Elephas

I brought my DP-500 to a local audio shop and spent a few hours comparing it with an Esoteric X-03 SE. They setup a pair of Avantgarde speakers and a matching integrated amp for the comparison. The room wasn't ideal, but good enough for comparison purposes. They had two discs from the 2007 Hong Kong AV Show I was able to use. One is an SACD and the other an LPCD45 version. This way, the Accuphase could use the LPCD45 vs. the Esoteric's SACD, and both players could play the LPCD45 and the Red Book layer on the SACD. Other test CDs included "K2 HD Sound" from First Impression Music and "Jazz At the Pawnshop" SACD version. I thought the X-03 SE sounded better than the DP-500 playing both Red Book CDs and SACDs. The photos were taken with a camera phone, so quality isn't so good.

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Yay Team Sony!

You, sir, are a candidate for "The Awesome!" I like the W5000+HA5000 combo very much. I've been guilty of giving slwiser some grief for selling his W5000 and keeping the HA5000. Then he sold the HA5000! What the...? But after I fell into the electrostatic black hole, I don't enjoy the W5000+HA5000 as much as I used to. The first electrostat I owned was the SR-007, after accidentally bidding too much for one in July 2007, I think. Then I couldn't resist more electrostats, and ended up with several. The W5000 doesn''t seem especially detailed to me anymore.

Please don't spank me! I didn't intend to insult anyone, it was supposed to be funny.

I agree the Qualia isn't warm, but I wouldn't want a lot of added warmth, maybe just a tiny bit. I think it's similar to the W5000 in the way it seems to sacrifice some body and warmth for precision imaging, well-defined layering, sense of air and soundstage. Both the Qualia and W5000, driven by the AT-HA5000, have pinpoint imaging, excellent details and a large soundstage. The Qualia's soundstage is huge, larger than the W5000's, and I also think its imaging, separation and details are better. Given how much I like the W5000+HA5000 and value details, imaging and soundstage, you can see why I like the Qualia so much. Fit is basically perfect on my head. I can press on the driver housings at various points and there isn't any movement. The earpads fit perfectly flush around my ears. I can see someone with a narrower, wider or longer head shape having trouble with the fit.

But I thought you are "The Loud One." At least, that's my mental nickname for you when I see your posts. I think, "Oh, The Loud One's being a jerk again." or "The Loud One really doesn't know what he's talking about." Stuff like that. Now, to the person whose mental nickname is "The Awesome," I might consider sending you a W11JPN.

That is a massive understatement.

Japan-model 100V units of the DP800/DC801 are available here in Taiwan for about US$15500.

The Qualia can't be adjusted much at all. I guess I'm lucky it didn't fit you well. The L3000 with APureSound balanced V3 cable sounds very good. It has a larger soundstage and more air than a stock L3000. This is using an adapter and single-ended amps, I haven't tried a balanced amp yet. Ooooh, another one! Multiple continuous eargasms during the last 20 minutes! This time it's Alison Krauss - Baby, Now That I've Found You. Take that, Meanie Mastergill.

The SA5000 has very good details and is also fast. I use it exclusively with electronica music, it is too cold and uninvolving otherwise. The Qualia is much superior overall, especially in soundstage, imaging and layering. I can now understand why Icarium sold his HE90+ES-1 and went with a Qualia rig. What I can't understand is why the seller sold me this Qualia.

That really hurt, I'm still a baby, you know! Mammaaaaa! Do something! :'( Wait, I'm not claiming the Qualia is "the best" ... yet. Also, I believe Nik cycled through many headphones and other gear and rarely made direct comparisons or owned several units at the same time. I recall reading about his latest "best" headphone with frightening regularity over the past three years; it seemed that every few months there would be another "best." Maybe my amps and sources are not as good as Nik's, but I don't think he ever had access to as many headphones as I do now.

I was lucky and fit is very good. The earpads seal around my ears nicely. I haven't listened to Umbrella - Remix, thanks for reminding me! Ooooooh, I think I just had an eargasm.... during the beginning of Depeche Mode - World In My Eyes (Cicada Remix). These eargasms were becoming too few and far between since I started listening to the HE90, HE60, SR-Omega and SR-007.

I think you'll like the HA2002 with the W5000, W11JPN, AD2000 as well as the W2002, of course. I had the chance to compare the HA2002 with the HA5000 using a W5000 and W2002. Both amps sounded very similar. I recall preferring the W2002 with the HA2002 but someone else who was listening liked the W2002 with HA5000 more.

I'm listening to the Qualia 010 for the first time (thanks darkless!). I'm amazed by its details and resolution. I thought that dynamics were generally inferior to electrostatics in this category. The recabled L3000, recabled W5000, recabled PS-1 and SA5000 are very good, but I didn't think they were competitive vs. the HE90, HE60, SR-Omega, SR-007 and 4070. The R10 is the only one that can compete, but even so I don't think it matches the electrostats' speed and microdetails. I'm hopeful better amplification will help the R10 and other dynamics. The Qualia 010 sounds like an electrostatic. I'm only driving it with the AT-HA5000 for now. It is already one of my top favorite headphones, definitely in the Top 5 unlike the L3000! (a little joke). I can understand the descriptions of its "cavernous" sound I've read about. It has a very distinctive headstage and soundstage that's very expansive. I'm also amazed by its soundstage and like it very much! Like the SA5000 and electrostatics, the Qualia sounds very good with electronica music. More to come, as well as some photos, of course.

I'm glad he's here. Skews the craziness and insanity curve further outward and makes us all seem more normal.

I've bent the W5000 headbands to a more oval shape to increase clamping force and ensure that the earpads seal around the ears. Without bending the headbands, the earpads fit very loosely and there were gaps. No headband bending was necessary for me with other AT's.

That thought did come to my mind, but I was hesitant to post it.

Some of the reasons for the choice of Accuphase or Esoteric are shipping costs, import taxes, availability, repairs/warranty and pricing. Non-Japan gear such as Ayre is more difficult to find and usually priced much higher than US-market prices. Human nature being what it is, I'm more miffed by the price differential than the high price itself. If I lived in California I would be a lot more interested in APL. I'm looking for a transport+DAC combo because I want to replace the DP-500 and Chord DAC64 and will continue to use the PC-source. It is just too convenient. Accuphase CDPs have digital inputs, though not AES/EBU which is what I'm using with the Chord. Esoteric one box players do not. Besides the DP800/DC801, another Accuphase option is the DP-700 SACD one box player. I think I have more than 5000 Red Book CDs, but most of them are stored in plastic boxes in a storage room. It's ironic that as the number of CDs increases, the more advantageous a PC-source becomes. The RME sound card > Chord DAC64 has served me well for a long time. Maybe instead of being disappointed by CD on the DP-500, I should be happy the RME > Chord sounds so good. I've heard the SA-60 at a local audio shop before and thought it sounded very good, maybe better than either the DP-500 or DAC64. This was using their demo speaker system. I'm planning to bring the DP-500 into the shop next week to compare with their SA-60 and another Esoteric player, an X-03 I think. They said it might eventually be possible to demo the P-05/D-05. Unfortunately there's no way to demo the Accuphase DP800/DC801 short of flying to Japan.

oops

I'm currently using an Accuphase DP-500 and Chord DAC64 MkII. I've had the Accuphase for four months and the Chord for more than a year. Both are Red Book-only. Most of the time I listen through iTunes or foobar, using the digital outputs of an RME HDSP 9632 sound card. Playing a CD on the DP-500 sounds better than its digital input fed by the RME sound card. However, I think the RME -> Chord is roughly equivalent to CD on the DP-500, with each doing some things better and some things worse. It is very close. This was disappointing to me, because I expected CD on the Accuphase to sound better. I really like the convenience of PC-as-source and currently have over 42,000 tracks stored on a 2TB NAS unit. About 75% is lossless. My thinking is, if I'm going to go to the trouble of picking out a CD, taking it out of its case and putting it in a CD player, it should sound better than the RME -> DAC system. Which brings us to the poll question. Given similar pricing and a choice between the Accuphase DP800/DC801 or the Esoteric P-05/D05, which would you choose? Both are SACD transports + DAC two-box combos. At the moment I have a grand total of 12 SACDs, due to never having owned an SACD player. I think SACD as a format is a dead-end, but there are still some being issued and I'm willing to buy some more. Playing SACDs, especially if the sound is significantly better than the PC-source, will provide a good reason to spin a disc instead of selecting a playlist. So I'm telling myself.

A950LTD with W5000 earpads

Old photos

Ugh, this CD sounds horrible with DP-500 > HA5000 > W5000.

I think the Lavry DA10 is a great value. The Benchmark DAC1 is also good at around the same price range, but I prefer the Lavry's slightly warmer sound over the Benchmark. The Chord DAC64 is better than the DA10 or Benchmark. How much better is difficult to describe. I think source differences are difficult to evaluate and almost impossible to place a percentage number on, especially at this level or higher. I also use the Accuphase DP-500 CD player and have been tempted by an Esoteric SA-60 playing SACDs several times, both of which I feel are close to each other and the Chord in terms of sound quality. One DAC I've heard that I thought was better than the Chord is the Lavry Gold DA924. I listened to it at an audio show, amp was a Graham Slee Solo driving the HD650 with stock cable. The sound was amazingly clean and clear and I almost placed an order for the Lavry Gold right then and there. It definitely made me think about my gear choices. Fortunately, back at home listening to the Chord > Lehmann BCL > HD650 rig, I was able to convince myself that I didn't really need a Lavry Gold. The Chord DAC64 is more detailed than the Lavry DA10 and also more liquid-sounding, or "organic." It seems to flow more easily and has a greater sense of air and more realism. The edges of notes during attack and decay are clearer and better-defined. Imaging, separation and layering are better. Soundstage size is not very different, but I think soundstage coherence is better. There's a better sense of the recording's soundstage for single-microphone acoustic recordings. There's less treble harshness and glare, though this can also be dependent on the recording and other associated gear. The more listening time and the more experience I have, the greater the difference seems to be. I'm beginning to reach a point where I don't want to listen to the DA10 anymore. This is very sad.