eric343
Member of the Trade: Audiogeek: The "E" in META42
- Joined
- Jun 23, 2001
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Just got back from a minimeet with ppl and Larry (his friend whose Head-Fi name I don't know), and xtreme4099 showed up later, too.
All I can say is the PPA (or at least the way it stands now; apparently some of the other team PPA members want to change some stuff... to them, I say that ppl's the one with the audio design experience, listen to him!) is insane. Seriously amazing, in fact.
It's very neutral and transparent - it doesn't have a 'sound' that I can identify, unlike the CHA47, Wheatfield HA-2, Sudgen Headmaster, and similar (apparently the HeadRoom amps could also be listed here, but I haven't heard those!). What it provides is the MUSIC - with absolute authority and more than enough bass kick to satisfy the most demanding basshead while introducing him to the finer sides of audio, like treble.
And treble it had in spades, too, in a way. The PPA let the headphones shine, it gave the headphones everything they need and let them do what they wanted with it. The HD600s sounded laid-back with a mid-bass hump, the Grado HP2s forward, lively, and utterly neutral, the V700DJs utterly crappy with boomy bass and boomy mids and they'd have boomy highs if it were possible, I'm sure. This is, I suppose, an offshoot of the fact that it drove every headphone that we had there well - apparently even K1000s sound good off it, and they seem to be the benchmark for hard to drive headphones.
Now I just gotta hear Ppl's discrete reference amplifier design... apparently it's a pretty good power amp at 400 watts per channel.
All I can say is the PPA (or at least the way it stands now; apparently some of the other team PPA members want to change some stuff... to them, I say that ppl's the one with the audio design experience, listen to him!) is insane. Seriously amazing, in fact.
It's very neutral and transparent - it doesn't have a 'sound' that I can identify, unlike the CHA47, Wheatfield HA-2, Sudgen Headmaster, and similar (apparently the HeadRoom amps could also be listed here, but I haven't heard those!). What it provides is the MUSIC - with absolute authority and more than enough bass kick to satisfy the most demanding basshead while introducing him to the finer sides of audio, like treble.
And treble it had in spades, too, in a way. The PPA let the headphones shine, it gave the headphones everything they need and let them do what they wanted with it. The HD600s sounded laid-back with a mid-bass hump, the Grado HP2s forward, lively, and utterly neutral, the V700DJs utterly crappy with boomy bass and boomy mids and they'd have boomy highs if it were possible, I'm sure. This is, I suppose, an offshoot of the fact that it drove every headphone that we had there well - apparently even K1000s sound good off it, and they seem to be the benchmark for hard to drive headphones.
Now I just gotta hear Ppl's discrete reference amplifier design... apparently it's a pretty good power amp at 400 watts per channel.
