| Originally posted by JMT It could be that because distribution of the board has just begun, the majority of the people that have heard them are the builders. If you want to wade through 13 pages of discussion about the build process, you can check the thread here in the DIY Forum. There are some brief reviews in there. |
| Originally posted by joelongwood OK....I waded through the thread and, in a nutshell, the damned thing sounds GREAT! Damn, and I've been so good!
|
| Kurt was actually A-B ing the PPA with the Sugden, Crazy, I thought, the Sugden was my favorite amp at the last meet and it will kill this thing...This thing is over the top in many ways. You cannot tell this apart from the Sugden except that the PPA has much better Bass. Amazing accomplishment! On top of all this, it's going to be portable—imagine having this on your commute or walking. I want one of these too!...The other thing that puts this over the top is the battery requirement. Morsel says it takes something like 28 volts to drive it so there will be a battery compartment in the amp under the board holding something like 18 AA batteries! |
| Case in point: I spent quite a bit of time listening to the PPA and talking with Morsel. It's my opinion that the new amp that she, PPL, Kurt, and Tangent have been working on is a world class headphone amp. I spent some time comparing it to a Max and it was comparable. The PPA is articulate, clean, and without overt coloration of any kind. We're going to have to keep working or we'll fall behind. |
| I was impressed by ppl's PPA. It was the first time I had ever heard the HD600 actually sound good and I've owned a pair for 7 years. Frankly, I always thought the HD600s sucked. Polite to the point of being comatose. They were always dark, distant, polite, thick, woolly and slow to my ears. Like watching molasses trying to flow at meat locker temperatures. Like seated at the back of the concert hall with socks in my ears. But I actually heard them have life without being forward, strident or etched. It was dynamic, powerful, fast, immediate, still detailed and well balanced with the Clou cable (but a hair dark still with stock cables)....I kept taking them off to look to see that I was really listening to HD600s....I tried the HD600s with a Headmaster before as well as the MG-Head and META42 last night and I just thought it was the headphones at fault. Now I know that the HD600s aren't as crappy as I thought they were. 
|
| aye... he brought the wheatfield to the last meet ... i like the MG head he brought ....its good just not as snappy quick as the ppa. |
| i thought the ppa handled the imaging better than the headmaster .... it just sounded better to me ... specially with Tim's 600's w/equinox cable |
| Unfortunately, the treble was rolled off on the Emmeline so listening through it skewed the tonal balance of the HP-1s (and other headphones for that matter) and the treble did sound a bit recessed. But listening through the PPA, I found the balance to be the best that I've heard from any dynamic headphone. I can understand why many people here say that they are probably the most neutral dynamic headphone....(HP-1) |
| PPA was okay, and I certainly did like it better than the HR-2. Too bad I forgot to hook it up to my Cary. Anyway, midrange detail was again sub-par compared to what I'm used to, but overall sound was more enjoyable and coherent. Bass-boost switch was kinda fun to play with, but it stripped the bass of all the texture and added too much bloom to be useful. I spent some time just listening to momo with that amp, and it was nice. |
| Kurt and I compared a prototype PPA to several high end solid state amps. The Meier PreHead is very close, but does not have quite as much guts and tightness in the bass with certain very demanding recordings such as Amarok by Mike Oldfield. The HeadRoom Max is also close, but I personally prefer the detail of AD8610 opamps to the somewhat relaxed OPA627 sound. The Sugden Headmaster is a significant step down, being quite bass deficient compared to the others. I have not heard a Gilmore since last winter. Hopefully someone will compare a PPA and Gilmore soon. Tubes? No thanks. |
| Originally posted by gpalmer I think someone owes us a comparison of the PPA against the RA-1 on a set of RS-1's. It should be someone who really likes the Grado combination and is used to having lots and lots of equipment lying around, for comparison purposes of course. Ideally this person wouldn't have to go in to work every day so they could devote the time to this that it requires. Hmmm, who could we get for this dangerous but rewarding assignment?
|
