I'm really bummed: I had a long post typed up, and before I could save it to the clipboard my browser crashed. Sh't sucks.
Anyway... I gave my Jecklin Float QA a sendoff by listening to it throughout the day yesterday. It'll be on its way back to the manufacturer for repairs.
I wont be so presumptuous as to call it an "endgame" device for me. I know myself well enough: I'm too fickle and restless for that. Still, as wrought with frustration as my brief period of ownership has been, I've gotten a
massive amount of enjoyment from them. In fact, no other headphone has given me such a sense of satisfaction. At the risk of coming across as though I were spinning hype for these things, I'd personally take the Float QA over pretty much anything else right now, including the TakeT and SR-009. That's just me though. It speaks volumes I think when I look back and realize that I consistently went for the QA over anything else
despite their being more or less broken.
Next to overall tonal balance (ie. not making my ears bleed), one of the most important qualities in a headphone---if not THE most important---is spatial character. I was just talking to kiteki about this. To earn my love, a headphone should have a sense of depth and not sound flat. This contributes to that elusive quality of "thereness" I've prattled on about in the past. To this end, the Float QA sounds effortless, open, and immersive. They take headphone listening closer to full-fledged speakers, which isn't too surprising given that they're basically two speaker panels strapped to one's head. In comparison, so many other headphones sound claustrophobic and lack a certain vitalism the QA has in spades.
Where the new Floats
really excel however is in their sense of inner complexity. Some headphones have a beautiful, wide-open presentation ... but nothing going on inside. They sound hollow. The QA is actually somewhat akin to certain IEMs in that is has a cerebral quality, especially with regard to center vocals. They sound as though they were inside your head. Or rather, the space your head formerly occupied.
Continuing on with the importance of spatial reproduction, one area that has fascinated me with regard to forms of listening---and area seldom if ever hit upon in impressions---is the relationship between perceived interiority and exteriority. With the Float QA, the boundary between the two seems to dissolve. What I mean by this is that the presentation doesn't sequester the sound field into various subsections, doesn't cordon it off. The "blob" effect some transducers yield, with a clearly defined left and right channel and center point. With the Float QA, it's an organic whole. The traintracks go right through the mountain, too: rather than presenting vocals in front of the listener, they often cut right through. That's what I mean by
the space a listener's head once occupied. You're not just standing in front of a presentation, but rather in the midst of it. The headphones aren't transparent so much as
you're transparent, a ghost the musicians pass through.
I feel like my exploration of fullsized headphones has reached its saturation point for the time being. I feel satisfied in that area. Consequently, my attention is shifting more toward the portable realm again. I'm also more interested in other parts of the audio chain: specifically, turntables and pre-amps. I'd like to build a rig around the Float QA (and TakeT), so I'm on the lookout for a nice stereo amplifier.
Decware has entered once again into my field of awareness:
I think, visually at least, they'd pair quite nicely with the Float QA:
I'm also fond of Audio Space's stuff:
Then there's this little beauty, an integrated amp by a Japanese company called Triode. Apparently they're popular in Japan, but this is the first time I've heard of them myself. Stumbled across this while searching for gear from another Japanese company called Orb. From what I've read, they're not particularly resolving, though they perform fairly well:
I'm not a resolution-hound, but I'm coming from the Leben CS300, so I don't want to get the same type of integrated amp again.
. I have to admit while I don't like the entire layout of Windows 8 is seems much smoother than even Windows 7. Even faster. Thing is this is on a regular hard drive and the thing runs as if it was on a SSD. I can't wait to install it on my PC and see how it runs on a SSD 
.
