mt-hifidelity
500+ Head-Fier
Been listening to the Deluxe Abbey Road release. The new mix absolutely sings on the TC...its truly fab. This is why I love this hobby.
The JPS Labs: Abyss AB-1266 Impressions Thread
- Thread starter scolaiw
- Start date
I did a thing today...
I'm sure you guys have seen this many times.. I always enjoy the unboxing. Can't wait to have a listen to them tonight, after putting the kids to zzz.
I have the HPA4 and Woo Audio 22. I hope these will be good enough for these headphones.
I got the Lite version. The stock cable should be decent enough? Apologies if this question has been beaten to death, but saving me from going through 600 pages; what headphone cable do most here recommend?
I'm using the danacable lazuli reference with my Utopia and Lavricable Grand Line / Norne Audio Silvergarde S3 for the Empyrean.
Congratulations on a truly amazing pair of world class headphones! The TC give me stat-like clarity/speed, but retain some of the best ortho bass around....throw in imaging that bests the HD800S, you can have your cake and eat it too!
I'm using the Lazuli Ultra with my Susvaras and yea, I find it to bend the stick in the other direction -- potentially too much so. With the the Pass Labs X150.8 (speaker amp), which has a warm/meaty/punchy signature, the Ultra resulted in too much upper mids in a way that I would almost describe as a glare. Yet with the AHB2, which is of course very neutral and hyper-detailed, I think I like it, and the raised upper-mids are much less noticeable and somehow works out better. Which is interesting because I would have predicted in advance that this cable would complement the warmer amp better, but it didn't. Again though this is with the Susvara, but my takeaway from such experiments as always is there's no accounting for synergy
Nice!
Even if you don't plan intend on using the AHB2 with the Abyss generally, it would be well worth the effort comparing the two, if only to eliminate the possibility that the speaker amp version doesn't sound noticeably different, and possibly in a good way. I'm sure many people would predict in-advance that there "should" be no important differences in the resulting sound signature between the two, but I would remain unconvinced until I was able to try it out directly, through experience!
I bought the Lavricable Grand Line for my Utopias but i didn't really enjoy the sound. Although very detailed, it was also rather bright, bordering on sibilant for me. Going to the LR with the Utopias was the right choice. I ended up reterminating the Lavricable for the Meze Empy and that was a really noticeable improvement over the Empy stock cable. The Grand Line did not sound overly bright with the Empy; rather, i felt it balanced out the sound more, tightening up the lows and making the highs clearer. The Norne Audio Silvergarde S3 is similar to the Lavricable, but slightly smoother on the higher registers. I was quite dismayed to see there is no Grand Line offering for the Abyss. I may write in to Lavricable to see if something can be done about that..
I will likely try out the AHB2 with the Abyss eventually. I guess i need some sort of adaptor cable ie 4 pin neutrik female to dual speaker bananas or something like that?
Actually we have somewhat similar gear.. but notice i am refraining from asking you how the WA33 sounds hahaha! sorry for my wallet..
Congratulations on a truly amazing pair of world class headphones! The TC give me stat-like clarity/speed, but retain some of the best ortho bass around....throw in imaging that bests the HD800S, you can have your cake and eat it too!
you do know that this purchase is all your fault!!!
lol.. thank you for that nudge to push me over the edge.
Hey, that's what we do...we're all enablers. Enjoy the headphones!!! Brilliant pairing with the HPA4 as well!
Thanks @tholt much better looking. I prefer this option to the headphone stand.
honestly, I bought the LRs for the utopias blind thinking it probably wouldn’t work out and I could just return them. I was kinda skeptical about the benefit cables could bring. Man, once I listened to the LRs I was shocked how much better they sounded from the stock Utopia cable. It sounded so much better that I thought maybe everybody was right about the LR cables. I kept them and stopped looking at other cables for my utopias.
Given how much better the LRs sounded on the Utopia, I just figured they would be good on the TCs too. However, reading some of the posts here has me a bit cautious. I haven’t put in an order for the LR for my TCs yet. I think I need to do some more research. Luckily the LR have a return policy, so I may just try them out and if I don’t like them, I’ll try the JPS Labs SC cables.
Do you have any suggestions? I listen to mostly Hip-Hop and Metal (death, doom, grind, and black), for reference
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Me too. I'm not a huge Beatles fan but comparing the new cuts to earlier ones in the Tidal library and my own (good to have friends with hi-res files), 2019 version is an appreciable improvement.
Cool cool! Yup, works great for me as well and I agree, all black mo betta.
The phi TC + benchmark hpa4 is insane.
Also, I had no idea the position of the ear pads could make so much difference. I had them set up the wrong way at first, and had them in a position such that there was a good seal all around. The music sounded shouty and the bass was lacking and lifeless.
Then I started to move the pads one notch at a time. My goodness.. So that's where all the bass has been hiding! So impactful, tight and punchy. And the highs and vocals so very sweet now.
Turns out my optimal pad position is with the stitching facing directly forward, with a small gap between the pads and my head over the lower and lower back region.
Any further notch down the stitches go, the bass increases but then ends up too boomy and bloated for me.
I don't know what to do with my other headphones now. Plus I have a ZMF verite cocobolo in production queue...
Also, I had no idea the position of the ear pads could make so much difference. I had them set up the wrong way at first, and had them in a position such that there was a good seal all around. The music sounded shouty and the bass was lacking and lifeless.
Then I started to move the pads one notch at a time. My goodness.. So that's where all the bass has been hiding! So impactful, tight and punchy. And the highs and vocals so very sweet now.
Turns out my optimal pad position is with the stitching facing directly forward, with a small gap between the pads and my head over the lower and lower back region.
Any further notch down the stitches go, the bass increases but then ends up too boomy and bloated for me.
I don't know what to do with my other headphones now. Plus I have a ZMF verite cocobolo in production queue...
I am doing this right now and it feels like the TC give this album a whole new character and presentation compared to the utopia and empy. These headphones are really something else.. I am glad I took the plunge.
You guys are making me envious...I'm on a six-month waiting list to get my phi cc's converted to TC...oof
How do you like the pavane so far. I had ordered one but metrum lost the order. I ended up canceling it and picking up a TT2. I am thinking it will replace both the onyx and liquid platinum.
After a very intense – and utterly enjoyable – week of listening, it’s time for a feedback about the Simaudio Moon 600i (V1) on this thread, i.e. the very place where I heard of how good is the 600i / AB-1266 pairing.
I am on the quest for my ‘endgame’ (yeah, I know ...) amp for the Abyss since several months now, after selling my XI Audio stack. The main reason for me to sell the Formula S / Powerman – indeed a very good match for the AB-1266 – was to get a single amp capable of driving headphones (primary use) and loudspeakers (secondary use).
Long story short, the 600i is a very capable integrated, and ticks most of my boxes, but not enough to convince me to keep it as my ultimate companion for the Abyss.
On the positives, compared to driving the Abyss directly from the DAVE, there are three main bonuses in my opinion: (a) macrodynamics, (b) soundstage size and layering (the latter especially with large scale and/or very complex music played at louder levels) and (c) bass tightness and control.
The remarkable thing is that the 600i achieves these results to a significantly larger extent than most other amps I tried, by retaining ‘almost’ all the transparency, microdetail and overall finesse of the DAVE.
The 600i is a very smooth amp, its treble never gets harsh and its overall presentation is polite, in a good way.
The midrange is, while slightly, a bit more recessed than DAVE direct, and vocals may appear a tiny bit thinner.
Tonally, the character of the source (DAVE + M Scaler in my case) was rendered in an extremely accurate fashion, confirming the neutral and transparent character of the 600i.
Overall, the 600i gave me a superior listening experience than DAVE direct, or DAVE + Formula S, as an all-rounder, and excelled with live music, orchestral, electronica.
The reason why I am not keeping it is very simple: I have liked more other amps I auditioned during my quest, while unfortunately at a much higher price.
In terms of sound quality, the Riviera AIC-10 is my favorite so far, as it combines an emotionally involving midrange, harmonics richness with soundstage size / airiness, transparency and bass authority better than the other amplifiers I tried in my system.
I am going to audition a Viva Solistino (same design as Egoista 845, with speaker taps instead of headphones out), in the next days.
I’d like to add that over the last months I had to reconsider how good the DAVE (with M Scaler plus lots of other tweaks) headphone output is. It is much harder to improve on than what most people would think of, myself included.
I am on the quest for my ‘endgame’ (yeah, I know ...) amp for the Abyss since several months now, after selling my XI Audio stack. The main reason for me to sell the Formula S / Powerman – indeed a very good match for the AB-1266 – was to get a single amp capable of driving headphones (primary use) and loudspeakers (secondary use).
Long story short, the 600i is a very capable integrated, and ticks most of my boxes, but not enough to convince me to keep it as my ultimate companion for the Abyss.
On the positives, compared to driving the Abyss directly from the DAVE, there are three main bonuses in my opinion: (a) macrodynamics, (b) soundstage size and layering (the latter especially with large scale and/or very complex music played at louder levels) and (c) bass tightness and control.
The remarkable thing is that the 600i achieves these results to a significantly larger extent than most other amps I tried, by retaining ‘almost’ all the transparency, microdetail and overall finesse of the DAVE.
The 600i is a very smooth amp, its treble never gets harsh and its overall presentation is polite, in a good way.
The midrange is, while slightly, a bit more recessed than DAVE direct, and vocals may appear a tiny bit thinner.
Tonally, the character of the source (DAVE + M Scaler in my case) was rendered in an extremely accurate fashion, confirming the neutral and transparent character of the 600i.
Overall, the 600i gave me a superior listening experience than DAVE direct, or DAVE + Formula S, as an all-rounder, and excelled with live music, orchestral, electronica.
The reason why I am not keeping it is very simple: I have liked more other amps I auditioned during my quest, while unfortunately at a much higher price.
In terms of sound quality, the Riviera AIC-10 is my favorite so far, as it combines an emotionally involving midrange, harmonics richness with soundstage size / airiness, transparency and bass authority better than the other amplifiers I tried in my system.
I am going to audition a Viva Solistino (same design as Egoista 845, with speaker taps instead of headphones out), in the next days.
I’d like to add that over the last months I had to reconsider how good the DAVE (with M Scaler plus lots of other tweaks) headphone output is. It is much harder to improve on than what most people would think of, myself included.
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jlbrach
Headphoneus Supremus
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I agree completely regarding the dave and its ability to drive HP's....I own the formula s/powerman combo and tend to use it more often with the TC and dave/blu2 combo and although via the formula s the sound it bigger, wider and has more grunt it is cleaner straight out of the dave.....there are certain recordings that just need the extra power provided by the external amp and for me the formula s/powerman is outstanding....that said many times I find listening straight out of dave to be sublime...depends on my mood...nice to have both options
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