[HeadphoneAddict]

 
 
Quote:

55) Apogee Mini-Dac, DIY Kevin Gilmore Solid State (KGSS) 300v, Stax SR-007 Omega 2 (not sure which version)
Silky smooth. Rich sound top to bottom. Bass is full and slightly boomy but in a good way. Mids are awesome. Treble seems rolled but detail is still good. This setup is not as good as the 009 WES/BHSE technically, but it is more enjoyable. Vocals are as good as it gets. No sibilance at all. No chance. Fun rig. Might think about this if I return to full size cans.

Notes speak for themselves. Stats on a medium budget. Can't go wrong with this.

 
Very apt description there of my rig.  This is why I'm thinking that the next step up for me is to drive my O2 Mk1 and HE-60 with a Cavalli Liquid Lightning amp, before I get an 009.  I'll be using my PS Audio Perfectwave DAC with that one.
 
 
 
Quote:

64) Apogee Mini Dac, KGSS, Sennheiser HE-60
Nothing really to complain about. Nice balance. Center is good. Vocals are just slightly harsh, but this is a nitpick. Hard to find any fault with this setup. Doesn't really involve me in this the music. It's not sterile, just can't really put my finger on it. I think I might like them on the A-10 better. More involving.

After some thought, I decided I definitely preferred them on the A-10. The KGSS is a decent mid range stat amp, but can't really keep up with the big boys.

 
The HE-60 are a lot like the 009, and I thought they sounded much better with the Liquid Fire amp.

 

[customNuts]

What a huge effort you put in for the community. Amazing.

 

[SHAHZADA123]

Thanks for a great write up. Very comprehensive and informatory.
Folks like me, who are ONLY a few thousand miles away, this is almost like being there.
Thanks again
 
 

 

[qusp]

Quote:

Goal of next CanJam is to find the best amp for my UERMs. After that if I have room for the amp or can even bring it, will be DACs. One year at a time for each component. Time will tell if I pick up a full size setup again.

i can pretty much tell you at least from my perspective from searching for and in the end building my own amps (home and portable) tuned for customs specifically, what you are looking for is a follower or power buffer, not an amp, customs don't need voltage gain, they need good vanishingly low output impedance (high damping factor) and lots and lots of current. linear response into varying load is the key. also removing the voltage gain stage makes for mess components in the signal path, less feedback (some measured amount is good for stability, i ended up with about 1.2x gain)
 
great post btw, you are making me want the UERM even more

 

[dyl1dyl]

Great post, best out of Canjam 2011 so far imo. Hope you love your UERMs as much as I do!

 

[Maxvla]

Still reading but wanted to comment about this
 
 
That rig is not very good with ES-5 or the demos (or other IEM), and the actual custom ES-5 sound a bit better than the demos as well.  I'm sorry you didn't get to hear them with a better rig.  I brought Westone a digital iPod dock to use as a source, and I really wanted them to hook the dock up to the RSA SR-71b that I brought, but they had an SR-71b in another rig and hooked the dock up to the Apache instead. I really wish they wouldn't bring the balanced Apache for the IEM anymore.  The last time I was at Westone to demo IEM most of us agreed that the iPhone > Pico Slim sounded better than Emotiva > Apache when using IEM.
 

Hm, yeah that's too bad then

 

[Maxvla]

i can pretty much tell you at least from my perspective from searching for and in the end building my own amps (home and portable) tuned for customs specifically, what you are looking for is a follower or power buffer, not an amp, customs don't need voltage gain, they need good vanishingly low output impedance (high damping factor) and lots and lots of current. linear response into varying load is the key. also removing the voltage gain stage makes for mess components in the signal path, less feedback (some measured amount is good for stability, i ended up with about 1.2x gain)
 
great post btw, you are making me want the UERM even more

This is why I'm very much interested in the Objective 2 when it is available in desktop form.

 

[cAsE sEnSiTiVe]

Quote:

 But IMHO, the Boulder CD player gave it an unfair advantage over most every other source-amp-can combo Chris ran through. 

I don't know about unfair. Ray is obviously smart enough to know that the first part of the system chain is absolutely crucial in the attempt to reproduce music. If the source isn't cutting the mustard, you sure as hell aren't going to fix it downstream with the amp. In fact, the more uncolored the amp is, the more important the source becomes. A transparent, well-designed amplifier will imbue as little of its own sonic signature on the proceedings as possible, and therefore will place a spotlight on things going on upstream.  
 
I have heard the Boulder, and even though the player is a few years old now, it still competes nicely with the best one-box units out there. On hi-rez material, it's nothing short of amazing.
 
Something else about it, and other CD players of its ilk. They typically have GOBS of gain from their outputs, typically in the 4-5v range. This doesn't hurt things either.

 

[Loevhagen]

Thanks for the post. It is always appreciated that one individual put such effort in presenting their impressions, and the benefit for the rest of us is that since it is one person's impressions - it conveys the relative differences. Thanks again for your effort here. I've read the initial post once, and will use it as "impressions base" several times. 

 

[james444]

Thanks for your interesting and concise impressions. I too felt that the JH13 demos had a tad too much bass and went for the UERM instead, which strike me as overall slightly more refined. To my ears bass levels didn't increase significantly on the full customs though, which makes me think that those bone conduction effects might be a bit overrated around these boards. That said, I'm pretty satisfied with the bass impact on my UERMs, but I wouldn't mind a little more texture.

 

[Currawong]

Great work on the write-up. You mentioned that in a number of rigs the center vocals seemed to be coming from 10 and 2 o'clock. This is how reversed polarity sounds. Maybe a number of rigs were wired wrongly? I've come across this in balanced rigs as either pin 2 or pin 3 on the connectors can be hot (positive). If people were moving around sources this would be an easy mistake to make.

 

[Wharfrat]

@cAsE sE.nsitive: "I don't know about unfair. Ray is obviously smart enough to know that the first part of the system chain is absolutely crucial in the attempt to reproduce music. If the source isn't cutting the mustard, you sure as hell aren't going to fix it downstream with the amp. In fact, the more uncolored the amp is, the more important the source becomes. A transparent, well-designed amplifier will imbue as little of its own sonic signature on the proceedings as possible, and therefore will place a spotlight on things going on upstream."

You are absolutely right there and I apologize if it came off as disrespective of the exhaustive analysis Maxvla did on the amp/can synergies...but it needs to be said that an excellent source can play a role in revealing details some might say are amp-dependent. But then again, its more likely his efforts are the better for it since he did a lot of comps using identical output sources so there is a ton of credibility coming out of that approach taken.

 

[Maxvla]

Great work on the write-up. You mentioned that in a number of rigs the center vocals seemed to be coming from 10 and 2 o'clock. This is how reversed polarity sounds. Maybe a number of rigs were wired wrongly? I've come across this in balanced rigs as either pin 2 or pin 3 on the connectors can be hot (positive). If people were moving around sources this would be an easy mistake to make.

Most of the rigs I listened to were pretty well set. The vendor laid out the gear and that headphone stayed on the amp most of the weekend.

 

[Maxvla]

@cAsE sE.nsitive: "I don't know about unfair. Ray is obviously smart enough to know that the first part of the system chain is absolutely crucial in the attempt to reproduce music. If the source isn't cutting the mustard, you sure as hell aren't going to fix it downstream with the amp. In fact, the more uncolored the amp is, the more important the source becomes. A transparent, well-designed amplifier will imbue as little of its own sonic signature on the proceedings as possible, and therefore will place a spotlight on things going on upstream."
You are absolutely right there and I apologize if it came off as disrespective of the exhaustive analysis Maxvla did on the amp/can synergies...but it needs to be said that an excellent source can play a role in revealing details some might say are amp-dependent. But then again, its more likely his efforts are the better for it since he did a lot of comps using identical output sources so there is a ton of credibility coming out of that approach taken.

Yes, and the Boulder wasn't the only $20k+ source I listened to. The Meridian 808.3 is up there in price as well and I didn't like anything I heard from it through the Pinnacle.

 

[Noned]

AWESOME THANK YOU