[Mimouille]

And for the record when I was talking about toys and distractions I was referring to head-fi gadgets and not mistresses :wink_face:

Yep I think my wife sometimes thinks a mistress would be cheaper than headfi...

 

[Gintaras]

  guys, thanks for good laughs... humor helps to carry over some routine and boring things. perhaps one was to defuse any question is regularly take your wife or girl for shopping.

 
yes, 20+y on WS must not be bad if you are still there

 
Mimouille, do not worry, we will make sure no mistresses 4U, only 1p2

 

[Gintaras]

listening to some my most loved recordings on 1p2 i cannot stop thinking why some people blame recessed mids and less intimate vocals? 
what i hear is slightly different, 1p2 gives me some most believable stage and singers are integrated on stage into one single performance act. some may like more intimacy and closer voice presentation but that will come at expense of breaking stage impact and moving singer too close to you which is not what you experience in live venues.
 
why i am telling all this? i listen to older music which i know so well and was nearly on stage and know how it should it be.... and 1p2 brings me closest ever experience as regards stage and nostalgia feeling. amazing stage accuracy and precise placement of instruments and vocals. soloist is placed exactly where i remember him many years ago 

 

[kkcc]

  listening to some my most loved recordings on 1p2 i cannot stop thinking why some people blame recessed mids and less intimate vocals? 
what i hear is slightly different, 1p2 gives me some most believable stage and singers are integrated on stage into one single performance act. some may like more intimacy and closer voice presentation but that will come at expense of breaking stage impact and moving singer too close to you which is not what you experience in live venues.
 
why i am telling all this? i listen to older music which i know so well and was nearly on stage and know how it should it be.... and 1p2 brings me closest ever experience as regards stage and nostalgia feeling. amazing stage accuracy and precise placement of instruments and vocals. soloist is placed exactly where i remember him many years ago 

 
Gin it's not hard to understand.  IMHO the staging of 1p2 is more akin to how vocal sounds in a speakers setup, which is very different to headphone/IEM.  So it really depends on the individual's own reference and preference, as I know many prefer the IEM type sound over speakers where vocals are often tuned to be at the forefront over all other instruments.  

 

[goodvibes]

  dbpoweramp - NOT Mac compatible

XLD is. 

 

[Gintaras]

   
Gin it's not hard to understand.  IMHO the staging of 1p2 is more akin to how vocal sounds in a speakers setup, which is very different to headphone/IEM.  So it really depends on the individual's own reference and preference, as I know many prefer the IEM type sound over speakers where vocals are often tuned to be at the forefront over all other instruments.  

+1

 

[Gintaras]

  XLD is. 

 
thanks, will check

 

[goodvibes]

  We don't want to make this into another Tera thread (especially since most of them end up closed and people banned) - but since it does keep coming up here let me provide my perspective (as a strong Tera supporter, but I promise this will be my last mention of Tera in this thread).
To me the mindset one has to have to move to Tera "ways" is a not unlike deciding to move back from digital to vinyl.
You have to accept that your vinyl player will only play vinyls (Tera only wav's), not have playlists so you have to get you ass off the sofa and move the needle when you want to listen to another song (which you have to look up on the external album cover - although sd cards can be thought of as playlists if you want), and that you will not be able to use fancy network servers for easy access to your flacs, mp3's etc (all the things we are used to in the itunes world).
Also you will not have the same easy access to all the music you want - Tera will force you to look for well mastered and hires music as it really only truly shines playing well mastered and hires files, and with well matched phones. If you can't or don't want to deal with meeting those requirements then Tera makes no sense (even forgetting the high price as an argument although I disagree Charles raised the price out of greed as he is certainly selling less and making less profit at new price than before - instead I suspect he is either tired of making them, or wanted to make it clear that his device even without any features added is still head and shoulders above anything else that has been released recently - ie AK120 and HM901 which encroached into old Tera price so there could have been perception created that they must be better than Tera because more expensive - this is what I suspect was the reason he doubled the price to kill that as an argument as he is clearly convinced his device is the best - of course that sounds very arrogant and many people are annoyed by it, even some existing Tera users who happen to like the device - I personally happen to agree he is right about having the best device although I don't like the new high price - it will be more expensive to eventually replace my current Tera with the new one

).
Anyway, for me Tera is the most amazing device I have every purchased over 30 or so years of buying fancy electronics/gadgets (expensive cameras, lenses, computers, music equipment, etc). I still cannot believe something this small that looks like a toy when paired with $40 Porta Pro phones can blow away pretty much any other high end system I have ever heard - it actually sounds better than vinyl to me)

A couple things here that don't go to the pairing and overall quality of the Tera.
 
If you're accustomed to HiDef, you'll probably understand that the word length is more important than the overall sampling rate if you've compared on top kit. I would take 24/48 over 16/192, personally. Tera lops off the last 8 word bits to be able to feed a 16 bit stream to a 16 bit DAC so while it plays HiDef it's not a true HiDef unit as it's limited to 16 bit resolution. If it matters in portable is up for debate but I wouldn't call it a true HiDef player.
 
Somebody here made a comment about all it's respected reviews. I think the only one is from Headphonia and he said this 
 
" I know that it would take the HM-801′s PCM1704 to take on the tiny Tera’s sound quality. And this is what I found: The HM-801 is still the best in recreating a live recording ambiance, and in that aspect it’s much better than the Tera-Player. It’s really good at painting the picture of the whole soundscape, but for some reason instruments and vocals weren’t as distinct nor as weighty as on the Tera-Player. Moving to the Tera-Player, I gained that body in the instruments and vocals, that black background that I get from higher up set ups desktop set ups.

I’d consider the comparison roughly a tie"

I've heard the 801 and clearly prefer the 901 but that's probably too much extrapolation.

We have reviews here that are valid but not exactly by professional reviewers other than Swimsonny whom I have never found credible, even before his ban. I guess when you get paid for reviews, you're a professional.

All that said, I know there's more to this than a few folks opinion and HiRes. Hi Def comparisons really work best when compared on the same top kit. There are many things I wouldn't listen to at any res so it's not the end all. I haven't heard a Tera so perhaps Charles has built a better mouse trap but we should keep in mind what it is and isn't.

 

[eke2k6]

24bit vs 16bit, the myth exploded!

 

[Gintaras]

24bit vs 16bit, the myth exploded!

let us believe in our misbeliefs mate, no need for ships and battles

 

[goodvibes]

  listening to some my most loved recordings on 1p2 i cannot stop thinking why some people blame recessed mids and less intimate vocals? 
what i hear is slightly different, 1p2 gives me some most believable stage and singers are integrated on stage into one single performance act. some may like more intimacy and closer voice presentation but that will come at expense of breaking stage impact and moving singer too close to you which is not what you experience in live venues.
 
why i am telling all this? i listen to older music which i know so well and was nearly on stage and know how it should it be.... and 1p2 brings me closest ever experience as regards stage and nostalgia feeling. amazing stage accuracy and precise placement of instruments and vocals. soloist is placed exactly where i remember him many years ago 

We're all glad that you love it but you tend to be over zealous about how perfect your preferred kit is. This isn't the 1st. It doesn't help your cause since it brings more compensation than affirmation from other posters.
 
I heard the 1+2 and thought it a great piece. I also think working with good people is 1/2 the battle and it doesn't get much better than Gavin who fully appreciates other's offerings. I did hear what other did with the silver cable. I didn't find it as troubling as some and understand what cable tweaking etc can do so I concentrated on it's music playing capabilities as opposed to purely it's tonal balance which was already VG. I think it's an absolutely great device and one I'd strongly consider if I were in the market for a top universal. I have a CIEM that I slightly prefer but others have had the opposite view. Both are valid. At some point you'll need to accept that.

 

[goodvibes]

  24bit vs 16bit, the myth exploded!

Stop by when you're in Chicago sometime. I'll play a variety of master conversions done properly with custom dither and played in a top system without a computer as source.

I think you'll understand my 24 bit comment. Until then, we can agree to disagree.

 What is not discussed in is how sensitive we are to relative timing or how much distortion there is at low signal levels in 16 bit digital. I won't discuss it further here or in general because it's a never ending circle something or other

. Listen to what works for you.

 
None of that goes to my previous point about the Tera.

 

[Gintaras]

Vibes, i am not asking others to love them, just share emotions after listened to the music i know so well for reproduction and acoustic feel from own experience.

yes, i agree and i can only tell for me there is no holly grail except own ears, so everyone decides to himself.

so i never objected someone loving another IEM, but if you look for my posts on ASG2 or H200 you will find similar impressions, because for every category and sound sig you find some truly great offerings. i also do not like when people enter a boutique shop or Michelin starred restaurant and complain loud about price because they can easily find nice cheaper shop or eatery without the need to complain.


Ciems are not for me because i am scared of making imprints, inserting in ear so deep, impact on my ear and danger of infection and hearing loss as consequence. many dudes who abuse Ciems and generally earphones or headphones later have to visit a doctor who would tell them stop hobby. have seen and heard such audiophiles selling away their systems in tears

As regards master copies, +1

 

[Gintaras]

Vibes, curious where get top copies from master since not many hi-res offerings and often i find no music i want in this quality

 

[angelo898]

Vibes, i am not asking others to love them, just share emotions after listened to the music i know so well for reproduction and acoustic feel from own experience.

yes, i agree and i can only tell for me there is no holly grail except own ears, so everyone decides to himself.

so i never objected someone loving another IEM, but if you look for my posts on ASG2 or H200 you will find similar impressions, because for every category and sound sig you find some truly great offerings. i also do not like when people enter a boutique shop or Michelin starred restaurant and complain loud about price because they can easily find nice cheaper shop or eatery without the need to complain.

Ciems are not for me because i am scared of making imprints, inserting in ear so deep, impact on my ear and danger of infection and hearing loss as consequence. many dudes who abuse Ciems and generally earphones or headphones later have to visit a doctor who would tell them stop hobby. have seen and heard such audiophiles selling away their systems in tears

As regards master copies, +1

very sad that you have missed the point so many times...