humanflyz

Haha, there's a chance that your Dynahi is my old Dynahi

Peter, I had a hard time letting go of the lack of power on the Opera's part. It just didn't have enough headroom for me, and consequently the sound felt somewhat lifeless and flat to me, because there is just not enough dynamics for my own tastes. And also, I think the Opera might have had an easier time driving your high-efficiency AT cans than the Hd650s and K701s, both of which are pretty inefficient. I wish I had some easier to drive headphones when I tested the Opera, but what can you do you know? But what perplexes me is how people on Head-Fi claim that the K701+Opera combo is good; it is anything but. The K701s sound boring enough on their own, and then you add an amp with low power: the result is a pretty boring, lifeless sound.

It's technically not my loaner; rather, TTVJ loaned it to Granodemostasa, who let me have it for a week. Now it's back to him. I don't know how long he will have it. If you are going to be here, hit me up, because I am going to have some new stuff coming in.

So I've had about a week of listening time with TTVJ's loaner Corda Opera, and tonight some people came over to hear it as well. Basically we were pretty disappointed by it: it just did not have enough power plain and simple. I tried both the HD650s and the K701s, and the Opera had trouble driving them to levels that I consider acceptable. For some of my harder hitting music, I had to use up the entire range on the volume pot on high gain to get enough dynamic swing out of the K701s (of course the K701s are dynamic to begin with). It's a little bit better with the HD650s, but the sound just reminds me of every other mid-fi SS gear I've heard: which is to say, nothing offensive but nothing special either. Overall I felt it was a ho-hum amp with not enough balls. And I laugh at people on Head-Fi who claim that the 3-channel/active ground topology of the Opera can compete with a real balanced circuit. Oh how wrong they are! The GS-X handily handed wiped the floor with the Opera on the HD650s balanced. I especially like this guy's comment: "The only thing I have heard that may be in a higher class is the KGSS/ O2 combo." Statements like this seriously makes me wonder how many good stuff most Head-Fi users have actually heard in their own homes. But still, build quality is not bad. For $1000, it's a decent amp/DAC combo. But like someone at my place said after he heard the Opera: it's mid-fi to the max.

I don't get your logic billy: they can both be used as headphone amps right? If then, why can't you do a comparison between them and test them as headphone amps?

Yeah, it basically upsamples to 2xDSD. And it does, in fact, sound incredible. However, I find myself leaning toward the Esoteric side of things, because I find their players to be incredibly resolving and transparent, while the EMM Lab stuff leans ever slightly toward the euphonic. Of course it's not like I can afford either the DCC2 or the P-03/D-03 combo.

Bump So has anyone tried tube-rolling with this thing? This has the right size for my summer needs.

SPOILER Due what a fucking mind-fuck this episode was! Totally did not see it coming SPOILER

But at least you've found a headphone to build around, and that's probably the most important step anyways. Everything else just sort of falls into line after that.

The surest way is to find someone whose taste agrees with yours--so far that has not failed me. For example, I think J-Pak's taste in both gear and music agree a lot with mine, so now I'm saving up for a pair of HP2s when they become available.

And thus Head-Fi becomes even more commercialized

This season has been highly inconsistent: some great episodes like the Ecko's death, Locke episode, and then some really really really shitty ones, like the Jack and Kate flashbacks. But it's been picking up as of late: some actual story-telling as opposed to pure filler.

It's coming out on April 24th, and it's not exactly cheap: $29.99 on MoFi's website, $5 dollars off if you pre-order from Amazon.

Who else is looking forward to the SACD release of Surfer Rosa? I have high hopes for this one, since it's supposed to be re-mastered from the original analog tapes, and it's MoFi, so at least on paper, it looks like a winning combination.

300mW into 30 ohms should be plenty to drive Grados right? The Apogee website, however, doesn't say anything about the output impedance.

Not a company technically speaking, it's a non-profit, non-partisan organization (www.pogo.org)

Oh yeah, I totally forgot about the Opera, will go read Iron_Dreamer's review now

Well, I got a summer internship in DC, so I am in need of a simple DAC+amp unit that does the job decently. The only one that I could think of was the GCHA, but I haven't actually heard the unit, but I read some good comments here from Reks in older threads. I will be running off its USB connection, driving RS-1s and HD650s. Any impressions would be fine.

The OP can always get Mikhail to add a gain switch when he sends the PPX back to add the pre-amp output so he has room to play with volume.

I think someone on Head-Fi wrote something a looonngg time ago when he used the ASL transformer-box. You'd have to dig it up, because I'm lazy. I think the product is called ASL UHC-1? Or something like that

Oh btw, I'm not a particular Stello fanboy, but all the products that I have heard from them makes me respect them as a company: it's all no-frills, well thought-out, no-nonsense products that perform well. They just seem like a sensible company whose product line-up makes sense, and the build quality is top-notch.

If you want a simple system (consisting of a source, headphone amp/pre-amp, and power-amp), have you checked out the Stello stack? The stack is a three-piece system: 1) Stello DA100: Upsampling DAC with USB input I have the Stello DP220, which uses the Stello DA200 for its DAC section. I've heard from respectable sources (Iron_Dreamer in particular) that the single-ended analog output sounds pretty much the same. If that is the case, then the Stello DA100 is going to be a pretty nice source. 2) Stello HP100 I've heard this one: it's a pretty good SS headphone amp: had no trouble driving regular headphones with two gain-switches. It is a decent pre-amp: two inputs and a pre-amp out. 3) Stello S100: 50W per channel power-amp. Never heard this one, but judging from other Stello products, this should be a pretty decent, no-nonsense product with good build quality. And of course, you can bet that this stack will have synergy, since they were designed to be used together. It might stretch your budget, but you should get a pretty decent-to-good stack that doesn't take up too much space, has pretty convenient features, and transportable. Check out their website: HiFi500.com

Those must be a bitch to drive

So I got the RS-1s last night, and I'm not hearing any of the usual pejoratives that people usually throw at RS-1s: bright, harsh, no soundstage, etc. All I'm hearing is a warm, seductive, and intimate sound; and this is from a less-than-optimal setup. And the soundstage thing is hugely overrated: RS-1s have depth, and while the size isn't as big, they don't have that two-blob effect that my Senns have. But really, the RS-1s just draw me into the music. Case in point: last night before going to sleep, I thought I would play one album first. So I put on the KT Tunstall album, listened to it all the way through and it sounded really great. So then I decide to play another album, this time Eric Clapton's Unplugged. Listened to it all the way through, sounded great, and then decided to play another album. So the next thing I know, I've finished two more albums and it was 5 o'clock in the morning Now I'm just looking for a tube amp, and I'm wondering what people think about the WooAudio6: http://www.wooaudio.com/products/wa6.html

Speaking of headphones that DO NOT suck, I just bought a pair of RS-1s locally for a decent price; the seller is dropping them off to me tonight.