Noob audio journey

I'm really looking forward to the next LARGE scale SBAF meet, so we can entice people from far and wide to show up.

We're spoiled in SoCal and can have nano/micro-meets fairly easily.

I can't imagine the logistics nightmare to organize, but I'm willing to volunteer at the bar cough cough, I mean beverage area next time. As long as it's in the socializing 2-channel room.

 

...and I’ll bring some decent single malts for the “beverage area”.

 

I would love to attend a SBAF meet, put some faces to the avatars, swap stories, check out cool gear and drink some good bourbon. Being in the Midwest makes it difficult to attend the big shows except for Axpona.

 

I'm so glad that I found SBAF before getting to this level of nervosa. I'm honestly not really tempted to buy any other DACs or amps. I do plan on buying a Schiit Sol when it comes out to check out vinyl and eventually buy some good efficient speakers to go with my AF, but I think I'm pretty much done with headphone gear.

 

Now that you guys have an overview of where I'm coming from let's continue. So, thinking about calling it quits but I still persisted mostly because I can and my curiosity get's the best of me most times. This was my setup at the time http://tinypic.com/r/auxtfq/9
As luck will have it I managed to win an auction of a pair of wywires platinum xlr interconnects for around 300. I wanted to hear what the differences between this and my DIY cables were. The stratus and WA5 are single ended only so I soldered some adapters without wires http://i64.tinypic.com/10cntdf.jpg.I went with if it looks stupid but it works it's not stupid.
At the same time I found the only 2A3 tube I wanted but didn't have, AVVT mesh plate. The pair had a loose base which the seller disclosed but I was a bit worried as I've never had this problem on any tube so I didn't know if it's an issue long term:
https://giphy.com/gifs/woDbSb2I2JgKAxFL2b
In this case glue is a no no because as most are not heath resistant and will even expand and may crack the glass allegedly. My solution was high temperature gasket silicone, the stuff used for ovens. It was a bit of a gamble but I added a good amount around the glass and base and let it dry overnight. The results were better than I expected and it may even add some vibration dampening if that matters. The base is solid with low to moderate twisting force. http://tinypic.com/r/o9egdi/9

When it came time for the listening test I was a bit disappointed since on most of my cans it was a bit bright.

A few days went by and I got a good price from HF on a wywires red HD650 cable. I wanted to see in what way these can be improved with an aftermarket cable as everything else in my heard had one.
They arrived with the platinum interconnects so I hooked them up for a listen with the my modded HD650 and the Stratus. The sound caught my attention immediately. It was unusually wide with good depth but not diffuse like the HD800 and the best mid tonality I've heard ever. The high end was a little grainy but I was more than intrigued as I've never heard anything close to this before.
My thoughts turned on tube rolling. I was using the 422A rectifier and I had already tested all my rectifiers and it was easily the best on both the stratus and the WA5.
So I started to roll input tubes. I have over 20 6BQ7A and 6N1P but I only did a couple a day to avoid too many startups on the power tubes.
I gave up with the 6BQ7A tubes as they were overly warm and the initial listening was done with a random 6N1P.
The 6N1P were much more like it and during tube rolling I've never heard the differences so clearly. Before this the input tube made a subtle differences but nothing major. But here I could clearly here how each of the 6 6N1P variants changed the sound. A few stood out like the single wire 6N1P, cryo 6N1P-EV but after a week of comparing the 6N1P-E was best.
I was intrigued that changing anything like the rectifier, the wywires platinum, the input tube took the magic away. The only explanation I have is that I've hit on the motherload of synergies.

No matter how hard I tried to focus on the technicalities I was always distracted by the shear enjoyment of the setup and spent many late hours just listening to albums I've never liked before. Toe tapping was one thing but I used to sit up and mash the air guitar as hard as I could and singing with the artist. I'm shit at describing sound in the way you guys are used but here is what I heard.
Instrument separation like nothing else. Each and I do mean each instrument has it's own very distinct space in the soundstage without even a hint of overlapping. Until now I never realised this because most appeared to be on the same plane but the HD650 makes it 3D where voices and different instruments have their own layer. I guess this is depth but it is deeper than even the Abyss.
The soundstage I feel extends almost 180 degrees. Here's a shitty visual on everything else with some variance and the HD650

On voices i don'et hear them warm or cool, th sound just right with every single microdetail easily audible. Easiest way I can put is they sound natural as f**k.
The high end is chameleon like. On everything else if it was rolled off or bright it maintained that character regardless of the track. On this they go from a bit dark to extended to the heavens, very track dependent. I do like my treble a little dark(I have no idea what neutral sounds like) but they tick all the boxes. No fatigue even on 8+ hours. Only the HD800 has better detail but it does it in a not so nice way as the edger are sharper than the HD800.
Bass is still typical 650M with the slight midbass hump and rolled off and I don't care one bit. It has enough presence to be more than adequate except for dubstep and the likes but even those are a joy because of the midrange. More so I feel the slight punch of acoustic guitar strings the way a live guitar does.
When I had the LCD-3PF I though that was the best you can do but I got to hear a lice Christmas song with around 10 voices and a guitar around 10 feet from me. Let's say it was the first time I realised headphones are shit to reproduce an actual live performance mainly because the string vibrations on the audeze sounded fake and without the subtle punch.
Mostly it's because I don't hear anything I don't like, nothing to distract me and I have a bucket load of soundstage and detail goodness.
I have no idea why it's so enjoyable to me as I feel it goes beyond technicalities just because I don't care for them when listening to this setup.

Next step is to validate these claims. I've had many initial wow moments just to fade away in weeks or days and I wanted to find out what made this setup so good and how it compares to my other cans.

P.S, thanks all for the recommendations. As for the gear I didn't just pick the top posts on head-fi. All my gear expect for the stratus, headphones and dac was bought used. The WA5 was a very good price and I wanted to see what the 300B was all about and I knew I would sell it eventually. The woo hate goes both ways, unless I hear it for myself it's just a theoretical argument unless I hear it myself or I know someone with the same tastes as me who I trust. The same goes for everything else, when there is some hype on anything if I find it worthy I will give it a try. No one finds they favourite car or holiday on the first couple of tries.

 

So, I put the HD650 in it's box and started listening to everything again. I build an rca splitter with neotech occ wire so I could use the pavane with both amps or at least doing two at a time.
On the Stratus I used the 422A with my best input tubes and rolling each power tube in my collection. This would be Sylvania S/Dual flat plate, Ken Rad, KR, EML solid, Psvane WE275, Silversone and RCA single plate, Fivre dual and single plate and the AVVT. The WA5 had Sophia carbon and royal 300B and Elrogs with TSRP and U52. The Moon 600i was also used with and without resistors. The mid fi amps were project ember with around 25 tubes, the trilogy 931 and my dual TBI running as pseudo monoblocks with resistors if I had hum.
I ran each headphone with all the tube combinations until I found the best one for each can on the tube side.
Just as I started the P5 crapped out on me. It started to randomly disconnect power while both tube amps were running. I could have won the jumping olympics on how fast I switch off the power. Thank you UK plugs for the manual switch on every socket.
I'm using the P5 to have stable 230V as my power goes from 225 to 247 and I do care about my tubes.
I had to use my Power inspired regen which introduced a bit of haziness but I didn't have any other choice. As far as I know the week part of it are the cheap DC-AC converters.
The listening continued and I had a very clear picture of how the Eikon,HD800,LCD-3F,LCD-4 and Abyss sounded and I did enjoy them over the couple of weeks. The Eikon was best for mids being quite similar to the HD650 when ran from the Moon. In the end the Abyss was best out of the group even with it's shitty treble.

I wasn't sure what to expect after a one month break from the HD650 on it's synergy setup but suffice to say they completely won me over again. When I started to compare the HD650 with the others on their best gear I usually ended up just enjoying music on them and didn't care for the comparisons anymore. Everything else sounded flat and dull as I feel the HD650 has the best dynamics meaning the transitions between low and high volume was best.
Another thing I noticed is that they never felt out of breath even on the most congested tracks. Within temptation - Jillian and Nightwish Nemo were my benchmarks here. Even the LCD-4 didn't have enough separation between instruments as the HD650.
Fun fact the HD650 is my second cheapest item in my whole setup where only the input tube is less expensive. Even my power and interconnect cables are more expensive.

I was finally at peace and decided to get rid of the LCD3/4, Eikon, Abyss, Moon and Woo without remorse.

Next I wanted to see what made the 650 so exceptional.

 

I had an assumption the wywires red cable had something to do with it so I reterminated all my cables and ordered the platinum version as well.
The cables in question were Norne Zoetic and Draug2, Wywires platinum and red,DHC complement 4.
The Zoetic and Draug made everything too soft, the platinum had better punch but it messed up the high end where it was too bright and the soundstage was a bit weird. The 1K dhc cable was the closest to the red but the midrange was a bit recessed and it had just a bit of softness. Long term the RED cable was the clear winner as it's the only one with that particular magic.
I took this opportunity to hardwire the HD800 with the DHC to see what that is all about. In short it's worth as it is an upgrade as many here have stated but poor value.

The upside is that I've replaced all the tubes with my backups just to rule out any unicorn tubes. Thankfully it sounded the same.
Seeing as I couldn't touch anything on the setup without messing it up I focused on the HD650. When I did the mod over a year ago I followed various posts here on what to do but in the end I tuned them by ear with how much dynamat was used and where(spider cage was not removed). I also have the coin mod and no foam at the back.

I got another HD650 to KISS them and another red cable. The KISS mode is more punchy but had less treble fines where cymbals and stuff were a bit coarse. The soundstage was smaller with less details in the voices. On voice details I'm referring to the subtle cues on breathing in and out and the super slight variations on the same note as the singer tries to maintain it. With this out of the way I applied dynamat in the same location added the coin mode but it still wasn't the same. It got closed but still no cigar. I noticed the pads on my first pair were worn out and after a pad change the new pair was a bit better. This could only because the drivers were closer to my ears but it still wasn't the same. I remember reading about this from the mysphere 3.1 designer and how the driver distance affects the sound. It's kinda like the idea behind the K1K.
Next I remembered I originally bent the headphone to avoid the death grip and the newer pair had a much stronger clamp. After the headband adjustment it was a bit better. Interesting we get so many adjustment but nothing for the distance between the driver and ear.

I now have another HD6XX to try and replicate the mod in the most minute detail in the hope it sounds the same.
I also got the HD600 but sent it back after two weeks. I let them run in for 3 days but in the end the bass was lacking too much, midrange was a bit cool but very clear, the treble a bit forward and without the wide soundstage. Stock I like the HD600 more than the HD650.

Now if I was on a island I would take the HD650 and my setup over everything else. In the end I feel like a a huge weight has been lifted since my 10 year search has finally ended when I though it couldn't. Granted I'm sure this setup caters for my specific preferences and I'm not in any way saying it's the end all and be all for everyone. It's just for me. I've now had this setup for a couple of months and it's as enjoyable as the first day. I cannot say the same for any of my other cans.

In the present day I've bought the Yggdrasil again but haven't had a chance to compare it properly to see how much the pavane influences the sound in all this but I will do just before the A2 upgrade is ready. Of course this doesn't mean I would listen to anything else. The dream setup is here to stay but I'm still curious on how other cans sound, mostly older stuff. I'm not touching audeze,hifiman the new senns but I've recently got the K1000 and the Apex Teton for which I hope do to a review soonish.

http://tinypic.com/r/1y4ra1/9

This is my journey and I hope you find yours. A bit thanks to SBAF for guiding me in the last year and for the HD650 love you guys have, otherwise I would have dismissed it.

 

So you had the regular Abyss, but not the Phi version correct?
The Phi supposedly fixed the treble & added more mid-range. Not to get you doubting about your systems again lol.

 

Shhh! Don't poke the sleeping dragon.

 

Really glad you found something you like.
I think a lot of people could learn from your experience.

 

I never heard the Phi but I was on the upgrade list. There is a lot of detail I had to cut out from the story otherwise it would have been 50 pages and not enough images. I know the Phi should fix the high end but the Abyss was a pain to listen to and not because of how it sounded. If I moved my head just slightly I would lose the goldilocks positioning so I had to constantly readjust it. My big head surely was a factor here. This includes things like reaching for my coffee, phone etc. You couldn't even masturbate properly with them on so something had to give.
In the end it it was the lack of microdetail just as purr1n explained that made me sell them...twice.

 

Headphones for pron thread, anyone?

 

giggity giggity friendly headphones