lojay
1000+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Jan 2, 2004
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Detailed comments #Lojay.
Reading your first comment I understand why you could prefer the 4-45 vs the Teton as point (b) could influence your judgement but point (a) comes undoubtedly from your own listening experience. Perhaps the difference with Minimus' feelings spotlighting the Teton rises from his feelings about OTL and Transformer Output technologies. OTL drives better the HD800 ??
Second comment is a surprise for me but I'm happy with it since I do like the HD800. So no PS1000e, no Ultrasone ED 10, even the HE1000 doesn't do it !! But where is in your opinion the Abyss there ??
I have said this more than once already: the difference between what minimus is hearing and I am hearing boils down to different tubes. He is using vintage 45 globes. I have NOS versions of 45 globe vintage tubes, but I prefer the EML 45 solid plates which, when used with the EC 445, allows it to exceed in performance compared to the Teton. Let me repeat again - with the tubes I prefer, the EML solid plates - the Teton lags behind in accuracy, imaging, soundstaging and leading edge/ transient attacks, but is "better" in emotional involvement, tonality perhaps, and certainly bass quantity if you are using a high impedance headphone like the HD800. If I use the vintage 45 globes on the EC 445, the immediacy is gone, the leading edge/ transient attack is totally gone, and the soundstage and imaging becomes imprecise.
If you are suggesting that I am influenced by Craig's comments on OTL vs OPT, I respectfully differ. I have detailed the differences between two amps in objective terms. I had numerous colleagues come over to compare the Teton and 445 and they reached the same conclusions as I did (and I did not tell them what to look for). The difference in the transient attacks and soundstage are very hard to miss. On the soundstage part, Mark (minimus) also opined that the Teton has a less wide soundstage but coming from a very expensive speaker setup, he did not rank the soundstage aspect of headphone sound reproduction very highly.
I haven't heard the Abyss. But you can ask those who have. I don't think anyone has said that the Abyss resolves, images and does soundstage better than the HD800 when using TOTL amps matching the HD800. As for the HE1000, PS1000 and SR009, I have owned or loaned these extensively.
I think my opinions have been fairly and reasonably stated. If you think I am hearing things I am not, please state YOUR experience and WHY you disagree with YOUR ears.