Dreadhead

Man oh man I should reread these things before I hit submit I apologize for all the spelling and grammatical errors in the above posts. My guess is that this is working so well in my system because my GS-X still has a lot of juice to spare for these phones and can deal with the increased outputs where needed. In the end most of the corrections are on the order of 3-5 dB with 3 big ones (10 db parametric) to correct for some resonances (funnily they come out as dips not peaks). Maybe this will lead me back to a beta22 but I doubt it. Anyway I've been giving it a lot of thought and I think that I'm no longer in the market for the Qualias. The equalizing has fixed the differences between the Qualia and the SA5000s. I think I now have phones that may beat the Qualias (The bass is certainly better: just as controlled with more punch) and all that for under a grand (Headphones, DEQ, mic and foam). I am going to let my WTB over at HF fade away I think and just be happy with what I have. I'll get a chance to hear Qualias again in a couple weeks so I can do a comparison then but I don't really expect any surprises. Of course I'm probably entirely wrong

I messed around with REQ through my FA66 and it's downright impressive. I stupidly saved over the auto-equalized version but for my SA5000 I started with the auto eq and now I have (after a lot of tweaking) pretty much flat response between 20 and 20kHz with one dip at 6.5 kHz that I just can't get rid off but it is very narrow now. I'll rerun the DEQ based auto-eq and compare the two with my ears and see what happens but it looks like it seems to accentuate the highs more than DEQ (I used the ECM8000 calibration file).

So you're saying an SPL meter with a stated frequency range cutting out above 100 hz (I don't remember the exact number it's probably even higher, I have the same one) is more accurate than the ECM8000/DEQ combo? I don't buy it. That software looks neat though. My FA66 has a 48v phantom powered input that I could hook the ECM8000 to and do the same thing. Cheers, Chris

Certainly is is more complicated. I'm not saying the phones sound exactly alike. The control and pace are still whatever they were before. For example I still think the SA5000 has better control than the D5000 but to be honest the difference is MUCH smaller; it's like taking the difference between different pairs of headphones and making it the difference between two SS amps for easy to drive phones. One thing that is truly interesting is how the character of the pink noise changes as the auto-equalization goes (you can always hear the output of the other ear). It really shows you how much you're changing the character. Oh and I will warn you that all of the phones I have done this for now sound bright at first. The SA5000s have increased highs and even the D5000s have a couple dB of correction upwards. At first it sounds odd but it grows on you fast when everything sounds so right. At first I was like "what the hell" and after a well done classical recording all was well again (the drums still had great impact and). The DEQ I have is the Behringer Ultracurve Pro DEQ2496 (used entirely digitally in this case) and the measurement mic is the Behringer ECM8000: AUDIO TECHNOLOGY - EQUALIZERS & ACCESSORIES - ULTRACURVE PRO DEQ2496 : Ultra High-Precision Digital 24-Bit/96 kHz EQ/RTA Mastering Processor MICROPHONES / HEADPHONES / WIRELESS SYSTEMS - CONDENSER MICROPHONES - MEASUREMENT MICROPHONE ECM8000 : Omnidirectional Measurement Condenser Microphone I am still a little confused on the ECM8000 because its an omnidirectional mic so I thought it did not have the proximity effect and one box it comes in said it does not have it and then the inner box around the carrying case says it does. I included the supposed effects of this in one of the equalization I did (by modifying the target curve) and in the end the phones seem very very bass heavy which made me conclude it did not have a proximity effect. I'm going to email Behringer and make 100% certain. If I'm wrong I'll switch to doing that too.

Well it's a fairly cheap measurement mic but it's calibrated to +/- 1 dB from 20 Hz to 20 kHz and the auto eq is accurate to about that range too. It all depends on how patient you want to be to let it do its thing but in the place where the headphones have narrow banded effects the alorithm has to take the best fit but can not get exactly flat. Perfect it is not, but it is better than uncorrected. In the end throughout most of the fequency range 1dB is below audible differences in levels (or at least that's my understanding).

Today I finally made my fake ear (block of modeling foam with a hole) for my measurement microphone and hooked it up to my digital equalizer. It's bloody cool, you put the heaphones on the ear and run the auto eq (automatic algorithm using pink noise and a RTA) and you've got pitch flat response I know for a fact it would drive many nuts but to be honest I'm having a great time. The only boring thing is that it makes d5000s sound like sa5000s or whatever sound like whatever (as long as both are equalized). Anyway I look forward to trying this out with other phones too. It'll be interesting to see how much correction is required. For the d5000 it's a lot down low and for the SA5000 it's more even (as I would expect). Both have quite a lot of correction up high too.

there you go...

Yeah that's my impression too. I read this great review of a the Rockport Technologies System III Sirius Turntable (somewhere north of 70 grand) and he spends time raving about the CD-Rs ripped from the LPs He did say the table creamed the CD-R when compared to each other (I doubt it) but he went on to say that the CD-R creams any of the other turntables he has heard. Hilarious.... If that's not a sign of the turntable getting in the way of the recording I don't know what is. That said I think turntables are neat looking.

My guess (from the other site): IC: L3000 (images added) - Head-Fi: Covering Headphones, Earphones and Portable Audio

Quick someone buy the mythical Singlepower 8 channel amp: FS: Singlepower Squarewave and Squarewave XL - Head-Fi: Covering Headphones, Earphones and Portable Audio

Yes I have to admit they did . They certainly aren't 6X better but they are better and that's all that matters to me. Most noticeable was the bass being a lot more present and controlled (no EQ on Qualia and with EQ on SA5000). The details were also just "more there". I'll be honest I didn't compare them directly to the modded Denon D5000s but I think they soundly spank them too though possibly by less because the Denons have more bass and more detail than my SA5000 (after EQ not by much). On the other hand I prefer both the Denons and the SA5000 to the R10 (I know that makes me totally insane ). They are lovely musical phones but just too colored for me. They are so sexy though. Damn you all, my wife wants to make me sell my other phones to get Qualias but I probably have some time to talk her down from that. Maybe she'll accept a signed agreement not to buy any camera/stereo equipment for 2 years, she's a lawyer she'll make it stick. If I get the Qualia's before the end of the year I'll have gone from nothing to near the pinnacle (in my opinion) in less than a year.

I got to hear these over the weekend and I WANT a pair! They are amazing and much more to my liking than the R-10. I got to hear them both on an SDS-XLR and my GS-X setup and on both they were just so detailed and yet smooth. Sorry for my rave. I will have to keep an eye out for anyone selling theirs.

x2 You're like the guy with the 6 Krell references for his B&W Nautilus sytem.

$15 for Walker Texas Ranger Wire? I think the wire would put you in a choke hold for the temerity. Especially since the connectors are made with Rhodium (makes platinum look like silver). As far as the COA for Hitler Wire goes, it's wire: pretty much if you believe it's authentic it has the same effect (ie none).

Well not quite but close. Mil-spec also means "designed to be dropped kicked by 18 year old trainee" etc. The amount of idiot proofing that has to go into mil-spec and for that matter commercial systems generally decreases performance in preference to robustness (unless you're the Airforce).

Well Head-Case has rubbed off on me. I've been called un-civil over in Head-fi

Glad I could help...

I just can't believe people get away with this crap!!!!!!!!

Well Mikhail has also created 8 channels from 4: MINI-REVIEW of Single Power Square Wave XL Balanced (vs Melos SHA Gold and Zana Deux) - Page 2 - Head-Fi: Covering Headphones, Earphones and Portable Audio

I assume you were talking to me? If so it's the markl mod but done by me and I put a little more fiberfil than he recommended because I thought it still had too much bass so I added some more.

I feel that I must bathe all my gear in liquid helium and apply 30000 v accross all cables for them to be even ready for burn in. Then burn in takes 2 or 3 thousand hours.... it's hard to wait 3 months after I get something but totally worth it.......

Modded (by me) AH-D5000 (bal) > MDR-SA5000 (bal) > HD650 (bal) > SE530 I'm a detail/neutrality freak though so I guess most peoples order would be very different.

Interesting.... Off topic: I have modded 5000s, HD650s and SA5000s and to be honest the 5000s are my favorite by a large margin. I really can not understand anyone saying they prefer the 650s, they have no where near the detail or impact of the 5000s (after mod, before that they had way to much bass and it washed out everything else). I've also done a lot of frequency sweeps with all my pairs of phones and too my ears the d5000 is noticeably flatter than the 650s. On the other hand if you have crappily recorded music you're screwed with the 5000s while with the 650s you can still have a good time. To each their own I guess.

Well come on down to Old Town and we can have a nano-meet. I really would love to hear those phones with the GS-X and DAC3 combo.

Oh and you forgot a thick skull