[paradoxper]

Is my understanding correct, that Justin now is developing an amplifier that would be for dynamic and planar magnetic headphones, for electrostatic headphones, and for ribbon headphones?

I believe that Justin previously had stated that he was developing an amplifier that would be able to power all of those types of headphones, but it is possible that I am incorrectly remembering what he had stated, or that I originally had misunderstood what he had stated.

This is getting too inside baseball; when I first proposed pivots of uberamp for RAAL, etc we discussed the market (this was also when Jot R first released) and where Justin felt he could fit in a amp. His primary concern was the ribbon (or frankly RAAL) market was too niche -- more niche than, well, STAX or electrostats.
This, as Justin is running a business and knows the margins on the HSA-1b are difficult. His idea was if he were to pursue a RAAL amplifier because he feels the market is too small, he would pivot to an all-encompassing amplifier.

Kevin then made the uberamp to uberamp2 (RAAL.) As well, the other RAAL to replace Jot R. So where this all leads and ends you'll have to tune in.

 

[Tarttett]

This is getting too inside baseball; when I first proposed pivots of uberamp for RAAL, etc we discussed the market (this was also when Jot R first released) and where Justin felt he could fit in a amp. His primary concern was the ribbon (or frankly RAAL) market was too niche -- more niche than, well, STAX or electrostats.
This, as Justin is running a business and knows the margins on the HSA-1b are difficult. His idea was if he were to pursue a RAAL amplifier because he feels the market is too small, he would pivot to an all-encompassing amplifier.

Kevin then made the uberamp to uberamp2 (RAAL.) As well, the other RAAL to replace Jot R. So where this all leads and ends you'll have to tune in.

I would hope that the development for that "all-encompassing amplifier" would be completed successfully.

Similarly to the smallest Dynahi, and to the smallest CFA3, although I probably would not own one, I feel that that would be cool to see that successfully created.

 

[Katzky]

This question has probably already come up with discussions of really expensive equipment, but if you were going to spend $20k to improve your DAC, wouldn’t it be better to build a good two-channel listening room instead of just focusing on headphones. I assume most people would have both, but even though I really like headphones, a really good two-channel system blows away any headphone set up.

Thanks for your input. I already have a pretty solid two channel system but I’m also upgrading that along with headphones. The Bartók changed my mind about what is possible via headphones. For the first time I prefer the headphones. That might change once my new system gets setup. Even so the majority of the time I’m forced to use headphones for family political reasons. Sigh....

if the Rossini is overkill for headphones I’ll just move it to my speaker system and keep the Bartók for headphones. Or... it’s possible I’ll completely lose interest in all of this next week.

 

[Tarttett]

Thanks for your input. I already have a pretty solid two channel system but I’m also upgrading that along with headphones. The Bartók changed my mind about what is possible via headphones. For the first time I prefer the headphones. That might change once my new system gets setup. Even so the majority of the time I’m forced to use headphones for family political reasons. Sigh....

if the Rossini is overkill for headphones I’ll just move it to my speaker system and keep the Bartók for headphones. Or... it’s possible I’ll completely lose interest in all of this next week.

Are you currently still interested to try different headphones, or did you decide to commit to the SR1a by itself?

 

[protoss]

... it’s possible I’ll completely lose interest in all of this next week

Buy back those precious bitcoins. You of all people know this! You are a veteran in this. Don't let those elite scums take our bitcoins!

 

[markel]

Thanks for your input. I already have a pretty solid two channel system but I’m also upgrading that along with headphones. The Bartók changed my mind about what is possible via headphones. For the first time I prefer the headphones. That might change once my new system gets setup. Even so the majority of the time I’m forced to use headphones for family political reasons. Sigh....

if the Rossini is overkill for headphones I’ll just move it to my speaker system and keep the Bartók for headphones. Or... it’s possible I’ll completely lose interest in all of this next week.

That's really helpful. I've done the same thing with headphones over the past year. I just can't justify the Bartok (at least not yet), but it's only money. You can't take it with you.

 

[DJJEZ]

Thanks for your input. I already have a pretty solid two channel system but I’m also upgrading that along with headphones. The Bartók changed my mind about what is possible via headphones. For the first time I prefer the headphones. That might change once my new system gets setup. Even so the majority of the time I’m forced to use headphones for family political reasons. Sigh....

if the Rossini is overkill for headphones I’ll just move it to my speaker system and keep the Bartók for headphones. Or... it’s possible I’ll completely lose interest in all of this next week.

Sounds like your not really into this so probably better to spend you money on something you actually are passionate about lol

 

[Katzky]

The Blue Hawaii is amongst the most popular TOTL commercial offering.
However, you are balling, as such, you needn't consider only the convenient. The DIY T2 is that pinnacle.

I had Kerry build mine (you can see his workmanship speaks for itself,) I established the same source for finishing as the HeadAmp products, so you are making zero concessions.

There is currently not a good all-in-one solution for driving both electrostats and dynamic. HeadAmp is researching the development of producing such an amp with aim of providing a reference ribbon (RAAL SR1a) amplifier. I will find this project rather arduous with many obstacles, also to be met with skepticism.

The Interface and any nominal 100W amplifier is what you need. The Naim will provide enough drive for the SR1a, you may not find it the most ideal.

As you provided a more limited listening experience than I anticipated with headphones, I would recommend you contact a dealer and just start demo'ing various headphones to gain a better insight to what may work for you.

Yeah I’m pretty basic... according to my daughter. My city is a hifi wasteland and even two towns over doesn’t have a decent headphone shop. My hifi guy said they stopped selling headphones because people would just come in to test them out and buy them online.

I made a snap decision to just get the sr1a with the raal brand amp since it appears to be a safe/easy choice. Additionally ordering the blue Hawaii + Stax 009s. In a couple of months, assuming I haven’t moved on to collecting Egyptian artifacts or brooms, I’ll hopefully have a better basis for judging headphones. Worst case my teenager ends up with a kick ass headphone system she’ll refuse to use because they have wires and aren’t Apple branded.

thanks for your help.

btw... in the 19th century people actually collected brooms. It really was a thing. I visited the world’s largest broom collection once. Had to pay like $5. It was a largish closet with about 20 brooms. Made perfect sense to me.

 

[Katzky]

Buy back those precious bitcoins. You of all people know this! You are a veteran in this. Don't let those elite scums take our bitcoins!

I’m still hodlin. I’m just doing it with better sounding music. Unfortunately I ran out of usd and apparently my MIB six million dollar man action figure set isn’t worth as much as one might want to believe. True story.

 

[Katzky]

Sounds like your not really into this so probably better to spend you money on something you actually are passionate about lol

Please leave my high school girlfriend out of this thread It’s upsetting to my wife. Oh wait.... my girlfriend from when I was in high school not my current girlfriend who is in high school. Uhh... let me clear this up.... I don’t have a girlfriend just a wife... who doesn’t like it when I spend money on girlfriends. Which I’d never do... because I’m kinda cheap and slightly selfish.

All kidding aside.... joking I mean.... I do need a passion project. This morning I discussed buying a $14k atomic clock with the owner of an atomic clock company. Not sure why but I sense I’ll soon have an atomic clock on my dresser. So many possibilities! Only issue is he Indicated it would be 8-12 weeks for delivery. I leveled with him “oh man... I need it tomorrow.” Most of the conversation was centered around “what ELSE can I do with this clock?” It sounded so cool though... rubidium, lasers, plasma, two independent gps locks with 84 satellite, millisecond data tracking for two years, and a 259,000 hour MTBF. GOOD god I wanted that thing but I explained to this man that I neede to first create an excuse that’s at least semi plausible. Talked with him for an hour. He is super passionate about timing. He even wears a sensible Casio wristwatch. Good salesperson too I should add. He pointed out that to get better accuracy I’d be looking at about $250k. He was really trying to close the deal and I’m sure he was extremely confused because I kept asking him “but WHY do I need this???” Particularly because I called him and started the conversation with “I need a Kronos-1!”

BTW if anybody reading this has a novel use case for an atomic clock that’s 100,000x more accurate than a regular atomic clock that would only involve half a day max to fully implement please let me know.

Anyhoo... where were we? Oops... my time is up.

 

[originalsnuffy]

A good passion project might be in the area of green energy. Climate change is real and moving to less invasive energy ecosystems seems like a good thing. Maybe even profitable.

 

[Katzky]

Are you currently still interested to try different headphones, or did you decide to commit to the SR1a by itself?

Well I’m getting the Stax 009s also. I’m hoping I love the sr1a and won’t even need the Stax. I’m actually a little concerned if having > 1 headphone will result in my spending half of my life deciding which one to use at the moment.

Nice thing is the two amps will drive every type of headphone so in the future it’ll be a bit easier.

 

[paradoxper]

Yeah I’m pretty basic... according to my daughter. My city is a hifi wasteland and even two towns over doesn’t have a decent headphone shop. My hifi guy said they stopped selling headphones because people would just come in to test them out and buy them online.

I made a snap decision to just get the sr1a with the raal brand amp since it appears to be a safe/easy choice. Additionally ordering the blue Hawaii + Stax 009s. In a couple of months, assuming I haven’t moved on to collecting Egyptian artifacts or brooms, I’ll hopefully have a better basis for judging headphones. Worst case my teenager ends up with a kick ass headphone system she’ll refuse to use because they have wires and aren’t Apple branded.

thanks for your help.

btw... in the 19th century people actually collected brooms. It really was a thing. I visited the world’s largest broom collection once. Had to pay like $5. It was a largish closet with about 20 brooms. Made perfect sense to me.

It doesn't sound like you're too committed or crazy.

In that case, I'd shoot straight for the SR1a with the interface and then depending on the level of amplification you are using complement with a Jotunheim R as this basic chain really does crush the technical comprehension of 99% planar/dynamic/stats. The HSA-1b is a bit better and holds up quite well to many power amps in that 10K range. If you opt out of these direct drive amplifiers, mono amplification starts to show where the SR1a is capping which reveals a true reference that even a T2/009 can't quite reach. I might then add either Susvara and/or 1266 AB TC and drive them from Jot/HSA-1b to simplify the chain.

 

[Sebastien Chiu]

Please leave my high school girlfriend out of this thread It’s upsetting to my wife. Oh wait.... my girlfriend from when I was in high school not my current girlfriend who is in high school. Uhh... let me clear this up.... I don’t have a girlfriend just a wife... who doesn’t like it when I spend money on girlfriends. Which I’d never do... because I’m kinda cheap and slightly selfish.

All kidding aside.... joking I mean.... I do need a passion project. This morning I discussed buying a $14k atomic clock with the owner of an atomic clock company. Not sure why but I sense I’ll soon have an atomic clock on my dresser. So many possibilities! Only issue is he Indicated it would be 8-12 weeks for delivery. I leveled with him “oh man... I need it tomorrow.” Most of the conversation was centered around “what ELSE can I do with this clock?” It sounded so cool though... rubidium, lasers, plasma, two independent gps locks with 84 satellite, millisecond data tracking for two years, and a 259,000 hour MTBF. GOOD god I wanted that thing but I explained to this man that I neede to first create an excuse that’s at least semi plausible. Talked with him for an hour. He is super passionate about timing. He even wears a sensible Casio wristwatch. Good salesperson too I should add. He pointed out that to get better accuracy I’d be looking at about $250k. He was really trying to close the deal and I’m sure he was extremely confused because I kept asking him “but WHY do I need this???” Particularly because I called him and started the conversation with “I need a Kronos-1!”

BTW if anybody reading this has a novel use case for an atomic clock that’s 100,000x more accurate than a regular atomic clock that would only involve half a day max to fully implement please let me know.

Anyhoo... where were we? Oops... my time is up.

Adopt me! Lol, jk. Had a chance to try out the Blue Hawaii at a CanJam Socal before COVID hit, a really incredible piece.

If you're interested in clocks, I'd recommend checking out the watch hobby if you haven't already and build a collection!

Pride and Pinion/Nico Leonard and Teddy Baldassarre are some great resources to start with if you're more of a video learner.

Per Nico, Casios are GOD tier.

There's a great thread here as it's a common love folk in audio share.

 

[cucera]

I made a snap decision to just get the sr1a with the raal brand amp since it appears to be a safe/easy choice. Additionally ordering the blue Hawaii + Stax 009s. In a couple of months, assuming I haven’t moved on to collecting Egyptian artifacts or brooms, I’ll hopefully have a better basis for judging headphones.

Verry good decision. After that you will know what high end headphone sound can do for you. If i may act as a prophet this might be the beginning of a collector’s career