[eric343]

Pardon any errors, it's 1:45 AM...
...because DAMN was that a fun meet. Even after one of the el34s in the hybrid shorted and set four resistors on fire

The 'Stats
Unfortunately I made the mistake of trying the Omega2s with Radiohead's The Bends, then with Pink Floyd:Echoes. If I hadn't, I would have walked out of there quite self-assured that the HE90s were far and away the superior headphone and that I wasn't missing anything by not having Omegas, since the HE90s are that much better for classical music...

...unfortunately, I don't just listen to classical music! And even more unfortunately, I now want a pair of Omega2s...

After the hybrid, I'm telling myself, I first gotta build a hybrid (and I WON'T use cheap Chinese tubes!)...

The Cables
Tim from Experience Audio brought over a CRAPLOAD of interconnects and power cords. And BOY do I mean CRAPLOAD. The 'snake pit' as we called it made for some interesting auditioning... for one thing, I heard one *HELL* of a difference swapping powercords on my Arcam - time to DIY because I sure can't afford any of the ones I heard! Also, an IC idea of mine turned out to be definitely workable (insert usual 'blacker blacks' and 'clearer highs' stuff here) if Jude wasn't already review-swamped...), which was cool.

The Amps
Yes, the KG Hybrid/Blue Hawaii is very very very very very good. 'Nuff said.

The Emmeline HR-2 is the other end of the stick, so to speak. Very rolled off highs, didn't sound good at all. (OPA627)

The PPA sounded its usual highly impressive self, though it lost a bit in the air department when compared to the Sugden Headmaster, though it beat the Headmaster handily in the bass department...

Headmaster- very very, well, Headmastery. Really brings an insane amount of detail to the HD600...

Phillips 963A- overrated. The CD version of Pink Floyd:Time (on Echoes) was much more detailed (and lively) than the SACD...

oh, yeah...
the Speakers

Niice. Soundstage, highs, mids, bass, etc... The Cary V12 doesn't hurt either.



And while I didn't bring my camera, I saw at least two there... POST YER PICS PEOPLE!

 

[RickG]

eric343 said:
Quote:

The CD version of Pink Floyd:Time (on Echoes) was much more detailed (and lively) than the SACD...

Now that's a new one. The SACD kicks butt in my system...

But hey, thanks for your impressions of the meet. Sounds like you guys had fun!

 

[JMedeiros]

Sounds fun! any pics? Ones from the explosive fire not necessary

 

[xtreme4099]

i thought the ppa handled the imaging better than the headmaster .... it just sounded better to me ... specially with Tim's 600's w/equinox cable ...

 

[dhwilkin]

Quote:

eric343 said... The Emmeline HR-2 is the other end of the stick, so to speak. Very rolled off highs, didn't sound good at all. (OPA627)

Quite interesting how opinions on whether the HR-2 has rolled-off highs or not vary so much. Wish I had a job, so I could hear for myself. Besides the rolled-off highs, were there other things you didn't like about it?

 

[williamgoody]

Quote:

Originally posted by JMedeiros Sounds fun! any pics? Ones from the explosive fire not necessary

Says you.

j/k

 

[NotoriousBIG_PJ]

Quote:

Originally posted by dhwilkin Quite interesting how opinions on whether the HR-2 has rolled-off highs or not vary so much. Wish I had a job, so I could hear for myself. Besides the rolled-off highs, were there other things you didn't like about it?

You mean like people with good hearing noticing the rolled off highs and people with suspect hearing not noticing it (or denying it)

Biggie.

 

[fewtch]

Quote:

Originally posted by JMedeiros Sounds fun! any pics? Ones from the explosive fire not necessary

Edit -- I'll have more pics up on the Web within a few hours, probably - will post the link here.

Agreed with Eric, it was a lot of fun, if a bit disorganized as far as listening goes... I'm not much good at pushing & shoving, so didn't get a chance to listen as much as I would have liked.

A few impressions:

* Orpheus and Omega II's -- I liked both of them. Seductive, and incredible soundstaging (imo). I didn't listen long enough to form a solid impression, and zzz's's hybrid amp didn't get loud enough to overcome the background chatter so's I could get a truly good impression.

* Senn 580's and 600's. The 580's disappear off my head, the neutrality of these cans is all it's cracked up to be (but they could be called 'boring' in the same breath). I actually preferred the 600's, kept most of the 580's neutrality but added some life and spark to things.

* Grado HP-1000 -- clearly these are about midrange. I was swimming in midrange. The bottom and top are completely there as well, but as I'm not a huge midrange fan I don't think I'd ever buy a pair of these. Maybe I'm just not that big a Grado fan.

* Sony MDR-7506. A very pleasant surprise, these either equalled or beat my Denon cans in the SQ department, and probably beats them as far as build quality goes. I still prefer the high end studio/mastering/DJ'ing type cans for certain types of music, anyday, over the more expensive/exotic audiophile models. Tons of punch, liveliness and sparkle.

As far as the amps, half the time I wasn't sure enough what I was plugged into to get any real impressions! Honestly, they all sounded good to me... there wasn't a bad sounding amp in the lot. Wish we'd gotten around to trying the OBH-21SE and Grado RA-1 that Tim Ratcliffe brought by... I've heard enough comments on this board, especially re: the latter, that I would have been interested in listening. The Grado had cheap-feeling RCA/Cinch jacks, only too obviously were they cheap and rather crappy. Funny how Grado rules on price/performance, but gets rather uneven at the high end (imo that applies to their phono cartridges as well).

 

[fewtch]

http://shs82web.home.comcast.net/audio/meet/index.html

Will have it in my .sig for a little while too.

 

[eric343]

That's me with the Omegas in the pic that has a teenager listening to the Omegas

 

[Wilson M.]

It was an interesting evening indeed. I want to thank everyone for coming out and bringing their equipment.

Yes, it was a bit of a maze of equipment. If only I had one more table then things would have been much better. Next time.

Power tubes... what can you do? I've seen Mullard and GEC power tubes take out amps before when they blow.

It was sad to see weebl die. I saw a brief flash of blue turn into an orange/yellow one. I'm wondering if that's why it's called the Blue Hawaii output stage.

What was amusing was how fast Eric pulled the power cord on that amp. Almost like he has far too much experience with pulling plugs very quickly.

The stats were very nice indeed. The Omega IIs to me are better than the HE90s for all varieties of music. The HE90s win easily in the classical department however. I will definitely need to get a pair of Omegas in the coming months. I still find stats a bit lacking in the overall emotion department but the Omega IIs are much closer in that department compared to all of the other stats that I've listened to so far.

Cables indeed. The flashy Acoustic Zen Gargantua II was quite a sight amongst all of the puny cables. It was too bad that Tim didn't have the room in his car to bring the Elrod power cords. Now those are big power cords.

I'm the owner of the Emmeline HR-2. In all fairness to the amp, Ray Samuels told me that he tuned the amp for use with the Grado RS-1s which few will deny is a bit bright (especially with bowls). That is, he purposefully rolled off the highs to make up for the RS-1s because I told him that I don't like overly bright. Of course, I ended up acquiring a pair of HP-1s instead of the RS-1s. The amp is back on its way to Ray. I haven't decided if I will have him tune that amp back to neutral or if I will wait for his new tube amp.

I am starting to see why people have mixed feelings over the HR-2. When I was having it built, Ray asked me what headphones I was going to be using and what my sources were. If the amp is being tailored for individual customers, their listening tastes and equipment then I can see how mating with different equipment can sound less than optimal.

I'm still fairly impressed with the PPA. It manages to bring the HD600s to life and add immediacy to them. However, with the HP-1s, I found the PPA to be a tad too much "in your face".

I find the Headmaster too polite for my tastes. Very detailed for certain but a little dull and distant.

Speakers... eh, what can you say? Hopefully it explains why I'm so picky about headphones and amps.

Volume... I swear that these people will lose their hearing.

Phillips DVD963A... Given that it does CD, DVD-Video and SACD all for $500 retail, it's not so bad.

Midrange... with all due respect to fewtch, I strongly disagree. There are very few natural instruments that completely fall outside of the midrange frequencies. Most instruments and voices are completely within those frequencies and the rest are mostly within those frequencies. I don't see how anyone cannot be a huge midrange fan. There isn't a whole heck of a lot else.

 

[Uncledan]

I saw zzz in the meeting too, he is a nice guy !!

 

[eric343]

Quote:

Originally posted by Wilson M. What was amusing was how fast Eric pulled the power cord on that amp. Almost like he has far too much experience with pulling plugs very quickly.

Yes, I do...

 

[fewtch]

Quote:

Originally posted by Wilson M. Midrange... with all due respect to fewtch, I strongly disagree. There are very few natural instruments that completely fall outside of the midrange frequencies. Most instruments and voices are completely within those frequencies and the rest are mostly within those frequencies. I don't see how anyone cannot be a huge midrange fan. There isn't a whole heck of a lot else.

I'm not saying that I found the Grado's objectionable, only that the frequency balance was not really to my taste. They're certainly a good sounding pair of cans, except they impressed me as being somewhat boosted in midrange in the same way the Sony 7506 is boosted somewhat in bass and treble -- almost a diametric opposite to those cans. To the Grado's credit, the midrange doesn't overwhelm the top and bottom end at all (it is certainly the first thing I noticed however, and I'm not sure it should jump out noticeably like that... there was nothing like that with the Senn 580/600, nor with the electrostatics).

Note that I've made no comment as far as soundstaging and other aspects, as I really feel I need to listen awhile in a quiet/undisturbed environment to get a clear impression in those areas.

 

[Wilson M.]

I apologise if it sounded like I was suggesting that you were objecting to the Grados. I was just pointing out that the majority of musical information is to be found in the midrange so that is the one region that all headphones need to get right and many do not.

Unfortunately, the treble was rolled off on the Emmeline so listening through it skewed the tonal balance of the HP-1s (and other headphones for that matter) and the treble did sound a bit recessed. But listening through the PPA, I found the balance to be the best that I've heard from any dynamic headphone. I can understand why many people here say that they are probably the most neutral dynamic headphone (far above the HD580/600). If something is boosted then you probably need to look at the recording.

FYI, the Grado HP-1000 models were not exotic audiophile and consumer headphones. They were designed and sold for studio use only. Most consider them the ultimate studio engineering headphones.

DJ'ing headphones. Feh, I used to DJ in clubs for more years than I care to remember and I never found a pair of "DJ" headphones that were neutral and accurate.