The Audiophile Years: A Retrospective Story
Acknowledgements
I’ve been meaning to write down my audiophile journey for some time now. Partly because it’s been over 4 years since I embarked on it, and I wanted to remind myself what it’s been like. Partly to share my own experience with the community that helped to ignite this hobby within me, and to let you guys see what it’s been like for me. Whether you are a veteran audiophile or just getting your toes wet, I hope you can find some use in this reflective work, be it enjoyment, experience or mere compassion. I will update this article whenever there’s something new worth writing about and there are pictures throughout where appropriate. My thanks goes to everyone for being a part of this amazing community; it wouldn’t be the same without you. Now, with no further ado, let’s delve right into it.
Writer Introduction
My name is Lukas. I just turned 23 and am currently studying English language and literature for what I hope to be a bachelor’s diploma, in a year’s time from now. I’ve also started to self-teach myself composition a couple months back, where the previous Head-fi experience definitely helps; not only have I trained my years in the process, but knowing what headphones are suitable, which monitors to go for and hearing countless tracks to draw experience from, are all valuable assets now. I am not musically trained, and I am only learning the piano now as I compose, plus virtuosity is a bit limited in my family, though my father, his father and my grandmother have taught themselves to play musical instruments to various degrees. Also, I am Czech, so there might be some hope for me yet!
The Early Days
My passion for music began in the summer of 2012. Beats were currently all the rage here and my friend had just snagged a pair. Any fondness of music was practically non-existent for me prior to this; I listened to some contemporary pop, rock and hip hop on my then Sony XB-300s, and I didn’t really care for music much, but hey, the massive Beats PR campaign did its thing and I reluctantly borrowed some Beats to listen to some cringy music. “Oooh! That’s some bass alright!” was my first response. Frankly, aside from the XB-300 and some generic TV and home cinema speakers, I was not exposed to fidelity sound, and while Beats weren’t exactly that, the bass stirred my interest. I’ve been saving some money at that time and I started scourging the webs for Beats. The Studios went for around 299$ then, and I found some at a place where I could just go and have them ordered here; but, something made me hesitate. To this day, I don’t know exactly what it was. They were bassy and that’s what I wanted at that time, right? For some reason though, I started googling on Beats and a Head-fi thread titled ‘Beats and why they suck’ popped up. Now the vast majority of websites gave Beats raving reviews at that time. CNet, Amazon and many others, so why does this one thinks they suck. Hmm… I clicked the link and began reading, on what would become the website I now visit daily. “Those people seem to know what they are talking about” me thought and I started looking for alternatives. After much Head-fi research, I found two that seemed to match the Beats signature, while being considerably better accepted here: the Denon AH-D2000 and the Utrasone Pro900. I was not really sure which to go for; they both seemed good, but fate had decided for me – the Denons have just been discontinued and I could no longer get them locally, and so, I ordered the Pro 900.
It had to be the titanium coated drivers
My First ‘Audiophile’ Headphone
The Pro 900s got here and I instantly found them superior to Beats, even with regards to bass throughput! Reluctantly, so did my friend and I was happy I succeeded at finding a better headphone at a similar buck. At that time, I had a very limited playlist and so apart from contemporary mainstream rap and hip hop I listened to what was my rave back then – Alvin and the Chipmunks. Yes, I know, I know! But I was 5 years youn-. Never mind. I was using my phone as a DAP at that time, what I believe was my first smartphone, a Samsung S8500 Wave, for on the go [a setup, which would undergo many revisions, currently comprising of a HiFiMAN HM-601LE], and an NFB-16 as my first desktop setup. The sound was very decent, but as you imagine, the Ultrasones did not exactly yield well to high pitched vocals of the chipmunks, and I would discover my love slowly changed into hate for the headphones. The bass was excellent, but I was discovering what would enter my audiophile vocabulary as a V-shaped headphone, among the most of its kind. The sibilants were grating my ears and I started noticing many instruments were being pushed waaaay back [scooped midrange much?]. As my appreciation for good music reproduction increased, so did my contempt for these. Finally one day, I realized I can’t stand them any longer and paid a visit to what would be my first use of the classifieds section. I found a buyer surprisingly quickly and with the headphone gone, money waiting to be spent, and impeding Christmas, I started looking at other options.
Monster bass!
[Courtesy of Headroom.com and Head-fi.org]
The Real Audiophile Sound
So, I was on the hunt again, but my preferences have shifted. I didn’t want a V-shaped headphone anymore; I wanted something balanced and detailed that would allow me to clearly hear all the things previously buried under the bass, and my sights turned to HiFiMAN. At that time, I was exchanging private messages with Darryl, or ‘preproman’ as he’s known on head-fi. He owned all the HiFiMANs I was considering, the HE500, HE5LE and HE6 and did many comparisons for me, including some of the chip tracks, which I was still listening to, and he slowly swayed me from the HE500 to the HE5LE and finally to the HE6. Well, this was quite the jump from the Pro900 there, but this meant I had to get an audiophile DAC and a speaker amplifier, based on many recommendations in the HE6 thread. After more research, I’ve decided to pick up an Audio-gd NFB3.33 DAC and an Emotiva Mini-X a-100 speaker amplifier, which would replace the NFB-16. Spending all the money I saved up, I ordered my first audiophile setup and received everything by the end of the year. I was chomping at the bit to finally hear the one headphone so praised; I was sure the experience would be eye opening, for many different reasons. At that point, my collection was rapidly growing, moving away from chip tracks and mainstream, expanding my tastes to many new genres. I started listening to pop, rock, modern electronic music and, as an avid gamer, most notably countless movies, series and videogames soundtracks, which I’ve acquired over time. The HE6 had to prove to be a versatile and all-round headphone to accommodate a wide range of music. At first, I was simply stunned by all the new layers I was discovering; many instruments and cues, previously obscured and masked, were coming into focus and I was marveling at all the new information I was hearing. Now, my ears were nowhere near as trained as they are today, so even though I probably did not quite know what exactly I was listening for, I was enjoying it. In the meantime, one of the drivers on my HE6 died, so I sent it in for repaisr, which went on without a hitch. However, over time, I started to realize the shortcomings of my budget-conscious setup and the truth behind the demanding beast the HE6 is. While the performance I was getting was heads and tails superior to the Ultrasones, I began to second guess my purchase as the issue of brightness was roaring its head again, and the simple matter of fact that my setup was not built around the HE6 began to show. Setup synergy was not something I considered at the time, being an audiophile greenhorn; I gave the HE6 power, but did not properly match the signature. The DAC was barely any warm and so was the amplifier, for a headphone that loves a warm setup, with a powerful tube amplifier on the forefront. However, despite not possessing the knowledge I have today, this was still an amazing learning experience and I spent many evenings in audiophile bliss, listening to hundreds of tracks, marveling at the new details. The HE6 also took double duties as a gaming headphone, replacing my Turtle Beach PX5, the Beats of gaming headsets if you will, whose strong marketing campaign had convinced me roughly a year ago on my trip to LA.
The majestic HE6
Discovering The Nature of The Beast
I continued to dig the HiFiMANs significantly more than the once desired Pro900, and now I knew a reference sound was more to my liking. I also realized that my first purchase was just a bit too ambitious, and have come to understand the setup I had wasn’t ideal for the HE6, producing an overly bright sound. I sold the HE6, and for a short time made do with an Audio Technica ATH-A900X, as a noticeably smoother and punchier alternative, and eventually even the ATH-W1000X. I don’t exactly remember when anymore, but at one point or another I’ve also tried other closed back headphones, performing at a similar level – the Yamaha MT220s, the Fidelio L2s, the Soundmagic HP100s and the AKG K240s [semi]. While decent however, I knew I wanted an ‘open headphone’ experience as my primary listening pleasure, and when the HiFiMANs sold, I found myself looking to other headphones. I did not feel quite confident enough to splurge on a single flagship headphone this time, so I decided to scavenge the webs for midrange champions to allow me to try a couple different signatures first. I sold the now redundant Emotiva amp and bought me some Matrix M-Stage and an AKG K612, which I found to be very good for the money, albeit too treble intensive again. Eventually, after consulting with Head-fi, I ended up with three different headphones; the AKG K7XX [as I quite enjoyed the K612s, except for their spiky treble], the Sony MDR-MA900 [the design was intriguing and performance supposedly solid] and the Philips Fidelio X1. Looking back, I think this was among the better decisions I made and I quite enjoyed all three for different reasons; AKGs for being very reference, Sonys for their wonderful midrange and vocals and Phillipses for the impressively deep and punchy bass and detailed treble [while being both better and cheaper than the Ultrasones]. These covered a lot of ground for more or less half the price of the HE6, each unique and not nearly as demanding on the rig. Fairly balanced from top to bottom, I thought I was good for a while. But then life happened.
The Three Budgeteers
When Life Gives You Lemons
It was fall 2013, and I’ve just finished high school. About to turn 19, I was also accepted to a fairly prestigious university to pursue a BA diploma in English Language and Literature. As an avid gamer, while also [finally] doing a bit of exercise on the side, I was happy with myself and life was looking good. Well, until it wasn’t. Whether it was the toll of four years of demanding and stressful daily high school attendance or something else, is not important, but I was diagnosed with a very serious illness. The next 6 months would be the most difficult and sucky moments of my life, consisting of home isolation, numerous complications and an extremely demanding medical procedure, necessary to deal with this situation. During this time, I spent most of my time with my family, playing videogames, thinking about life and listening to music. To this day, I believe it was my parents and music that kept me strong during those harsh times, and made me not think about the things I had to undergo, for which I will be forever grateful. By September 2014, the procedure was a success and, having reconsidered many things in life, I was ready to go on after losing almost a year of life. I continued to be thoughtful, having changed and reconsidered many things; I was no longer a gamer first, I wanted to pursue different endeavors, to travel and see the world. You could say this experience helped me to open my eyes to appreciate life in a new way and to appreciate it for the little things; but I was also again ready to see what other headphones were out there.
The HiFiMAN In You
After a plethora of delays, The HE560 had finally come out. I preordered that headphone back in February 2014, but numerous delays postponed the launch to the end of July and, having followed its thread since the very beginning, through the prototypes and pre-production models’ impressions, this was looking mighty promising. In the meantime I’ve also acquired an Audio-gd Compass2, an all-in-one unit that promised to be the right fix for a power hungry planarmagnetic headphone such as the HE560s. The door rang, DHL delivered and I eagerly hooked them up, having reluctantly sold the K7XX, MA900 and X1, though forever to be remembered for being my companions in the direst times of need. ‘Well, this has lots of the qualities of the HE6!’ I thought, while sounding very decent on my still fairly budgety setup. The headphone would last me months of audio fun, yet just like with the HE6, it would not hold me still. There was one commonality it shared with the HE6 and other HiFiMANs that would contribute to the traditional HiFiMAN house sound, loved be many – a gentle 4 – 5Khz spike. This gave music excellent definition and edge but it would eat away at me over time, owing to an unfortunate property of my ears; that is, and you probably guessed in, an increased sensitivity in the 4 – 5Khz ‘sibilance’ range. I was torn; I loved what this bite does to the instruments overall, but I also despised what it did to the otherwise beautifully rendered vocals. I was finally able to nail down and diagnose the one issue that made me partially sell the Pro900s and HE6s, and here I found myself again in the same spot, selling a headphone I loved for so many reasons, simply because it could not do right the one thing I was most sensitive to. Nevertheless, I was determined to not let this headphone pass me by, so I rolled almost a dozen different earpads; but each and every single one either altered the sound too much or wasn’t comfortable enough. Then, I acquired a top of the line DAC, the Audio-gd NFB-7, utilizing top of the line components. I also acquired a powerful headphone amplifier, the Audio-gd SA31SE, based on the famous Krell amps, but, by acquiring more and more revealing gear I was only making the matter worse. I sold the NFB-7, the most detailed digital analogue converter I ever owned, and acquired the Schiit Audio Gungnir [there was no multi-bit version at the time]. Better I thought, but not quite there yet, having traded resolution for bass impact. I was slowly losing hope and as a last attempt, I did one final wave of research and stumbled on something called an ‘R2R’ DAC. To explain in layman’s terms, the topology of the DAC differs in that it is based around a resistor to resistor design, instead of the modern Delta Sigma [DS] design, based on algorithmic approximations. I was skeptical about this, though many claimed it brought back the times of ‘analogue’ sound, so I found a vintage Theta Digital [today’s Schiit Audio] DS Pro Basic II R2R DAC. It came. I connected it; and my jaw hit the floor. Well, not literally, but the sound was now indeed smoother, deeper, more organic; it sounded more human, more analogue and less digital and all skepticism was gone. ‘So, this is what everyone was raving about!’ swirled through me, having just acquired what was among the smoothest and most analogue sounding R2R DACs of the time; I was good, for now.
The Theta in all its glory
The Year of The CanJam
It was early 2015 and I was still rocking my fresh vintage setup. My PC was feeding a USB converter through JRiver, which then run to the Theta, sending its magical goodness to the Audio-gd amplifier, which powered the 560s. This was probably the best budget setup I’ve owned to date! Or was it… Having previously reviewed the HE6, [living in its own thread here with other reviews I’ve written over the years - http://www.head-fi.org/t/650912/the-review-comparison-thread-hifiman-and-more] I was given the opportunity to review the 400i, and while not quite as good as the 560 to my ears, it was quite remarkable considering it was only half the price. I was doing fine; studying, in better shape, and with a great setup! However, while the signature HiFiMAN spike was much corrected, it still was there, and would drive me nuts from time to time. The thing is, I didn’t know what else to buy if I were to sell the 560. I was happy with the setup surrounding it – the R2R DAC was remarkable and possibly my best investment, and the amplifier was clear and powerful, coming in a close second. It was time to hunt me a new headphone but where to start? All my purchases up to this point were blind; living in the middle of Europe, I simply did not have the luxury of trying stuff before I committing. Still long days before Amazon.uk would offer widely available shipping to my country, I was no longer willing to buy headphones, only to try them and sell them at a loss afterwards; and the pricier the headphones were getting, the less viable this practice was becoming, especially for a student with limited budgets. Luckily, the year 2015 would be the beginning of CanJam Global, with Head-fi’s premier annual events coming to Europe in the form of CanJam London 2015, creating an opportunity I simply couldn’t miss. I would attend the show later that year, meeting the awesome folks of Head-fi for the very first time; Jude, Warren, Ethan, Maurice, Eugene and too many others to name, who would treat me as well as anyone else, in what was the highlight of the year [alright, tied with my trip to LA and E3 2015]. I met dozens of like-minded people and listened to everything I wanted to hear, from the latest electrostatics to planars and dynamics. There were many, which sounded spectacular, but there was one that shone brighter to my ears than any other, HiFiMAN’s new planarmagnetic headphone based on nanometer technology, the HE1000.
CanJam London 2015
The Headphone That Was…
Huge, comfortable, with a beautiful, detailed sound. And totally out of my budget
. There was no way I could ever own a headphone like that, nor is it reasonable to spend that kind of money on one. I am a student, this is ridiculous man! In the meantime, I’ve decided to give the newly released HE400S a shot, to temporarily hold me over for the now-sold HE560. It was really good for the money, definitely the smoothest of all the HFMs that I’ve owned, with no treble spikes. But, being spoilt by the 560s, the 400S soon left me. I was headphoneless for a bit, contemplating my next move; but then life intervened again and through a turn of events, I managed to get my hands on a heavily discounted HE1000. Now hooked up to my DAC and amp, I was in for a real treat! Just like the HE6, it also did double duty as my [now less prevalent] gaming headphone, hooked up to a Creative Sound Blaster X7, and going through the Audio-gd DI’s optical input to my primary desktop rig. This does not get any better, does it!? No, wait… What’s that I am hearing again? That thing in the treble. Oh, please don’t tell me! For Pete’s sake, there it was again – a 5 – 7K hump on an otherwise excellent headphone. How did I miss that? I spent at least two hours listening to this at CanJam; how did I not hear it?! This can’t be, I thought and proceeded to try the HEK on three additional amplifiers, the Cavalli Liquid Carbon, the Meier Audio Corda Jazz and the iFi iCAN SE. But while attenuated to various degrees on all amps, there was no doubt about it now, and my worst fears became reality. In hindsight, I now realize the reasons for not noticing were threefold – a) I have a very smooth sounding DAP source, which attenuated it b] Meet impressions are very bad at judging treble and c] there simply is a degree of variation involved with all planarmagnetic headphones. This was to be the headphone which would keep me still for a long time… What do I do now? The fallen king
2016 To The Rescue?
It was late 2015 and owing to this year’s London, I’ve pretty much heard every headphone available at this point. I’d also hear some additional headphones later that year at a different European audio show. I wasn’t sold on the Staxes, I didn’t particularly cared for the Dharma, the Audeze were too heavy for me and I was burnt out on HiFiMANs. With the twilight of 2015 beyond the horizon, it was now early 2016 and I was once again at the crossroads. ‘Hey, why don’t you come to SoCal and check out some of the new stuff?’ said a friend of mine. Yeah, right. It was starting in two weeks; I had no tickets, barely any money and no arrangements to accommodate for this. On the other hand, I could miss up to two weekly seminars in college, I’ve been to LA last year and I knew I could stay at my brother’s place again. Come to think of it there must have been some left over cash hiding somewhere… Eh, screw this! Alright, I was game; life’s an adventure after all. I booked a return flight for three weeks, got in touch with my bro, secured CanJam tickets and accommodation at the show by helping Cavalli man the table [my heartfelt thanks goes to Warren Chi, my man, and Mr. Alex Cavalli, who made this possible!] and went on to fly to the United States, on a shoestring budget. I again got to hang out with even more of the best folks and listen to the new wave of audiophile goodies [I even scored myself a promising little estat-dynamic hybrid, the Verisonix I502C, which I still own and consider a decent closed back headphone, if a bit flimsy in its build]. Notable show mentions include the upcoming Mr. Speakers Ether Estat, and what was then a Warwick prototype of the now called Sonoma System One. Last but not least, I got to listen to this year’s new refresh of the Stax Lambda series of headphones, which made me take a new, hard look at electrostatic headphones, though I wasn’t quite ready to commit there. Alas, there was one other headphone that piqued my interest at previous shows, and based on numerous recommendations of some of my audio friends, I caved and grabbed it, finally sending the HE1000 away for good. With The King gone, welcome Mr. Speakers Ether!
Mr. Speakers Is In Town
There are few among us who haven’t listened to, or at least heard of, Mr. Speakers. The company, fueled by Dan Clark, who at the beginning was one of us; a passionate hobby man, starting with headphone modifications and working his way up to unique designs of his own. His first such was the Ether, a planarmagnetic headphone with a very agreeable frequency response; a fairly different take on audiophile tonality compared to HiFiMAN’s. There was no treble etch, solid mid-bass thump and great smoothness in a fairly reference sounding package. However, me being me, I again found a thing or two to dislike, having been spoiled by the HE1000’s unique imaging capabilities and a very detailed presentation. I did not find any significant flaws though, a headphone considered by many to sound similar to a refined HE560; which was good, but ultimately too similar, with major differences lying in a smoother, less airy treble and a punchier bass response. It was an extremely comfortable headphone though [and remains up there on my list with the new smaller HiFiMANs, such as the HE560 and the ultra-light MDR-MA900], which is very well built [the nitinol headband deserves special mention] and an all-round decent performer. Alas, I sold it, unaware there would be an updated Flow version in a couple months. Who knows what would happen if I’d waited just a bit longer...
The Ether itself
The Golden Days of Mid-fi
I was tired of summit-fi at this point, having heard some of the new jazzes this year, and while some offerings intrigued me, I was ready to take a short mid-fi break again. I turned my gaze to the budget kings I remembered enjoying fondly in the past, and with better trained ears this time, I was ready to revisit them once again. I’ve reacquired the MDR-MA900, K7XX and the Fidelio X2s [a successor to the X1 I owned before] and found new appreciation for the things they did great. I also acquired the Audio Technica ATH-R70x, a model mysteriously absent at all the shows I went to! It was a decent headphone, competing well with the three champions; and I now had a stable of four budget musketeers at my disposal, each unique and different enough to be enjoyed on their own. After some time, I decided to compare all four at great length, and intended to write a shootout review eventually [still in the making]. Long story short, they were all very good for the money, but only the Sony MDR-MA900 is with me today, as I found it the most unique. Now with only one open, one closed [the Verisonix] and a couple IEMs [my budget favorite being the HiFiMAN RE-400], I slowly refocused on more important matters than determining what headphones are best [I know, I know]. I’ve acquired a pair of Equator Audio D5 reference speakers, based on coaxial design, where the silk dome tweeter sits in the middle of the woofer driver, eliminating crossover issues and allowing for a very stable stereo image. Coupled with a sophisticated DSP algorithm to eliminate mismatching, I quickly fell in love with these monitors, which were much more than that, and coupled with the Sonys became part of my daily routines, be it music listening, working on composition or anything else in between. In essence, I had two reference setups without breaking the bank. I was set.
Overlooking the ‘studio’
The Future of Audio
That was until a friend of mine asked me whether I want to do another European audio show with him. Having already been there last year and despite attending SoCal already, I reluctantly agreed. Life’s an adventure cue again, and a couple weeks later we went. Despite hearing most of the stuff earlier this year, there were a couple new things I was curious about, the new Focal headphones for one, for another, I wanted to hear the new Lambdas again. Then, there were both new Flows, and finally, the new Orpheus system, dubbed the HE1. I heard many different things at the show [I have a longer write up available for inclining minds] but I only want to stick to the nitty gritty here. The Focals were very impressive overall, the Elears less so. I got to hear the AKG K1000 for the first time and likewise also dug what I heard, with the K872 being decent, compared to the not-so-good K812. The Flows were a nice improvement on the Ethers; if only I’d know sooner! I also heard all the new Lambdas again and thought they sounded excellent for the price and contemplated snatching a pair on the spot, I managed to resist. Lastly, there was the HE1, which I managed to get as much as 30 minutes of head time with, through my own source and music. I was aware of the price beforehand, and, not being a big fan of the original HE90 system at the time of tis hearing, I was convinced there was no way these would sound much better and thus hardly worth even a fraction of the asking price for me [again, there’s a lengthy Orpheus post for those interested]. Oh, boy did I eat my words afterwards. It sounded ridiculously good; and if I had that kind of money to throw, I’d order one on the spot. The sound was impeccable, comfort excellent, build quality immaculate, together creating what I consider the world’s best headphone available today. If only I’d avoided this dreadful headphone. If only I knew how it would skew my perception of what’s possible to achieve with headphones.
The Sennheiser HE1 system
Good Things Come In Small Packages
I came back home, still reminiscing about the beautiful sound of the HE1, and I realized the Sonys are no longer going to cut it. I’ve tried good dynamic headphones; I owned some of the world’s best planars and now it was time to try an electrostat setup at home. But first, I wanted to downsize my huge rig. The SA31SE was a huge beast, doubling as a miniature heater, and since I only had the MA900s now, I had no use for all the extra power it had. Likewise the Theta, while brilliant, was a huge unit and being a vintage piece of gear from the 90s, my concern over its longevity was growing. I had my eyes set on a Modi Multibit – Vali / Magni Uber combo, but my friends intervened at the last second, and I sprang for the Chord Mojo instead. That was a great decision, and what I consider my top gear investment of the year. Excellent sounding, cool and versatile, able to feed both my headphones and speakers through a passive switch. The marble coded volume control is extremely handy, the footprint non-existent and with all the inputs ever needed, while able to run off battery power! I was future-proofed and have managed to shrink my setup from two large boxes to a single tiny pebble in one sweep. Now, I was ready to commit to an entry, semi portable estat setup. With the Orpheus unreachable and the Ether E still a ways away, I turned my attention to the new and promising Lambdas I so much enjoyed at the show. There were three models, from cheapest to priciest, starting with the L300, then the L500 and finally the L700. The former two are based on previous Lambda drivers but the latter is utilizes a driver similar to their 009 flagship. Though having heard all three at the show, they seemed to produce fairly similar results; the L300 had inferior earpads and construction, while the L700 was almost twice the price of the middle one, so I naturally decided for the L500, which I hazily remembered even preferring slightly to the other two. I managed to find a cheap used SRM-212 driver unit, the predecessor to the current SRM-252S and so I scored it, while simultaneously pulling the trigger on an open box L500.
WARNING: Magic inside!
Lightning Never Strikes Twice?
I was pretty ecstatic about this purchase. Not only was I getting a top notch estat sound, but it was my first Stax too. I found it fairly comfy at the show, and despite revealing some sibilance too, it didn’t seem nearly as bad as I was expecting it to be, considering how much extra information it ably extracted from my music. Have I overestimated show impressions again? Well whatever the case, the experience would once again prove somewhat different at home. Let’s start with the good stuff; the new Lambdas, even on a modest Stax amp, can present a mindboggling amount of detail. Layers of layers are revealed, with excellent ambience cues and even the tiniest nuances clearly shown, almost fitting the analogy of ‘shoving detail directly to your brain’. In this regard, the estats eclipse all my previous headphones; there’s superior texture and timbre, the sound has a special clarity to it, making especially acoustic instruments come out as beautiful as ever. However, there are downsides to this; the mid to upper bass impact can’t compete with most planars and dynamics, though the bass overall has superior clarity and texture, while going really deeeeeep. As a matter of fact, the sub-bass was most impressive with the Lambdas! The vocals though, would again prove to be the one region that makes or breaks a headphone for me; these are ruthlessly revealing, smothering my ears whenever there was even the tiniest hint of sibilance emphasis. I was loving the technicalities and all the little things I was now hearing as clear as day, but I was hating most things vocal, which came out thinner and harsher than I was used to over the years. The root of the problem was again the 4 – 6K range, which many audiophile headphones like to boost for some reason. However, while doing so might help to give instruments extra definition and edge, in my experience it just isn’t flattening to vocals and with my increased sensitivity, can be just plain awful.
A teeny small Stax setup
A Blast From The Past
I wasn’t really angry at myself. After all, it is our nature to learn by experiencing; despite thinking I now knew what I was doing, I was again proved wrong. I am certainly much more experienced now than when I was beginning; I know what kind of signature I am looking for, I know which brands are more likely to give me that sound and I also now know that price is only one side of the coin and not always representative of a product. I was again back to the Sonys, turning my hopes to the ‘somewhat’ affordable and promising Sonoma System One or, potentially a scaled-down HE1 or a similar product in the future. But then, I was casually talking to my audiophile friends and one of them mentioned KOSS. KOSS? Yes, KOSS! My sentiments exactly! I was aware of the widely popular Porta Pro and the fairly acclaimed 4A series, both backed by KOSS’ famous limited lifetime warranty. But wait! There’s one more headphone out there, released all the way back in the 90s, and one I’ve been shamelessly ignoring till now - The KOSS ESP950 electrostatic system. I slowly began remembering being aware of its existence and even seeing it at some of the shows, but I would obliviously waltz through because it was made by a brand I didn’t think worthy of consideration. KOSS don’t make no audiophile stuff, right? Except they do, and now I wanted to try it. I read through every single review I could find, and breezed through graphs, and the more I saw the more promising it was looking. No treble spikes, smooth and musical midrange, decent at the extremes, with an agile electrostatic driver, plus it would also come bundled with its own energizer. The only hazy aspects were comfort and build quality, which were mixed in the reviews. By chance, I found someone who was willing to trade their KOSS setup for my Stax and I went ahead, not looking back. I received the KOSS on December 12th, hooked it up and a couple blissful hours later knew I made the right call. It wasn’t as immediately detailed as the Stax, nor did it have the same sub-bass or treble presence, but the sound was still estat-detailed, smooth and musical. I was in love; short of the Orpheus and perhaps the 007, there was no electrostatic in production with a signature like this, and I knew this would be my favorite affordable estat; not because it is the best but because it can do most things really well; beautifully layer instruments while remaining very enjoyable. I could sing odes about the vocals, the acoustic guitars and pianos, the interesting soundstage, brilliant imaging and so on… But I am aware not everyone will share my sentiments. The only way to know though, is to listen yourself; people vigorously praise the HiFiMANs, Staxes, Audezes and other audiophile brands out there that they love on their setups, sitting on their ears. Lots of these sentiments I find justified; but we all hear differently, and our expectations and demands keep shifting. All I know is that right now, I am enjoying what I have here very much. :]
Happy Ever After… NOT
So, this is where I find myself now. Is this the end of my audiophile journey? Unlikely; I am a pragmatic person and I know the nature of the beast - there will be new, exciting headphones out there. There are a couple upcoming promising headphones already, which I am sure will challenge my current favorite, though just how much better they’ll turn out to be and at what cost remains to be seen. Right now, I am just happy I can finally enjoy what I got; and I will be ready to embrace the future and what it brings. Thank you for reading, I sincerely hope you enjoyed this some! Get in touch with me if you like, leave a comment and I’ll see you around! Oh, I almost forgot to wish everyone a very merry Christmas, spent however or with whoever you like best!
UPDATE - Lol, this is now outdated. But I have an Audio-Gd R2R11 now and am rocking a Sennheiser HD560S and a Verum Audio Verum One which I both really enjoy. There is a lot of stuff I'd love to try, like the Meze Empyrean, the HEDDphone, the Focal Elex or DCA's new offerings. I also really enjoyed Focal's own Utopia and Clear and the HE-1.
The one constant has been the R2R-11 that has consistently been THE gear purchase and a staple DAC/amp that I'll only replace when it eventually dies... With its successor lol.
I also own a pair of Kali Audio LP6s speakers which made me confirm that is THE signature I am looking for in headphones, as they sound pretty much perfect to my ears and love them for everything, from music to movies and sound work. The Verums have a similar sound to them.
And so for now, I've found a way to reach a way of aural satisfaction without breaking the bank. What the future holds, we shall see~~~
Last edited:
