TOTL disappointments

[chesebert]

in another thread you said you only heard the older 200 series. thus you have no exp with devices from the post above you responded to and yet you made blanket statement about Nimbus/Lake people. unless you want to say now you heard them??

I was referring to the older 200 series in relation to your 222 I don’t know where you are going with this. 200 series is mid fi so not relevant for this thread.

 

[457139]

I was referring to the older 200 series in relation to your 222 I don’t know where you are going with this. 200 series is mid fi so not relevant for this thread.

No, what you said was that "Nimbus = Lake People" and that makes everything Nimbus makes mid-fi lol. My question to you would be have you actually heard anything from Nimbus? Because you sounded awfully convinced about what the V222 could do without ever having heard it. You just drew your conclusions based on your exp with older 200 amps

 

[chesebert]

What’s wrong with that opinion? Lake People came out and said they created the new brand to capture $5k market and didn’t offer anything worthwhile to justify the price increase. Probably also heard one at shows but didn’t take notes. i guess in that respect Niimbus belongs squarely in this thread.

 

[457139]

What’s wrong with that opinion? Lake People came out and said they created the new brand to capture $5k market and didn’t offer anything worthwhile to justify the price increase. Probably also heard one at shows but didn’t take notes. i guess in that respect Niimbus belongs squarely in this thread.

What's wrong is you have no basis to say what you said, since you have no exp with Nimbus, or at least haven't admitted you have.. I'll take that to mean you haven't had that exp.

As a general rule i try to avoid making blanket statements about products I haven't heard.

 

[chesebert]

I probably heard one but I honestly don‘t need to hear one to tell you opamp voltage gain followed by MOSFET buffer with a heavy dose of feedback is midfi topology. Fancy case and relay pot doesn’t make it TOTL. To be TOTL SS the bare minimum is fully discrete topology - discrete opamp doesn’t count as that still requires heavy feedback.

If you like Lake People, Violectric, Niimbus, don’t let me stop you. You will probably find better sounding gear for less in the future but in the mean time you should enjoy what you have.

 

[457139]

I probably heard one but I honestly don‘t need to hear one to tell you opamp voltage gain followed by MOSFET buffer with a heavy dose of feedback is midfi topology. Fancy case and relay pot doesn’t make it TOTL. To be TOTL SS the bare minimum is fully discrete topology - discrete opamp doesn’t count as that still requires heavy feedback.

If you like Lake People, Violectric, Niimbus, don’t let me stop you. You will probably find better sounding gear for less in the future but in the mean time you should enjoy what you have.

No, the immaculate build, time tested reliability and sound makes the Vio/Nimbus stuff TOTL. If the warmer, more analogue signatures aren't your jam that's fine. I think you're a little misguided in how you're characterizing those brands.

 

[Tachyon88]

Care to explain your position? Something you should do if you're denigrating someone else's post.

Edited for grammar

ASR derangement syndrome. Graphs trigger some people.

What's wrong is you have no basis to say what you said, since you have no exp with Nimbus, or at least haven't admitted you have.. I'll take that to mean you haven't had that exp.

As a general rule i try to avoid making blanket statements about products I haven't heard.

And he is always citing years of personal experience as some sort of know it all gatekeeper while constantly asking if people have heard the thing they criticize. Double standards.

 

[tamahome77]

ETA makes super high value headphones. If you're like me, an average joe with an average wage, who can't really afford the msrp of ZMFs headphones and want near TOTL sound quality. I would recommend ETA headphones. I haven't heard the ETA O2 but the older model, Gen G, which uses the same drivers. It doesn't look polished or luxurious and looks like someone built it in their mom's basement and the 3D printed parts are loose fitting as well. The sound quality with my dsha-3fn is very near TOTL. Not as good as the solitaire P with HA200 or the Susvara with Lina stack but I would say like 92% of the way there for a fraction of the price.

 

[dunring]

I've seen a few Dan Clark Stealth in the $3,300 range lately used. Anyone have this model and think it's worth the money compared to other kilobuck models?
Some I've has like the original Heddphone and Hifiman Audivina weren't worth near those prices. Just got another HD800 S and those are worth it. The Hifiman Arya Stealth is well worth the price (but not the original with annoying female vocal treble peak).

 

[TheMiddleSky]

I've seen a few Dan Clark Stealth in the $3,300 range lately used. Anyone have this model and think it's worth the money compared to other kilobuck models?
Some I've has like the original Heddphone and Hifiman Audivina weren't worth near those prices. Just got another HD800 S and those are worth it. The Hifiman Arya Stealth is well worth the price (but not the original with annoying female vocal treble peak).

Nothing wrong with Stealth, but you need to strongly consider DCA E3 for much cheaper price, that use newer driver than Stealth. Weird price placement from DCA, but it is as what it is.

p.s: I prefer E3 than Stealth in term of sound

 

[yodas]

Fun thread, especially as someone who much prefers discussing negatives over positives. Atrium and lcd-5 are the ones for me, neither are bad but rather just not worth the price in the used market. "Disappointments" is an accurate term.

Lcd-5 is probably the least controversial take here, weird tonality and spatial presentation led to a headphone that sounded bizarre to say the least. Its resolution and mid-forwardness did lend itself for certain genres, but not for the ones I commonly listen to.

Atrium is an upgrade over the hd600, but not by much. Better resolution, soundstage, and bass detail, but worse vocals (yes, tried different pads) and too much bass quantity. Overall, too colored for me compared to hd600.

Not sure if iems are supposed to be included here, but most TOTL iems I demoed at canjam were disappointments, to the point I'm bascially done with iems. I did own the letshuoer cadenza 12, which I quickly sent back, as its sound was incoherent and unnatural.

 

[Infoseeker]

Fun thread, especially as someone who much prefers discussing negatives over positives. Atrium and lcd-5 are the ones for me, neither are bad but rather just not worth the price in the used market. "Disappointments" is an accurate term.

Lcd-5 is probably the least controversial take here, weird tonality and spatial presentation led to a headphone that sounded bizarre to say the least. Its resolution and mid-forwardness did lend itself for certain genres, but not for the ones I commonly listen to.

Atrium is an upgrade over the hd600, but not by much. Better resolution, soundstage, and bass detail, but worse vocals (yes, tried different pads) and too much bass quantity. Overall, too colored for me compared to hd600.

Not sure if iems are supposed to be included here, but most TOTL iems I demoed at canjam were disappointments, to the point I'm bascially done with iems. I did own the letshuoer cadenza 12, which I quickly sent back, as its sound was incoherent and unnatural.

Did you get to try any interesting single-DD iems during CanJam like the NightJar Singularity?

With October around the corner, time to try to catch a black Friday iSine/i3/i4 again soon.

 

[yodas]

Did you get to try any interesting single-DD iems during CanJam like the NightJar Singularity?

With October around the corner, time to try to catch a black Friday iSine/i3/i4 again soon.

Funnily enough, Singularity is the one exception that I truly enjoy, though it isn't TOTL or highly resolving. Which leads me to believe I might not like the BA sound much, or at least need to get used to it.