Super Best Audio Friends

Well, probably more measurements than a formal review. Quick impressions are that on a technical level, they are somewhere between the Clear and Utopia, closer to Utopia. The Stellia is a closed variant in Focal's line, above the Elegia reviewed here: https://www.superbestaudiofriends.org/index.php?threads/focal-elegia-review-and-measurements.8190/



Personally, I prefer the Elegia from a tonal signature point of view, but the Stellia is massively better in terms of resolution, transient response, and just plain ol' liveliness and engagement. I didn't have as much time to tweak stuff as I wanted. As with any closed headphone (with the exception of properly executed Fostex T50RP mods), there's stuff that's a bit off and requires EQ to massage. The frequency response looks quite good though, but still.

The ZEN CAN Signature has an active EQ designed or the Drop HD6XX. There is a button which I assume should be able to active or deactivate this feature with a corresponding LED indicator. However, this does not appear to be work. The ZEN CAN seems stuck with the HD6XX EQ mode on. I am not sure if the unit is broken or if I do not know how to use it. Either way, I'm sure this will be remediated sooner or later.

Shame to see Garuspik banned, he had a bright future in the headphone game, nailed the timbre of a planar on his first go which is damn impressive, his comments while some funny others a bit too far and unprofessional in other places ultimately probably contributed to his banning.



This is now multiple forums and while reddit and discord aren't a big deal, headfi for marketing and here for quality impressions will hurt him. I hope in future he can come back from this but I feel he's too set in his ways to. Such a shame.

I wish I had gotten to the Burl earlier and didn't initially discount it on the matter of their sales pitch in SOS on the DAC sounding "analog" with "deliberate ... distortion". Or maybe that was the writer's lame interpretation. I was worried about warmpoo or 1984 R2R NOS sound which I most definitely wanted to avoid. It's hardly that at all. Yet at the same time, the Burl B2 Bomber DAC quite the opposite of the Benchmark or Mytek approaches (shudders).



The Burl B2 Bomber DAC is something that I simply listening to. I don't get distracted by wow this or wow that. It's not that it doesn't do certain things well as all good DACs do or have its own flavor. It's just that goes about its business nonchalant way. This isn't Zhang Zimou were the audience thinks "wow, artsy fartsy, look at all those colors and synchronized movements", this is Steven Spielberg where we are engrossed in the story.

As in they’re made to swim with. Yes. Crazy but true. One of the most well tuned headphones I’ve heard. They’re not perfect but they really just sound normal. They sound like music. Great neutral bass with good extension, gorgeous midrange, hardly any (read none for most people) upper midrange weirdness and peak free treble that lacks refinement and air. Pretty fast ish sounding iem even though it’s dynamic. Big soundstage with good separation. Lack of ultimate high end type refinement. I think that because of their good tuning they sound much better than their technical capabilities. Which is something we should see more often.

With broken in G-Cush pads, they work well enough and are tolerable, albeit on the brighter side. (I'm not a fan of the Grado sound with the G-Cush pads). However, I really love these with the TTVJ Deluxe pads. Technicality wise in terms of perceived clarity and retrieval of low level information, the HF-3 are a bit behind the RS-2, more on the SR-225 or SR-325 level. And really, we are talking about very slightly behind (still a big step up from SR-80 or SR-125). The kicker is that from a tonal balance and "refinement" point of review, the HF-3 seems more balanced holding back more in the upper-mids and mid-bass compared to other Grado models. And that makes all the difference. The HF-3 is a less raw and more grown up compared to the typical Grado.

Had this in the house roughly for ten days. Shortly speaking, the amp was surprisingly good to me.

• I argue an ultimate headphone amp should drive and sound like ECP DSHA-3F. Proximity to that specific product is largely the way how I rate headamps.
• I've consistently shown my dispreference toward opamp-based headamps. Also strongly believe that excellently measuring amps are all shit. None of Heresy, Atom, 888/789 worked for me, although heresy was noticeably better than the rest.
• As of early July in 2020, Jotunheim seems regarded as a flavor of two or more years ago. I am a member of the minority group who still likes Jot over similar alternatives such as 789. Amps listed in the second bullet point were worse than Jot in one or multiple criteria. At least for the headphones I enjoy.

I'm a bit late on this one since the Ara seemed to steal the thunder from the 2020 update to the Andromeda. Physically the dimensions are unchanged, so those with fitment issues with the nozzles being too shallow with the OG Andromeda won't find this any better. The only change that I've noticed from the OG is bore opening is a grill instead of three holes.



I will keep the subjective impressions short. While the OG Andromeda (without much tweaking and from a near zero ohm source) has a slight V-shape, the Andromeda 2020 is a dark sounding IEM. Actually quite a bit darker than the measurements below would indicate. The highs up top do sound a bit more refined, but I am not sure if this is via the tweaks since the OG Andromeda (applied to Solaris), or a function of the FR differences (more lows and less highs).

I ordered my own unit a few days ago and it should be here by the end of the week. I will post more detailed impressions but I was curious if anyone else has heard this amp.

I've been asked this a few times now so I figured I would share with how I constructed my balanced to single-ended converter using line input transformers. The sonic reasons for doing so are to provide an alternative sound for DACs which have a balanced (XLR) output where you have an amplifier or preamp that only takes unbalanced or single-ended (SE) inputs (RCA). Some DACs such as the Schiit Modius have a balanced output which is a different circuit from the SE outputs, so this method provides another option. I will not guarantee that using the converter will sound better, only possibly different. For example, if it sounds better, then all the power to you. In some instances, such as with pro audio gear DACs, we will have no choice because pro gear usually does not come with SE outputs.

The iFi Phono3 is absolutely insane. I don't even know where to start or how to explain, so I figured I will make this another one of those stream of consciousness reviews with measurements along they way. Like other iFi products, the Phono3 offers a ton of user adjust-ability, except in this case I feel it's warranted. To borrow a phrase from someone I had just spoken to regarding the Phono3, the Phono3 is geared for the tweaker or perfectionist!



I'll start first with how it sounds and keep it short and sweet. The first thing I noticed about the Phono3 is how clear and free of veil it sounded compared to practically all other phonostage unless they were super high-end or special custom jobs designed for a specific use case. iFi says the Phono3 is direct coupled design, and it certainly sounds like it. Most phono stages will have several caps in the signal path, even disregarding the caps...

I'm about to go full Al Gore on you guys because this is a discussion topic i have wanted to flesh out here for a while now
if you love music, and i mean really love it, not just as background noise - why are you still bothering with D/S converters? I feel as though there has been an increase in discussions and interest regarding D/S DACs on this forum in the past two years. I attribute this mainly to two things:

1) PRO AUDIO MEMES FOTM (AKA 50 SHADES OF GREY)
2) ASR

my perspective after 4 years
your perspective

I know all of this has been hashed out to some extent one way or another before, but i feel like an honest and stark refresher is in order. i know there are several community members who had similar experiences to me, and i would like to ask anyone who messed around with D/S converters in the past and settled on R2R as the righteous path to share their experience.