Source A/V Event in Torrance, CA

Just saw this now. I think I can make it out there. I'll at least recognize a couple of Head Fi people at least...

 

I should be there. I really don't worry about who I should avoid or what not, and alot of that fanboi behavior is "internet tough guy" crap anyway. You'll be fine. Not like you're going to announce your presence and restate that post to everyone there.

Besides, what would you expect from folk who do up their reviews on HF using the words "sounds excellent" and "musical" as the basis for their review.

 

Interesting. Might be a good opportunity to check out the Noble Savant. And to see whether Questyle has cleaned up the UI issues that made me run away from their table at Can Jam at the Westin in March.

 

I'll be there with the short blonde wife. Wanna checkout the dharma and the savants.

 

Should be there. I'm curious to AB LCD4 and Dharma against HD800

 

Best to integrate impressions into this thread as I don't suppose we're going to have that many

Headphone stuff

EnigmaAcoustics Dharma

For anyone keeping track there have been a few different variants of the Dharma for folks to demo. At CanJam Socal 2015 many of us heard it first, and I am told that was the "pre-pre production" version. This is where I first heard the Dharma. Then there was the version at THE Show Irvine which was the "pre-production". I never heard this. The version I heard today was production, which is the same version that was at Big Sound with Tyll as well as other bigtime reviewers I am told. I'll lay things out simply

+ Great soundstage depth and width. I think these guys definitely took some cues from the HD800's cup design to achieve this
+ Reasonably neutral. Not the smoothest headphone in the treble and upper mids but it's well balanced
+ Good cohesiveness. This was my biggest complaint when I heard it at CanJam. Things have improved incredibly since then in this area. I remember listening to "Get Lucky" and noting how the bass seemed like it was a good 0.5s behind the tweeter. That problem is gone. It's still not perfectly seemless but I'm not sure if it can even get any better for a 2-way headphone

- The dynamic driver. Simply put the woofer is not as clean and capable as what I would expect. It's not on the same level as the electret element. This hurts overall resolution and clarity. I wish they could put something awesome like a TH900 driver in there
- Vocals. Not quite right to me. Like added syrup and euphonic components. Possibly an amp problem but it might be that woofer's lack of refinement slowing things down

Hard for me to give this an unreserved recommendation because they're competing with HD800, etc. but I think this is a solid headphone and I hope it sells well. I can only hope for more cool stuff from these guys.

Audeze LCD-4

So four of us got to sit down and AB the LCD-4 next to my modded HD800 for a good amount of time. Both Questyle mono block amp and SimAudio were used. Not going to go into that as they're both mediocre amps but I think the Sim was more than good enough for the purpose of the comparisons. Really no surprises here for those that can already guess. Same Audeze house sound. HD800 destroys the LCD4 in clarity, ease, speed, resolution, etc. etc. I was getting LCD3F-esque flashbacks of epic fail.

+Phat bass brah

- Lack of control and precision
- Seeping warmth
- Lack of top-end

The topic of LCD4 vs. HE1000 came up after, which is probably a more fair and appropriate comparison at the end of the day. Nick (velvet) mentioned he'd prefer the HE1000. I wasn't sure, but I might give it to the LCD4 because at least it's got some bigger balls as opposed to the softer Chinese sound. Would be interesting to do a direct comparison.

Noble Savant

+ Decent tone and integration

- Not particularly dynamic or resolving for price. Warmer sounding that I remember the K10 or 4 being.

I checked the Head-Fi reviews because this is a bit of an odd-one to place in their product line (Noble's product line doesn't make sense to me in the first place as I don't believe in side-grades or mid-fi purgatorial masturbation). People saying all sort of weird shit like there's no bass (I thought the bass had a fairly warm, bloomy quality to it i.e. not bass-lite) and/or great detail/resolution (I thought resolving and transparent qualities were behind my reference IEMs) so take my impressions for what you will. I still think folks are better off with Tenores or DBA02 clones. To Noble's credit, their multi-way stuff is pretty cohesive and well integrated.

Questyle QP1(R) DAP

Questyle gear was everywhere today as this event was sponsored by them. (Big thanks if you guys are reading this). After hearing everything they have to offer in various rigs, I feel safe saying that their DAP is their best offering. At CanJam I took the time to compare the 1 and 1R models. I came to conclusion that the 1R was actually a bit warmer and less to my liking than the 1. Today I came away with the impression that the two were more similar sounding than I remember. I was later told that the 1R was tweaked since I last heard it which might explain things. Regardless I think the DAP is good stuff sonically. I'd definitely put it as less bright than say...an AK Jr....but not as forgiving and soft as something like the Pono. The UI makes sense to me and the price isn't outrageous. It's going to be on my watch list as I still need to find a suitable DAP to replace my Zune.

Stax Booth (Questyle D/A -> Questyle Pre -> SRM-007tii -> SR009)

No. Just no. Even n3rdling won't defend this shit.

McIntosh Headamp dealio + McIntosh branded Beyer

My HD800 plugged into this bad boy was the best sound I heard today. McIntosh seems to get a lot of shit from audiophiles probably because their aesthetic is hate/love or because they've become "mainstream" but I've never thought their amps were bad sounding. This amp is a pretty damn good match with the HD800 and the selectable autoformer windings offer some good flexibility for different headphone loads. This system had some real dynamics and life to it.

As far as the Beyer-in-a-new-dress goes, same ol' stuff. Treble peakiness is still there. Not on same level of refinement compared to HD800.

 

Speaker stuff


Pearl Evolution Linea Victor

These didn't stack up. Funny sounding midrange distracts you. Imaging is poor.

Out of curiousity we plugged the HD800 directly into the McIntosh pre and things improved drastically. Some minor nitpicks with the turntable + cartridge (we suspect) but an order of magnitude below the speakers

MBL 116

I had been turned off to MBL by randoms who told me they were earsheeringly bright. But I was flabbergasted when I heard these for real. Very neutral, spot on tonality. Woah. Great inviting midrange presentation. Woah. Great articulation on strings and space between notes. Woah Microdynamics supreme. True transparency. Woah. BOOOM!............WTF! These had a really bad spotlit bass mode somewhere down there. Fortunately it didn't impose on the rest of the signature. There's something to this omni thing. Hearing this has me thinking of building an omni speaker as my next project. But I also have to wonder how much of what I'm hearing is coming from the naturally excellent tweeter thingy, or the omni polar dispersion pattern.

BTW if you play poorly mastered pop crap it will be revealed for what it is.....crap. Proof below. Note fancy pants CD clamp.


Focal Utopia

Sorry for bad lighting. These win points for being pretty damn neutral. Unfortunately they lacked the air and articulation we had just experienced with the MBLs. It did seem to me that the bass was more in control with better heft and refinement. Not a bad speaker, but I think the speaker might actually be too big for its own good and hurting imaging and other qualities.

 

OJneg, I like you.

 

Extra

Can never complain about free food and booze, especially when it's with friends. This meet had a really cool vibe since it was so much smaller than CanJam stuff. Not a ton of new stuff to check out but plenty of time to parse through everything and share thoughts.

Great seeing/talking to others....iMeme, velvet, n3rdling, burns, abernardi, burns, and everyone else I forgot.

 

Don't worry, we can fix that.

I listen to everything from gangsta rap to traditional sitar compositions. I believe for the purpose of that comparison we had "Get Lucky", "Dreams" (Fleetwood Mac), and "Tears In Heaven" (Clapton Live). LCD4 had phat bass in the sense that it was so messy and uncontrolled like it was just resonating everywhere. Didn't know when to stop. In terms of impactful slam there are a few who feel the HD800 does that better than the Audezes.

Also, impressions updated.