The HeadAmp GS-X and GS-X MK2 Thread

[Solude]

While of the amps I used the 800 with the GS-X was hands down the best, I would also need a tube amp with a high output impedance and top end roll to live with the 800 permanently.  That said, it's easier to just move on

 

[AppleheadMay]

   
 
 
 
 
I have the HD800 and got the GSX-Mk2 about 6 weeks ago, sources Marantz SA11-S3 and exasound e20MkIII.
There is nothing dry about the HD800 in this combination. Everything just sounds natural and live.
 
Every album that I hear the first time via the headamp amazes me.
It's like your are there in the studio or concert hall and directly watching the performer and listening without anything between you and the sound.
If that's how "wire with gain" sounds, then I am all for it and don't ever want anything else.
 
Last night Heifetz was playing for me and he was awesome

 
 
I have the NA11-S1 which has the same dac as your SA11-S3 I think. How do you like the Marantz as a source? What else did you have a chance to compare it with?
 
I'm listening to the TH-900, LA-900 and LCD-XC all three hooked up to the GS-X as we speak. As I said before, the best SS amp I had or have heard to date.No idea if this is wire with gain and don't care either, I seem to like colored cans anyway. This amp is just so right, only other thing that sounds this special to me from the amps I know is the Zana. And the only amp I still lust for is a BA since it's a different kind of tube amp than the Zana.

 

  While of the amps I used the 800 with the GS-X was hands down the best, I would also need a tube amp with a high output impedance and top end roll to live with the 800 permanently.  That said, it's easier to just move on

 
 
I owned the HD800 before and listened to it again just this week. Have to agree.

 

[Failed Engineer]

The GS-X and HD800 paired together will be a test of how good and how much you like the sound of your DAC.  I can say without question that the HD800 or the GS-X won't be the bottleneck.  In my case, I figured out I'm done.  Just listening and buying music for me going forward.

 

[icebear]

   
 
I have the NA11-S1 which has the same dac as your SA11-S3 I think. How do you like the Marantz as a source? What else did you have a chance to compare it with?
.....

 
I had a Krell CD-DSP and got the e20 DAC and used the Krell only as drive. It was a night and day effect...
The e20 was the first external DAC I purchased and I never looked anywhere else. Extensive search before but no actual listening comparisons. At some point in time I accumulated so many hybrid SACD's that I was looking for a player and when a good deal showed up, I picked up the Marantz. I am absolutely happy with the sound either CD or SACD. I was eying some used Esoteric or also EMM but decided for a new unit with warranty rather than something 5 years old or way over budget. So basically I did not compare it at all, I'm just happy how it sounds in my set up.
I visit a lot of live concerts, both Jazz and classic and when I listen at home, it's close enough

.
 

  The GS-X and HD800 paired together will be a test of how good and how much you like the sound of your DAC.  I can say without question that the HD800 or the GS-X won't be the bottleneck.  In my case, I figured out I'm done.  Just listening and buying music for me going forward.

 
+1, same here, new discs piling up, more on the way and the only problem is too little time

 

 

[jibzilla]

   
In what ways - adding color?  What can be better than "wire-with-gain"?  
 
With the GS-X MK2 it's all about your DAC.  The Pavane will really have a change to show what it's made of with the GS-X mk2.

 
Well like I said I need to listen to the gsx-mk2. Hopefully at the Nashville meet. It's just every ohm output amp I have listened to: Mainline, Stratus, Wheatfield, and now the Teton has just plain murdered the SS completion in it's price bracket. It has not even been a competition imo. Out of SS amps the hd800 sounds sterile, dry, bass light, treble harsh, and thin while the ohm output amps sound sweet,  bass neutral, perfectly done treble, etc... Twere I to pick a SS amp to run the hd800's it would be from doug at ecp. His SS amps do have ohm output.

 

[icebear]

   
Well like I said I need to listen to the gsx-mk2. Hopefully at the Nashville meet. It's just every ohm output amp I have listened to: Mainline, Stratus, Wheatfield, and now the Teton has just plain murdered the SS completion in it's price bracket. It has not even been a competition imo. Out of SS amps the hd800 sounds sterile, dry, bass light, treble harsh, and thin while the ohm output amps sound sweet,  bass neutral, perfectly done treble, etc... Twere I to pick a SS amp to run the hd800's it would be from doug at ecp. His SS amps do have ohm output.

If the HD800 does sound anything like that, then your kick your source into the garbage can

 

 

[AppleheadMay]

   
I had a Krell CD-DSP and got the e20 DAC and used the Krell only as drive. It was a night and day effect...
The e20 was the first external DAC I purchased and I never looked anywhere else. Extensive search before but no actual listening comparisons. At some point in time I accumulated so many hybrid SACD's that I was looking for a player and when a good deal showed up, I picked up the Marantz. I am absolutely happy with the sound either CD or SACD. I was eying some used Esoteric or also EMM but decided for a new unit with warranty rather than something 5 years old or way over budget. So basically I did not compare it at all, I'm just happy how it sounds in my set up.
I visit a lot of live concerts, both Jazz and classic and when I listen at home, it's close enough

.
 
 
+1, same here, new discs piling up, more on the way and the only problem is too little time

 

 
Yep, Marantz is pretty nice IMO ... there's better tech, better marketing (couldn't be worse actually), bettter whatever but their gear does the job.
 

   
Well like I said I need to listen to the gsx-mk2. Hopefully at the Nashville meet. It's just every ohm output amp I have listened to: Mainline, Stratus, Wheatfield, and now the Teton has just plain murdered the SS completion in it's price bracket. It has not even been a competition imo. Out of SS amps the hd800 sounds sterile, dry, bass light, treble harsh, and thin while the ohm output amps sound sweet,  bass neutral, perfectly done treble, etc... Twere I to pick a SS amp to run the hd800's it would be from doug at ecp. His SS amps do have ohm output.

 
Hmmm, I'm pretty sure the amps are the problem, surely not the HD800.
Or like solude said, there's an easier way ...
I listened to the HD800 on a pretty nice Bryston amp this week and had the same feelig as when I owned them. Got the same feeling with
about any pair of cans that wasn't up to the ones I like: Fostex and Audeze. Again, prety sure it was the Bryston amp.

 

[Solude]

  Out of SS amps the hd800 sounds sterile, dry, bass light, treble harsh, and thin

 
Yes, yes they do.  But if someone is dead set on the 800, knowing that output impedance corrects for the lack of bass... just get an inline resistor and be done with it.

 

[AppleheadMay]

  If the HD800 does sound anything like that, then your kick your source into the garbage can

 

 
It does sound lke that. Dunno why so many people here like it.
It doesn't seem to sound like that on it's own until you start comparing.

 

[preproman]

   
Well like I said I need to listen to the gsx-mk2. Hopefully at the Nashville meet. It's just every ohm output amp I have listened to: Mainline, Stratus, Wheatfield, and now the Teton has just plain murdered the SS completion in it's price bracket. It has not even been a competition imo. Out of SS amps the hd800 sounds sterile, dry, bass light, treble harsh, and thin while the ohm output amps sound sweet,  bass neutral, perfectly done treble, etc... Twere I to pick a SS amp to run the hd800's it would be from doug at ecp. His SS amps do have ohm output.

You may have a challenge at the Nashville meet.  A blind test would be great to keep all be negative bias out.

 

[jibzilla]

  If the HD800 does sound anything like that, then your kick your source into the garbage can

 

 
I understand where your coming from but I assure it was not the source. All at least mid level dac's that ran the gamut from delta-sigma to nos to r2r to tube and a pretty decent TT setup. The Violectric was pretty good. Still I would take a mainline or wheatfield in a heartbeat for the same $$$. It def. depends what tubes you use and the quality of those tubes.
 
I just missed listening to the gsx-mk2 at chiunifi. It was at chiunifi8 not 9 that I went to recently. Still I got to talk to gentleman that brought it to chiunifi8 and he had a Stratus at 9. He told me he def. preferred the Stratus and that the Rag and gsx-mk2 sound an awful lot like each other with hd800. Not the same as listening with my own ears, but he seemed pretty genuine in his opinion.
 
That was the second time I listened to a Stratus and the first time was at a very kind persons home not a meet. It was breathtaking both times. The Teton is even beyond that and hd800/Teton/Pavane sounds so good it should be illegal. Corvette good dare I say it.

 

[icebear]

I was told the e20MkIII has been developed using the HD800.
And obviously the preferred music style has a lot to do with the perception of this headphone
You haven't shared anything in your profile, so maybe we are just listening to totally different genres.

 

[justin w.]

shipping labels printed..monday is the day

 

[edm230]

shipping labels printed..monday is the day

Great! Hope I'm in this list

 

[ubs28]

   
Yes, yes they do.  But if someone is dead set on the 800, knowing that output impedance corrects for the lack of bass... just get an inline resistor and be done with it.

The HDVD800 has an awfully high output impedance which might explain why Sennheiser did this. Which inline resistor do you recommened? I might try this with the Chord Hugo and see how the HD800 sounds then.