[Roasty]

Do you sense a more recessed midrange with the ultra wide pads? Do you use silver cables to try mitigate this? Thanks

tbh I just enjoy the P with the wide pads and my silver cable and stopped listening out for such stuff..

 

[Droffen]

Are there such ultra wide pads for the SolP-SE as well?

 

[FooFighter]

Are there such ultra wide pads for the SolP-SE as well?

AFAIK no but from what I read PSE doesn't need those as stock tuning isn't as recessed as the SolP

 

[BTD1]

I have been buying and listening to electrostatics for a few months, but I recently came back to my Solitaire P with ultra wide pads. I have listened to some of my favorite Bach cantatas and other baroque pieces on the P with the UW pads and I love it. The treble is now sparkling and the bass is just right for most classical without any EQ. The mids are at just the right level. Using the powers of the HA200 tone controls you can tweak the bass and the treble until it is just right for a particular recording. These headphones have such depth and clarity! I can honestly say that as good as my Shangri-La Sr headphones are the Solitaire P have a special quality that even the SGL Sr doesn't. It is hard to describe. They are tonally rich, with varied colors and timbres and of course there's that deep, musical and impactful bass. I have had these for a while now and they continue to reveal just how great a set of headphones they are. For me, the Ultra Wide Pads on the Soli P make these phones excellent for classical music. The Soli P, the Stax x9000 and the SGL Sr are now my most listened to headphones. I can't wait to find out what the new Solitaire T bluetooth headphones will sound like.

 

[xenithon]

@MatW how are the Solitaire P's shaping up your side?

 

[MatW]

@MatW how are the Solitaire P's shaping up your side?

It's still early days. I've mainly been letting them play for a few days (and nights) to get them burned in.

I did spend some time with them though, and first impressions are that they are obviously impressive and capable headphones. The build quality is very good. I did try to bend the headband slightly, and it's more comfortable now. The stock cables are fine. I'm not a fan of rubbery cables, but they will do. I may order a few adapters - I need to look them up in this thread, I guess they are from Affinity cables - to use them with the Meze SPC upgrade cable, which I like a lot in terms of look and feel.

The bass is very nice, speed and imaging are excellent. I absolutely love how they do vocals. Slightly dark in stock tuning. I don't mind dark actually, but stock tuning might be a little too dark for me. I applied the Oratory EQ settings, but those made them too bright for me - I guess Harman is too bright for my taste. The bass boost is also unnecessary imo - stock is already quite elevated, maybe a bit too much even. Looking at the FR chart, I have now applied a rather simple EQ profile with some compensation at 3.5k (wide Q), and this sounds pretty good to me. I should also receive the ultra wide pads any day now.

So, in sum, still discovering the headphone, but so far I really like what I am hearing. After burn in, pad rolling, EQ tweaking, and trying out different sources (so far DAVE to Formula S, will also try straight from DAVE and from DAPs such as M9 and 300MAX), I will be comparing them to my other open backs (TC, Susvara, Elite, LCD4), and see how they stack up. Looking forward to the rest of the journey.

 

[Roasty]

this pre + solitaire P is just fantastic. dead silent for a tube component. swapped out all the drivers for NOS Mullard 12au7 tubes, and dropped in a pair of Brimar 5r4gy rectifiers to replace the stock 5ar4 tubes.

those Brimar rectifiers.. mids and bass for days! slightly bloomy low end but still early days and these are unused NOS tubes (supposedly) so I am hoping they will tighten up just a bit. no lack of bass, punchiness or rumble at all. blasting Mir (Buddha bar) and it seems almost like I can crank up the volume endlessly and everything still sounds correct. staging seems even wider and I love the front back depth and layering these tubes are giving out.

I also recently swapped out the power cord to the Furutech DPS 4.1 with gold connectors on both ends. that really took some edge off the top. I'm contemplating swapping out the power amp cord for another DPS 4.1 but slightly worried it'll blunt the sound too much.

all the minor niggles I had with the ultra wide pads seem to have resolved with the changes to the pre. really glad I went with the Brimar recs over the oft suggested Philips 5r4gys; was told by a few guys on the Primaluna fb group that the mids and low end with the Brimars were great, and they weren't wrong!

 

[ThanatosVI]

this pre + solitaire P is just fantastic. dead silent for a tube component. swapped out all the drivers for NOS Mullard 12au7 tubes, and dropped in a pair of Brimar 5r4gy rectifiers to replace the stock 5ar4 tubes.

those Brimar rectifiers.. mids and bass for days! slightly bloomy low end but still early days and these are unused NOS tubes (supposedly) so I am hoping they will tighten up just a bit. no lack of bass, punchiness or rumble at all. blasting Mir (Buddha bar) and it seems almost like I can crank up the volume endlessly and everything still sounds correct. staging seems even wider and I love the front back depth and layering these tubes are giving out.

I also recently swapped out the power cord to the Furutech DPS 4.1 with gold connectors on both ends. that really took some edge off the top. I'm contemplating swapping out the power amp cord for another DPS 4.1 but slightly worried it'll blunt the sound too much.

all the minor niggles I had with the ultra wide pads seem to have resolved with the changes to the pre. really glad I went with the Brimar recs over the oft suggested Philips 5r4gys; was told by a few guys on the Primaluna fb group that the mids and low end with the Brimars were great, and they weren't wrong!

Which poweramp/headamp is now in between the pre and the Solitaire P?

 

[Roasty]

Which poweramp/headamp is now in between the pre and the Solitaire P?

I'm still using the Kinki EX-M7.

 

[Somatic]

this pre + solitaire P is just fantastic. dead silent for a tube component. swapped out all the drivers for NOS Mullard 12au7 tubes, and dropped in a pair of Brimar 5r4gy rectifiers to replace the stock 5ar4 tubes.

those Brimar rectifiers.. mids and bass for days! slightly bloomy low end but still early days and these are unused NOS tubes (supposedly) so I am hoping they will tighten up just a bit. no lack of bass, punchiness or rumble at all. blasting Mir (Buddha bar) and it seems almost like I can crank up the volume endlessly and everything still sounds correct. staging seems even wider and I love the front back depth and layering these tubes are giving out.

I also recently swapped out the power cord to the Furutech DPS 4.1 with gold connectors on both ends. that really took some edge off the top. I'm contemplating swapping out the power amp cord for another DPS 4.1 but slightly worried it'll blunt the sound too much.

all the minor niggles I had with the ultra wide pads seem to have resolved with the changes to the pre. really glad I went with the Brimar recs over the oft suggested Philips 5r4gys; was told by a few guys on the Primaluna fb group that the mids and low end with the Brimars were great, and they weren't wrong!

You should have let me know you were posting NSFW pics

 

[musicman59]

I won’t be home for almost 8 weeks. It’s been 1 1/2 weeks since I left and I am already having SolP withdrawals

 

[MatW]

It's still early days. I've mainly been letting them play for a few days (and nights) to get them burned in.

I did spend some time with them though, and first impressions are that they are obviously impressive and capable headphones. The build quality is very good. I did try to bend the headband slightly, and it's more comfortable now. The stock cables are fine. I'm not a fan of rubbery cables, but they will do. I may order a few adapters - I need to look them up in this thread, I guess they are from Affinity cables - to use them with the Meze SPC upgrade cable, which I like a lot in terms of look and feel.

The bass is very nice, speed and imaging are excellent. I absolutely love how they do vocals. Slightly dark in stock tuning. I don't mind dark actually, but stock tuning might be a little too dark for me. I applied the Oratory EQ settings, but those made them too bright for me - I guess Harman is too bright for my taste. The bass boost is also unnecessary imo - stock is already quite elevated, maybe a bit too much even. Looking at the FR chart, I have now applied a rather simple EQ profile with some compensation at 3.5k (wide Q) and 9.5k (narrow), and this sounds pretty good to me. I should also receive the ultra wide pads any day now.

So, in sum, still discovering the headphone, but so far I really like what I am hearing. After burn in, pad rolling, EQ tweaking, and trying out different sources (so far DAVE to Formula S, will also try straight from DAVE and from DAPs such as M9 and 300MAX), I will be comparing them to my other open backs (TC, Susvara, Elite, LCD4), and see how they stack up. Looking forward to the rest of the journey.

Update: they are getting better by the minute. They sound very good indeed (with my little EQ tweak). True TOTL headphones. They work well with a variety of genres. I listened to a bunch of stuff: metal, vocals, soundtracks, rock, some electronic music. It all sounds great. Esp. good with bass heavy music.

 

[Somatic]

Update: they are getting better by the minute. They sound very good indeed (with my little EQ tweak). True TOTL headphones. They work well with a variety of genres. I listened to a bunch of stuff: metal, vocals, soundtracks, rock, some electronic music. It all sounds great. Esp. good with bass heavy music.

I let them burn in for a few days and noticed they didnt sound as dark as I remembered them. I dont think I had enough time with them for brain burn in.

 

[brams]

For those interested in a really portable solution, the SolP (no EQ and standard pads), a silver cable + the ifi Audio Go Bar Anniversary Edition (Turbo mode) is the best dongle based solution for the SolP I have tried so far. Really open and dynamic presentation that perfectly complements the SolP. It might be all some people need.

I have not tried the standard Go Bar, but assume the performance will be similar.

 

[FooFighter]

@HA200 owners
While I like the loudness function I was hoping that it is adopting itself based on the volume and thus raising certain frequencies like bass only at lower listening volumes and returning to a flat response curve after passing a certain volume threshold.
As far as I remember RME ADI 2 is doing that...
But HA200 seems to be pushing up the bass frequencies no matter what the volume is like I know from my car stereo systems from the past leading to a V-shaped sound signature.
Is that how it is supposed to work, so the loudness level (minimum up to high) should be manually adjusted depending on the listening volume?