Spychedelic Whale

I actually don't feel the Zu to be that fast honestly, I'm not sure if its the duelund capacitor upgrade that it has, but I found all the klipsch Heritage line and Devore to be way faster and snappy. What makes me want to upgrade from the Zu is specially the Midrange which is honestly lacking.. not big or meaty, kinda ghostly and..that super tweeter is super fatiguing. How does the O/93 compare with O/96, exactly same type of sound but less bass ? I like to listen not too far away from the speakers, it gives me more imersion and better detail preception, maybe an habit from many years of listening to headphones. Devore doesnt sound good if I would sit like 2.5-3m away? Well I actually heard to the audionotes in the same session as the Devore, and honestly the sound is very different. The dealer said sound is similar but not really.. Devore is way more musical , more richer tone, snappier and romantic. Yeah not gonna lie they are very wood inducing. Love the looks. Yeah will have to agree. Yeah.. this is very true.. To add to this, I heard the Qacoustics concept 50 last week with a good VTL front end, probably more expensive than the 2k Qacoustics, and I must say I got a slap in the face.. honestly it kinda did everything right.. from detail to soundstage width and depth and big meaty mids , only the bass was a bit Boxy at higher vol. Still better technicalities than Deville. For this reason I'm still looking for what's there, and trying weirder brands but the devore has something very special that is trying to bypass my brain.

My last thread here was about the Zus which I ended up buying used, the Soul Supreme, for a nice deal and I'm ready to move up the game.. Enter the Devore. I have been on a killing spree listening to speakers to find my next purchase and so far the only ones I liked were the Devore O/96 and Fleetwood Deville. So.. I'm curious if any of you guys heard the O/96 and O/baby ? The O/baby really is way cheaper than the O/96 that I loved but the store here doesn't carry them.. given that the O/baby has same new tweeter as their more expensive Reference and same woofer as the O/96 but smaller cabinet, maybe they could represent even a step up in sound or similar one. Also if you guys think I should try some other speaker brand shoot me.

I got to listen the "China Dac" Spring 3 KTE, this one has really black background and bucket loads of decay, and very good micro detail, it's impressive. Negative thing is, it can sound too soft and not very engaging. Yggy is the antithesis with its fun sound but at an lower technical capability.

Have it here now comparing with Yggy A2, its very good indeed.

That was my thinking too

It was mostly the micro details, micro dynamics,coherance with busy passages and tone. I remember specially on the track James Blake - The Willhelm Scream, to be really surprised by the way it rendered all those small details popping, the separation, depth and keeping track of everything so well. With the terminator really didn't get the hype, though it was too soft without the same lvl of microdynamics and digging low level detail as the Yggy. The second best was the La voce, really really open soundstage but felt less detailed, still very enjoyable.

I have been in a frenzy recently listening to the "new" bestest dacs to upgrade Spring 2/RME. I heard the Denafrips Terminator I, Yggy A1, Hugo TT2 and Aqua La Voce V3. I listened them all with KGSSHV+007. This was not a perfect testing as I only had about 1 hour or less with each. The one that impressed me more was the Yggy A1.

Also late to the party..Utopia is the first headphone that I actually think it's kinda worth an hi-end price, game changer to this ears. The only negative point is the hot treble, but that could just be the amp. Which amps are known to pair well with them?

@Playmusic I don't get it. If you are afraid you are choosing an costlier amp just because it has higher SPL, then just lower the volume on more expensive one and if you think the less expensive amp now sounds better, then your wallet thanks you.

Why, build quality? It was in portugal, but funny enough those Soul Supreme are going to Spain for an audition I was told.

Thanks for the suggestion I will check them out. Today I went to a store that Had the Zu Omen DefII and oh yes.. do they rock.. they obviously sound bigger, the only problem is their "wife acceptance factor", it is not so good, being much bigger than the others and they use the same drivers of the Omen and DIrty weekend so sound shouldn't be that different, from memory they aren't. Did you hear other models ? I also listened to the Soul Supreme, and damn.. this is a big step up from all the other models. The detail is amazing but still keeping that emotional engagement, the plates/drums hit so hard and poor recordings were still very enjoyable. They just push your focus entirely to the small details without any effort, the Def II, Omen and Dirty Weekend were a more of relaxed listening kind of sound compared to the Supreme, that is. Honestly I am not sure if such detailed focused sound doesn't get tiring after some hours, if I had the money I could see having one of the other models when feeling for a more relaxed session to complement the hyper detailed Supreme. I listened them with Leben 300 Tube Amp and RME Dac-2 FS. hmm I will look into classifieds.

After years of only Headphone listening, I'm finally jumping on the speaker party. Coming from the headphone hi.end I must say it has been pretty disappointing on the performance side with speakers..Most need to get the volume up to lvls where it gets shouty or annoying to get some kinda engaging sound and most just sound thin.. specially if music is not perfect jazz records, some get crazy details but again, music is nowhere engaging. Enter the Zu's, I heard the Zu Omen Dirty Weekend II on the dealer(have never heard of them) and loved the sound, totally different from most known brands, this speakers can truly rock. They have such a dynamic and forward sound, the mid range is a bit in your face. All this without sounding too aggressive or bright, paired with an Hegel. Also heard them with the Leben tube amp and the system just turned to a very sweet tone while still keeping all that force. Very engaging speaker, it kinda reminds me the type of sound of the HP1000 which is my favorite headphone for the kind of music I listen mostly, rock and metal. Now I'm curious about the higher models, unfortunately the dealer has no stock and is only ordering after purchase. So I'm wondering if any of you have any experience with this brand models, or know other speakers with this kind of sound? btw, to my taste they look rather beautiful specially for such entry price:

One of the new ss amps, att home i used with an kgss and kgsshv carbon so I dont think thats it.

I went to a dealer looking for speakers and I ended up hearing the 007 they had on demo just while I was waiting for my turn. To my surprise I really enjoyed the sound and sounded different than the 007s MK1 and mk2 I had. To my ears the 007 has been always boring and the sound too soft/in the back, but this one was forward but still smooth, I enjoyed it. It was a silver one recently ordered from Japan and the serial number SZ2, wasn't suppose the new ones to be SZ3 ? Has stax upgraded the 007?

I never heard an HiEnd universal so I'm curious if you though the campfire could get near the Custom JH13. Going universal with be less hassle with the ear molds thing.

Decided finally to get some iems but I have been out of the loop for some time, so not sure if JH13/16 are still the thing to get or there's new king in town. You guys know what's up or just settled with the JH and never looked back ?

So one has to be spritzer and have followed all the changes for years to tell if it's the last version or just know if was built after 2015, that's it?

Thanks!

Some years ago I entered a group buy for the @kevin gilmore stepped attenuator board and ended in the draw until now . Today I'm having a carbon built and would like to use it but dunno if there is any code avaliable for it and instructions on how to program it. Is there any resource?

Their Instagram story sure is compelling https://www.instagram.com/kaldasresearch/ Now we will just have to wait for spritzer meh or yeh.

What is the serial number, from what I understand the one to get now a days is the sz3?

@MASantos Well this dealer its actually one person show as it was the stax dealer before him who actually used his house to show the gear. When the price difference is about 1k or more.. Also there are more stores selling it much cheaper on europe who also pay employees, but I understand where u are coming from.

@Torpedo Yeah always learning. That's exactly how he works.. asked to listen L-700, told me it was too expensive to ask one just to listen unless he needed to make a big order and that could take months, even a year.. also if I were to purchase it I would need the 50% deposit.. and wait.. to arrive This dealer crys that so few people buy stax products but like you said they seem to forget we are in European Union and the market its now global, people will look before buying, no wonder they won't sell with those prices and this kind of service. Rant off..