[Duncan]

Quote:

Originally posted by gpalmer Sounds like a good time. One thing I was curious about though Duncan, what amp were you using to drive the HP-1000s, the bass really isn't lean, but then maybe you've gotten rather used to the RS-1s.

Hiya.

It was the Angstrom that I compared the both of the 'phones. I think you're right, i'm just used to the fullness of the RS1 bass. There was nothing critically wrong with the HP1 at all, just that in my heart I know that I couldn't justify myself, paying all that money for a NOS pair off of ebay (although Rob's pairs are both in immaculate condition with all lettering intact and soforth), when the overall tone, whilst admittedly cleaner, is not groovy enough for me.

Then again, just look at the box of the HP1, it says for professional use. I'm not a professional, so I don't count

 

[PinkFloyd]

For anybody on a budget what was the best bang for the buck? You briefly mentioned the Chiarra was partnered up with senn HD650's can you elaborate on this combination a bit more for those of us that can't afford an Angstrom?


Marks (Wordsworth) Chiarra is pretty much a stock kit amp but should have made the 650's sing nonetheless? any 32 ohm phones that were auditioned through the chiarra would have sounded less than ideal as the Chiarra is designed for 600 ohm phones.


This is easily rectified by a resistor swap but Wordsworths amp is more suited to 300R - 600R impedances.

Sounds like you all had a good day

 

[Duncan]

Quote:

Originally posted by PinkFloyd For anybody on a budget what was the best bang for the buck? You briefly mentioned the Chiarra was partnered up with senn HD650's can you elaborate on this combination a bit more for those of us that can't afford an Angstrom?

It was being sourced by a £5,000 SACD player, so even then it wouldn't neccesarily be the budget concious choice...

Regardless, the sound was definetly clear, and clean enough with, whilst not the greatest punch out of the various setups, still being able to lay down a bass-line that is very un-Sennheiser-ish (to me). Treble was nicely extended as well... all in all, an enjoyable listen in the short term, although for me ultimately, if my two or three minute audition is something to go by, I would like something with a little more bite to it (admittedly, this is coming from a long-term Grado user

)

Then again, as you say, you can tune it up... so, who knows?!

 

[wordsworth]

The chiara was not connected for that long so, most only got a short time to listen to it, also the competition beside it really made it seem ordinary (but hey what can you expect when it is next to an orpheus).

Mike you said that mine was a stock kit, but is there a huge difference with upgraded components or more is it a case of refining the sound?

Wordsworth

 

[Trawlerman]

Sounds like you fellas had a blast !

I would have loved to have been there but the logistics of it all was a bit too much. Too far away for me to have made a decent day of it.

Anyway. I'll look forward to seeing the pics and the next portable meet in London.

Regards.

 

[bangraman]

Thanks to Jatinder for hosting a great meet.


My impressions of the Sennheiser Orpheus were quite simple. I'd buy it. It's my bag, baby. If not for £9,000 then perhaps for a bit less. I didn't hear anything really objectionable at all... Excellent clarity, excellent dynamics... a complex and beguiling headphone sound. Compared to the Stax there's no fiddling around with the pads to adjust the sound and the sound is more engaging. I definitely like the headphone component of the Orpheus more for fit. The Stax takes a good 20 seconds for me to get the best fit after unpacking from the box otherwise it sounds as though the performance is coming from a long way away with a kind of hollow boxy sound. The Orpheus could simply be stuck on my head and it would just do it's job of sounding great. The big question at the meet for me was 'how much of the Orpheus sound is in the amp and how much of it in the phone?'. I always knew a different amp for the SR-007 was going to be on the cards eventually, so once I get my source sorted out I will go hunting... then I and Jatinder might have a play around.


As for the rest, I like the Sennheiser HD650. It's less 'boring' than the HD600, yet with the same sort of technical ability. I like the sound which is a little like a refreshing unaged sparkling wine... uncomplicated, zesty and entertaining. If the HD650 had been the HD600 when I bought it, I might have been a Sennheiser man instead of an Audio-Technica man. It's more entertaining than the DT880, but I'd like to see prices come down before I get one since in comparison with HD650 the 880 is half the TSP.


The Sony R10 and Grado HP-1 were clearly long-termers, i.e. that you'd formulate an opinion of them after enjoying them for a while. Both had the body and definition combined with a relative neutraility that typifies true high-end phones. I couldn't really make any comment on either, but perhaps to say that I would probably end up liking the R10 more.


I missed hearing SetMenu's ribbon phones. Hopefully for the next meet.


Literally at the centre of the meeting was the Fidaudio Quintete Audio Switch. Fiddler was kind enough to send us this plus some IC's for evaluation. Jatinder is listening to the IC's and hopefully can give us his opinion on them. The Quintete came into it's own allowing us to use (with near-zero degredation that I could make out) multiple amps from one source, although it is designed to normally work the other way around. The only suggestion that I can make is perhaps with the kind of IC's that the typical rabid Head-Fi member has it might make sense to space out the RCA connectors a little more.

 

[gpalmer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bangraman The Sony R10 and Grado HP-1 were clearly long-termers, i.e. that you'd formulate an opinion of them after enjoying them for a while. Both had the body and definition combined with a relative neutraility that typifies true high-end phones. I couldn't really make any comment on either, but perhaps to say that I would probably end up liking the R10 more.

Truer words were never spoken, at least in regards to the HP-1. I don't have experience with the R-10s. I've found that impressions of them can be very different on different amplifiers. I would probably attribute this to them needing a lot of power to sound their best.

 

[Rob N]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bangraman Thanks to Jatinder for hosting a great meet. My impressions of the Sennheiser Orpheus were quite simple. I'd buy it. It's my bag, baby. If not for £9,000 then perhaps for a bit less. I didn't hear anything really objectionable at all... Excellent clarity, excellent dynamics... a complex and beguiling headphone sound. Compared to the Stax there's no fiddling around with the pads to adjust the sound and the sound is more engaging. I definitely like the headphone component of the Orpheus more for fit. The Stax takes a good 20 seconds for me to get the best fit after unpacking from the box otherwise it sounds as though the performance is coming from a long way away with a kind of hollow boxy sound. The Orpheus could simply be stuck on my head and it would just do it's job of sounding great. The big question at the meet for me was 'how much of the Orpheus sound is in the amp and how much of it in the phone?'. I always knew a different amp for the SR-007 was going to be on the cards eventually, so once I get my source sorted out I will go hunting... then I and Jatinder might have a play around. As for the rest, I like the Sennheiser HD650. It's less 'boring' than the HD600, yet with the same sort of technical ability. I like the sound which is a little like a refreshing unaged sparkling wine... uncomplicated, zesty and entertaining. If the HD650 had been the HD600 when I bought it, I might have been a Sennheiser man instead of an Audio-Technica man. It's more entertaining than the DT880, but I'd like to see prices come down before I get one since in comparison with HD650 the 880 is half the TSP. The Sony R10 and Grado HP-1 were clearly long-termers, i.e. that you'd formulate an opinion of them after enjoying them for a while. Both had the body and definition combined with a relative neutraility that typifies true high-end phones. I couldn't really make any comment on either, but perhaps to say that I would probably end up liking the R10 more. I missed hearing SetMenu's ribbon phones. Hopefully for the next meet. Literally at the centre of the meeting was the Fidaudio Quintete Audio Switch. Fiddler was kind enough to send us this plus some IC's for evaluation. Jatinder is listening to the IC's and hopefully can give us his opinion on them. The Quintete came into it's own allowing us to use (with near-zero degredation that I could make out) multiple amps from one source, although it is designed to normally work the other way around. The only suggestion that I can make is perhaps with the kind of IC's that the typical rabid Head-Fi member has it might make sense to space out the RCA connectors a little more.

I agree about the switchbox it didn't affect the signal in anyway as far as I could hear.

You definitely need time with both the HP-1 and R10's to get to know them

 

[jatinder]

Hi All,

I certainly had a great time at the meet. The four items that had the biggest impression on me were:

1. Bangramans arrival with a suitcase.

2. How normal everyone was when finally meeting up in person.

3. RobNs EarMax Pro with those selected valves. As soon as I heard the R10 out of Robs EMP - I was amazed. It was a very clean coherent and natural sound. The only downer was that the bass was a bit woolly, but I think a bigger power supply could probably fix that. This EMP has got to be the best value amp out there.

4. Bangramans ATH-D1000s upsampling digital headphones. Not only did these things sound good - but they can also be connected to anything that has a digital-output, and hence no need for a amplifier.

If there's anyone out there that can tell me how to connect the D1000s to a standard laptop (USB etc), then I'd have one of these like a shot.

Quote:

Literally at the centre of the meeting was the Fidaudio Quintete Audio Switch.

The Quintete did it's job admirably. Naturally, I'm very familiar with the sound of the R10/Angstrom & Orpheus with my SA-1, and I didn't notice any degredation in sound when using it as we did. I'll be spending a lot more time with the quintete and fiddlers interconnects.

The equipment was setup as follows:

Siltech power cords (a mix here, mostly Ruby Hills but some SPO-18MFs.)
Siltech MC4/120 balanced from the SA-1 direct to the Stax.
Siltech SQ88Gold from the SA-1 to the quintete.
Lieder Waal interconnect from the Denon DVD3300 to the quintete.
Lieder Waal interconnects from the quintete to the various amps.
For most of the meet, the Orpheus was connected to the DVD player directly via one of RobNs Kimber "Select"(?) copper cables.

Pictures -- there was so much going on, that I didn't really take very many pictures, and of course, there was the British reticence of having ones photo taken.

I'd definitely like to setup another meet - maybe in the summer, but next time, allocate a whole day and have everyone bring along something for the barbecue.

--Jatinder

PS: Does anyone know how to attach pictures or where I can upload them to?

 

[Rob N]

I use photobucket.com to host pics and then just use the 'insert image' button

The Kimbers were KS1011

 

[Punslayer]

Jatinder,

There are a few different external boxes that you can use to add an optical digital out to your laptop. I have a Xitel md-port DG-2, which is a little smaller than a mint tin and is usb powered. I'm not sure if they still make that model anymore, but they could probably be found cheap on e-bay.

Minidisco.com (which seems to be down at the moment) is a good place to see different models of external digital interfaces.

i too am quite interested in the AT digital headphones, they might have to work their way into my budget sonner or later

 

[fiddler]

Hey guys, glad my switchbox came in handy!

Jatinder, I currently have an M-Audio Sonica USB sound card connected to my laptop and it has both analog and digital optical outputs. I'm planning on adding a DAC to this in the near future... anyway, this card is cheap and would do the trick. The Xitel device mentioned above would work too, but I read that the analog section doesn't sound as good.

 

[Punslayer]

actually, the xitel that i have doesn't have an analog section, it's just a usb in and an optical out. Hooked up to my dAck! (through an optical-coax converter) it sounds pretty good.

 

[KR...]

Sounds like fun fellows but when are we going to see some pics?

 

[TrevorNetwork]

I can host the pics. Just PM me, and we'll decide how you can send them. I'm thinking a .zip / .rar via MSN or ICQ.

Trevor