Kinda enjoying this conversation
From what I can gather, the Linear I/IIs are a little 'brighter' and more revealing than the HD540s? Certainly my own Ref1s are the smoothest of all my headphones, even a touch rolled at the very top. They are not as detailed as the HD6XX for sure, though I am still not convinced by the HD6XX after a week with them, with either stock or Mogami cable. I prefer the latter, as they certainly give that more expanded soundstage that isn't just between my ears and slightly in front of my head, but nothing like the Ref1s do! They vanish! I discovered the difference the other night with the Lucinda Williams album, Where The Spirit Meets The Bone. The HD6XX was like looking through the studio window at the performance and listening to the monitors. The Ref1s placed me inside the studio with the musicians, so that sound was almost all around me and there was no barrier at all between me and them. Including that slightly less ultra precise placement of instruments when one is so immersed, the instruments and voices are a touch larger and more diffuse, as opposed to seeing them from the other side of the glass viewing window. That immersiveness happens with every album! It's also true that the HD6XX easily show noticeably more fine instrument (and voice) detail, greater intent in the playing of them, such as
how a guitarist bends the strings and the effect that has on the musical flow. You could probably tell the maker of the stings in some instances ... I'm not that knowledgable
(However, that does
not necessarily mean greater involvement and enjoyment as an overall experience!). That information is reduced with the Ref1s and possibly because, at least in part, of the more rolled top end, it's certainly sweeter though the detail it
does have is exquisite! The HD6XX narrows the soundstage, though I have to say, I do not find them a warmly balanced headphone, the Ref1s are definitely 'warmer' here, far from the upper-mid exposed edge that used to show itself with less than sterling recordings, pre Mogami and pleather.
I do not prefer the bass of the HD6XX either. It's ok, fairly informative, taut and focused and can go deep enough when called for, it just doesn't have the organic and communicative aliveness of the Ref1s, which are a tad fuller and can go remarkably deep, I would say into the sub-sonics better than the HD6XX does, or close enough to sub-sonics that it certainly
feels like it!
The Ref1s feel like an integrated wholistic experience, like a lot of live music does, all my other headphones - as good as they can often be - reproduce recordings in varying degrees of goodness, sometimes a blessing, sometimes not. If I only wanted to keep ONE set of headphones, it's a no brainer for me, the HD540 Ref1s. Period. Musical genius in so many important ways.
P.S. Dammit, I'll have to qualify that last statement now, I need TWO sets of cans, one for the QP1R DAP as well, the HifiMAN HE400S, which come to musical life with only 40mW of pure class A and whatever else Questyle do with this thing to make it sound so damn good! Besides that, I don't actually
enjoy them with the Schiit stack .... so the Ref1s reign supreme.
