Headphone shoot out at the OK Coral

[DaveyF]

On Saturday, I am invited to a "headphone" shoot out.. The premise of this a'phile group meeting is to bring to the meeting our headphone amp and headphones.The idea is to listen to our headphones on the various amps and then ( I'm not sure about this part) swap out the various headphones to see what we each think of the various groupings.

I'm a little concerned about the hygeine of this last scenario, LOL, BUT us a'philes have to do what we have to do
I'm bringing my standard set-up, Senn 600's with Cardas cable and a Musical Fiedlity XCan V3 ( which I rolled NOS 6922's into)....and which, IMHO still sounds VERY marginal at best.

I'll report back as to which grouping is left standing after the shoot-out.

Anyone else attended a meeting like this

 

[c1ferrari]

Hi Davey,

All I have is a pair of Beyerdynamic DT770's which I thought I'd use for location recording.
Um -- hygiene...

 

[DaveyF]

Hi Sam,
Hygiene...Maybe I am prude, but the thought of 40 or 50 lads who haven't washed out their ears or hair in the last few weeks/months and then strapping on my 'phones is a bit of a thinker....present company excepted of course, LOL

Bring the Beyerdynamics, I have never heard a pair of these. BTW, I'll make sure to wash my hair the night before........maybe

 

[cjfrbw]

Just soak them in Kwell overnite.

I went to the NoCal Head Fi meet, took Stax, Manley 300b preamp, Ultrasone edition 8 to display. Problem was, I couldn't wander much once I had an exhibit space with all my stuff. Next time, I am not bringing anything, just listen to the other great rigs with my choice of CD source.

It resolved my curiosity about the UBER phones, decided I already had about the top of the game, no reason to lust. Got to hear the Sennheiser HE90 Orpheus and its amplifier, supposedly the top of the field, and the new Stax 009 with a Blue Hawaii.

It was actually a lot of fun.

 

[c1ferrari]

Not at all...actually --

Hi Sam,
Hygiene...Maybe I am prude, but the thought of 40 or 50 lads who haven't washed out their ears or hair in the last few weeks/months and then strapping on my 'phones is a bit of a thinker....present company excepted of course, LOL

Bring the Beyerdynamics, I have never heard a pair of these. BTW, I'll make sure to wash my hair the night before........maybe

I'm rather sympathetic
Should we arrive with alcohol wipes

 

[DaveyF]

cjfrbw, that's a pretty good looking rig you've got there. No wonder you weren't too impressed by the others at the meet!

Sam, Not a bad idea about the alcohol wipes, only problem is since they are "alcohol" impregnated and you know how some of the members are with alcohol, LOL.

 

[cjfrbw]

cjfrbw, that's a pretty good looking rig you've got there. No wonder you weren't too impressed by the others at the meet!

Sam, Not a bad idea about the alcohol wipes, only problem is since they are "alcohol" impregnated and you know how some of the members are with alcohol, LOL.

Oddly enough, it was just upper-mid fi compared to a lot of the rigs that people brought, including a 10K tubed headphone amp called an Apex Pinnacle. Stax headphone SR 009 are selling for more than 5K without the amplifier.

Headphones are catching up with the rest of hi end audio. It used to be the province of the young nerd who didn't have space or money for the ultra hi end stuff, but wanted the best listening experience possible on a budget.

There were more old coots there than I thought, though headphones is still mostly young nerd ball territory.

 

[cjfrbw]

There is also a Head Fi meet in So Cal this Sunday at the Village recording studios.

http://www.head-fi.org/t/604418/the...2012-southern-california-sunday-april-22-2012

"From legends like Fleetwood Mac, The Rolling Stones, B. B. King and Bob Dylan to current artists like Lady Gaga, Coldplay, Taylor Swift and John Mayer you would be hard pressed to find an artist who hasn't recorded here."

The Village was founded by an heir to the Hormel meat packing fortune, so I guess you could call it "the studio that spam built", but became extremely profitable and popular in its own right. They supposedly have the largest selection of new and vintage microphones of all types available for recording, something for everybody.

 

[Ron Party]

Carl, what is your impression of the Orpheus?

 

[Mike Lavigne]

i was at a Can Jam here in Seattle last Saturday....my 2nd one. it was at an airplane hangar at Boeing Field, here in South Seattle. about 30-35 people showed up. it was a very low key enjoyable get together. Doc B. did bring his Nagra so i plugged my Aristaeus/009 combo into that which was quite nice.

i brought my Stax 009's , Stax O2 Mk1'S, and Senn HD-800's. for amps i brought my Headamp Aristaeus, a Stax SRM-717, and a Woo WA6SE Maxed....and my Playback Designs MPS-5 as a source.

i have another electrostat amp, the Blue Hawaii Special Edition that is about to ship to me.

 

[cjfrbw]

The Orpheus HE 90 (top dog) with its own original amplifier sounded sweet and seductive, with a pillowy spaciousness, female vocal heaven. However, I thought that a standard traditional Stax Lambda normal bias (which I own) played through the Manley 300b using the Stax transformer was nearly as good if not as good.

Baby Orpheus HE 60 sounded to me to be a bit of a kludge, very inefficient, required a Cavalli Liquid Lightening amp and still didn't sound that great even compared to standard traditional Lambda. I would not pay money for it, they are difficult and expensive to repair.

The headphone guys will out finesse any kind of audiophile on minor distinctions. but I think the best bang for buck is a good tube amp, transformer coupling, and a traditional Lambda.

The young guys don't like stax transformer coupling, but I notice from the boards that the seasoned audiophiles of Europe and Japan prefer excellent standard amplifiers with transformer coupling for Stax, and that is what I prefer as well.

 

[Ron Party]

Thanks, Carl.

 

[c1ferrari]

Wow, Mike...

i was at a Can Jam here in Seattle last Saturday....my 2nd one. it was at an airplane hangar at Boeing Field, here in South Seattle. about 30-35 people showed up. it was a very low key enjoyable get together. Doc B. did bring his Nagra so i plugged my Aristaeus/009 combo into that which was quite nice.

i brought my Stax 009's , Stax O2 Mk1'S, and Senn HD-800's. for amps i brought my Headamp Aristaeus, a Stax SRM-717, and a Woo WA6SE Maxed....and my Playback Designs MPS-5 as a source.

i have another electrostat amp, the Blue Hawaii Special Edition that is about to ship to me.

You're really into it
I regret I only recognize around three of the items, though

 

[Jay_S]

I'm currently using Sennheiser HD-600s with a Bottlehead Crack amp. Tubes are RCA 6AS7G and Mullard ECC82. Definitely not a Stax but pretty darn good for now.

 

[amirm]

I'm a little concerned about the hygeine of this last scenario, LOL, BUT us a'philes have to do what we have to do

A bit off-topic but a fun story that I think I have told before. I was at Microsoft running the audio/video group so companies would routinely come and try to license us stuff. One time this major Japanese company comes to show us some headphone processing technology. I show up to the conference room and typical of the Japanese when coming to a major company, they are all wearing suits and such. I shake hands with the execs and they point to the engineer that was going to show us the technology. He had a PC, some hardware and then headphone. I take one look at him and he is sweating profusely. I am talking drenched. Well, my nightmare came true as he took off the headphones and I was told to listen. The cups were dripping with sweat. But you must do what you must do and I put the darn things on. All I could think about was how to politely take them off as fast as I could!

 

[amirm]

Back to headphones, I had not used mine for quite a while. I was doing some testing and fired up my Stax with its tube amp. To my surprise, I didn't like their sound anymore. I thought they sounded quite non-dynamic. I went back to the transistor amp, the other sets of lower end Stax models and they all sounded anemic. I wonder if one's choice changes this way over time....

 

[DaveyF]

A bit off-topic but a fun story that I think I have told before. I was at Microsoft running the audio/video group so companies would routinely come and try to license us stuff. One time this major Japanese company comes to show us some headphone processing technology. I show up to the conference room and typical of the Japanese when coming to a major company, they are all wearing suits and such. I shake hands with the execs and they point to the engineer that was going to show us the technology. He had a PC, some hardware and then headphone. I take one look at him and he is sweating profusely. I am talking drenched. Well, my nightmare came true as he took off the headphones and I was told to listen. The cups were dripping with sweat. But you must do what you must do and I put the darn things on. All I could think about was how to politely take them off as fast as I could!

LOL, That's a good one Amir.

Your point about how our tastes change through time is very interesting. I've never been that enamored of headphone set ups, however, I wonder if that will change today....we shall see.

 

[cjfrbw]

I started using them again out of necessity. It is common for "big rig" audiophiles with speakers to reject headphones out of hand. It is true, there is no comparison, you cannot get the same experience using headphones that you get from a decent speaker rig.

However, your brain learns to interpret the headphone experience after a while, patience crickets, and after breaking you in, it becomes a separate but worthy experience. It reminded me of how much about audio and hearing is neural accommodation.

 

[Mike Lavigne]

You're really into it
I regret I only recognize around three of the items, though

i don't do anything half way.

this is one of those things that i decided to dive all the way into to see what the true potential of it might be....like hirez multi-channel music, vintage turntables, and RTR master tapes. we know how each of those turned out. i got rid of hirez multi-channel music after 18 months, and vintage turntables lasted 5 years. RTR is here to stay.

i'm close to the end of this headphone investigation. don't be surprised if i have no headphone or headphone gear in 6 months....or maybe i will keep one set of cans and one amp. the good thing is that if purchased sensibly i can sell the stuff for what i paid for it.

 

[Ronm1]

I don't listen to phones much anymore, but for quite awhile when the kids were growing up, that was my primary venue in the evening. I still have the entry level Stax's, an Xcanv2 with mods' I did , caps, vol pot, matched Nos Mullard EC88's, upgraded supply, and a GSP Solo with upgraded supply which I like quite a bit by the way. Now that the kids are on their own I rarely use any of them.