGSS is certainly better, but there's not as much of a night-day difference as I was expecting. (Or maybe I just don't remember the sound of the 313 well enough.

) That said, the amp is getting better as it burns in - it's got some big caps that it needs to break in... Most impressive is the bass response, especially on well-recorded music. Sounds amazing. I do need a pair of Omegas, though... trying to find a buyer for my 404's.

- Chris

 

[taylor]

Quote:

Originally posted by TrevorNetwork Taylor: You found the V6's to be more musical than the HP-1000? I have not compared them directly, but when I auditioned the V6, I did not find it musical at all. I found the highs piercing, and harsh, and the bass uncontrolled, with no texture. This was with a Gilmore and Teak VRDS CDP. What setup did you hear the V6 in? I found them to be almost unlistenable. I could understand how they could be fun phones to show off due to their bass, and maybe even fun with certain bass heavy music. But musical? I don't think so. Trevor

I was listening to the V6 connected to my IC FET, with a $60 Samsung DVDP as the source, playing 320kbps Pink Floyd, using rather low quality cables (gold plated and slightly thicker sheilded versions of the crappy "black spaghetti" cables)

I think CD44hi did a pretty good analysis of the IC FET, now I'm starting to notice the things he described. What were your thoughts on the "AFC" button?

I'm sure in some cases the HP1000s are much preferable to the V6s, but for me, the IC FET complements the V6s very well, the bass is punchy but not overwhelming, the mids and highs are pretty mellow, but not underemphasized. The soundstage is huge, and the stereo separation is very good.

I think better source and interconnects would improve my setup, but the IC FET and V6 combination is a very good one.

 

[stymie miasma]

I don't really have much more to add, other than a thank you to sbulak & family for generously hosting the meet, and thank you to the rest of you guys who came along and provided us with the goodies toi listen to

OH, and of course thanks to ryscet for the ride back into Centre City!

With that cold wind, it was much appreciated!

So what were my impressions? Gosh, this is only my second meet and I had a realy hard time forming any impressions. My ears are still not keen enough to comment on transients and the like, but some things that really jumped out at me were:

Sennheiser HD595:

These have been getting a lot of press around here lately, so it was with excited ears that I saddled-up to Lou's end of the table to listen to his rig. As has been described above, Lou was running a Sony DVD player into his PPA. The first thing to note about the 595s is how light and comfortable they are. The new pads do exert a little bit of pressure around their circumference, but I am sure this will lessen as the pads wear-in.

As for the sound, it was very upfront and involving (see below). As a point of reference, I was listening mainly to rock (The Lesus Lizard, Shellac, Dirty Three). During the short listen, I could not pick any frequencies that stood out and came away thinking they presented the music in a very balanced manner.

For comparsion, I also had a listen to CD44hi's HD600/Zu Mobius combo. The 595 was a little more 'brash', by which I mean it was more akin to the Grado sound insofaras it places you on stage with the musicians rather than being a few rows back in the audience. With the 595s, I almost felt like I was standing in the middle of Albini, Trainer and Weston (Shellac) as the hammered out their tracks on "At Action Park". Very dynamic, very lively. Switching to the HD600, I was immediately able to notice a more subdued, dare I say "softer" presentation. The band were now a few feet away from me but I could still easily 'observe' what was going on. I would really like to spend some more time with both these headphones!

As a side note, I was appalled at how grainy my Sony MDR-7506s sounded through the Sony/PPA combo. Wow - it has been a while since a listened to the 7506s, but both Sennheisers made them sound unrefined. Oh well

Sennheiser HE60/HEV70:

Wow - I didn't know the music that was playing on these (something from Hirsch's personal mp3 collection), but I liked what I heard. The sound was airy and detailed and oh-so crystal clear. Another system I would love to spend some quality time with

Singlepower PPX3/Creek CD53

Goodness, I can't even recall what headphones I used here, but I do remember liking the Creek/Singlepower combo!


Stax/KGSS/Wadia

I wish I could say some more about canman's rig other than "I loved it", but I was really overwhelmed by this stage. I guess my thoughts were similar to those I formed after listening to the HE60s - lots of air and space around the music - effortless is a word that comes to mind. That said, there was still enough authority in the lower registers to keep your foot tapping. Another case of "I wish I could spend more time with this"

The other great thing was to finally put faces to the names - so it was great to meet everyone!

 

[CD44hi]

Quote:

Originally posted by TrevorNetwork Taylor: You found the V6's to be more musical than the HP-1000? I have not compared them directly, but when I auditioned the V6, I did not find it musical at all. I found the highs piercing, and harsh, and the bass uncontrolled, with no texture. This was with a Gilmore and Teak VRDS CDP. What setup did you hear the V6 in? I found them to be almost unlistenable. I could understand how they could be fun phones to show off due to their bass, and maybe even fun with certain bass heavy music. But musical? I don't think so. Trevor

The IC FET is such a mellow bass beast: Even though I did not listen to the V6 with it, I cannot imagine them been harsh-sounding together. It is a very unique sounding unit. Soundstage, boy, cavernous.

 

[OneMalt]

Quote:

Originally posted by Tuberoller Who's the handy old Leatherneck in the top pic. I see the Tat and know that's from days gone by. Semper Fi brother!

I'd be willing to bet it's Lou.

 

[RYCeT]

Yup, That's lou

 

[LTUCCI1924]

Tuberoller
HI: How are you? You have very keen eyes. LOL. I got those tattoos in 1959. 45 years ago in Okinawa japan. I was 17 years old and got 8 of them at the same time. They cost 2.00 each. I was in the infer try and carried a 3.5 rocket launcher and was an expert shot with the 45 pistol and M1 riffle. I got in trouble over those tattoos because they were not allowed by the Marine Corps back then so I thought that if I was going to be bad why not go fore it and get all 8. Right after that we went to Yokohama japan fore R&R and I had to stay on the ship in starched utility's all day in the sun as a guard fore my punishment and miss the liberty call. The tattoos bleed and were very painful in that sun but I was a tough guy and just laughed it off. I was willing to go anywhere and fight anybody back then. They were great years and I loved it overseas fore 2 years. I mean 17 and all those girls WOW.
PS
The tattoos on my legs are the full length of both legs. Girls of course. LOL.