Leonardo Drummond

I never new about those Gilmore Reference amps that HeadAmp apparently used to make, Purk. Found some interesting pictures on Google. I'm still very much in love with my MKI GS-X (Deepak's old unit). I've never heard an amp that's this transparent to the source – it puts a spotlight on what it's doing, while feeding pretty much any headphone exactly what it needs to sing.

Oh, a proper topic! Deeper scrutiny, though, I imagine. And thank you very very much, Rob! cetoole, it absolutely won't sound as good as a proper headphone driver neither as a proper portable speaker driver – it will always be a compromise. For my prototype I bought a Flips Audio headphone (which is crap BTW) to use its components, and it's all that I need for such an early prototype – especially since I'm not an engineer. But if I were to try and develop this project further, I'd probably try to go for a better compromise than what I found on the Flips. Still, this is the main reason why it's a mass market product rather than something targeted at the audiophile crowd. The necessity that many people have of having both a headphone and a portable speaker was the main motivation for this project – to many, the convenience of having one thing that can be used as both might well be more valuable than really good sound quality (unfortunately), so... Oh, and what is it that makes you think it won't be comfortable? This is the type of feedback that really helps!

Well, it's a laminate, so it's incredibly strong as well as flexible The comfort is also very dependent on the main mold used for the lamination process – whether it's too wide or too short on the lower portion.

Thanks a lot, swt61 crappyjones, you have a point, having in mind how things are going nowadays Voltron, I might fail, but not for this reason Professors are seriously liking it, my worry is not being able to finish the prototype on time. But this is a funny thing actually, because while I knew those headphones, at no point did they ever come to me as an inspiration. It's one of those things that make you realize you're not as original as you thought you would – they are indeed similar, and I probably thought about it subconsciously. The finished prototype should be more different though, as the proportions are very different. The cups on my design are about the size as those on a K550, so much much larger than the House of Marley headphones, and the headband shape might also be more dissimilar than similar. There's also the fact that some design clues on my idea steer much more towards an elegant and sophisticated product, while the HoM aim for a cool-raggae vibe. Add to that the different proportions and the end result probably won't be that similar – well, not much more than so many headphones resemble others anyway (SA5000-HD800 kind of thing). Nate, it was modeled on a HD800 headband, and they should be quite flexible as well because of the wood. That said, I would much prefer a sub-assembly indeed, but unfortunately that wasn't possible. The thing is that my idea is actually a headphone-minispeakers hybrid. This is it on speaker mode (it's an oldish rendering though, so it doesn't show various small modifications that were done to it afterwards): So the problem is that the headband acts as support in speaker mode, and this is a big restriction. First, I can't have a sub-assembly, and second, I had to think of a complex disassembly "system" – there are magnets on top that are responsible for a primary positioning of the two sides together and a metal band that sits beneath the left earpad and slides to the right on headphone mode to structure the whole thing. It has to be able to withstand outward pressure as this is what it will face on headphone mode, but it also has to be divisible easily enough. This is why it had to be a perfect arch – otherwise the sliding system wouldn't work with a strong band (and it needs to be strong otherwise it won't provided proper structuring. But then I guess quite a few headphones use a simple arch like headband (such as most Sennheisers, Audez'es and others), I guess the trick is that there needs to be enough padding and it has to be flexible. mophsci, actually it's quite the opposite in proper design schools. On many of those, the subject is treated as a Human Science because our main job is to design things for people – solutions for issues that they face. So the focus are the people and their needs. Since the beginning of my course, I've had a lot of subjects about anthropology and the philosophy of design because of this. Looking good is, if not just a consequence (and we can go on and on about the philosophy of aesthetics here), not far from last in the list of priorities. This illustrates what I'm on about, it's the IDEO methodology for design, and what I've been using for quite a while. This is also a good reference. Design purely for looks is a very sad perversion of what it's really about, or what it can be about – one used by the industry to just push things to us endlessly, trying to convince us that we need new things. Victor Papanek is also a really prominent thinker on this, and says interesting stuff on Design for the Real World.

This is probably not the appropriate topic as it's not a picture of my rig, but I didn't want to create a separate thread for this... and it's a picture of a headphone after all. What is you guys' opinion on this, aesthetics alone? I'm a (soon to be) designer and this is my graduation project – the first prototype is going to be built soon. It's more of a mass market product rather than an audiophile oriented thing though, so take that as you will.

Highly interested!

I like the fact that the woman on the video at 2:22 is wearing the HD800s the wrong way. Shows what kind of people they're targeting.

I literally laughed out loud at this.

Interesting, Rob! Shame that it doesn't have the Sony's memory, though...

What the hell's happening? Is Head-Case trending on Twitter or something like that? This is getting frequent.

purk and Antonio, I did do those things. I've updated it and every single thing that isn't necessary is turned off. But bear in mind that sounding this full is a good thing in my book – perhaps I should say that it's the iPod that sounds thin –, it's just that with the thick sounding Roxanne, the thinner iPod may give me a better presentation, to my tastes anyway. And Larry, I know, that's one thing that got me by surprise. One of the reasons I went for the ZX1 (apart from price, memory and battery) is the fact that apparently it sounds colder and thinner than the other TOTL players, judging from what I read. It seems that it may still be a bit too full with the Roxys though. IME, obviously.

It's here! First impressions are that it sounds much fuller than my trusty old iPod Classic. Also more refined up top, but more bass, more mid-bass, and warmer mids. This is probably a good thing, but with the Roxanne... might be too much of a good thing. I'm still getting familiar with it, but so far I have to say that the synergy may not be what I would consider ideal.

Interesting that he liked the headphone out... I didn't. It sounded almost the opposite of when I used it as a DAC feeding the GS-X. One thing about which we agree that I didn't put in this summarized "review" here is how it in fact is very silent with IEMs. To me it was no good anyway because I was stuck with the SE out for my Roxannes, and this output is seriously compromised (like he said as well), but it was indeed dead quiet.

Ok, so I know you guys don't like long posts or reviews, so I'll make this as short as possible. I recently got to spend some time with the PureDAC and found it to be a really interesting DAC. I'm very sorry if this ends up being an unwanted topic, but maybe someone's interested in it, so hey... maybe it's worth the risk. I found it to be a fine use of a Sabre chip. Sounds colder than both my Abrahamsen V6.0 and Electrocompaniet ECD-1, but comparatively more tonally correct. Mids take a step or two backwards and are more relaxed. The V6.0's mids, surprisingly, end up sounding harsh in comparison. It's just a very cohesive, linear and incredibly refined and transparent sound signature. Very detailed as well, but a bit less spacious than the other units I have here. All in all, I'd consider it clearly a step above both the Abrahamsen and the Electro, something that surprised me since I once compared the V6.0 to an EMM Labs DAC and found the difference to be really small. The PureDAC gives me a different personality when compared to my DACs, but to my ears it does sound better and more correct with most music genres and headphones I heard with it – especially so in the living room's system with the Jamo R907s. Apparently it doesn't have an extra gain stage and both the headphone amp and preamp are driven straight from the I/V converter of the DAC or something like that. Interestingly though, plugging my headphones into both headphone outs I found a completely different sound signature. It sounded mid-centric, slightly blurry and not nearly as refined as when it was used solely as a DAC feeding the GS-X. This was worse on the SE, but still present in the balanced outs. So to me it's an outstanding DAC and an ok headphone amp at the price. To wrap it up... a picture!

I recently got some J$ pads for my HE500s and liked them very much! Edit: a picture!

Thanks, Ed! Clarifying. Your post too, Larry.

Ed, do you think it's more of a reference headphone rather than a fun one? I've always thought the HE500 is an incredibly fun headphone, and that's why I like them so much. Your impressions give me the impression that this is going in another direction...

I do like Sabre DACs, but I'm usually more into the more musical sounding chips. What amazes me is how this build looks so much better than many mass produced products!

Damn, that's a gorgeous setup! Is that one of Naamanf's Buffalo builds, btw? Also, I'm now officially a convert. Just got and HD800 to go (despite not having liked it the first time I had it) with my GS-X and Abrahamsen V6.0 and I'm loving it!

Precisely how I feel! It doesn't give me an increasing sub-bass boost starting from a lean sound like I expected, it just fills up a space that's kind of empty just below the thick mids. Not exactly how I envisoned it or how I would have ideally liked, but that doesn't detract from the great earphone that it is!

I probably shouldn't be saying this publicly, but I did manage to fix it myself sanding some bits, and now it doesn't hurt anymore! Sending it back would be a nightmare – lots of money on shipping, on more taxes once they come back (Brazil FTW) and probably some long waiting times. So I took the risk and I guess it paid out. Rob, it's interesting that now that I'm getting used to it I'm finding that the bass isn't at all heavy at the minimum. It is indeed the mids that give this impression (to me, at least). It's now set at 9 o'clock and it seems to be a perfect setting for me.

Indeed! I wasn't all that excited about the first two episodes, but this one was properly good, old-fashioned Top Gear. I usually really like James' reviews, and this was no different.

Indeed! One of the things that I like the most with headphones is the possibility of having completely different sets, to be used in different days with different music, conveniently. So now I own 4 headphones (apart from the Roxys) that couldn't be more dissimilar from each other. And if I want just one amp to drive everything... the GS-X is really hard to beat! I actually used to have the HM-801 and liked it a lot, but nowadays I don't see much of a reason to go into the kilobuck DAP area... when on-the-go the last 10% of performance don't matter much to me if I'm honest. A friend of mine is going to Japan soon, so I'll get the ZX1 for around 700 bucks, which is a good deal! I'm confident it won't be as good as the HM-901, but form factor, memory and UI kind of seal the deal for me!

Thank you, Ausburger

Thank you! The case is much better than some I've seen at the other place, but it still has its flaws. Using CF was a bold move. The resin's got quite a few bubbles and the fibre itself is not properly aligned in many places. It's pretty cool, though! About the Abrahamsen, I think it's great. I also have an Electrocompaniet ECD-1 in the living room's speaker set-up and I honestly can't tell one from the other. They both simply sound natural. They'll be here for a long time, as I see no reason to upgrade. I am thinking about getting the new Sony ZX1 to go with my Roxys however. About the GS-X, it's pretty much dead silent with the Roxannes. They are indeed quite a bit more sensitive than my previous JH13s, but I still can't hear anything from the amp on low gain unless I max the volume (with no music on, obviously) – and 12 o'clock is a lot louder than what I'd be comfortable with already. On medium and high gain there is some noise, but that doesn't matter much since the JHs have to be used on low gain. And bear in mind that the amp and the PSU are stacked with nothing in between, so that might be a culprit to some extent!