THE WATERCOOLER HEADPHONE EDITION – Headphones, Amps, DACs, and desktop/home audio related – a freewheeling discussion of gear, impressions, music, and musings.
Oct 9, 2024 at 2:47 PM Post #3,841 of 4,638
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Oct 9, 2024 at 3:42 PM Post #3,842 of 4,638
Oooof. I have pictures and 9 full pages of notes and impressions from canjam SoCal. Instead of making a nice long post like prior years, I ended up getting sick last weekend and spending most of it asleep. Now, I feel like I’m the last guy to arrive at prom. So anti-climactic!
 
Oct 9, 2024 at 3:48 PM Post #3,843 of 4,638
Oooof. I have pictures and 9 full pages of notes and impressions from canjam SoCal. Instead of making a nice long post like prior years, I ended up getting sick last weekend and spending most of it asleep. Now, I feel like I’m the last guy to arrive at prom. So anti-climactic!

With you, there. I still need to finish my Day 2 write up. But, better late than never, sir!
 
Oct 9, 2024 at 4:24 PM Post #3,844 of 4,638
Oooof. I have pictures and 9 full pages of notes and impressions from canjam SoCal. Instead of making a nice long post like prior years, I ended up getting sick last weekend and spending most of it asleep. Now, I feel like I’m the last guy to arrive at prom. So anti-climactic!

With you, there. I still need to finish my Day 2 write up. But, better late than never, sir!

Denver and Wayne, post them up! Would love to read and see more impressions! Still amped from my experience this year at CJ So Cal. Keep it going!
 
Oct 9, 2024 at 4:24 PM Post #3,845 of 4,638
Oooof. I have pictures and 9 full pages of notes and impressions from canjam SoCal. Instead of making a nice long post like prior years, I ended up getting sick last weekend and spending most of it asleep. Now, I feel like I’m the last guy to arrive at prom. So anti-climactic!

Glad you've recovered completely!
 
Oct 9, 2024 at 4:44 PM Post #3,846 of 4,638
Oooof. I have pictures and 9 full pages of notes and impressions from canjam SoCal. Instead of making a nice long post like prior years, I ended up getting sick last weekend and spending most of it asleep. Now, I feel like I’m the last guy to arrive at prom. So anti-climactic!

Just drop some impressions here any pace that you feel like - spread them out and make us beg for more..:wink:

What were you show highlight?

PS
Glad you’re better!! 🍻
 
Oct 9, 2024 at 6:35 PM Post #3,847 of 4,638
Today I sold my Meze Empyrean II and my great Immanis purge nears its end.

I went from 11 headphones!! down to 4 survivors and one potential addition.

The survivors are:
Raal 1995 Immanis
Meze Empyrean
Meze Elite
Meze Liric

And I plan on trading my Pulsar for a CRBN²

The interesting part about this for me, is that at the end of 2021 my collection looked like this.

T+A Solitaire P
Meze Empyrean
Meze Elite
Meze Liric
Audeze CRBN

That means despite me jumping on so many new releases in the past years, there also seem to be a few solid keepers.
The Empyrean leans stronger into the warm and fun tuning, which I crave sometimes, but not all the time. While it satisfies one urge better, it can't keep up in detail and airyness to satisfy all cravings.
The Empy 1 had character, and the Empy 2 sacrificed that character to obtain more technicality and neutrality, but in those areas it was outdone still by the X9000. Some people will definitely enjoy and prefer the Empy 2's middle ground approach and I agree that it's well worth a demo, but my philosophy is "all or nothing", "go big or go home", or more accurately, "give me the best, or give me something with character". Diluting the character while not achieving any superlative attribute hurts its appeal within that framework, so it wasn't compelling to me.
I still haven’t heard Empyrean2, but with these sorts of impressions I don’t feel like I’m missing much. After 3 years now, I’m still just as happy with the OG, all the better for the angled alcantara pads. And I really can’t wait to hear it with the incoming Aegis.

I wasn’t really sure what I’d do with Empy when I got Caldera a few months ago, but they complement each other just about perfectly, both being extremely engaging in their very different ways. They are both staying, probably for the long haul, perhaps to be joined by Atrium Closed to complete a trifecta.
 
Oct 9, 2024 at 6:38 PM Post #3,848 of 4,638
I still haven’t heard Empyrean2, but with these sorts of impressions I don’t feel like I’m missing much. After 3 years now, I’m still just as happy with the OG, all the better for the angled alcantara pads. And I really can’t wait to hear it with the incoming Aegis.

I wasn’t really sure what I’d do with Empy when I got Caldera a few months ago, but they complement each other just about perfectly, both being extremely engaging in their very different ways. They are both staying, probably for the long haul, perhaps to be joined by Atrium Closed to complete a trifecta.

Caldera and AC is a perfect duo complement!
 
Oct 9, 2024 at 7:24 PM Post #3,849 of 4,638
I still haven’t heard Empyrean2, but with these sorts of impressions I don’t feel like I’m missing much. After 3 years now, I’m still just as happy with the OG, all the better for the angled alcantara pads. And I really can’t wait to hear it with the incoming Aegis.

I wasn’t really sure what I’d do with Empy when I got Caldera a few months ago, but they complement each other just about perfectly, both being extremely engaging in their very different ways. They are both staying, probably for the long haul, perhaps to be joined by Atrium Closed to complete a trifecta.
How would describe the difference in sound of these two great headphones?
 
Oct 9, 2024 at 8:09 PM Post #3,850 of 4,638
It's a ZMF Caldera Closed evening for me, and I'm doing some amp rolling..

I'm really enjoying the contrast between the Aegis DIY and WA23 Luna. They contrast and complement each other like yin and yang.

The Aegis offers a delicate and expansive presentation. Rather than note density, it is all about space and air, and a wonderful sense of effortlessness. I keep gravitating back to the Mullard EL37 output tubes, which showcase these qualities to their max. @L0rdGwyn's amp does this better than any other!

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The WA23 offers a lush presentation with note weight and density. Rather than air and tonal balance, it offers a tasteful warm coloration that is highly euphonic and outright addictive. It's what one instinctively imagines when thinking about a "tube amplifier". I have some tube rolling ahead of me...

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I'm in a funk kinda mood this evening... 🕺🏽

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Oct 9, 2024 at 10:53 PM Post #3,851 of 4,638
Guys anyone who own Raal Immanis, is it really hard to drive and require totl amplifier with it? Is Cayin Ha2a enough or will definitely bottle neck the immanis? Thanks in advance.
 
Oct 9, 2024 at 11:49 PM Post #3,852 of 4,638
Controversial opinion alert, but in my recent listening sessions, I am increasingly gravitating towards the Focal Clear OG instead of the Focal Utopia.

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Let me explain why I think this is the case. I am not a "graphs guy" and those of you who have seen question the Harman methodology in my YouTube videos will know this, but Focal headphones do graph well, so let me try to explain using graphs.

Focal Utopia Frequency Response Measurement.png


Focal Clear Measurements Frequency Response.png


Tonality: First and foremost, the Focal Clear has almost 2 decibals more subbass than the Utopia and on listening, this somehow comes off as much more! The Clear sounds quite flat to me in the bass to be honest, or in other words, very well extended, which makes for an exciting rendition of kick drums, bass guitars, and so forth. Both headphones are known to punch hard, however, and that is said to be an outcome of the Focal driver excursion abilities, although the punch doesn't necessarily "appear" in graphs.

I find myself enjoying the less-filled out upper mids of the Clear OG (note the relative lack of meat in the 4-6 Khz range) because I can be sensitive to this region, especially when I have not slept well the night before. Meanwhile, the Utopia is more evenly filled out in the 2.5-5 Khz range. That being said, the Utopia upper mids, especially vocals are ever-so-slightly pushed back in the mix, relative to midbass, and relative to the Clear OG, and it still doesn't lack clarity, which is testimony to the resolving capabilities of the Utopia driver. I personally prefer the more intimate presentation of the Clear more.

When it comes to treble, while the Utopia eschews mid-treble presence, basically being quite dark in the region, it still has a 6 Khz peak. The Clear however has a more balance series of peaks at 6 Khz, 8 Khz and 10 Khz, which to me, provide more attack to guitars, more shimmer to instruments, and air in vocals and in the ambience. Overall, these peaks are nothing dastardly and on an absolute level, the 6 Khz peak of the Utopia has far more energy relative to the rest of the presentation which can be irksome. The Clear, on the other hand, more energy around 10 Khz, bu again, nothing dastardly, and I appreciate the treble performance of the Clear.

Technicalities: Technicalities-wise, honestly, either headphone works fine for me. Yes, the Utopia resolves finer details more evidently; on certain tracks with the right equipment can convey a better sense of stage, both in terms of depth and even width, to a degree. But in terms of macrodynamic contrast, especially in regard to "bass slam", owing to the stronger subbass presence of the Clear, I actually find the Clear more complete in its presentation. With most source chains, I find the Utopia to be "wanting" in this area. I just miss the subbass presence here and it begins to become a deal breaker for me. The Utopia's 6 Khz peak certainly aids to a sense of sharpness of snare drum hits, but it can be a bit zingy sometimes, and makes the Utopia incessantly source-picky.

Looks-wise, I find the latest iteration of the Utopia to be a bit overdone. I preferred the OG Utopia aesthetics because I found to be more congrunet in the minutae of its design language with the rest of the Focal family. It actually looked like what a Focal flagship should look like. Whereas the 2022 version looks like a "forced" upgrade, and perhaps not just aesthetically. Although, there isn't a chasm of tonal difference between the Utopia OG and the Utopia 2022, I much preferred the presentation of the OG, which sounded more alive in the treble for me.

So that's it from me for now, comparing two well-worn headphones, but I still enjoy revisting the golden oldies, and getting re-acquainted with them.

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Oct 10, 2024 at 12:03 AM Post #3,854 of 4,638
Guys anyone who own Raal Immanis, is it really hard to drive and require totl amplifier with it? Is Cayin Ha2a enough or will definitely bottle neck the immanis? Thanks in advance.

I am not an owner of a set (perhaps @Hiker816, @timeslip, @BassicScience, or @gammi can comment?) but what I have experienced demo-ing it was that the Immanis is greatly impacted by the choice of amp; more so than most headphones
 
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Oct 10, 2024 at 12:11 AM Post #3,855 of 4,638
Guys anyone who own Raal Immanis, is it really hard to drive and require totl amplifier with it? Is Cayin Ha2a enough or will definitely bottle neck the immanis? Thanks in advance.
Unfortunately i've only tried it on aic10, armageddon, 465, wa33 elite jps which are all pretty powerful amps. As @goldwerger mentioned in his post...Every amp makes it sound quite different. I don't think it's hard to drive (certainly not susvara og), but I don't have any experience with the HA2A.
 

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