HiWire

I've listened to the following albums since I plugged into the Duet: Pixies - Bossanova Matthew Sweet - Girlfriend Vladimir Ashkenazy - Moments Musicaux - Rachmaninov Darren Hayes - This Delicate Thing We've Made LCD Soundsystem - LCD Soundsystem Roy Orbison - All-Time Greatest Hits (MFSL) Since I don't listen to more than about 2-3 hours at a time, it takes a long time for me to break in new equipment. I don't like leaving stuff playing while I'm gone, and I enjoy the break-in process anyway. I've plugged each component into a separate "Zone" on the Duet - the CD player goes into one zone, and the headphone amp into the other. So far, it's tricky to separate the effects of a passive power conditioner to just listening to a warmed-up (I generally consider about 30 minutes to 1 hour warmed up: equipment and listener) system. From what I can tell, I'm inclined to turn the volume up more often because of a definite smoothness to the sound. Also, I've been sitting longer than usual to enjoy the music - earlier, I was itching to get up and about after about an hour. Although these aren't particularly audiophilic descriptions, they do indicate that I'm enjoying the music more, probably beyond the curiosity of trying a new toy. Harshness has been reduced, in my opinion. I think the weakness of my headphone amplifier was its simplicity - as far as I can recall, Norm (the designer) eschewed filters for a more lively, direct sound in the Headsave Classic and his other designs. The active ground channel in the v3 series of Classics apparently helped to lower the noise floor. The power conditioner may protect the Elpac power supply from problems in my condo apartment's power. There haven't been major differences in bass or treble performance that I can tell. The sound may be slightly more dynamic and imaging more cohesive, but I am listening more carefully now than before I got the Duet. One thing that I have noticed - I thought there was something indefinable missing from my system and I was considering switching interconnects, but I don't have an urge to do that now. I think the Duet might be one of the best bargains going in audiophilia - I paid a little over $200 CDN for mine. I'll continue to update this thread as I listen to more music. I'm definitely enjoying the journey and looking forward to listening to all of my music on my "improved" system - there aren't enough hours in the day.

I just bought a Duet this weekend. The salesman (Lorne at Executive Stereo in Toronto) says it will take a while to break in, so I'll try to record my impressions along the way.

I mentioned the GS-1 because I'm not particularly interested in a balanced output (my source is single-ended), but I'd definitely look at the GS-X seriously if I had more money. I'm avoiding op-amp designs just because I'm fine with my own op-amp based amplifier... however, I'll take a look at the Phonitor for curiosity's sake. Thanks for the tip!

I'd just like to say that I'm following this thread with interest and I appreciate the detailed, ongoing write-ups. This is much more interesting to me than the Head-Fi fanboy coverage of the Woo Audio, etc. valve-based products in the same price range, not that there's anything wrong with them. I'm also looking at the Headamp GS-1 and the Channel Islands VHP-2 (for their discrete outputs) but there doesn't seem to be that much competition at this level. I guess the Eddie Current Solid State might be in the same category, but I haven't read much about it yet.

That's an excellent article. I particularly appreciate all the useful resources the writer included.

I'm reading Richard Morgan's Black Man (titled Thirteen in the US). It's a bit derivative of Blade Runner, William Gibson, and Bruce Sterling, but still entertaining. I agree with the above and add the following: Chung Kuo by David Wingrove (avoid the last book) The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson Kiln People by David Brin Foundation by Isaac Asimov ...

There is an excellent feature on headphones for use as studio monitors in this month's issue of Sound On Sound. Check it out if you can - it is interesting to hear about the opinions of various engineers using the same headphones that we purchase for the pleasure of listening.

I like the center channel for dialog, but I dislike subwoofers. Full range speakers all around would bankrupt most people, though...

It's also harder to set up multichannel properly. Most people screw up their stereo acoustics. It's harder to screw up headphone acoustics.

I just realized that I probably won't ever be able to afford a decent multichannel setup, even though I believe that is the primary benefit of the new digital formats... perhaps a lot of "stereophiles" are the same way - they don't actually have a philosophical bias against multichannel recordings, they just can't stomach the cost of buying the new equipment (e.g., 5 more speakers, amps, preamps/controllers, cables, stands, etc.). So I am a stereophile by default.

I wonder if Sennheiser has considered producing a bass-lighter version of the HD 650.

The Channel Islands D-100s look decent, but you'll need a preamp or line controller for volume control.

Thanks, Reks. I'll look around for Thiel dealers in my area.

That actually hurts even more... I was thinking about getting the "nice" Paradigms for years - particularly the Signature S6. I'll still go and audition them, but it sounds like they're better left to the home theater guys. I read that they did something to the drivers to save cost, compared to the last revision of the Signature series. I'll check out the Opera and Quad loudspeakers and then go back to re-audition the Totem "The One" and the PSB Synchrony Ones. Unfortunately, I think my budget is going to be closer to $2,000 for a pair of speakers rather than $5,000, which is almost certainly going to lead to serious compromises. The only way to get good speakers at that price is to buy used. aerius knows me - I don't compromise much on sound quality, so I'll probably delay the speaker question for another few years until I can afford something better.

I'm going to take a pass on it, then... I guess it's going to be Sonus Faber after all...

re: Grado differences I just listened to "The Best of the Corrs" last night on my home system, which I had listened to twice in a row on my portable CD player. It was just for fun, because I wasn't expecting much difference on a pop recording. Big mistake. The difference in the amount of detail and richness on the HP-2s was huge... instrument separation, soundstage, and timing were all improved. Unfortunately... the first tracks on the collection were pronounced in their "plasticky" sound - all the voices and instruments sound very compressed and sterile in the studio recordings, and it is particularly obvious in the synthesized instruments. There is a complete lack of ambiance and acoustics, which emphasizes the pop radio intention of the tracks. By the middle of the CD, reality starts to creep in. I don't know if they switched producers, equipment or engineers, but there is a much more live sound in their subsequent recordings. The conclusion to this experiment: the high end Grados can certainly get you farther, but you need a good recording to enjoy the music. My home system ruthlessly revealed the problems with the disc, where I had never noticed any before... to the point of making the music hard to enjoy. The portable system is much more forgiving (or fuzzimifying) with bad recordings.

I tried a pair of K 701's and they were pretty lifeless compared to my Grado HP-2's. They were supposed to have had more than 1,000 hours of burn-in and the amplification setup was decent, but they just couldn't rock. It's too bad - I really wanted to like them when they were released. Do the new K 702 or K 272 share the same sound?

Panasonic RP-HTX7 $60

I am interested in the Special Edition and the NuForce Edition... at least theoretically. Although they are a big jump in price from the stock unit, they seem to offer similar benefits to a modded OPPO player at the same price. I'm looking for an upsampling DVD player for an HDTV and if it happens to have great SACD/DVD-A/HDCD multichannel playback, that would be ideal. I doubt that I'll be buying any Blu-ray discs in the next few years, so quality DVD playback is critical.

The funny thing is that we ended the meet by listening to Jay's vinyl rig on his vintage Marantz amp. I think hi-fi is a fun (and expensive) hobby, but it should never get in the way of our enjoyment of music.

Agreed. Nobody really needs that kind of peak volume in their room. According to the traditional reference scale, a jet plane taking off is about 140 dB – nobody wants that, even Spinal Tap. If you read Fremer's review of the Scarlatti, he states that there is an audible difference between the various upsampling methods and SACD. I'm simply waiting for this kind of SACD performance to become affordable – for now, I've invested in an upsampling Redbook player and I'm collecting hybrid SACDs to hedge my bets. The price to get "perfect" digital is still too high for me, and I don't plan to invest in vinyl. Also, I'm not currently paying for any music downloads, although I'm slowly ripping my CDs to iTunes' AAC 320 kbps VBR – a compromised format, but only for convenient listening on my computers.

Theoretically. Since the decibel system is logarithmic, SACD's 120 dB is a lot more headroom than CD's 96 dB. If you take a look at Stereophile's review of the dCS Scarlatti system, you can see some real measurements from a state of the art SACD player. I'd like to see measurements from an EMM Labs TSD1 + DAC2 combo for comparison.

I forgot to mention in my long-winded description of SACD to Key Lime Pie Girl and the guys: SACD's most commonly-described benefits are high resolution and multi-channel recording, but 2 other benefits came to mind yesterday. SACD has a wider potential frequency range and dynamic range. This gives the engineers more room to work in a variety of recording conditions. There are fewer compromises in compression, a lower noise floor and more potential filtering options. DVD-A approached the "limitations" of CD using different methods, but the goals were essentially the same. Upsampling DACs (like the Wolfsons in my CD36) are a kind of "hot-rod" solution as they work on the disc's output rather than the recording masters, unlike XRCD and HDCD. I think that SACD has yet to reach its full potential (recording equipment and hardware components are still evolving), whereas Redbook CD is at the end of its development.

I liked the PS-1. It sounds a lot like the HP-2, which is definitely a credit, in my opinion. It is detailed, neutral-sounding, and it has plenty of bass impact. Also, it seems to have a similar soundstage - not huge, but reaching farther than most of the Grados. The PS-1000 has potential, but I think it needs more burn-in. It's currently a bit bright and flat (as opposed to rich) sounding. pixel pusher's rig sounded great - it had power to spare and his amp had none of the weaknesses of poorly-designed tube systems. The sound was precise, rich, and musical. Also, it did a good job of warming up its corner of the room. Next time, we should find out if there is a way of switching layers on the Esoteric UX-3. SACD sounded great on the player, but I'm not sure if it was much different than Redbook playback. I was surprised by the sound of the Alessandro MS-Pro. It sounded a lot less dark than people have generally implied, and more like an RS-1 than I thought. Although it is mostly neutral sounding, the MS-Pro is still more forward and flavored than the Grado HP-2, my reference headphone.

I just did a little bit of reading on the Grado and Ortofon cartridge sites and my head is about to asplode. I don't know how vinyl people are able to remember all that stuff...