vcoheda

too bad you guys are such jerks here. back to the SH forum, i guess.

i don't know about that. i've been looking around this place. a few interesting threads. but for every 10 pages of content, if one could call it that, there is maybe 3 pages of audio discussion and the rest is swearing or other remarks that people think are witty and amusing. it seems like a little club for those who hate and want to bash products by rsa, rudi, and woo (and who also were expelled from head-fi) but who love KG stuff. and if you listen to or like the former you are a moron and your opinions are meaningless, but if you like the latter, then you know the "truth" about audio. seems like bull to me. a bunch of guys who maybe took EE 101 and think they know everything.

i honestly cannot believe what i am reading. i don't have crazy experience with gear, but i am no noob either. the apache - balanced - is clearly one of the best amps i have ever heard. at the meet, i was speaking with another head-fier who owned a 10K single power and he thought my apache sounded very good. he said it was close to his HR balanced max, another amp he owned. we both agreed that the HR balanced desktop was very unimpressive. there seems to be an unusually strong bias against ray's products here and i suspect it is difficult for those individuals to approach and evaluate his products fairly. the site takes the ymmv to an extreme.

yes. but i am not the only one. many experienced head-fiers have reported good synergy between the raptor and grados.

^^ so apache is only good for senns, in your opinion.

you think the apache cannot properly drive low impedance headphones. my K701, RS1, and SR325 sound more than fine on them (lots of understatment) and the W5000 sounded great as well. what amp is more suited to drive them, besides anything - which is what some will say.

no. but based on my gear, it seems like they never would anyway.

so my opinions get no credibility because i like RSA amps. that doesn't seem quite fair.

at the recent meet and in terms of dynamic rigs, i preferred my apache over everything i heard that day - other than the B52. after that my next favorite setup was probably a heavily modded RKV with HD650 (SE equinox). the balanced mini3 sounded good as well but not nearly in the same league as the RSA ones. i also have heard various balanced SP amps and the HR desktop balanced. i prefer the sound of the Apache/B52 to them as well. have not heard the GSX or a Beta22.

what's a better balanced amp for or under $2,500?

i get it. everyone here thinks ray's amps are crap. and i guess by the above comment meridians suck as well.

about ... ?

is that supposed to mean something.

i only found this place b/c of the outage. surprised i never heard of it - though it's not like i was looking for another forum.

i spent some time at a meet this weekend with the L3000 and W5000. the L3000 i had heard on a few occassions and its smooth luxurious sound had always impressed me. this time was no different. i listened to them stock SE on an apache/G08 combo. the sound was warm but clear, the sound stage was of reasonable size but by no means large, and the bass was of very good quality and hard hitting. sometimes too much so. on hilary hahn's bach concertos, the bass seemed to overpower the violin. when i switched to some regina spektor and feist, the bass quanity was perfect and the sound glorious. i suspect balanced and recabled, the headphone will excel even more. i enjoyed them very much, but am still turned off by the price. $2000+ is a lot to spend on one headphone, especially since it seemed to peform better with some genres than others. i also listened to the W5000 (Bal oracle cable) back to back with the L3000. i found the sound stage on the W5000 to be larger, the bass was far less, and there was less texture and layering to the music, but the sound was not thin and the detail seemed sharper and imaging a bit more precise. hahn through the W5000 sounded near perfect. there was a small treble spike but it did not bother me, at least in the short term. after that i switched to the K701 (Bal black dragon). the sound stage was larger than the W5000 but not as much as i imagined. the detail was about the same, but the W5000 seemed a bit more brilliant at times. my first thought after hearing the two side by side was that the W5000 could replace my K701 for classical. suffice to say, i still would like to own an L3000 but price will probably prevent this. and i think i may be on the lookout for a W5000 - esp one recabled to balanced.