MrHaelscheir
500+ Head-Fier
So I attended the Toronto Audiofest today, and lo and behold at https://audiofest.ca/toronto/earvana/ in the Holiday Inn (main speaker show at the Westin), the first thing I see on the left is the following:
Holo Audio Bliss, probably KTE since the Spring 3 on top (not ideal, but it was mainly the Bliss's sides that were warm) has the Kitsune logo. Beautiful to behold in person. The volume knob maybe had a slight wobble or play to it, the detent (tactile bumps) being smooth, but not that smooth compared to my expectation. The rapid relay switching sounded and felt as expected, being just a bit distracting with my initially thinking that the clicking was playing through the headphones. I would have also liked for the plastic on the volume knob to have been less "slippery" so as to still allow an "effortless" volume change in spite of the detent force.
I had come right at the start of the show, though there was still some decent noise from talking or the music off of the open-back being played to my right. They had the Audeze LCD-5 among others available, and also had Ferrum Audio demos further down also with the LCD-5 available.
Regular WANDLA and OOR on a HYPSOS. They had an ERCO Gen 2 and HYPSOS on the other side. The OOR's and ERCO Gen 2's volume knobs were decently solid-feeling with maybe the slightest shake, having a reasonable resistance, not particularly damped, but to be preferred to the Sennheiser HDV 820's mind an SPL amp's.
Comfort on the LCD-5 was reasonable, the first unit though having some pad asymmetry with my left ear touching the mesh a bit. I still consider my HE1000se and Meze Elite Tungsten as personal standards for comfort. I also wish the cable jacks were angled more forward like on my HE1000se and Meze Elite Tungsten. As for sound, it was neutral and textured with classical music, but the Holo stack offered absolutely nothing special in terms of imaging or staging for my ears and listening methods, though maybe initially for one recording, things that the mix usually nicely presented vaguely further ahead were actually sounding closer, whether or not this was more so a property of the headphones; I later through the pictured LCD-5 unit which was in slightly better condition found my reference track imaging more ahead as it should, and sometime later after returning to the Bliss also had that reference track imaging normally again, so my mind must have been in a different state with the seating earlier on.
R2R or Class A did nothing special for the quality of the strings of my best classical recordings (ones that gave me a proper "you are there" experience on some nights through my binaural head-tracking DSP). I can say that maybe attributable to the LCD-5 was a sense of more top-end than I was used to for said recordings even compared to the HE1000se, but not a quality that elevated music toward the "you are there" sound I seek. Rodrigo y Gabriela was exquisitely incisive and tactile, my perhaps buying into the supposed reputation of "speed" for the LCD-5. I eventually after some spread-out back and forth concluded that the Bliss, OOR, and ERCO Gen 2 were all presenting things the same with equal imaging, texture, detail, timbre, and incisiveness; the only thing is that when I initially switched from the Bliss to the ERCO Gen 2 with said different LCD-5 unit, that may have been the very first time I had thought the same track to sound duller or warmer or more recessed, but that impression may have not lasted.
Other impressions:
I had on the previous night after the whisky tasting event had my third encounter with the Focal Utopia. I'd say things were consistent with my original impressions from https://www.head-fi.org/threads/mez...eadphone-official-thread.959445/post-17548308 (post #4,660) and the precursor post linked therein, though the tonality was perhaps for classical symphonic music more agreeable ("neutral") this time around. Comfort was still non-ideal with the pads having more pressure on the top and bottom than on the front and back. It can slam, but I could probably tell the lack of sub-bass extension typically found with open-back dynamics. It was as (excellently) textured and detailed as any headphone I've heard that didn't objectively have treble roll-off or a dark tuning. Whatever one may think of how the Naim Unity Atom measures, darn, does it have a nice volume knob; silky smooth, solid, a bit damped, and with a nice weight to it.
As for today, I also got to hear the Abyss 1266 (I don't know which version). This was with the XI Audio Formula S I encountered this year which still has the nicest volume knob I've encountered to date, namely solid with a perfect smooth and damped resistance comparable to the Stax SRM-T8000's knob (see https://www.head-fi.org/threads/stax-sr-x9000.959852/page-178#post-17793964 (post #2,659) for Stax SR-X9000 impressions) which wasn't as smooth. They were presented to me with the channels the wrong way around and the pads by default in the reverse direction you would normally expect assuming you had the channels the right way around. Either way, I found them as awkward to wear as I found the Diana MRs in last year's show, mainly clamping on the top with less force mind gaps at the bottom, yet worse than the MRs in that you can't stretch the cups out, so you just hope to stretch the stiff pivot enough and squish the cups past your ears, or at least that's how the attendant "crowned" me with them. They were heavy, but secure. It sounded surprisingly agreeable for classical symphonic music despite the measurements, though maybe indeed thinner or with a recess somewhere. Captain Hook x Astrix "Bungee Jump" indeed slammed quite hard, perhaps capable of that bit more aggression where I found that the LCD-5 wasn't feeling as full or deep, possibly related to the balance of ear gain to bass. For Rodrigo y Gabriela, the LCD-5 might have felt slightly "faster".
The CRBN 2 was driven by the iFi Audio iCAN PHANTOM. It was comfortable, and could be positioned to not touch my ears, though this still isn't my favourite pad shape or feels too narrow. The pads are a nice style of leather competitive with Meze's hybrid pads which feel slightly less flexible. These pads felt like they had slightly firmer foam than on the original CRBN. They definitely slam. The Stax fart issue with the CRBN seemed to have been resolved. Tonally, they sounded surprisingly off in the ear gain and treble for classical symphonic music (mainly strings), and otherwise just notably different from the LCD-5 for other tracks. The iFi's volume knob was a bit wobbly with some stiction before entering slightly damped slewing, its just not feeling particularly refined; some other fancy amps at the show had cheap-feeling volume knobs. There was nothing special regarding imaging or staging. Everything was just tonally off rather than sounding like an acceptable/agreeable deviation.
Then we had my fourth encounter with the Sennheiser HD 800 S, this time with smoother or less fuzzy feeling pads and driven by the Sennheiser HDV 820. Light, but having the same issue with the pads not feeling particularly great against my face, or too uneven in their contact force. Spacious for the ears, but it was yet again unspecial to me. Maybe a far left instrument in one track sounded at most a centimeter further. Upper midrange dips don't make music sound "wider" or "larger" to me, especially not compared to what I can do with binaural HRTF head-tracking DSP. I could perhaps hear the lower midrange elevation typical of dynamic drivers. The treble elevation did lend that sense of heightened texture to strings, but at this stage in my journey, I can mentally "see" the right side of the FFT spectrum analysis whenever I hear "microdetails" or texture. I have not heard anything that cannot be explained by one's personal at-eardrum frequency response for given headphones or audio systems, else by psychological phenomena. The HDV 820's volume knob is sturdy with notable and not too damped friction, probably nice to some, but if I'm going to have resistance instead of "effortless volume slewing", I would rather have a Formula S.
I also got to hear this monstrosity, albeit hooked up to the humble Shanling HW600 which I mistook for the Meze Liric.
Not my favourite volume knob, especially with that shape. The headphones felt reasonable, though I of course prefer larger ones. The violin in the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto recording that was playing sounded a bit shrill. Once I was able to play my own music through Bluetooth and my primarily Idagio source, the headphones were sounding pretty agreeable. Otherwise, I found absolutely nothing special about the tube amp's presentation or imaging. If hearing treble higher than the bass or midrange if not above one's head or to the upper left or right or sometimes behind the ear is considered "holographic", that's just a normal day for me with how virtually any headphone including the Sennheiser HE-1 images through my ears for music originally mixed for speakers, this being a thing I can instantly correct upon turning on my personalized HRTF DSP as described in https://www.head-fi.org/threads/anyone-into-crossfeed.961533/page-3#post-17950791 (post #32 and on plus the further linked threads).
I also got to hear the ZMF Caldera through a fancy AudioWise RF isolation system around a Chord Mojo 2. The pads were spacious, but not the most comfy to me. The height adjustments at least on this unit were horribly stiff. It sounded surprisingly agreeable for classical music (there was only a fixed selection of pre-downloaded music you could choose from), just one recording sounding expectedly like a less-than-ideal YouTube one insofar as he was presenting all the tracks with accompanying video (not necessarily from YouTube). Yes, with how I approach the hobby, I tend to avoid detailed tonal assessments best explained with a graph or in-ear mics, after which a headphone either sounds sufficiently neutral, weird, or rarely else so far only with the help of DSP, real. I want to reproduce the live concert experience I regularly attend so that I don't have to wait years to hear a certain piece, mind that sometimes that live sound can actually end up being a disappointment, though at other times sounding like absolute perfection. Perhaps some want to squeeze out more "detail", get a "wider" soundstage, or get more or tighter bass or a smoother high end, but I just want a system to wow me with realism like happens when I click on that one excellent recording of a piece while sifting through Idagio's search results. Those occasional magical moments in the middle of the night where a recording in combination with my DSP wows me with exceptional timbre and vividness and I can only listen in awe. Amps, DACs, cables, nor headphones (except for a serendipitous EQ profile) have done that for me.
I lastly later within the queue revisited the Sennheiser HE-1 which I had last measured with in-ear mics and then listened to for only 10 minutes. Now with 15 minutes devoted to actual listening plus the freedom to look up one greatly mixed reference track only published on YouTube, I had the exact same impression. It can expectedly slam, there otherwise being absolutely nothing special about its tonality and imaging or staging to me. It will not make it sound like you are actually at a symphony. It will at least for my ears not make headphones sound like speakers, even with the crossfeed knob. It's as textured and incisive as any high-end headphone I've heard, though certain speakers have certainly been capable of a yet greater and more (insanely) vivid and visceral incisiveness and tactility like with Brian Bromberg's "My Bass"; I know my Genelec 8341As also produce more vividly powerful incisiveness than any of my headphones. My impression on pad comfort may have also been slightly worse than last time, its having perhaps been harder to keep my ears from being touched by the pads or driver mesh.
I also shortly listened to the DCA E3 which I didn't have a chance to actually hear when I revisited the Expanse and heard the Stealth back in April. In short, the E3 for which I couldn't choose music due to their having trouble with the WiFi simply sounded good, maybe not that "dynamic" as some claim. Those months ago, it was the Stealth that surprisingly was the first to sound "artificial/synthetic" to me while the Expanse remained more "natural" or agreeable to me along with the HE1000se I brought to the shop.
On the topic of speakers (I have a pair of Genelec 8341As which I used for HRTF measurements, but can't blast at symphonic volumes at 3 AM mind any time I am not alone in the house), today was the first time I had heard speakers stage music "above and beyond" the height of the channels as I assume by merit of their dispersion patterns and the interactions with the room, creating an impressive depth, sense of scale from the bass, and more convincing height position and width for classical symphonic recordings. The fourth movement of Thierry Fischer's Mahler Symphony No. 1 sounded fantastic through one pair, though I would have liked it to have been a bit louder. This imaging was more diffuse compared to my near-field Genelecs or my "cleanly on a stereo line" quasi-anechoic binaural HRTF DSP which mainly wants of a greater sense of distance and scale.
Anyways, the main takeaway from this show is that I most likely no longer have my eyes on the Holo Audio Bliss and May KTE stack despite its beauty, even if they are still the only stack I would be happy to own and spend time with even if they ended up revealing nothing special compared to my FiiO K9 Pro ESS plugged into my desktop. On the other hand, if ever I were to encounter a desirable headphone that my FiiO actually can't drive loud enough or to where it would actually sound compressed, then I would likely absolutely choose the Bliss for the sake of it (else an amp known to have an even nicer volume knob than the Formula S). Likewise, should an amp like an estat energizer benefit or require more than 5 Vrms DAC output voltage, then maybe I would go for the May. Otherwise, my opinions in https://www.head-fi.org/threads/rec...ely-curious-objectivist.972411/#post-18078699 (post #9) very much remain.
The other takeaway is that for my desire to own one more TOTL headphone mainly as a complement in comfort style and to see if anything has better distortion measurements than my Meze Elite Tungsten, the Audeze CRBN 2 is unlikely to oust my preference of the Stax SR-X9000 with yet to be commissioned custom pads considering that the stock pads don't seal very well on my head, having gaps on the front and back.
Holo Audio Bliss, probably KTE since the Spring 3 on top (not ideal, but it was mainly the Bliss's sides that were warm) has the Kitsune logo. Beautiful to behold in person. The volume knob maybe had a slight wobble or play to it, the detent (tactile bumps) being smooth, but not that smooth compared to my expectation. The rapid relay switching sounded and felt as expected, being just a bit distracting with my initially thinking that the clicking was playing through the headphones. I would have also liked for the plastic on the volume knob to have been less "slippery" so as to still allow an "effortless" volume change in spite of the detent force.
I had come right at the start of the show, though there was still some decent noise from talking or the music off of the open-back being played to my right. They had the Audeze LCD-5 among others available, and also had Ferrum Audio demos further down also with the LCD-5 available.
Regular WANDLA and OOR on a HYPSOS. They had an ERCO Gen 2 and HYPSOS on the other side. The OOR's and ERCO Gen 2's volume knobs were decently solid-feeling with maybe the slightest shake, having a reasonable resistance, not particularly damped, but to be preferred to the Sennheiser HDV 820's mind an SPL amp's.
Comfort on the LCD-5 was reasonable, the first unit though having some pad asymmetry with my left ear touching the mesh a bit. I still consider my HE1000se and Meze Elite Tungsten as personal standards for comfort. I also wish the cable jacks were angled more forward like on my HE1000se and Meze Elite Tungsten. As for sound, it was neutral and textured with classical music, but the Holo stack offered absolutely nothing special in terms of imaging or staging for my ears and listening methods, though maybe initially for one recording, things that the mix usually nicely presented vaguely further ahead were actually sounding closer, whether or not this was more so a property of the headphones; I later through the pictured LCD-5 unit which was in slightly better condition found my reference track imaging more ahead as it should, and sometime later after returning to the Bliss also had that reference track imaging normally again, so my mind must have been in a different state with the seating earlier on.
R2R or Class A did nothing special for the quality of the strings of my best classical recordings (ones that gave me a proper "you are there" experience on some nights through my binaural head-tracking DSP). I can say that maybe attributable to the LCD-5 was a sense of more top-end than I was used to for said recordings even compared to the HE1000se, but not a quality that elevated music toward the "you are there" sound I seek. Rodrigo y Gabriela was exquisitely incisive and tactile, my perhaps buying into the supposed reputation of "speed" for the LCD-5. I eventually after some spread-out back and forth concluded that the Bliss, OOR, and ERCO Gen 2 were all presenting things the same with equal imaging, texture, detail, timbre, and incisiveness; the only thing is that when I initially switched from the Bliss to the ERCO Gen 2 with said different LCD-5 unit, that may have been the very first time I had thought the same track to sound duller or warmer or more recessed, but that impression may have not lasted.
Other impressions:
I had on the previous night after the whisky tasting event had my third encounter with the Focal Utopia. I'd say things were consistent with my original impressions from https://www.head-fi.org/threads/mez...eadphone-official-thread.959445/post-17548308 (post #4,660) and the precursor post linked therein, though the tonality was perhaps for classical symphonic music more agreeable ("neutral") this time around. Comfort was still non-ideal with the pads having more pressure on the top and bottom than on the front and back. It can slam, but I could probably tell the lack of sub-bass extension typically found with open-back dynamics. It was as (excellently) textured and detailed as any headphone I've heard that didn't objectively have treble roll-off or a dark tuning. Whatever one may think of how the Naim Unity Atom measures, darn, does it have a nice volume knob; silky smooth, solid, a bit damped, and with a nice weight to it.
As for today, I also got to hear the Abyss 1266 (I don't know which version). This was with the XI Audio Formula S I encountered this year which still has the nicest volume knob I've encountered to date, namely solid with a perfect smooth and damped resistance comparable to the Stax SRM-T8000's knob (see https://www.head-fi.org/threads/stax-sr-x9000.959852/page-178#post-17793964 (post #2,659) for Stax SR-X9000 impressions) which wasn't as smooth. They were presented to me with the channels the wrong way around and the pads by default in the reverse direction you would normally expect assuming you had the channels the right way around. Either way, I found them as awkward to wear as I found the Diana MRs in last year's show, mainly clamping on the top with less force mind gaps at the bottom, yet worse than the MRs in that you can't stretch the cups out, so you just hope to stretch the stiff pivot enough and squish the cups past your ears, or at least that's how the attendant "crowned" me with them. They were heavy, but secure. It sounded surprisingly agreeable for classical symphonic music despite the measurements, though maybe indeed thinner or with a recess somewhere. Captain Hook x Astrix "Bungee Jump" indeed slammed quite hard, perhaps capable of that bit more aggression where I found that the LCD-5 wasn't feeling as full or deep, possibly related to the balance of ear gain to bass. For Rodrigo y Gabriela, the LCD-5 might have felt slightly "faster".
The CRBN 2 was driven by the iFi Audio iCAN PHANTOM. It was comfortable, and could be positioned to not touch my ears, though this still isn't my favourite pad shape or feels too narrow. The pads are a nice style of leather competitive with Meze's hybrid pads which feel slightly less flexible. These pads felt like they had slightly firmer foam than on the original CRBN. They definitely slam. The Stax fart issue with the CRBN seemed to have been resolved. Tonally, they sounded surprisingly off in the ear gain and treble for classical symphonic music (mainly strings), and otherwise just notably different from the LCD-5 for other tracks. The iFi's volume knob was a bit wobbly with some stiction before entering slightly damped slewing, its just not feeling particularly refined; some other fancy amps at the show had cheap-feeling volume knobs. There was nothing special regarding imaging or staging. Everything was just tonally off rather than sounding like an acceptable/agreeable deviation.
Then we had my fourth encounter with the Sennheiser HD 800 S, this time with smoother or less fuzzy feeling pads and driven by the Sennheiser HDV 820. Light, but having the same issue with the pads not feeling particularly great against my face, or too uneven in their contact force. Spacious for the ears, but it was yet again unspecial to me. Maybe a far left instrument in one track sounded at most a centimeter further. Upper midrange dips don't make music sound "wider" or "larger" to me, especially not compared to what I can do with binaural HRTF head-tracking DSP. I could perhaps hear the lower midrange elevation typical of dynamic drivers. The treble elevation did lend that sense of heightened texture to strings, but at this stage in my journey, I can mentally "see" the right side of the FFT spectrum analysis whenever I hear "microdetails" or texture. I have not heard anything that cannot be explained by one's personal at-eardrum frequency response for given headphones or audio systems, else by psychological phenomena. The HDV 820's volume knob is sturdy with notable and not too damped friction, probably nice to some, but if I'm going to have resistance instead of "effortless volume slewing", I would rather have a Formula S.
I also got to hear this monstrosity, albeit hooked up to the humble Shanling HW600 which I mistook for the Meze Liric.
Not my favourite volume knob, especially with that shape. The headphones felt reasonable, though I of course prefer larger ones. The violin in the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto recording that was playing sounded a bit shrill. Once I was able to play my own music through Bluetooth and my primarily Idagio source, the headphones were sounding pretty agreeable. Otherwise, I found absolutely nothing special about the tube amp's presentation or imaging. If hearing treble higher than the bass or midrange if not above one's head or to the upper left or right or sometimes behind the ear is considered "holographic", that's just a normal day for me with how virtually any headphone including the Sennheiser HE-1 images through my ears for music originally mixed for speakers, this being a thing I can instantly correct upon turning on my personalized HRTF DSP as described in https://www.head-fi.org/threads/anyone-into-crossfeed.961533/page-3#post-17950791 (post #32 and on plus the further linked threads).
I also got to hear the ZMF Caldera through a fancy AudioWise RF isolation system around a Chord Mojo 2. The pads were spacious, but not the most comfy to me. The height adjustments at least on this unit were horribly stiff. It sounded surprisingly agreeable for classical music (there was only a fixed selection of pre-downloaded music you could choose from), just one recording sounding expectedly like a less-than-ideal YouTube one insofar as he was presenting all the tracks with accompanying video (not necessarily from YouTube). Yes, with how I approach the hobby, I tend to avoid detailed tonal assessments best explained with a graph or in-ear mics, after which a headphone either sounds sufficiently neutral, weird, or rarely else so far only with the help of DSP, real. I want to reproduce the live concert experience I regularly attend so that I don't have to wait years to hear a certain piece, mind that sometimes that live sound can actually end up being a disappointment, though at other times sounding like absolute perfection. Perhaps some want to squeeze out more "detail", get a "wider" soundstage, or get more or tighter bass or a smoother high end, but I just want a system to wow me with realism like happens when I click on that one excellent recording of a piece while sifting through Idagio's search results. Those occasional magical moments in the middle of the night where a recording in combination with my DSP wows me with exceptional timbre and vividness and I can only listen in awe. Amps, DACs, cables, nor headphones (except for a serendipitous EQ profile) have done that for me.
I lastly later within the queue revisited the Sennheiser HE-1 which I had last measured with in-ear mics and then listened to for only 10 minutes. Now with 15 minutes devoted to actual listening plus the freedom to look up one greatly mixed reference track only published on YouTube, I had the exact same impression. It can expectedly slam, there otherwise being absolutely nothing special about its tonality and imaging or staging to me. It will not make it sound like you are actually at a symphony. It will at least for my ears not make headphones sound like speakers, even with the crossfeed knob. It's as textured and incisive as any high-end headphone I've heard, though certain speakers have certainly been capable of a yet greater and more (insanely) vivid and visceral incisiveness and tactility like with Brian Bromberg's "My Bass"; I know my Genelec 8341As also produce more vividly powerful incisiveness than any of my headphones. My impression on pad comfort may have also been slightly worse than last time, its having perhaps been harder to keep my ears from being touched by the pads or driver mesh.
I also shortly listened to the DCA E3 which I didn't have a chance to actually hear when I revisited the Expanse and heard the Stealth back in April. In short, the E3 for which I couldn't choose music due to their having trouble with the WiFi simply sounded good, maybe not that "dynamic" as some claim. Those months ago, it was the Stealth that surprisingly was the first to sound "artificial/synthetic" to me while the Expanse remained more "natural" or agreeable to me along with the HE1000se I brought to the shop.
On the topic of speakers (I have a pair of Genelec 8341As which I used for HRTF measurements, but can't blast at symphonic volumes at 3 AM mind any time I am not alone in the house), today was the first time I had heard speakers stage music "above and beyond" the height of the channels as I assume by merit of their dispersion patterns and the interactions with the room, creating an impressive depth, sense of scale from the bass, and more convincing height position and width for classical symphonic recordings. The fourth movement of Thierry Fischer's Mahler Symphony No. 1 sounded fantastic through one pair, though I would have liked it to have been a bit louder. This imaging was more diffuse compared to my near-field Genelecs or my "cleanly on a stereo line" quasi-anechoic binaural HRTF DSP which mainly wants of a greater sense of distance and scale.
Anyways, the main takeaway from this show is that I most likely no longer have my eyes on the Holo Audio Bliss and May KTE stack despite its beauty, even if they are still the only stack I would be happy to own and spend time with even if they ended up revealing nothing special compared to my FiiO K9 Pro ESS plugged into my desktop. On the other hand, if ever I were to encounter a desirable headphone that my FiiO actually can't drive loud enough or to where it would actually sound compressed, then I would likely absolutely choose the Bliss for the sake of it (else an amp known to have an even nicer volume knob than the Formula S). Likewise, should an amp like an estat energizer benefit or require more than 5 Vrms DAC output voltage, then maybe I would go for the May. Otherwise, my opinions in https://www.head-fi.org/threads/rec...ely-curious-objectivist.972411/#post-18078699 (post #9) very much remain.
The other takeaway is that for my desire to own one more TOTL headphone mainly as a complement in comfort style and to see if anything has better distortion measurements than my Meze Elite Tungsten, the Audeze CRBN 2 is unlikely to oust my preference of the Stax SR-X9000 with yet to be commissioned custom pads considering that the stock pads don't seal very well on my head, having gaps on the front and back.
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