Currawong

The Bravo has been on my list as a transportable amp to take with me when travelling so it's great to hear that it sounds very good. Thanks for the impressions.

I've had a few head-turners on good studio recordings where someone made a noise over one side of the studio. That hasn't happened to me in a while either. The Stax comparison is more apt. I never believed it was possible for a dynamic headphone to have treble this clean. Only self-restraint prevents me babbling like a lunatic all over the forums on how much I think they are fantastic too. I suspect if I had the right tube amp if I put them on in the morning I wouldn't take them off until my ears were begging for mercy for relief from the bowls. They've held up very well from new-gear-syndrome. The only thing is sometimes I feel like the more "fun" HF-2 sound, but only on more electronic music where the stronger bass makes it a more fun listen.

I'd say that the TF10s are absolutely fine without amplification and not to bother. With a Corda Move there was zero benefit. What ended up making useful difference for me was the Null Audio cable which removed some very unpleasant harshness. I'll try again with the Pico slim again though. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Before you know it they are walking. If you don't have a good camera and video camera handy always, get one. You'll regret it later if you don't. I called the insurer today to put in a claim for my house in Australia. The tennants, despite being very carefully instructed in what odd noises to listen out for that indicate a plumbing problem needs fixing, managed not to notice sewerage overflowing into the basement room where all my stuff, including family heirlooms are stored, and now I'm up for the cost of a BHSE for the clean-up and a great deal of expensive or irreplaceable furniture has to be thrown out. It would actually be more cost-effective for me to sell the house and earn interest on the cash itself for the amount of shit that is going wrong in it constantly.

I have the SR-5NB and was thinking the same things. I can switch to the LNS and the treble is almost the same. (Calling ASR! I think I might have found the treble you were looking for! ) The weird thing is, despite being supra-aural, balanced out of the Phoenix the sound-stage feels larger than on the lambdas. It's usually the HD-800s that give that contrast so distinctly. When LobsterSan came around the other day he had a brief try of them and commented on how wide and clear they sound. This despite the more forward mids as well. I get the feeling I need a big, fast tube amp for them ideally though for the slightest touch more sweetness. Putting on the HF-2s today I was reminded why a nice chunk of bass is a lot of fun, and how I was missing that on some songs. However, with a track such as Tin Pan Alley by Stevie Ray Vaughan, with the HF-2s, the bass guitar fills out for a fun sound and Stevie is a bit distant, whereas with the Magnums he sits on the stage almost alone in the black, the other instruments coming out of nowhere, drawing you totally into Stevie and his guitar as each note echoes off the walls. Very kick-ass for guitar and piano solos, though sometimes I miss the HF-2 bass.

Even if the adjusted financials turn out not to be that bad, I can imagine just this killing the company. Much the same thing happened to a small, but significant company owned by friends of mine. There was hint of financial instability or some-such and suddenly all the supplies changed their invoices from 90 days to 30 days and the company went under, and was bought up by a much bigger one. Said friends got a nice position in the corp though.

The mushy thought came from the mids when I was listening to Shpongle just after using the Symphones Magnums, so it's probably a bit unfair. Your thoughts are appreciated, as ultimately I think I'd like to sell the HE-5s and get the 404LEs to go with the eXStatA, if not just stick with the LNS or go all the way and get O2s.

I think it may be case of people confusing brightness with detail to some degree. The treble is quite good, but as has also been pointed out, the HD-800s reveal more detail overall. Don't get me wrong though, I think they are excellent value and I can easily imagine people following HeadphoneAddict's $1k rig suggestion and not feeling a desire to upgrade afterwards. That it takes considerably more expensive (dynamic) cans to best them is quite an achievement. I really hope that Fang doesn't stop here and continues to improve the design.

Ebay Australia tried to lock things down to only allow cash in person or Paypal, and had to back down after the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission were called in to examine things. That they require Paypal to be an option on all auctions unfortunately doesn't break competition laws in Oz.

Mine are a different beast running single-ended or balanced from the Phoenix, tonally that is, which surprised me. Usually headphones just get a much wider soundstage with better separation. I got slammed suggesting they aren't extremely detailed on HF. Maybe I need to put more hours on them, but I have to say I agree with this on my rig, after listening with my Stax, HD-800s and the Symphones Magnums. Mushy would be my word, with the treble and mid-bass peaks fighting each other. They don't seem to be able to keep up with anything fast and complex as well as I had hoped either. Still a fun listen if one avoids comparing them to anything else too quickly or listening too critically. I wonder what they'd sound like if they had leather (fake or real) pads on them.

This, plus since they own the market, they can get away with screwing over anyone and everyone, changing the rules on a whim to gouge more money and nobody can do anything, as the only other alternatives are a pain. Now if only Google would start their own version of Paypal with veryy minimal fees...

It's a PITA to photograph black things, but I wanted to show that at least the drivers look like they were formed with much greater care than the 325 drivers. Notice the roughness on the plastic finish of the 325 drivers vs. the smoothness of it on the Magnum drivers. It doesn't show well, but the screen, apart from a bit of unevenness looks like it was attached with care, compared to the 325 screen which has bits of white thread sticking up at the edges. The differences are even more extreme on the side of the drivers, where the 325 one is a mess (with chunks of plastic broken off on one of the two parts of the shell and very unevenly applied paint) and the SM driver is completely smooth all the way around. Full-res album available for download here.

After a few more hours listening, I'm getting a strong impression that these are seriously fast and detailed cans, not just in the treble, but piano, for example, is coming through very convincingly, more so than I recall experiencing in recent memory. I've put jumbo pads on them, and now they are very open at the top, but not fatiguing as I was expecting, another good sign in my book. My HE-5s are unlistenable if I put them on straight afterwards. I've arranged to borrow a HA-02 for further listening, as I'm keen for tubes at the moment. Accepting possibilities of new-gear syndrome (though I didn't find them as listenable with stock drivers) and lack of extensive gear experience, they are currently threatening not just my HD-800s, but have sent the HE-5s spinning and are threatening my Stax (and the HD-800s did the most convincing job of threatening the LNS previously). When I get around to it, I'll take some close-ups of the drivers.

I feel inadequate trying to write impressions, especially as I don't have a lot of experience with Grados, but here are my thoughts so far after a day with the new drivers and balanced from the Phoenix: Tonally, my first impression was of mini-HD-800s with more fun/punchy bass. This hasn't changed with the new drivers. What has changed is, the level of detail. I've been enjoying listening to the decay of notes on instruments for example. Tricky, of course, is determining what is caused by the frequency response and what is really detail. However, after regular "over the shoulder" moments with background noises in live performances, I'm feeling they have very good instrument separation. The mids are more forward than the HD-800s, a bit too much for my liking, so the treble seems a tad rolled-off at times, such as when listening to Chopin. However, there is likely a peak in the treble somewhere, as I was getting sibilance with Soundgarden, of all things. I wish I still had K701s here to compare them with, or a pair of AD2000s as they might be closer in tonality. I might have to see if I can't borrow another amp to try them with too.

I turned oversampling off in my DAC, and it lost detail, mushing up the music. It didn't sound unpleasant, just in the end leaving oversampling on was the best option. I recall Dan Lavry making a big post on HF rubbishing NOS DACs. That's all I know.

My drivers just arrived.

Some random at the other place wrote a review on some seemingly well-constructed cables off of eBay. I was most pleased to see the can't-argue-with price of $18 and $20 for them, considering they have the requisite magic wire, dielectric etc. Thought you guys and girls might like link (to the seller, not the review). I think I'll blow the grand sum of $50 on a pair of each (inc. shipping to Japan) and see what they can do for me compared to my more expensive magic wire.

Slugth: Two comments from different people strike me here. The first was probably in this forum, about vacuum tubes and basically stated that those that measured the best tended to be considered as sounding the worst. The second comment, from an equipment manufacturer, was that Chinese companies make a lot of gear that measures well and sounds like crap. As for subjective opinions, why do you think that is?

I burned my middle finger trying to solder up a cable for the HE-5s for only very minor benefit to the already great sound they have. Soldering during the brief moments I could have my finger off the ice before the pain kicked back in hard was unpleasant. Bepanthen cream for the win in these situations. I was masochistic enough to attempt shopping both at the local supermarket and at Costoco, both of which were not only packed with shoppers, but their kids who were off school too. Plenty of walking and stimulation for mum and the little-one though.

What struck me as saddest about this whole thing is how the other Koss workers must feel: All those years of work just to have it all being thrown away the whole time.

Probably the best option for Koss now would be to open up their own boutique designer clothes shop and stock it with all the stuff she bought.

A trusted friend of mine in CA went with the dedicated Mac Mini for his rig, and swears by using AIFF only, with the Amarra software. I can't say I've heard a difference between compressed lossless (FLAC, ALAC) and AIFF files, but the odd person who pops up from time to time swearing on their mother's grave that they can does make me wonder. Amarra or Amarra Mini did make a difference on my Mac, as it uses their pro software to handle the digital bits instead of iTunes and Mac OS X. This seems to bring out a slightly clearer sound. You might experiment putting the Mac on the good end of the Shunyata Power Shit in your sig to see if it helps too. As well, consider a solid-state hard drive for the reasons Spritzer mentioned. As for audiophile grade power cables, I believe one of the more respected or hated Stereophile reviewers (depending on your point of view) put Belkin Gold cables only second to some crazy expensive ones, so YMMV. The Ayre uses Wavelenth's Async technology, which is supposed to be the bee's knees with USB, so fancy USB cables shouldn't matter. I'd probably, as a rule, say that if a digital cable makes a difference, then there's a problem with the DAC's ability to handle digital input. More than anything, I'd be keen to get your impressions of such a set-up compared to the CD players you're using.

mrarrayo: Well written impressions: Succinct and to the point. My HE-5s arrived tonight (due to no Christmas holiday in China and Japan). First impressions are very good, fun, but tight bass that rolls off down deep, a treble peak possibly a bit higher than the HD-800s, but making them somewhat fatiguing, even on my smooth rig, and mids from Jesus. They are the first can since the Stax 4070s to bring tears to my eyes on vocals. The real testing will come when I start switching between them and the HD-800s and Stax. I'll have to head into the city and grab another 4-pin XLR plug too so I put the APS v3 cable I have spare on them.

Don't forget, regarding the hype, the first paid-for pairs arrived in people's hands just before Christmas, when people are distracted by other matters (I'd think anyway). My random thoughts are, the impressions of the T1s seem to be less detailed, but more "fun" tonally than HD-800s. After just putting on my Stax LNS again (I borrowed a T1S) and being able to describe them in the same manner (I'd never have believed I could have a dynamic rig that was as detailed as Stax in the past) I imagine the T1s could potentially be similar.