[Icarium]

Originally Posted by Fing

Apologies for resurrecting an old thread, but I wanted to chime in as an almost satisfied Qualia owner.

I've finally (after almost a year) managed to get a working Supra XLR and balancing these puppies seems to be the way to go imo, since if I had to listen to them single-ended, they'd probably have been flipped by now. Different, impressive, but not worth it.

Balancing them has increased the sense of palpability (dynamism?) as well as fleshing out the overall tone, especially the bass.

The sound just seems to have gotten 'bigger', reflected by the reported experience and mine that placement now doesn't seem quite as crucial to obtaining a good sound.

It's not a completely different headphone by any means. The sound is still a little too fragile sometimes and difficult to like with rock. I had a small period of adjustment where the sound seemed to be too cavernous and tizzy in the treble, but it's probably the adjustment I need to make from the L3000 that I do most of my listening on, as it is bassier than it needs to be. Also playing a selection of tracks had me doubting whether its the headphone or the music as the effect seems to be dependant on the recording.

In fact, I don't think I've ever had a set up where I could discern the quality of a recording so well. The lens into the music is very clear and makes me realise how poor(ly integrated) the vocal miking is, sometimes. For instance, on the first track of Goldfrapp's "Seventh Tree" album, I can hear a faint hissing in the background everytime Alison sings. Also Anna Nalick's vocals sound oddly dead in "Wreck of the Day", as if it has been overly processed. Listening to her acoustic version is a lot better as it sounds more real.

Because of this, it's also not quite as involving as I'm used to. Not huge amounts of foot-tapping as yet.

There are a number of settings on the amp, so I've found that setting it to high voltage output, hard texture and no negative feedback seems to be my preference. These headphones are quite picky.

Does anyone with similar setups have any input tube recommendations? I'm using a pair of 6BK7's that Mikhail likes quite a lot with this amp and I'm finding them to be pretty good. They're supposed to be a fairly 'euphoric' tube but they sound pretty neutral to me.

Also, any recommended balanced cables? I know Dan likes the Black Dragon and Apuresounds v3. I have a Blue Dragon at the moment, which he reckons is the worst. I'm not finding it that mushy, but am prepared to be convinced...

I like music that has refinement, soundstage, detail and a slight euphonic touch - in that order.


Cheers!

I like 2c51s for input and 6bl7 gt/gtas in the output. That was the only complement that I reallyyy liked with the Qualias. They are very solid statey phones. Interesting that you notice such a difference between single ended and balanced with them. I did not notice a huge diff. Me and Craig did some tests at the last meet and he concurred. Of course we both believe that mainly only with hd650s is there a change.

Yeah I usually don't really foot tap with them but its because they mercilessly draw me into the music where I am just in a constant state of awe at the resolution I'm getting. I am so enthralled that I can barely do anything else but listen on edge. It does take me about 15 minutes of listening to really get into the sound though. It's not a relaxing headphone at all. It's brutal.