Can the advances in headphone design we have seen in the last few years, can they really give us a sound that can compete with the best speaker systems?
I make no bones about it, I have been a headphone fan for many years, and use both every day. I enjoyed both equally. And I would be hard pressed to have to choose which I had to stuff in a boat to take to my desert island. In my opinion, the top headphones have got really close to the best speaker systems in terms of both emotional connection and enjoyment, and technical performance.
I went through the Stax electrostatics from the early Lambda mcdels, Lambda Signature, 007 MK1, 007 MK2, 009, 009s. Plus many electrostatic amplifiers both bought and made as DIY.
Electrostatics have a marvellous sense if timing and delicacy, micro detail is all right there, nothing seems to be lost. The challenge with most electrostatics for me, is the bass. It is there, it has extension down to below 20hz, but it DOES NOT have the drive to support it. It just doesn't sound like real bass, more a flat and weaker impression it is there.
Then after various visits to Can-Jam and hifi meets, I moved over to Planars with the LCD and conventional headphone amplifers. The thing that got me to do that was quite odd I guess, it was on hearing the Sennheiser HE1 headphone 50K system. That is an eletrostatic headphone and tube amplifier, but it has all the transparency you would expect from a top electrostatic, but really realistic bass and bass drive. Having heard that sound, I then used it as my 'target' and found the planars got the closest to it.
Now it has all gone a bit crazy. I am using the Aries Cerat Genus SET integrated, to drive the Audeze LCD4 directly off the OPT. The Genus has a 1/4 socket on the back for this purpose.
I can tell you, 100% that the sound out of this combination is beyond the level of the Sennheiser HE-1 system. It has the detail and speed, but more realistic mids and really solid placement of the soundstage. I can listen for hours with this combination.
Enter the Abyss TC planar magnetic headphone. This has the bass and creamy mids of the LCD4, but crucially the faster treble of the very best electrostatics, and the biggest soundstage I have ever heard on any headphone, even beyond the soundstage king - the Sennheiser HD800/820.
Here it is being powered off the back of the Moon 600i 125W integrated, which equates to about 12W at 33ohms for the Abyss impedance load. It sound marvellous.
The Abyss out of the Genus is up another notch, with typical tube goodness and accuracy of tone, yet the same bass control of the Moon 600i amplifier.
Piching this against my Zingali horns, it is close, different and yet similar. There is a lot more in common than not, which tells me the Abyss has nailed it, broke out of the 'in your head' type of presentation, and matched sonically to a decent speaker. There are some things the Abyss actually does better in my opinion. There is more detail and a closer connection to the music, if you are ok about headphone use in general. It is a nice way to enjoy music, one that is in recent years advanced so much.
Thoughts welcome....
The Abyss TC is without doubt the ultimate headphone.
I make no bones about it, I have been a headphone fan for many years, and use both every day. I enjoyed both equally. And I would be hard pressed to have to choose which I had to stuff in a boat to take to my desert island. In my opinion, the top headphones have got really close to the best speaker systems in terms of both emotional connection and enjoyment, and technical performance.
I went through the Stax electrostatics from the early Lambda mcdels, Lambda Signature, 007 MK1, 007 MK2, 009, 009s. Plus many electrostatic amplifiers both bought and made as DIY.
Electrostatics have a marvellous sense if timing and delicacy, micro detail is all right there, nothing seems to be lost. The challenge with most electrostatics for me, is the bass. It is there, it has extension down to below 20hz, but it DOES NOT have the drive to support it. It just doesn't sound like real bass, more a flat and weaker impression it is there.
Then after various visits to Can-Jam and hifi meets, I moved over to Planars with the LCD and conventional headphone amplifers. The thing that got me to do that was quite odd I guess, it was on hearing the Sennheiser HE1 headphone 50K system. That is an eletrostatic headphone and tube amplifier, but it has all the transparency you would expect from a top electrostatic, but really realistic bass and bass drive. Having heard that sound, I then used it as my 'target' and found the planars got the closest to it.
Now it has all gone a bit crazy. I am using the Aries Cerat Genus SET integrated, to drive the Audeze LCD4 directly off the OPT. The Genus has a 1/4 socket on the back for this purpose.
I can tell you, 100% that the sound out of this combination is beyond the level of the Sennheiser HE-1 system. It has the detail and speed, but more realistic mids and really solid placement of the soundstage. I can listen for hours with this combination.
Enter the Abyss TC planar magnetic headphone. This has the bass and creamy mids of the LCD4, but crucially the faster treble of the very best electrostatics, and the biggest soundstage I have ever heard on any headphone, even beyond the soundstage king - the Sennheiser HD800/820.
Here it is being powered off the back of the Moon 600i 125W integrated, which equates to about 12W at 33ohms for the Abyss impedance load. It sound marvellous.
The Abyss out of the Genus is up another notch, with typical tube goodness and accuracy of tone, yet the same bass control of the Moon 600i amplifier.
Piching this against my Zingali horns, it is close, different and yet similar. There is a lot more in common than not, which tells me the Abyss has nailed it, broke out of the 'in your head' type of presentation, and matched sonically to a decent speaker. There are some things the Abyss actually does better in my opinion. There is more detail and a closer connection to the music, if you are ok about headphone use in general. It is a nice way to enjoy music, one that is in recent years advanced so much.
Thoughts welcome....
The Abyss TC is without doubt the ultimate headphone.
