New Tiny SP

[deepak]

It's cool to see more and more innovation from amp and source designers, but it would be really nice if more headphones were released (not just IEMs).

Someone called it "ampfest" sounds right to me.

But it's ridiculous when people are asking "what headphones will go well with my amp "

[kevin gilmore]

quoting granodemostasa

Example 1: The B52 was one amazing product. I didn't like it to start with, but after hearing it on Billy's system I grew to have much respect for it as one of the top headphone amps out there. The apache wasn't the same. On the same piece of music, on the same headphones, the apache sounded like it had some amount of glare and "TV" around the music that seemed so clean and pure on the B52.

Is anyone surprised at this. Ray said it himself numerous times. The thing is 2 x HR2 in one box. So he took a 10 year old headwize design with a

class AB output stage and cramed it in one box for a price of somewhere between 2400 and 2900. Then he added a 1 opamp buffer as the

preamp output. Its not a preamp, no remote control and no tape loop. And as a balanced headphone amp it has to be god awful. Evidently

ray is aiming at the cordoba crowd. Corinthian leather. Its all about looks and the marvelous build quality. Screw the sound.

Example 2: The new singlepower SS amp. For 1700 dollars i sort of expected an amplifier in the same performance range as the 1600$ zana deux, but instead i got something less than that. it was more or less equal to a balanced desktop and an apache, as opposed to belonging to the B52, dynamight, and Max balanced crowd.

Surprise Surprise. At least it is supposed to be all discrete and mosfet output stage. But who knows...

Example 4: the gold plated Maestro XLR- I really expected to hear the world lifted to a new level. instead i got fuzzy imaging, big power, and a particularly "singlepower" tube sound. It was good, just not the upgrade i'm looking for.

mikhail needs to give up on the white cathode follower with put put tubes thing. For something that is that much money it could at least have

been turned into an extreme with real output tubes.

Then mikhail produces this miniature thing with no ventilation holes and people are telling me that it runs 30 degrees hotter than

a raptor. THIS IS NOT A GOOD THING. Where is that talking heads album... burning down the house

This commercialization thing is producing some amazing high priced junk.

[philodox]

I love how everyone is saying that the Zanden is the best amp in the K1000 room... when it has an Audio Aero Capitole as its source, and the rest are driven from Squeezeboxes.

WTF.

PS. Completely off topic, but we got those parts Kevin. Surgery will commence once I get my new faceplate from Steve.

[philodox]

Oh, and on a more positive note... the new 'ultra micro DAC' sounds like fun. I wonder how a standalone Headroom Max DAC module sounds?

[postjack]

This commercialization thing is producing some amazing high priced junk.

I think this is why I want to spend my money on either out of production gear, or current production "tried and true" models. It's just too difficult to try and interpret the hype. And since I don't know shit about how audio gear works, I have to rely on the reviews of others to decide what to purchase, and then hope my ears agree. So I'm more prone to trust a review from some old timer I dig up with the search engine on HF from 2002, or from someone who I know is knowledgable here, then a thread with 100 pages about a brand new product.

[humanflyz]

I think this is why I want to spend my money on either out of production gear, or current production "tried and true" models. It's just too difficult to try and interpret the hype. And since I don't know shit about how audio gear works, I have to rely on the reviews of others to decide what to purchase, and then hope my ears agree. So I'm more prone to trust a review from some old timer I dig up with the search engine on HF from 2002, or from someone who I know is knowledgable here, then a thread with 100 pages about a brand new product.

The surest way is to find someone whose taste agrees with yours--so far that has not failed me. For example, I think J-Pak's taste in both gear and music agree a lot with mine, so now I'm saving up for a pair of HP2s when they become available.

[deepak]

The surest way is to find someone whose taste agrees with yours--so far that has not failed me. For example, I think J-Pak's taste in both gear and music agree a lot with mine, so now I'm saving up for a pair of HP2s when they become available.

thanks man.

We did have near identical setups for a while (source, amp, headphones) and our taste in music is very similar.

[Mastergill]

This commercialization thing is producing some amazing high priced junk.

These "one dude business operation" who believe they re-invented the wheel always made me laugh. It seems you can sell lot of this amateur shit to these poor newbies headphone user.

The headphone hobby need serious brand like Conrad-Johnson, VTL, Atma-sphere, Mark Levinson and others start producing fine headphone amps.

What we see now is just amateur shit...

[kevin gilmore]

Krell made a wonderful headphone amp about 10 years ago. It was called the ksa25. Very few were made,

it was something like $4k then. Atma-sphere makes some truely wonderful amps that drive headphones

very well, kind of pricy. Don't see levinson (as in harman international) ever coming up with a headphone amp,

they have enough trouble selling their current stuff. Conrad-johnson, vtl, rowland... that would be some nice

stuff.

[aerius]

I love how everyone is saying that the Zanden is the best amp in the K1000 room... when it has an Audio Aero Capitole as its source, and the rest are driven from Squeezeboxes.

WTF.

As many Head-fiers know, digital is digital and bits is bits, and every CD player and DAC sounds the same anyway as long as it's not broken. Therefore the comparison was totally fair.

[Eric5676]

I definitely agree and share everyone's concerns as Kevin spelled out especially well.

[Iron_Dreamer]

The Squarewave sounded OK, along the lines of a slightly less detailed M^3. It didn't run insanely hot like the Mini (thank god for my pinky), but the dinky volume knob and two potentiometers for a balanced amp just sucks. The case was also a wanna-be AMB, except it looked like it was put together in about 10 minutes. Honestly I didn't listen to the Mini because I was afraid igniting the woody plug cover on my W11JPN

The SS-1 sounded good, but I listened to it with the Qualia and that mean Esoteric stack. But is it any better than what I've already got, color me doubtful (not like I was going to get an A-B in my system. )

I didn't even listen to the Apache. Why bother? Will it sound better than my amp? No chance in hell. Is it more expensive? Of course. To quote the Soup Nazi, "NEXT!!!!!!!"

This racing to get stuff out for the National Meet is definitely the new trend. Everyone saw the GS1000 uproar and wanted to cash in.

[Eric5676]

I didn't even listen to the Apache. Why bother? Will it sound better than my amp? No chance in hell. Is it more expensive? Of course. To quote the Soup Nazi, "NEXT!!!!!!!"

It probably would have been difficult for any number of reasons, but I really wish someone at that Meet had been able to take detailed side by side exterior and especially interior shots of Justin/HeadAmp's GS-X next to that RSA Apache.

I hope someone does in the near future.

This racing to get stuff out for the National Meet is definitely the new trend. Everyone saw the GS1000 uproar and wanted to cash in.

Among other things, yes.

[Iron_Dreamer]

It probably would have been difficult for any number of reasons, but I really wish someone at that Meet had been able to take detailed side by side exterior and especially interior shots of Justin/HeadAmp's GS-X next to that RSA Apache.

Well Justin has detailed shots of the GSX guts on his website, not that there's anything surprising in there. What do you want to know about the Apache? I got a look at the interior, it's about 4-5 opamps per channel in the back near the inputs, funky-looking monolithic buffers in the front near the outputs, a buttload of relays on the left, and the 4-channel DACT in the center. Didn't see the PSU though.

[Eric5676]

Well Justin has detailed shots of the GSX guts on his website, not that there's anything surprising in there.

True enough.

What do you want to know about the Apache? I got a look at the interior, it's about 4-5 opamps per channel in the back near the inputs, funky-looking monolithic buffers in the front near the outputs, a buttload of relays on the left, and the 4-channel DACT in the center. Didn't see the PSU though.

^^ This is along the lines of more specific information that I think a good number of people would be interested in.

I just like lots of pretty pictures and doing comparisons between products is always fun. It's certainly a lot easier and worlds cheaper to boot!

[tkam]

I just think it's stupid we keep seeing all these new amps released. This hobby doesn't need more amps, it needs more quality headphones.

[Eric5676]

I just think it's stupid we keep seeing all these new amps released. This hobby doesn't need more amps, it needs more quality headphones.

I doubt anyone will disagree with this truth.

[aerius]

This hobby doesn't need more amps, it needs more quality headphones.

No, it needs MORE COWBELL!!!

[postjack]

No, it needs MORE COWBELL!!!

more laserz

[Iron_Dreamer]

Here are your Apache interior pics:

[Nanoha]

Nice photos Peter. I've wondered though. What are those gear-looking like thingies? Don't tell me they're heat sinks...

[kevin gilmore]

those are heatsinks for the output transistors.

[Nanoha]

those are heatsinks for the output transistors.

Ah ha. And so they are.

[Tyll Hertsens]

One of the biggest and emerging problems is the head-fi international meet.

Vendors are now virtually required to have new products at this show and are

now driven by this yearly thing. So instead of coming out with rational new

products when they are ready, many things are hurried along, sometimes

putting current customers on the slow track so that more time can be spent

coming up with new product that may or may not make any kind of financial

sense...

I don't see it so much as an emergent problem as an emergent opportunity.

Let's take HeadRoom as an example: Did we do something extra for HeadFest? Yes. Are we time and resource limited? Yes. Did we loose some operational capability because of it? Yes, maybe a little. But, did we gain in the transaction? Yes. We got to efficiently introduce members to some of the things we were prepairing to do. Did the hobby gain in the transaction? Yes. (Though you guys might argue this point.) I had fun. Everybody I saw there had fun. Members put faces to screen names; got exposed to a lot of gear from both vendors and pther members; and people partied hearty. That's some pretty good gain.

But back to your particular point. Is it proper that manufacturers have some external force pacing their developement. Well, there are already plenty of external forces that push developement: customer desires; competitors actions; new technologies becoming available in better chipsets and parts, to name a few. What's wrong with having a PR event punctuate the year? Big consumer electronics companies fundimentally introduce products in January at CES. Occasionally they introduce things they think can hit big before Christmas, but for the most part they don't want to confuse consumers who have developed their Christmas wish lists over the year. So they wait 'til after Christmas to introduce new product and try to convince people over the next year to get on the lists. HeadFest in spring (though likely a little later this coming year, is at a good time. High-end gear sells better in the winter and takes a dive in summer as people spend on vacations. Having a spring event may tend to bump summer sales a bit...a good thing for makers.

Again back to your point, is HeadRoom or SinglePower likely to be harried by the event? Yes. But we want and need it, and we're willing to work a bit harder for it. Is it possible that some of us screwed the pooch to some extent to rady ourselves? Sure, possibly. But could not that simply be the normal process of learning and improving our activities throughout the year---after all, this is only the second such meet; give us a bit of time to learn how to deal with this new pacing item.

So instead of coming out with rational new

products when they are ready, many things are hurried along, sometimes

putting current customers on the slow track so that more time can be spent

coming up with new product that may or may not make any kind of financial

sense...

I think you're projecting your own opinion into a generalization that's not really complete. You're makeing an argument out of a limited number of possibilities that might be, rather than looking at the whole of the opportunities presented and being willing to let the players actually make their moves in the new environment and then judge that.

If you were to ask me to identify the real "biggest and emerging problems", I'd say it's a lack of organizational structure that allows a central entity to: take action to forward a rightly motivated mission; organize HeadFest and improve it over time by haveing a stable body that can learn from experience; provide a way to vouchsafe the nature of the activity desired by the members from potential derailment by industry. While Jude and I have a complicated and sometimes conflicting relationship, I non-the-less strongly believe we are both rightly motivated and want the same thing in the end---a hobby by and for enthusiasts. I have been working closely with him and believe we are on a track to putting into place a member-based organization that will accomplish the things I mentioned above.

If your statement is really a hidden expression of dislike for commerce as it is practiced in America, then please don't just automatically place that lable on the headphone market trade participants. I know what my motive are and they are not reflected by big corps. I have very different beliefs. I'll add that it's a very damaging thing to just lable commerce as evil and leave it at that. Stores are a natural and necessary part of a community. You really can just say that commercial activity is bad, so it's a problem. It's a bullshit argument.

I have to add here, that the tenacity with which those here hold resentment to Jude or Ray or whoever, has, in my view, done this community more harm than good. I'm not perfectly satisfied with what Jude does, but that doesn't stop me from trying to find a meeting of the minds. We've got LOTS of serious problems all over the world because of people holding extreem perspectives that they are unwilling to comprimise or moderate. And, it seems to me, you guys, as a whole, are doing just that.

Alright, go ahead and fling shit at me. I'm confident that I see constructive things happening, and that I can explain my position. Just try to make it at least a little constructive, or I'll just fling it right back. And I'm full of shit so I come well armed.

[kevin gilmore]

With respect to the second quote, there was a lot there that i left unsaid.

The people who know what i'm talking about obviously know what i'm getting

at, and the people who don't are going to have a hard time figuring it out.

That way the hammer is not so obvious.

I have never had a problem with commercialization. For a 15 year period i

was an exhibitor as part of quad electroacoustic at the CES show. I know

more about the politics of that kind of thing than you will ever know.