[DJJEZ]

You will likely be one the few to understand most of this, but here goes...

• AudioQuest Fire XLR Interconnects - crystal clear, highly detailed, and fantastic tonal balance. This is the only cable I tried that gave me all three. Literally nothing else came even remotely close.
• AudioQuest Firebird Power cables - Excellent tonal balance. It has less detail than a few others I tried (namely the Danacable Nirvana - just...wow), but I chose tonal balance over sheer detail and clarity for the reasons outlined below. The Snake River Audio Cottonmouth Signature was a very close second. Much better clarity than the Firebird and better tonal balance than the Nirvana, but a little high-leaning for my liking. The cottonmouth might actually be the best choice on my warm-leaning system. We shall see when my WA 33 EE JPS arrives.
• Final Audio Callisto USB. - Unexplainable awesomesauce. I tried like 15 different USB cables and maybe heard a very slight difference on like 2 or 3 of them. I was pretty sure USB cables weren't going to be worth upgrading, then I tried the FAC. It made a jaw-dropping difference in the rig I was listening on. It just lit everything up like flipping a light switch in a dark room. That's the best way I can explain it. I haven't a clue why or how this happened, but my eyes instantly widened and I shouted at the dealer over the music, "yeah...I'll take this one!" I hope it has the same effect on my personal system.

My only regret is I didn't get to try any JPS cables as I couldn't find a local dealer that carried them.

FYI, I've noticed I get maximum effects from the following (In order of greatest effect)

• Tracks with a lot of varied and deep 3D imaging, especially those with "trance-y" vocals and deeper tones do bizarre things to my mind and body (see trippin' BALLZ). Sometimes the music triggers visual scenes in my mind that I am physically transported to. One track in particular, "October" from Feverkin transports me to a forest with a brunette woman without a face wearing an elegant white flowing robe. I walk a kerosene lamp-lit path with her holding hands throughout the song until I hand her coins to pay my way across a long wooden bridge. The song eventually gets too "busy" and I snap out of it, but I still feel the powdery dirt and occasional tiny pebble on my feet during the walk along the path and smell the the grass and pine in the air. Holy guaca-friggin-mole...
• Highly detailed and balanced tones. Grand pianos, clean/tight impactful bass, and bass-rich vocal harmonies work especially well and make me feel I'm floating in space or "chasing the fireflies" (I figured you would know what I mean by this). But anything too high, trebly, or bass-heavy cause my ears and mind to focus and snaps me out of it almost immediately. I discovered tonal balance is key to concentration, immersion, and subsequent effect.
• Strongly delivered vocals with excellent pitch. Makes me feel like I'm physically riding on sound, sometimes falling out of my chair due to due the way it can mess with my equilibrium. Other times it feels like I'm getting pulled abruptly in reverse away from my chair and outside of my house. Some live performances have also made me feel like I was "falling around the room" and I could actually feel the heat off of the candles burning in the catholic church cathedral in which the performance was being played.
• Very well recorded and mastered music. Discovering this single-handedly ruined 95% of my previous musical library and tastes. Now, I find myself chasing music for the effects instead of what I used to enjoy listening to. In other words, my synesthesia brain just got a whiff of musical excellence and now demands nothing less. Clearly, there is no going back.

These are most of the places the SR1a + HS1b + Holo May KTE have taken me thus far. God help me when my TCs and WA33 EE JPS arrive. Also, the Holo May KTE was an enormous upgrade over the RME ADI-2. Infinitely more warmth, detail, and soundstage. It matches incredibly well with the SR1as + HS1b. Helps round off the sharpness/peaks and makes things sound like a perfect bell skipping across a clear lake.

What a long, strange trip all of this is...

I'm also looking at the holo may KTE. Heard amazing things. Wondering how it compares to a DAVE

 

[Slim1970]

I haven't heard the Formula S yet. But its' Abyss' favorite solid state amp, from what I understand.
Sure seems like a simple design and implementation.

That's an older model. The internals have been updated

 

[Slim1970]

It's good you did that. It is very easy to be blown away by new gear, our brain plays tricks on us. My first impression with the Pass Labs XA25 was WOW, then after a week I switched back to the TT2's XLR outs and realized most of it was in my head because it sounded great and I didn't miss the XA25. You have to switch back after the honeymoon period to really determine objectively if the new gear adds significant changes that you need/want.

The TT2's XLR outs deliver ~7watts to the Abyss, that's no joke. Adding another amp and hearing all kinds of wonderful things is fine, but you're hearing the amp's character, and introducing color (tasteful distortion) into the path. The TT2 has more than enough power for the Abyss (and I know power isn't everything, that's my point).

Agreed, the TT2's XLR outputs are really, really good. I had to be honest with myself and admit that they are just as good or better than the majority of amps I've owned.

 

[littlej0e]

I'm also looking at the holo may KTE. Heard amazing things. Wondering how it compares to a DAVE

I wish I could help more but I can only compare it directly with the RME ADI-2 on my rig and indirectly with the Rockna and Chord Dave on Susvaras and TCs at the dealers.

The Holo May KTE straight up destroys the RME in pretty much every way except for the digital EQ functionality on the RME. Given the difference in price, it better. Probably not a fair comparison though. The May is just so smooth. It’s like a fine whiskey dipped in butter wrapped in silk. So much so that I caught myself turning up the volume in the beginning because I mistook it’s smoothness for quietness. Very analog sounding DAC. Probably best to pair it with a SS amp or something highly detailed and revealing like the SR1a + HSA1b. The May KTE is the Barry White of DACs - full pimp, all the time.

The Chord Dave sounded a bit more detailed, vibrant, and sharp to my ear. I remember it having a smaller soundstage and sounding more “inside a box” compared to the May, but I can’t say for sure considering I tried it with different headphones on a different rig. Very analytically precise and digital sounding DAC. Probably pairs best with a warmer tube amp like the WA33. The Chord Dave is the Freddie Mercury of DACs - astonishingly accurate, incredible presence, and always the life of the party.

The Rockna fell in between the May and the Dave, but leaned more towards the Dave. Pretty incredible sounding DAC and probably the best sounding overall. I think it would synergize quite well with both warm tube and analytical SS amps. But given it was double the cost of the Dave and quadruple the May (and because I was after the smoothest, most tonally balanced sound I could get), I went with the May. Rockna is a very, very, good sounding DAC falling somewhere between an analog and digital sound. Quite extraordinary. The Rockna is the Whitney Houston of DACs - knock your friggin’ socks off with raw performance, but also shockingly versatile with a little bit of swagger.

Hope this helps...

 

[vonBaron]

@littlej0e did you hear Sonnet Morpheus?

 

[littlej0e]

@littlej0e did you hear Sonnet Morpheus?

Unfortunately I haven’t. Interested in hearing your opinion though. Any idea how it would compare to the Dave for @DJJEZ, the May KTE, or the RockNA?

 

[vonBaron]

Never heard any of these, maybe someday i will loan Rockna Wavelight.

 

[mammal]

I think someone posted another pic of their amp internals in the formula thread, and there was a difference between the two units?

Pics are here

 

[OceanRanger]

I wish I could help more but I can only compare it directly with the RME ADI-2 on my rig and indirectly with the RockNA and Chord Dave on Susvaras and TCs at the dealers.

The Holo May KTE straight up destroys the RME in pretty much every way except for the digital EQ functionality on the RME. Given the difference in price, it better. Probably not a fair comparison though. The May is just so smooth. It’s like a fine whiskey wrapped in butter dipped in silk. So much so that I caught myself turning up the volume in the beginning because I mistook it’s smoothness for quietness. Very analog sounding DAC. Probably best to pair it with a SS amp or something highly detailed and revealing like the SR1a + HSA1b. The May KTE is the Barry White of DACs - full pimp, all the time

The Chord Dave sounded a bit more detailed, vibrant, and sharp to my ear. I remember it having a smaller soundstage and sounding more “inside a box” compared to the May, but I can’t say for sure considering I tried it with different headphones on a different rig. Very analytically precise and digital sounding DAC. Probably pairs best with a warmer tube amp like the WA33. It’s the Freddie Mercury of DACs - astonishingly accurate, incredible presence, and always the life of the party.

The RockNA fell in between the May and the Dave, but leaned more towards the Dave. Pretty incredible sounding DAC and probably the best sounding overall. I think it would synergize quite well with both warm tube and analytical SS amps. But given it was double the cost of the Dave and quadruple the May (and because I was after the smoothest, most tonally balanced sound I could get), I went with the May. RockNA is a very, very, good sounding DAC somewhere between an analog and digital DAC. Quite extraordinary. t’s the Whitney Houston of DACs - knock your friggin’ socks off with raw performance, but also shockingly versatile with a little bit of swagger.

Hope this helps...

Ok, the DAC / artist similes are simply awesome. Thanks for this post!!

 

[mammal]

Here I tried to collect the relevant comments from the past:

Thank you SO MUCH for taking the time and going the extra mile, collecting all the information from your personal listening sessions and Rob's recommendations. It was nice to read how you had to volume level match first and then there was no perceivable difference anymore (else than lack of transparency). I wonder if others who hear XLR to be better than SE, are hearing it because of this 6db volume difference. I will for sure test it myself when my AB-1266 arrive, but if I can have it single ended, that's what I will prefer too (I hate adapters).

 

[zenlisten]

Have you tried the TT2 with rear XLR cable as well?

Yes, see Post #15,336 above

 

[simorag]

Re: Amp pairing for the AB-1266 - my journey

I started my journey in search for the 'ultimate' amp for the Abyss more than 2 years ago when I had the Formula S / Powerman, as at the time and I was not completely happy, and I kept going back and forth from it to DAVE direct over and over.

I had the chance of listening to the AB-1266 back then with an Ayre VX-R twenty (200Wpch, 30kEuro), which I plugged into hesitantly for obvious reasons, but it was a brief yet eye opening experience of how much I could improve from where I stood.

Since then, I decided that going the speaker amp way was my plan.

Apart from the sound quality revelation from the financially unachievable Ayre, this was because I also wanted to be able of driving my speakers every now and then, and because of many other reasons:

- much more options available
- easier to audition in shop, at friend's homes, at my home
- typically better built and designed, especially going through the most well reputed brands (Pass, Luxman, Accuphase, Burmester, NAGRA, ...)
- typically better value for money due to economy of scale and a more competitive market
- vast offering in the 2nd hand market
- better resale value

My objective with the AB-1266 and the DAVE was to find an amp that was able to preserve as much as possible the DAVE transparency while helping with the shortcomings of the Abyss sound signature - to my taste - i.e. some thinness in the mids and some glare/haze in the lower treble and in the sibilance region. So it was mostly a matter of tonality synergy rather than looking for the raw power headroom some speaker amp can provide.

During a very enjoyable quest lasting more than one year, I was able to find very good matches at several increasing price points, and in all cases I felt that the pairing was an improvement with respect to the XI Audio combo, so feeling ressured I was on the right path.
Some examples at increasing price are the Sugden A21 Signature SE, Pass XA-25, Leben CS600X, Luxman 590AX-II.

As I kept moving up into high-end (my budget was something around 10k) I came across some very compelling combinations such the Air Tight ATM-300R (300B amp), NAGRA Classic AMP, Burmester 032.

That's when the Riviera AIC-10 crossed my way. It was out of my budget at list price but having the chance of a home audition I could not resist and went ahead. It was love at first hearing and as I rolled the tube and tried the Mullard everything clicked into place and I thought; "that's just the sound I was searching for". I tried to bargain but I could not reach an agreement on the price of a new item so I had to pass, and kept searching.

I tried many other amps, some I did not like (e.g. Krell 300i, DarTZeel LHC-208, for opposite reasons), others that left me lukewarm (Simaudio Moon 600i, Chord Etude, Octave V80SE, Viva Egoista 845), some I liked very much (Ayon Audio Spitfire III) being the other real revelation the Viva Audio Solista, which again was outside my budget - and honestly I preferred not to mess with big tubes for several (non-sonic) reasons.

Although the aural memory of the AIC-10 was hauting me, I was very close to pull the trigger on Luxman 590AX-II which I still believe - especially when bought used - is possibly the best value for money and a very synergistic pairing with the Abyss (again for the type of sound I tend to like), when an ex-demo AIC-10 popped out and ... well I guess you know how it ended up

Just wanted to share my path ...

 

[Benny-x]

I wish I could help more but I can only compare it directly with the RME ADI-2 on my rig and indirectly with the RockNA and Chord Dave on Susvaras and TCs at the dealers.

The Holo May KTE straight up destroys the RME in pretty much every way except for the digital EQ functionality on the RME. Given the difference in price, it better. Probably not a fair comparison though. The May is just so smooth. It’s like a fine whiskey wrapped in butter dipped in silk. So much so that I caught myself turning up the volume in the beginning because I mistook it’s smoothness for quietness. Very analog sounding DAC. Probably best to pair it with a SS amp or something highly detailed and revealing like the SR1a + HSA1b. The May KTE is the Barry White of DACs - full pimp, all the time

The Chord Dave sounded a bit more detailed, vibrant, and sharp to my ear. I remember it having a smaller soundstage and sounding more “inside a box” compared to the May, but I can’t say for sure considering I tried it with different headphones on a different rig. Very analytically precise and digital sounding DAC. Probably pairs best with a warmer tube amp like the WA33. It’s the Freddie Mercury of DACs - astonishingly accurate, incredible presence, and always the life of the party.

The RockNA fell in between the May and the Dave, but leaned more towards the Dave. Pretty incredible sounding DAC and probably the best sounding overall. I think it would synergize quite well with both warm tube and analytical SS amps. But given it was double the cost of the Dave and quadruple the May (and because I was after the smoothest, most tonally balanced sound I could get), I went with the May. RockNA is a very, very, good sounding DAC falling somewhere between an analog and digital sound. Quite extraordinary. It’s the Whitney Houston of DACs - knock your friggin’ socks off with raw performance, but also shockingly versatile with a little bit of swagger.

Hope this helps...

Whitney Houston = Rockna - Wavedream Signature Balanced?

I only ask because Rockna has a couple DACs now, and the top of the line Wavedream has like 4/6 versions.

I love your post.

 

[zenlisten]

I really suck at testing audio components.

(And here I’m only interested in the human/psychological side, but I realize it’s also a challenge technically, for example, it takes about 15–30 seconds to switch between the TT2-only and the TT2 + Formula S setup.)

Some obvious mistakes I tend to make:

1. I hear something I like so I assume it’s because of that specific component I’m currently testing. – In reality many times changing that component won’t change that specific issue because it’s on the recording/mastering, or an issue in a third component. So I incorrectly associate these good qualities with a specific component.
2. I hear something I don’t like so I assume it’s because of that specific component… Same as above. But it’s even worse because in my mind I put a lot of blame on a specific component, making a scapegoat out of it! If only I would replace this component, everything would be better!
3. I hear something new and immediately identify it as an improvement. – In reality it may be an improvement but it can also be a degradation or just a neutral change.
4. If the change is subtle then it is hopeless for me to realize it in short term tests. My mind immediately adjusts to whatever I hear, especially if it's approximately as good as what I heard before. It’s hard to compare the memory and the current experience.
5. It’s easy to recognize the effect the music makes on me (synesthesia? even though it’s not specific colors for me but rather experience) but it’s very hard to analyze and understand why is that, and what triggers the joy of beauty. Other people can easily discuss specific qualities of audio. Why do I suck at it?

What goes well:

• Enjoying music.
• Getting used to a specific sound over a long time, then changing something and recognizing it. (For example once I had to send the M Scaler to the service, and non-electronic instruments immediately started to sound “too digital”.)

How can I improve myself? Are there good guides out there? Tried to find something useful but so far nothing really relevant.

 

[SuperBurrito]

Well, my TCs finally arrived after 11 weeks of waiting
Here are some quick impressions:

- Every bit as good as I hoped
- On my system (Rossini DAC / Luxman HP amp) they are a clear step up from Utopia.
- The Utopias are extremely transparent, but the Abyss even more so. Hard to believe Utopia was the limiting factor in my setup, but after upgrading my DAC and HP amp, it's true. I'll probably keep the Utopias for watching movies, etc.
- Very fast and tight. The sound just comes at light speed.
- Tons of detail
- Bass is powerful and controlled but not exaggerated
- Treble is excellent, sparkly but not too hot
- Midrange needs more beef (seems this can be fixed with the SC cable)
- Build quality is awesome
- Way more comfortable than expected
- Wife says they look totally ridiculous