Unplanned Ultra Mini Meet

[mrarroyo]

Naples Mini Meet on January 7th, 2010:

Ron (HiFlight) and I exchanged a couple of PMs and decided to get together to try each other’s new gear. I am on vacation and going on a trip so I decide to take a small detour to Florida’s west coast and meet with Ron in Naples. I thought that we would just take a small number of items and boy was I wrong! The list of gear (not all of which was photograph) follows.

Full Size Headphones

AKG K1000 w/ an APureSound V3 re-cable (not photographed)

AKG K340 (stock)

Denon D2000 w/ MarkL mods, Bubinga wood cups, and an XEV re-cable by Zynsonic

Head Direct HiFiMAN HE5

Sony MDR F1 w/ an XEV re-cable by Zynsonic

Ultrasone Ed.8

German Maestro GMP 8.300D

Portable Headphones

Yuin OK1

Etymotic ER4P

Koss Portapro Anniversary Edition

Head Direct HiFiMAN RE-252

Sources

Aeolus magiDAC

Shanling CD Player PCD300A

6th Gen 160 Gb iPod w/ lossless files w/ an ALO Bamboo Dock

Philips DVD DVP5982

Full Size Amps

K.I.C.A.S.

SOHA built by MisterX

Head Direct HiFiMAN EF5

Graham Slee’s Solo SRGII

Bravo Audio

Jaycar HeadAmp (highly modified Aussie kit)

Portable Amps

D4 by iBasso (not photographed)

T3 by iBasso (not photographed)

Reference by Zin w/ C5 board

Reference by Zin w/ D5 board

Here are some photos taken during the approximate four-hour mini meet.

What did I come out from comparing the various items?

1. The AKG K340 continuous to be one of the best sounding cans I have ever listened too. Especially if the source and amp are of high quality.

2. The little Bravo Audio has to be heard to be believed, it just sounds right regardless of the can used. I could not believe it was driving the K1000 and K340 to such a high level and fantastic quality. It is so good I will be looking to buy one shortly.

3. I wish more people gave the Sony MDR F1 a chance. It is a very clear and open sounding, quite close to a K1000 since the driver is also away from the ear.

4. The Ultrasone Ed.8 is a very punchy and detailed/clear can with a high level of “fun” thrown in. Unfortunately for me I cannot at this moment sink $1,400 into purchasing one.

5. The KICAS and the Ed.8 make a very good pairing if you are looking for a combo that will have your foot tapping and a big smile in your face. It was a delight to listen and let the music take you away. In my opinion the Ed.8 sounded better out of the KICAS than my modded Denon. We then switched to the SOHA and funnily enough the roles were reversed, the modded Denon sounded better than the Ed. 8 out of the SOHA. BTW, the source being used was the magiDAC.

6. The Solo SRGII and the HE5 are a fantastic pairing, with a lot of the music even better than the EF5. I say this because the Solo SRGII is a very warm amp, more so than the EF5 so it was able to control the energetic top end of the HE5. I will start rolling 12AU7 tubes into HE5 to see if I can find a warmer sounding tube. Note, I am not saying that the EF5/HE5 combo is shrill or metallic sounding as I have read from some users. To my ears and w/ my music the EF5/HE5 has a bit too much treble energy that I hope to tame by rolling tubes. More to come on this matter.

7. The K1000 even w/ the limited amps and sources we had remains to me the king of dynamic headphones. As stated in another post of mine the Sony Qualias is the only headphone that comes close.

It was a lot of fun to get together w/ Ron (HiFlight) and try each other’s new gear! The following (in blue) are Ron’s impressions.

I also much enjoyed the day. As I had just gotten the KICAS, magiDAC and Bravo tube amp, I hadn't had a chance to try out everything, so it was an educational experience for me also.

It was interesting to see how the synergy changed depending upon the combination of amp and phones that were paired together.

The surprise of the day was how good the little Bravo amp sounded when driving the K340s and K1000s! I was using the stock 6N11 tube, but the amp sounded even better when we swapped the cheap switching power supply for Miguel’s Elpac 2 amp switcher PSU.

This little Class A powerhouse was driving my K1000s to a normal volume level at the 9 0'clock position on the volume knob. It also effortlessly powered my K340s and sounded superb doing it! All of this for $59.00.... unbelievable!

I should also note that the Bravo only had about 3 hours of use prior to our meet. My Ed.8s also have only about 30 hours use, and I was told that they need a couple of hundred hours to reach their full potential.

I also can highly recommend the Shanling PCD3000A. Not only does it do a fine job of rendering CDs thru both Coax and Optical outputs, but it has a very nice-sounding headphone output as well. It is quite narrow and easily fits into very small spaces. The more I use this player, the better I like it.

It is always fun and educations to be able to listen to other equipment in addition to ones own toys

RLK.

[mypasswordis]

1. The AKG K340 continuous to be one of the best sounding cans I have ever listened too. Especially if the source and amp are of high quality.

How much of this would you say is attributed to the velour vs stock pads? I'm thinking about getting some for mine. Damped the back plates with some weatherstrip and now the bass is much less muddy/slow and the resonance around 50-70Hz is gone, I was wrong about the passive diaphragms being too effective. But there's still something not *quite* right about the sound.

[morphsci]

1. The AKG K340 continuous to be one of the best sounding cans I have ever listened too. Especially if the source and amp are of high quality.

^^THIS.^^

.... But there's still something not *quite* right about the sound.

If you haven't cut a hole in the plastic "grill" I have a pretty good guess about what that may be.

6. The Solo SRGII and the HE5 are a fantastic pairing, with a lot of the music even better than the EF5. I say this because the Solo SRGII is a very warm amp, more so than the EF5 so it was able to control the energetic top end of the HE5. I will start rolling 12AU7 tubes into HE5 to see if I can find a warmer sounding tube. Note, I am not saying that the EF5/HE5 combo is shrill or metallic sounding as I have read from some users. To my ears and w/ my music the EF5/HE5 has a bit too much treble energy that I hope to tame by rolling tubes. More to come on this matter.

Do you think this might be because it is rolling off the high end?

Edited January 9, 2010 by morphsci

[mrarroyo]

The velour pads IMO add a comfort level that is needed for this cans. Being a bit heavy the pleather pads make listening with the K340 a bit fatiguing and hot. Some will state that some of the bass impact could be lost but IMO it is negligible and since they are so much more comfortable I would say to get the velour pads. BTW, the mods that Larry at Headphile performs improve the K340 significantly, how much is the BlackGold re-cable (what I had on mine) or the mods I can not say. Good luck.

[mypasswordis]

If you haven't cut a hole in the plastic "grill" I have a pretty good guess about what that may be.

I think they may require a trip to a certain K340 guru/displaced Alaskan sometime in the near future.

The velour pads IMO add a comfort level that is needed for this cans. Being a bit heavy the pleather pads make listening with the K340 a bit fatiguing and hot. Some will state that some of the bass impact could be lost but IMO it is negligible and since they are so much more comfortable I would say to get the velour pads. BTW, the mods that Larry at Headphile performs improve the K340 significantly, how much is the BlackGold re-cable (what I had on mine) or the mods I can not say. Good luck.

I actually don't mind the comfort at all on my K340, even though it is a bit heavy (neck_muscle_strength++; ) and the elastic bands are a bit loose. My ears don't get hot nearly as much as they do with other headphones. But are you saying the velours don't make much difference in sound other than decrease of bass impact? I thought they would shift the response closer to the treble.. Oh, and I've already modded my K340 up the wazoo.

[mrarroyo]

... Do you think this might be because it is rolling off the high end?

I gave this concept a lot of thought, if it had been the Solo SRG the answer would have been yes. However the SRGII extends in both directions over the SRG and it has a wider soundstage so for now I will say no. I plan on loaning Carl the HE5 with both the EF5 and the Solo SRGII so he may be able to provide a different perspective/feedback.

[morphsci]

I gave this concept a lot of thought, if it had been the Solo SRG the answer would have been yes. However the SRGII extends in both directions over the SRG and it has a wider soundstage so for now I will say no. I plan on loaning Carl the HE5 with both the EF5 and the Solo SRGII so he may be able to provide a different perspective/feedback.

Fair enough. I am not really familiar with those amps so that is why I asked.

[donunus]

Are there no comments on the gmp 8.300D?

[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.

[mrarroyo]

Are there no comments on the gmp 8.300D?

IMO it sounds better than the GMP 435 S. I did not have them on for an indepth evaluation. Will talk to HiFlight to see if I could borrow them.