mulder01
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Jan 13, 2012
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@mulder01 Thanks you for the comments. The signal to noise ration can be quite high so I'm happy when actual down to earth information is shared. That's what I assumed but I don't have a chance to listen to them side by side. This is similar with the LCD-3 and LCD-4 which I have owned for quite some time. The LCD-4 is better but if you don't like the LCD-3 I don't think you will like the LCD-4 and people exaggerate on the difference between them.
I'm thinking of selling the Abyss but wasn't sure to do the upgrade first, but if they'r as similar as you say I can let them go without remorse as I prefer the HD650.
Well, like I said, that's my opinion - my friend said he definitely preferred the phi (like most people do) but how much better it is, is up to the individual. There was nothing about the OG abyss that I didn't like, so IMO it doesn't need fixing. Some people have a couple of small specific complaints about the original that seem to be addressed by the upgrade (from what I read here).
But, again, I'm not big on critical analysis, but I recognise that a lot of Abyss owners want to squeeze every last drop out of their system, regardless of cost. So for someone who has reached the point of spending 5 figures on their dac and/or amp, or purchasing super duper interconnects, music servers, power conditioners etc to try and get that last % of performance, then $1.5k to upgrade the headphone drivers is probably a no-brainer.
Funny you mention the HD650, as the only other headphones I put on my head that day were the HD650. I'll admit, in terms of bang for your buck, you can't go wrong with those. I tried them briefly off the EC Studio and damn son, those things scale. Why anyone would spend US$10k on an amp and tubes made from parts as rare as unicorn tears and plug a $300 headphone into them, leaves me scratching my head a bit. I will have to agree with Thenewguy007 here - I feel that even a HD650 off the world's best system is still always gonna be a good few steps behind the Abyss powered by even a very modest system. We're all different though.