n_maher

Paging Johny Numbers and tyrion....

Yeah, that cuts to the chase nicely. Sure, I have biases, who doesn't? More than anything I'm biased towards a neutral, refined sound. The W5k's certainly get some of that very, very right, but so far not all of it.

My ears certainly adjusted more to the sound of the W5ks after a period of listening, sure. I spent well over 2hrs exclusively listening to them Friday night and by the end of it I was no longer consciously aware (most of the time anyway) of the midrange issues that strike me upon first listen each time I put them on. I don't think that's really necessary. I don't expect them to sound like the HD650s, but I do expect them to have good tonal balance when compared to the 650s - I do not currently think they do. That's what I'm trying to say. What I'm saying is that if I have to build a system around them to get them to sound neutral I'm not interested. As I said, I think good headphones should be able to sound good (perhaps not great) when paired with other good components. None of my other three headphones sound bad with anything else. I'm not discounting the idea of synergy as I've witnessed it first hand but I also don't subscribe to the idea of having to have one setup for each set of headphones. To me that's just using the rest of your equipment to provide the right coloration for the headphones. Clearly in my rig right now the bottleneck is in the amp department and so I'm reserving final judgement on these headphone until I hear them with at least a couple of amps that I would view as more than adequate. These are certainly still early impressions and I reserve the right to update them, flip flop a few times and so on before making any sort of final judgement. I'm currently listening to them at work with a small class A SS amp and again they sound pretty good. I'm giving them a bit of a bass boost to see if that helps further but it's not like I want to throw them off my head or anything. I just have high expectations for a $700 headphone, I don't think that's so wrong, is it?

I like my Arcam CD73 quite a bit, it was my first forray into a "real" source and certainly didn't disappoint when compared to the likes of my Monica DAC and other mid-fi sources I compared it to. I haven't heard any of the other Arcam products you're considering so I have no idea how much better things can get. But in terms of bang for your buck the 73 seems pretty damn decent, especially since you can get a used one for 33% off the retail $700 without trying very hard. There's two on Head-Fi right now and a couple others on Audiogon.

If it were me I'd nuke the budget and get a B-Stock Outlaw RR-2150 for $499.

Back to the AT talk. I was able to do some back and forth between my HD650s w/ Zu cable and the W5ks yesterday. The 650s are balanced and were being driven by my mini32 and sourced by the same Wadia that was feeding the Millett. I have to be perfectly honest, the W5k did not fair all that well in the comparison. If I listened to the AT for a while (like an hour or so) my hearing would adjust to its particular sound signature pretty well and things would start to sound pretty normal and even. But switching back to the 650s reset my hearing enough that putting the AT's back on immediately highlighted what I can only describe as a hollow midrange. What is most confusing to me is that it certainly isn't the whole midrange that sounds this way. Maybe it's my lack of understand of what "midrange" really is, but some portions of the midrange signal sound outstanding out of the W5k's but other parts seem to be almost missing. So the experimentation continues... I've got an M3 that I'm repairing for a friend that I will hopefully have up and running this week which is reported to be one of the better/synergistic W5k amps and of course I'm working on a single-ended beta22. So I'll keep these around long enough to try both of those amps and see if they react favorably to higher output current. I have exactly zero tolerance for headphones that require intense setup tweaking, that is to say that I think good headphones should sound good with just about anything, so if these prove to be even more difficult to get sounding "right" their stay will probably be a short one. It's a shame really, they're so freakin' comfortable (I have them with me at work today) and at times I think I catch glimpses of what they should be capable of but not often enough.

I guess I know what I should be charging. MOTMOTMOTMOTMOTMOTMOTMOTMOTMOTMOTMOTMOT

That should give you an idea of what you need to work on when it comes to posting, eh?

It looks like I'll have access to a couple of modules, but unless I go the MOT route (more than I am now ) I suspect that it would be quite difficult to acquire more. I'll be interested to hear what they say to Mr. Enigma.

The journey begins...

Typical response from a manufacturer, pffft.

That's right brother, although I prefer to rage against the machine!

Yes, very much so. Very light, don't apply any pressure to the head and just kind of float there. And either my ears are getting more used to them or the amp is just getting warmed up because the more I listen the better and more balanced they sound. More time will be spent with them tomorrow since I didn't compare them to anything else tonight.

Someone call a moderator my mommy, this thread is out of control...

We have officially achieved Teh Funnay.

You have clearly been without Whisky for too long.

Ouch! :'(

I wouldn't read too much into it, the parent company, Hug and Dance Audio, still has to approve the merger and has recently expressed concerns about the low-level affiliates (like Nugget) being allowed access to the high-end tech too quickly. A merger of two of the low-tech pieces may further upset the balance.

Don't worry, Rockhopper North (formerly Nugget Audio) can help you out with either the adapter or wiring up the jack. Since you'd be dealing direct with a devision of Rockhopper your warranty would remain intact.

Yeah, I'm good like that. First Impressions w/ Wadia 830 -> maxxed Millett Hybrid Some of what I heard in NY is still there, which is to say that I feel like something is missing from the midrange, I can't quite put my finger on yet. I'm throwing different genres at them right now to see what might highlight it for me. So far female fronted material has faired better than male, with male voices sounding more than a bit recessed and distant. Upper end detail is top notch without being the least bit harsh and the bottom end is decent, good clarity but not a whole heck of a lot of slam. I'm going to throw some metal at them next and see how they do with that before doing some back to back with my Hf-1s and HD650s. More later, unless I fall asleep in my chair.

Right now, yes, very much. You tried the K1K's outta that sucker yet? [edit]And OH SNAP, check the mother f'ing black gates in that sucker?!??!?!

I didn't see Ian's post before I started typing this reply but it would have been the same regardless... BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH. Right, me finish the amp in the next month. And congrats Haj!!!!

You know, it's kinda funny, I operate ampless a lot of the time which is pretty damn odd for someone that builds there own amps. :| But I found a way to fire them up and I'm listening to them right now. First impression, they definitely sound different than the balanced recabled pair I heard in NYC. The next few hours should be interesting... Nice! Figure out what the heck you're going to use them for yet?

Nice, let me know how it goes.

Welcome to Head-case foo_me. FYI, you can say shit around here and no one will bat an eye.