I have being taking a few weeks off this thread: I have had plenty of visitors in London in the past couple of weeks (I had to post a sign "No vacancies" outside my house), plus the world cup of football, and a few golf competitions. Also, believe me, my ears needed a rest after so many hours of listening to the same CDs with different combinations of headphones and amps.
The SA5000 seems to be the HP that gets the least attention among the four in this war; it also seems to be for me the most difficult one to analyse: it is certainly not the headphoe for all seasons, but I still enjoy it. As I have probably said millions of times already, it would never be my only one can, but I enjoy to have it to get a different perspective of certain CDs; with some recording can even give better results than the other three. For example I thought that the Bela Fleck and the Flektones live album with the SA5000 sounded better than with any other can.
Compared to the Lavry, the Original Master gives some extra bass power and a needed extra body. I am really impressed by the quality of this little amp: generally amplifiers at this price point introduce a lot of flaws in the big picture, but the OM show great authority, not the least amount of grain, a very clean and pleasant presentation; also the SA5000 becomes more natural, the instruments are closer to what they should be in reality.
The SA5000 as usual shines in terms of detail and speed, while the limited soundstage and the limited body are the limiting factors.
All and all the combo is highly enjoyable and gives the possibility to get a really high quality rig at this very low price point. To be 100% honest I must add that I am using as source the Opus 21, which I consider the best source I have ever heard; with a lesser source things can of course be different.
I have the feeling that the OM has been voiced mainly for the HD650 and, as such, it tends to be very slightly brigth (which goes very well with the HD650). The SA5000 has a slight tendency towards brightness, so on some bright recordings the combo could be a bit bright, but I only noticed this very rarely.
Bottom line is that if I will have to get rid of one of the four cans, I still am not sure which one would be the victim: the SA5000 is a very enjoyable can, although flawed in many ways.
Regarding the OM, I insist on the fact that have not heard anything south of $700-800 that can better it. To find something that I would consider superior I would have to go up to the Raptor or any of the Singlepowers. To my ears tis little amp is even better than very regarded amps like the Earmax Pro or the HR2.
Of course there are a few corner being cut: especially with with the SA000 I have noticed some noticeable hiss, also the RCA imputs are very poorly implemented and they tend to stick to the interconnect cable, so that I had to manually rescue them from the cable and reposition them back on the amp; very annoying.
Finally I can very strongly recommend the OM to anyone looking for a solid, good SS amp below $500 (at a price of $190).
The SA5000 holds very well is place at its price point as a special headphone and I think it still has some miles to come. I really have the feeling that this HP would enjoy a lot a tube amp with really tubey and dark tubes.
Time for bed now
