[miceblue]

Hi all,

I just wanted to start an impressions thread from last Saturday's event at The Source AV in Torrence, California.

Featuring:

• Sennheiser HE 1 (also known as the "Orpheus 2")
• HIFIMAN Shangri-La
• MrSpeakers Ether E (E for Electrostatic)
• STAX SR-009

Original event post:
http://www.head-fi.org/t/807600/cavalli-audio-presents-the-source-av-s-summer-series-2016/405#post_13263449

This was an exciting high-profile event, and I'm really fortunate to have been able to attend it. Thank you to TSAVJason for hosting the event and for putting this whole thing together! I don't think I've seen any other event like this before, and dang was it a good one! Also thank you to Netforce for being an awesome chauffeur. : )





[rule]
I made a kind of video series of the event at some of the exhibitors.

Spoiler: 4-Part Video Series

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oheaX03_SsU[/video]



[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPgtRCmqC6Q[/video]

^ Skip to 2:36 if you want to hear some discussion I had with the HIFIMAN representative.



[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70iX4mBon5I[/video]



[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZVoGbgun0U[/video]

Spoiler: Video Time Point Markers

Table of Contents:
1:02 - Sennheiser HE 1
4:47 - HIFIMAN Shangri-La
6:59 - MrSpeakers Ether E
9:44 - n3rdling's do-it-yourself electrostatic headphone
12:04 - Ranking these headphones
13:22 - STAX SR-009
14:52 - Binaural song recordings

Binaural song recordings (all are 16/96 [the original binaural recordings were 24/96 and I just trimmed the recordings to the songs of interest]):
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/2816447/Sennheiser%20HE%201%20-%20The%20Eagles%20-%20Hotel%20California.flac (36 MB)

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/2816447/HIFIMAN%20Shangri-La%20-%20Natalie%20Merchant%20-%20Carnival.flac (53 MB)

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/2816447/MrSpeakers%20Ether%20E%20-%20Natalie%20Merchant%20-%20Carnival.flac (44 MB)

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/2816447/STAX%20SR-009%20-%20Natalie%20Merchant%20-%20Carnival.flac (50 MB)

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/2816447/STAX%20SR-009%20-%20The%20Eagles%20-%20Hotel%20California.flac (39 MB)

Note: the SR-009 recordings are NOT in a quiet listening room, so there's other stuff going on in the background that you can hear when I was doing these recordings. All tracks also have ReplayGain metadata in it if you want to use it.

[rule]
And some photos that I took throughout the event as well.

Spoiler: Large Photos

^ HIFIMAN Shangri-La connected to the McIntosh source/pre-amp


^ Woo Audio WA8


^ HiFiGuy528


^ Sennheiser HE 1 headphones


^ Sennheiser HE 1 system front


^ Sennheiser HE 1 system isometric


^ Sennheiser HE 1's tubes


^ n3rdling's do-it-yourself "Orpheus Clone" headphones


^ n3rdling's do-it-yourself "Orpheus Clone" headphones


^ Questyle "Gold Stack" with the Focal Utopia


^ Questyle's new CMA400i


^ Questyle CMA400i with the Audeze iSine 20


^ Sony MDR-Z1R


^ Sony NW-WM1Z, TA-ZH1ES, and MDR-Z1R


^ STAX SR-009


^ STAX SR-009 setup


^ STAX SR-009 setup


^ STAX SR-009 with the SR-207


^ HIFIMAN Edition 6 and EF1000


^ HIFIMAN Edition 6


^ Cavalli Audio Liquid Tungsten

[rule]
Electrostatic Headphone Impressions

For the impressions of the event, something to keep in mind is that these 15-minute listening sessions (for the HE 1, Shangri-La, and Ether E) were done in quiet listening rooms (ideal), but with a selection of [unknown mastering origins] music that you may or may not know (not ideal). This is especially in the case for the HE 1 where the Sennheiser representative would play 3 or 4 pre-selected high-resolution tracks to you (some were able to choose a song if Tidal had it, I believe).

All of my impressions can be heard in video 4 above if you're looking for a podcast-like experience, as opposed to reading this.

Spoiler: HE 1

So speaking of which, the HE 1 was the first listening session I attended. To be perfectly honest, I intentionally chose to use most of my time getting nice photos and some media coverage (video 1 above shows and explains the HE 1's power-down and power-up process). It was either I get the most out of this experience (note: experience as a whole, not just a listening experience), or I get to listen to some test tracks in which I may or may not know. Indeed I did get to listen to 3/4 of Hotel California though, which is at least a track I do know, but again of unknown mastering origins. Keep in mind that all the songs Sennheiser had pre-selected were recorded with Neumann microphones, a company that they own, so there's a Sennheiser bias to the whole experience.

The HE 1 uses eight ES9018S DAC chips in differential mode, so there is no common ground and everything is 100% balanced. To me, I could still hear a bit of that "SABRE SOUND^TM" quality to the system, which is a little bit of a bright sound in the upper-midrange, but it was pretty much buttery smooth throughout the rest of the frequency spectrum. It had all the goodies you would expect from an electrostatic headphone, meaning very fast speed, terrific imaging, and a silky treble quality. If I were to describe the sound in one term, it would be neutral. I've heard the Ultimate Ears Reference Remaster before, and I got a very similar kind of impression: music is just "there" and there's nothing else. Although the HE 1 didn't "wow" me, it was just kind of a sublime listening experience for me where I could appreciate the music.

Coming from what the HD800 and HD800S sound like in terms of the soundstage, I was very pleasantly surprised to hear the HE 1 to have a more intimate soundstage relatively speaking. I have always disliked the HD800's rather superficially large-sounding soundstage.

I actually did use the crossfeed knob on the HE 1 system to see what kind of effect it has (there were 3 options for it), and I honestly couldn't really hear much of a difference between the different modes, at least not with Hotel California.

Spoiler: Shangri-La

Fifteen minutes later, it was time to listen to the Shangri-La. I had previously heard the Shangri-La at CanJam at RMAF last year, and honestly I was not impressed with it at all: It was extremely bright-sounding. This time around (apparently it was revised since then), it sounded much better. Think of the SR-009 but with more of an emphasis on the upper-midrange/lower-treble instead of the mid-/upper-midrange. It still had an overall sizzley-bright sound to it, similar to my experience with a stock HE-500, but it was much more toned down. If you download the binaural audio recordings I made above, you can get an idea of how this sounds compared to the SR-009.

For a HIFIMAN headphone, I was expecting harder-hitting bass compared to what I was hearing in the Shangri-La. The bass is still nice, just not as impactful as I was hoping it to be. To me it was like the HE1000's bass without as much oomph. Speaking of the HE1000 though, the soundstage presentation of the Shangri-La reminded me of the HE1000 a bit in that it was more deep than wide, but more even in overall dimensions. I think it's one of the more open-sounding electrostatic headphones I've heard.

Spoiler: Ether E

Like the Shangri-La, I had previously heard the Ether E at CanJam at RMAF last year. Being revised since then, I was excited to see how it has evolved since then. This time though, it was on an insanely beastly Blue Hawaii/Chord Dave rig. Coming from the previous two listening sessions, my ears were kind of attuned to a high-profile sound, and the Ether E didn't disappoint. Being the only affordable headphone of the three, I think MrSpeakers has done a great job of tuning the Ether E to sound like an electrostatic headphone, but at the same time not: it keeps the fantastic imaging ability of an e-stat without sounding too fast, all the meanwhile making it still sound like a MrSpeakers headphone.

Similar to the HE 1, I found the Ether E to have a more intimate presentation rather than really open, which I prefer. The low-/mid-bass sounded a tad bit boosted to me, which is a MrSpeakers sound and adds some nice warmth going into the lower-midrange to Give Life Back to Music. Hearing no bass in an electrostatic headphone is somewhat of an old myth: it mostly applies to speakers rather than headphones (and this is why Martin Logan speaker systems are a hybrid estat midrange-tweeter/dynamic woofer). Having the slightly-boosted bass in the Ether E would probably completely eliminate that myth, hahaha. I don't have any complaints about the presence of the bass in the music, but on a more technical note it sounds a little slow/woolly to me.

Moving on to the midrange as a whole, the Ether E kind of has a bright sound in the upper-mids, and combined with the warm lower-mids, it creates a more forward midrange listening experience. A great listening experience for vocals in general, but sounded a taaaad bit sibilant to me.

The treble, in typical MrSpeakers fashion is very smooth overall. It retains the grain-free treble response from the fast drivers, minus having the STAX "ETHEReal" sound signature (okay, bad pun).

Spoiler: SR-009

I don't think the STAX SR-009 really needs an introduction since it's been around the hi-fi community as a whole for quite some time now.

For me, I have always found it to be too bright for my tastes. On the Blue Hawaii, I find it to have too large of a soundstage for my tastes as well, which is contrary to what many others would prefer to hear the SR-009 on. However, on their own SRM-007 MKII tube amplifier, I actually found it to be listenable. The brightness was bearable to me, and the soundstage was more intimate with solid imaging.


I brought my SR-207 with me since I was interested in hearing how it compares to the SR-009 on a STAX amp. As I've heard before, the SR-207 actually has more bass than the SR-009; again, kind of destroying the ill-lingering stigma that estats don't have bass. The SR-009 definitely has much more air than the SR-207 and is much, much faster, being able to pick up details much more easily than the SR-207, almost too much so and might be one reason why MrSpeakers opted to go for a tuning that wasn't as fast.

Overall though, I'd still give the SR-009 a pass. Its sound signature just isn't my thing, and I still yearn for a SR-007 MKI with a Liquid Lightning 1.

Spoiler: n3rdling's Orpheus Clone

This, was very interesting to hear. I know that chinsettawong creates DIY electrostatic headphones, and I've heard a DIY estat before, but this was just mind-blowing to me. If you know what the SR-007 MKI and SR-009 sounds like, this "Orpheus Clone" is like a mix of them. It was just a very technical/musical-sounding hybrid. You really have to give it a listen yourself because I was/still am at a loss for words on how to describe it other than that. It has a bright upper-midrange similar, but much more toned down, to the 009, but a warm, and pretty much transparent, bass and treble response on the other ends of the frequency spectrum. It sounded very fast like the 009, but at the same time didn't sound ethereal like a typical estat.

The imaging was amongst the strongest and most well-defined of what I've heard in any headphone system: very, very solid. The soundstage was also airy similar to the 009, but that could be attributed to the Blue Hawaii amplifier it was hooked up on.

I think projects like this demonstrate the enthusiasm this community can have. Learning about the technology of how something works and applying that to make something of your own is, in my opinion, the ultimate realization of this hobby. I've been wanting to read Roger Sander's "Electrostatic Loudspeaker Design Cookbook" to learn more about the design of electrostatic speaker panels, and n3rdling's creation may have just motivated me even more to look into it. Getting into the world of DIY estats is no trivial task and I have a lot of respect for people who venture into it.


The yin and yang were in perfect Harmony with the "Orpheus Clone".

[rule]
Other Headphone Impressions

The event had headphone systems that were outside of the realm of electrostatic headphones, so I wanted to cover those briefly as well.

HIFIMAN Edition 6
This was my first time hearing the Edition 6, so I have no basis on its sound in previous revisions. I actually thought it sounded pretty okay. One of the demo CDs had Hotel California on it (again, of unknown mastering origin), and the Edition 6 had some nice air, a relatively smooth treble response, solid imaging, but the midrange seemed bright and the midbass had a lot of bloat and presence. Not my preferred sound signature, but it was fine overall.

Supposedly, like their older HE-6, this Edition 6 is not very sensitive, so it will need a beefy amp with it. I think the EF1000 did a good job at it? I was manning the SR-009 table during most of the event, which was near the Edition 6 table, and many people were cranking up the volume super loud, loud enough so that I could hear their music playing through my music when I'm listening to a headphone............sometimes the people in this hobby really scare me. :/




Sony MDR-Z1R
Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeh.....this was, well, a Sony. It has a very, very warm-slanted sound signature. I liked it much much more on the Questyle CMA400i than on their own NW-WM1Z/TA-ZH1ES system.



Focal Utopia
Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeh.....this headphone still has yet to "wow" me. Even on the Questyle "Gold Stack" I still think this headphone is good, but not great. At $4000, I wouldn't even consider it, to be blunt. It doesn't do anything particularly wrong, which is good, but at the same time, it has no character to it. Music is just "there" but unlike the HE 1, it still sounds like a headphone and isn't transparent to me. Something about the midrange and soundstage just seems too off to sound transparent, but I can't pinpoint it either.



HD800
Actually, I got to hear this on HiFiGuy528's Woo Audio WA8, and I was pleasantly surprised! I typically don't like the HD800's sound, modded or not. On the WA8, that was the first time I actually listened, and enjoyed, more than 4 songs from my playlist. The soundstage was more intimate-sounding on this setup compared to the CMA600i, and its brightness was really toned down, though still present. Two thumbs up for this combo.





[rule]
Welp, those are all of my impressions from the event in terms of gear. The overall atmosphere of the event was really chill. There were a lot of listening stations set up around the venue, so there was always something for people to do. Talking and meeting people in the community was a fun experience. I liked being able to meet new people whom I've interacted with on the forums, but now I can match a face to a name and a name to a username. : D


Thanks for taking the time to read/watch through these impressions!

 

[Netforce]

Very nice impressions and pictures and videos, great work bro.
 
Had a lot of fun at the event last week, lots of familiar faces from previous events and lots of new faces also!
 
I was stuck behind the table for a good amount of time but was real nice to hear the new things and the big name pieces again. Played with the He-1 for a little bit of Hotel California, played with the Shangri-La for nice couple of songs, and heard the Edition 6 on the Gold Stack! Very nice all around!
 
Thanks @TSAVJason for putting this all together along with all the folks at The Source, the Sponsors and the Manufacturers for making their way out again to launch the Spring Series! Had a blast! Can't wait for the next events.

 

[TSAVJason]

Very cool! I knew you did the video for the HE 1 but I had no idea you had done such an extensive group of videos ....thx!

 

[Odin412]

Thanks for starting an impressions thread! I've posted my impressions in other threads before, but I'll add them below to keep them together and in the right place:
 
I was fortunate enough to attend the event, and what an epic event it was! How often do you get the chance to listen to some of the very top headphone rigs in the world? Hats off and many thanks to @TSAVJason, @mrspeakers, @warrenpchi, the good folks at The Source AV and the various vendors for making this happen. I had the pleasure of listening to the Sennheiser HE-1 and the MrSpeakers Ether E and Æon.
 
Sennheiser HE-1
So, how does $55K worth of headphones sound? The Sennheiser HE-1 is exquisitely made with high-grade materials made like the luxury item that it is. The Carrara marble base is gorgeous! (BTW, Michelangelo refused to use anything but Carrara marble for his statues.) After all, it costs about the same as a new Mercedes E-class. It's very comfortable as well, but my hands were almost trembling picking up the headset - I better not break it!
 
The friendly folks at Sennheiser player a few preselected tracks. Norah Jones sounded like she was right in front of me and I felt like I was in the studio with the singers that Paul Simon uses as his backups. That's the impression that stayed with me the most: The HE-1 made me feel like I was in the studio when the recording was being made. And it didn't sound harsh or strident at all. Impressive. Just before my time ran out I was asked to pick a track from Tidal and I chose 'Circle of Life' from the Lion King soundtrack. Go ahead, laugh all you want, but it's a great song that makes everyone smile as they remember the opening act of the Lion King movie. How did it sound? Like being in the recording studio. Amazing. So, is it worth $55K? Is a Bugatti Chiron worth $1.5M+? Is a Patek Philippe Chronograph worth $60K+? If you have the coin and want a true luxury item I say go for it - it's an amazing system. For the rest of us 99% folks we can look forward to benefit from the trickle-down effect from this masterpiece in the years to come.
 
MrSpeakers Ether Electrostat
I had the opportunity to spend some time with an earlier prototype of the Ether Electrostat driven by the Blue Hawaii amp and Yggdrasil DAC at last year's THE Show Newport and at that time I thought it was the best sounding headphone rig that I had ever heard. Yesterday I heard the Ether E with the Blue Hawaii and Chord Dave DAC and I still think it's one of the absolute best headphones on the planet. First, the midrange on these things is just magical. It's so liquid and alive, and it just feel so effortless and sounds unbelievably beautiful. I feel that when I listen to these headphones I just relax and get transported into the music. The treble is very smooth and resolved and never strident or harsh. And in contrast to some other electrostatic headphones this headphone actually plays bass, and very nice, deep bass at that. I do think that people who love the classic Stax sound (all treble and no bass IMHO, but YMMV) may not like the sound of these cans, but if you like the sound of (for example) the Ether Flow you're going to love these - I know I do. My only caveat is that these cans (being electrostats) will require a dedicated amp so the total investment will likely be significant. Woo Audio has an amp at around $1,600 that I haven't heard , the wonderful Cavalli Liquid Lightning was around $5K (I think) when they last made it and the Blue Hawaii (which looks and sounds just gorgeous) is close to $7K depending on options, so in this case pleasure won't come cheap. Let's hope more amps will enter the market - this headphone really deserves a large audience.
 
MrSpeakers Æ​on
I was so impressed that I preordered the Æ​on the next morning. The Æ​on was hooked up to a Woo Audio WA5 amp with some aftermarket tubes (don't know what kind, they were a bit strange-looking and had 'horns' on the side) and a Chord Dave DAC, so a pretty high-end rig. The Æon is light and is very comfortable. My ears fit easily within the around-the-ear earcups. The noise isolation seems very good, which is a plus in a closed headphone. To my ears the Æ​on sounds really beautiful, similar on nature to the Ether C Flow, but with a more forgiving nature. I don't think it's quite as resolving/transparent as the Ether C Flow, but it has a more easygoing nature that I found very appealing. I found it to have a very 'open' sound that didn't really remind me that I was listening to a closed headphone. I also got the opportunity to listen to the Æon through a Cavalli Liquid Spark amp fed by an A&K AK380 player, and the Æ​on has great synergy with the Cavalli amp. I have a Liquid Carbon amp that I love and plan to use with the Æ​on (and reportedly has great synergy as well), but the Liquid Spark is a really good-sounding (and good-looking) little amp.
 
Again, thanks to everyone for a superb event!

 

[Stillhart]

Thanks for the impressions, all!  Hopefully I'll get to hear some of these great setups again at Socal in a month!

 

[TSAVJason]

You missed a good one Dan

 

[TSAVJason]

For those that want to plan ahead the next meet is March 25th and we have some killer surprises in store you guys