Mini-Meet - Saturday 9/3/2016 Sherman Oaks 11 to 4

I did a direct with the Rag again at Darin's table with the Utopia and same impressions from times past. Rag has more microdynamic shading and nuance. Jotunheim has better blackground / clarity and speed / crisper transients. Tonal balance is roughly the same with neither amp sounding warm or lush.

 

The last couple Ether Opens I heard were somewhat U-shaped. The Flow measurements had fat upper-bass/low-mids added at the very least. Too bad these didn't pan out, but oh well.

I thought the Mutec was pretty good in my setup, but it was running a custom LPSU, if that mattered (no idea), and I will day the Wyrd improved it still (sharper sounding).

Looks like an excellent meet! Glad you all had a good time.

 

Torpedo 3, Valhalla 2, Night Blues Mini

At @Jh4db536's table, we decided to to a showdown of three amps with tubes in them. Fed by a AMB Gamma 3 DAC via AES from OJ's Theta transport. Notice the pattern of no USB here. Headphone was Utopia. We let everything warm up for 30 minutes. Gamma 3 DAC is super resolving with great blackground, but maybe a bit raspy in the treble.

• Torpedo 3 was by far the best on an overall basis. It did everything right. There's good cause for this amp to be very popular here. I have no idea what tubes were used. The good Cinemag transformers were used.
• Valhalla 2 was a bit "sandy" in the treble. Torpedo 3 had more bass slam than Valhalla 2. But Valhalla 2 has better bass quality than Night Blues Mini. Tubes were stock on Valhalla 2. Gain was set on high. Presentation is solid-statety for lack of a better term. I actually tried a stock HD650 earlier in the day and felt it was good match. I know that a little part of the sandyness is from the Gamma 3. Wolfson's have a certain sound.
• Night Blues Mini has the best quality treble in terms of smoothness, refinement, and perhaps even the microstuff on the top end. The bass was it's achilles heel, being notably more blurry and soft compared to either Torpedo 3 and Valhalla 2. There is a slight lush coloration. The low Z output was used.

 

Thank you all for the pictures and the impressions. Sorry I couldn't make it. Family.

The wood block in that link is clearly audible through my low end 2i2 and HD600s.

I feel low level resolution is more than just distortion. That wood block sound seem to be made up of higher frequencies. Stax tend to have a pretty odd FR from high mids and up which may contribute to their sound. It is likable, Stax does do some things very well, but it may have it's short comings... like most other things.

So the RedNet is not shit? (honest question, I really dunno)

 

The SR-009 was gimped with an energizer, so not exactly fair. Even the HD650 from the Jotenheim (an amp that does the micro-stuff not as well as the Rag) fared better than the SR-009 from the energizer. All things being even, the SR-009 still drops lower level information. I don't really give a crap what other people think. I had a T2DIY with SR-009, SR-007, etc. and did way too many direct comparisons with HD800 from the Balancing Act with Voldemort. The Utopia in my opinion is even more resolving the HD800. The HD800 may have an edge in last octave resolution because it's all bumped up there, but the Utopias edge out the HD800 in terms of reproducing low level sounds in the mids.

The argument that low level information being distortion or excess decay is utterly moronic.

1. We are not listening to individual instruments. Like one wood block percussion by itself. We are listening to a faint wood block hit, or trailing decay of violin strings, in the presence of other sounds. If it's distortion or ongoing decay, everything is going to sound like smear-city.
2. Excess decay of a driver does not manifest as structured sound. Bad driver decay does not sound like a faint wood block hit or violin string decays.

Not shit. Once the RedNet was switched out where USB was in the chain... All the magic, henceforth known as the Gaurav factor, was lost.

 

Yes, Ron's running an external word block and his Mutec 3 and RedNet? has also been rejiggered by @MisterRogers to run external LPS.

ON MUTEC USB AND WARMBUTT SHITSMEAR

My comments on the Mutec 3 were it being used strictly as a USB to SPDIF converter. I plan on putting the Mutec through its paces this weekend. I get the feeling that the USB input functionality on the Mutec was an afterthought - that the Mutec should really be used as an SPDIF- SPDIF (whether via AES3 or coax) reclocker, preferably with an external master clock. As a USB to SPDIF converter, the Mutec sounded like ass, being behind in technicalities such as stage expanse, focus, transients, and dynamics, and adding an offensive warm bloom coloration, "warmbutt shitsmear", compared to my modded Marantz CDP (which is my second best source, behind the Data III). I did trying comparing to Gungnir Multibit's Gen 2 USB, and really, the Mutec USB wasn't much better. Gen 2 USB is a bit fuzzy and unfocused sounding, but that awful warm bloom crap from the Mutec cannot stand. One should seriously consider another DAC like a pcx Sonic Frontiers or an Audio GD with a cheap USB converter if one wanted that kind of sound, instead of Gungnir Multibit + Mutec. You know guys, there are a lot of other DACs out there.

The reason I mention this kind of stuff is because I don't want unsuspecting people coming in and buying a Mutec 3 for use as a USB converting thinking it's going to make the Gungnir Multibit sound "better". If anything, it sounds different. I can totally understand why some people would prefer a warmer bloomier sound; but at least I wanted to add a counterpoint to Mutec hype. And also, the context of use for some people here is totally different: mods to Mutec, external LPS, external word clock, Ethernet to SPDIF (entirely avoiding USB).

 

As part of my real job, I visited an huge sound mixing facility this week. The really cool thing about this place was that it still had an old school vibe. Most facilities these days are factories and sweatshops employing young kids who are worked to death. This place still had a mom and pop feel to it with old guys, guys 10 years older than me, behind the consoles. This place also employed its own engineers to maintain, troubleshoot, and hook up all the crap. The point I am trying to make is that these guys must have been really serious, had really good ears, and produced top notch deliverables to be able to still survive like this in 2016.

The stages and listening rooms employed KVMs at the consoles, among the VU meters, sliders, knobs, switches, etc. All the computers were located in machine rooms. At no point did I see USB used for audio. USB was strictly used for mouse and keyboard.

I have both with me. Will follow up.

 

Orpheus HE90 FTW.

 

You know he has SR Omega and HE90 now right?

I suspect his will get Utopia and sell one or the other though.