[Litlgi74]

I think you guys are gonna like this... Spectacular stereo imaging, and wonderful bass quality.



https://tidal.com/track/70079560

Enjoy

 

[sn0gl0be]

Awesome song, great recommendation. Any others?
I recommend Bubbles by Horikawa and City of the Sun (binaural album)

 

[nogi replicant]

Hey, I currently have an Abyss Phi that I am using straight from DAVE. I think it sounds excellent but of course have the itch to hear a decent amp in the middle. It appears many think the Abyss Phi benefits from an amp over DAVE, though some are on the other side of the fence.

I am considering two amps, the Formula S (without Power Man - due to funds) or the Wells Milo (with a couple of upgrades). The Formula S will cost me over twice as much as the used Milo.

Has anyone heard these two amps with the Dave and Abyss combo, or even just with the Abyss and another DAC? if so is the Formula S worth the extra stretch financially over the Milo?

And do you think Milo is of a high enough quality level to pair with the excellent DAVE?

many thanks.

 

[CreditingKarma]

Hey, I currently have an Abyss Phi that I am using straight from DAVE. I think it sounds excellent but of course have the itch to hear a decent amp in the middle. It appears many think the Abyss Phi benefits from an amp over DAVE, though some are on the other side of the fence.

I am considering two amps, the Formula S (without Power Man - due to funds) or the Wells Milo (with a couple of upgrades). The Formula S will cost me over twice as much as the used Milo.

Has anyone heard these two amps with the Dave and Abyss combo, or even just with the Abyss and another DAC? if so is the Formula S worth the extra stretch financially over the Milo?

And do you think Milo is of a high enough quality level to pair with the excellent DAVE?

many thanks.

I am running mine straight out of the TT2. IMO the TC sounds better straight out of the TT2 than it did out of a Dave. The abyss sound better with more power. I did hear them with a Dave and wells headtrip lvl2 reference. That pairing was incredible.

 

[jlbrach]

the formula s is head and shoulders better than the milo which I owned for a very short time

 

[nogi replicant]

Thanks for the input guys!!

 

[simorag]

Hey, I currently have an Abyss Phi that I am using straight from DAVE. I think it sounds excellent but of course have the itch to hear a decent amp in the middle. It appears many think the Abyss Phi benefits from an amp over DAVE, though some are on the other side of the fence.

I am considering two amps, the Formula S (without Power Man - due to funds) or the Wells Milo (with a couple of upgrades). The Formula S will cost me over twice as much as the used Milo.

Has anyone heard these two amps with the Dave and Abyss combo, or even just with the Abyss and another DAC? if so is the Formula S worth the extra stretch financially over the Milo?

And do you think Milo is of a high enough quality level to pair with the excellent DAVE?

many thanks.

I am among those who believe that improving on the DAVE with the AB-1266 is a challenge, which may be more or less hard depending on musical content type, listening volume and of course your preference as a listener. To improve on the DAVE throughout the score board (i.e. without compromising on some of its key strengths) you need an upper echelon amplifier in my opinion / experience.

I have listened to the Milo, but unfortunately not with the DAVE as the source, I can just report that the Milo can drive the AB-1266 with ease quantity-wise, and with a rather uncolored (in a good way) presentation which should match the DAVE signature well.

The Formula S is a very good match for the Abyss Phi, and provides a compelling upgrade path when adding the Powerman power supply, which I would warmly recommend when / if funds allow. I had this combo for about a year and I was happy to have the option of switching from DAVE direct (for genres where utmost transparency, holographic imaging / ambience reconstruction was crucial) to the Formula S when I felt more grunt was necessary / enjoyable at the cost of some transparency and finesse sacrifice (less so with the Powerman).

As a side note, unrelated to your direct question, when trying amplifiers in the 7k - 20k price bracket and 8W - 125W power range over the last several months I discovered is that it was easy for me to be fooled by the initial impression that the amp was better than the DAVE just due to the tendency to listen at higher volume with the amplifier in the chain, combined to the sense of psychological comfort you get from seeing the volume knob at about 50% or less.
When levelling the volume between the DAVE (even pushed to +6/+9dB) and the amp and doing blind tests, I found that the sense of strain / congestion / loss of bass control I was sometimes hearing from the DAVE was, in some cases, due to my self-conditioning instead of actual issues of the DAVE hp out.
Situations where, in realistic listening conditions, the DAVE was running out of steam with the AB-1266 were still occasionally there, yet much rarer than I initially thought, which means (to me) that extremely high power is not the main driver in the selection of the amp - the choice of XI Audio of a 2W design for the Formula S seems to make much sense - being tonality matching and transparency the most important factors.

 

[ekfc63]

I'd like to try my 1266TCs connected to the XLRs on my Chord TT2. Can anyone suggest a good quality adapter, either 1/4" female to dual female 3-pin XLRs (for Dana Reference), or female 3-pin XLR to dual female 3-pin XLR (for stock cable).

 

[jlbrach]

I agree with this assessment, the TC and LCD-4 for that matter can be driven quite nicely through the dave and the added bonus is the transparency it provides which can be an added bonus....no matter how good the amp there is some coloration and some loss of transparency....that said there are cases where things are improved with the amp...in the case of the susvara there is no decision to be made,an amp is a necessity...psychologically I do indeed feel more comfortable seeing the volume dial at around 12 o clock rather than +6 on the dave that is absolutely true

 

[tholt]

Just as important though is that it results in lowering the position of the pads around my ears so that it closes the gap between the lower, fat part of the pads and the side of my neck beneath the jaw, which had otherwise been too much.

I have the opposite problem. I need to raise the pads to fit squarely over my ears.

Could also be height adjusted if necessary.

This. This. My massive pet peeve of the Abyss is that there is zero adjustment for height. Hence we're posting about all the crazy DIY ways we come up with to make $5k headphones fit correctly. 'One size fits all' does not work for headphones. I wish some of the profits would be spent on R&D and implementation of a better fit.

 

[llamaluv]

The other thing -- which I regret not having appreciated sufficiently before -- is that pulling the frame outwards all the way increases the tension of the headband quite a lot, thereby increasing the pressure on the top of the head and also potentially raising the frame higher up in relation to the ears.

 

[Olumm]

I tried searching this thread for measurements for the new ear pads, but was not able to find any. Can someone here with the newer pads take some measurements and post them? I am looking to make a few versions now that I have printed out the magnet/ported rings.

Thanks!

 

[ahossam]

I was looking for a new headphones, is WA5-LE good enough for Abyss Phi TC?

 

[headblid]

Hello TC fans,
Been running a Sennheiser stack as my main desktop unit for the last few years HD800S, HD820, HDVD800 —> HDV820.
Had a serious mind wall about spending too much on headphones but then slowly creeped past the wall with the main chain and some other cans I have.
I’m now looking to consolidate for space reasons and also because I just end up using a single headphone at a specific location and don’t switch around very often so some of them just don’t get head time.
I’m wondering if anyone can comment on potentially replacing the Sennheiser HD8XX set with a single Abyss.
Has anyone gone through a similar consolidation where they have been able to reduce the amount of cans to a single unit and live with it?

Thanks in advance.

 

[ekfc63]

Hey, I currently have an Abyss Phi that I am using straight from DAVE. I think it sounds excellent but of course have the itch to hear a decent amp in the middle. It appears many think the Abyss Phi benefits from an amp over DAVE, though some are on the other side of the fence.

I am considering two amps, the Formula S (without Power Man - due to funds) or the Wells Milo (with a couple of upgrades). The Formula S will cost me over twice as much as the used Milo.

Has anyone heard these two amps with the Dave and Abyss combo, or even just with the Abyss and another DAC? if so is the Formula S worth the extra stretch financially over the Milo?

And do you think Milo is of a high enough quality level to pair with the excellent DAVE?

many thanks.

A Dave 2 with an amp with the power of the TT2 would solve a lot of people's problems