shellylh

I am going to buy a set of 1ft XLR(m)-XLR(f) cable from Blue Jeans Cable to connect my ECD-1 to my HR BUDA. The options are Belden 1800F or Canare L-4E6S Star Quad. Any reason to go for one or the other for such a short run? They are both close to the same price, I guess the Star Quad is a tiny bit more. I have seen that a lot of DIY people use the Star Quad for their cables (along with Mogami) but perhaps that is because it is more readily available and/or easier to work with than the Belden? My impression is that it is not going to make much of a difference which I buy and to just go for the Belden since it is slightly cheaper. Any thoughts? *My amp for now will my right on top of the DAC so 1 ft should be fine as long as the cables are not *too* thick. If they are about the same thickness as the LC-1, it should be fine.

Congrats! The BA is very nice.

Dreadhead did a comparison with a GS-X and 4 board B22 on the other site. Comparison (conclusions posted): Headamp GS-X and Balanced beta22 - Head-Fi: Covering Headphones, Earphones and Portable Audio

I didn't know that.

Well, I feel that the HP100 is very good. The GS-1 in my mind is slightly smoother and more neutral with a slightly better soundstate. They are both very good amps though. I am surprised more people haven't jumped on the HP100 bandwagon.

Yeah, the UDAC does look very tempting. I am eager to hear The Monkey's impression of the UDAC and ECD-1 especially since I just saw that he put the ECD-1 up for sale.

Ok, in case anyone was dying to hear the end of the story and losing sleep over my decision, I just order a BUDA+DPS. I figure this way I get to hear something new and there is no risk with Headroom's 30 day trial! Should ship in 2-4 weeks (probably closer to 4 weeks according to the salesperson on the phone). Now I just need to get rid of my Stello amp and DAC to make up for some of the loss of green.

The WA6 SE (at least with the Sophia 274B rectifier) is a really nice amp. It really drives all cans (that I have tried) with authority. I almost bought one after hearing it at a Houston meet last year but ended up with a WA5LE instead. After listening to it again at CanJam, I am still impressed with it. I haven't heard the WA4 but I did hear the WA2 and was not as impressed with it as the WA6 SE. If you want to spend a little more, the WA22 was even sweeter than the WA6SE!

LOL

Well, to be fair, I ordered at pretty much the worst time possible [Dec 2008]. Justin wasn't able to get the enclosures for long period of time for some reason.

I was thinking of doing exactly this since I have never owned any Headroom amps (something new is fun!) and there is the 30 day trial period. I waited 6 months for the GS-1 so I am never giving that up! Haha

Oh, I guess I didn't phrase my statement/question correctly. I am pretty sure the GS-X has separate power supplies for each channel. I assume that the BUDA+DPS does not. Is this correct and is it going to give the GS-X an advantage over the BUDA+DPS, at least on paper?

Ok, I have sort of a dumb question. I assume that the Headroom BUDA+DPS has a single power supply whereas the GS-X has separate power supplies. Is this true? Will this give some advantage to the GS-X? I'm not exactly sure what is going on with the DPS since my knowledge of electronics is pretty limited. Also anyone know any specs on the BUDA and/or BUDA+DPS? I cannot find much online.

Buying both... hmm... an interesting and expensive solution. If I could only make one invisible so that the better half couldn't see them both...

Dreadhead: How much improvement did you see running it balanced vs single-ended (presumably, SE would sound the same as a GS-1 which I currently have)?

I'll take a BUDA GS-X swirl please.

I have a heck of a time deciding which ice cream to get, which bottle of wine to order, which album to listen to at the moment; my partner always gives me a hard time with this.

Well, I suppose the prices are about the same then.

Good to know.

I am trying to decide between the Headroom BUDA+DPS and GS-X to use as a "backup" balanced solid state amp to use with HD800 and ECD-1 for those times that I don't want to fire up the tube amp (Woo Audio WA5 LE). There are advantages to both of them. For instance, BUDA+DPS is maybe slightly smaller, bit cheaper (can't members of the other site get some sort of 10% discount?), will convert SE to balanced from an unbalanced source like my SA8001 that I use to listen to the few SACDs that I own, has a shorter waiting period. However, the GS-X is fully discrete while the the BUDA is chip based, the GS-X has stepped attenuators, and Justin's work is absolutely amazing. Also, I am not sure what the specs are on the BUDA like output power, etc. I would go for the GS-X but I am worried that the BUDA has some special "synergy" with the HD800's which the GS-X does not have. Has anyone heard both with the HD800? I have a GS-1 and the Woo certainly trumps the GS-1 with the HD800 but of course the GS-X will be balanced so moar power.... Edit: I admit I made a thread on the "other" site asking the same question (mostly out of habit/comfort) and didn't get very good feedback. I hope you won't hold this against me.

At least on the DX version, I have been able to browse the web for free from anywhere I have been. So I guess the answer is "yes" at least for the DX version. Oh yeah, the Kindle DX is great!

Tried to buy one but they won't ship to my work since it is not my billing address.

I have only heard a W5000 at a meet. The A2000X seem more laid back than the W5000 from what I remember. I found the W5000 to be a little too bright with some piano for my taste but perhaps it was the setup. I decided not to get the W5000 because of fit issues (the ones I tried were too large even with the pad and headband "mod"). I haven't done any direct comparisons with the AD2000 yet and haven't listened to the AD2000 in a while because of having the HD800 so this is just from memory.

Early impressions of A2000x vs K501: I finally got some time to sit down with the A2000x. I did some comparisons with K501. Disclaimer: These are just my initial impressions and are by no means meant to be any sort of review. I am not very good with words (that is why I became a mathematician) but I will do my best to describe what I am hearing. The A2000X have about 100 hours and them and are sounding much better than they were out of the box. The bass has strenthened and the brightness calmed a bit. I listened to them and the K501 out of the WA5 and GS-1 with an ECD-1 as a source (wav files from Macbook Pro). Music was mostly rock: PJ Harvey, Sarah McLachlan, Elton John, Janes Addiction, Fleetwood Mac, Tracy Chapman, Mazzy Star, Dave Matthews Band with some others like Niyaz from State of Trance 2006, Egberto Gismonti, and Miles Davis (I listened to one song from each of the above artists). First, I find the A2000X to have a similar sound signature to the AD2000 but they are somewhat brighter and not as quite as smooth in my mind yet (maybe after another 100 hours they will be better). They are fairly neutral but have slightly forward mids and have a little bit of a hot treble. They are very bright and transparent, much more than the K501 which sound slow, dark, and laid back in comparison. Putting on the A2000x after the K501 makes you think that the windshield was just cleaned with Windex (yeah, I know, a cliche). The A2000x has more bass quantity than the K501 (but is not bass heavy at all) and the bass hits harder/deeper. However, the mids on the K501 sound more real to me (the K501's strong suit). Male and females voices sound more organic on the K501. Sometimes the A2000x can seem a little metallic. I hate to describe it this way (because the cups are made of titanium) but that is what comes to my mind whereas the K501 are always very smooth (at a loss of treble and bass sparkle). Other thoughts: I haven't had any long listening sessions but I imagine that these could be fatiguing to some. If you want a lot of bass, these are not for you. They seems neutral except for the slightly hot treble. The A2000X are extremely revealing and can extremely revealing of a bad source! I haven't done much comparison with the AD2000 but the A2000x are much harder to drive. On the GS-1 (low gain), I have to turn the dial significantly farther with the A2000X than I do with the AD2000. I am hoping the show more improvement in the next 100 hours. I will do some more comparisons, this time with the AD2000.

Not as much bass impact as the AD2000. I haven't tried the YH100 unfortunately. The bass on the A2000x was very lean when I first tried them. After 50 hours, they bass seems to stronger but still not as impactful as the AD2000. I want to give it more time (both burning in and on my head) before I make a matter of fact statement about the sound though. I got the banana hanger at Bed Bath and Beyond a while ago. They may still have something like it.