Jon L

I've only tried LCD-4Z and LCD-2 which certainly sound unique and enjoyable, although the often-reported driver failures and unit-to-unit sound variability means I'd rather buy something else or only buy if I find extremely good prices. Then there is Hifiman... Holding the Abyss or the Raal SR1a in hand, they are built extremely well but in opposite design approaches. Abyss employs extremely solid, thick, ceramic-coated aluminum frame to position the earpads barely touching the face. Raal uses very thin, flexible, self-contracting frame to let the whole headphone shrink down on the head, with user adjusting the driver angle like AKG K1000. As an aside, the Schiit Jotunheim R amp purpose-built to drive Raal SR1a's extremely low impedance (0.4 Ohm) CAN drive the Abyss 1266 wonderfully via DIY 4-pin female XLR to 4-pin female XLR adapter (non-standard pinout). Quite surprising, but the combo sounds great. and I suspect whatever they did to increase current-delivery into low impedance is working well for low impedance planars by accident 😄 0408201821 by drjlo2, on Flickr

Well, no regrets in spending the money. With TOTL headphones in these price brackets, it comes down to personal tastes. I'm waiting to try the new kid RAAL SR1A ribbon 'phones next, but I already know that for certain music genre, Abyss will always be unbeatable. The incredible dynamics, bass power with definition are always admired as SOTA, but the other parts such as musicality, resolution, enjoyability are pretty awesome, too.

Headphone section is just adding resistors, the number of which is determined by Jumpers on top of the board (first photo is showing top of circuit board). The bottom of board shows Jupiter Copper Foil caps I rolled in place of (upgraded) Mundorf Silver/gold, and bottom right of photo shows resistor arrays for headphone output. It's too bad the headphone jack cannot deliver enough power for my Abyss because it would have been so much more convenient to keep my speakers hooked up to speaker posts and Abyss to front headphone jack, which automatically cuts off speaker outputs 😞

So the 3F (or 3) should be better if one happened to connect a planar to it? say Impedance in 40's sensitivity 90ish

Hmm. How would you compare L700 MkII vs. ES-1a? I've been looking for a used L700 MkI, meaning to do the BlueTak mod, since several reviews keep saying L700 is "better" than SR007 and SR009, with brightness level between the two, which would be about right for my tastes..

Which earpads were they ordered with? I read the "regular" (stiff?) pads make them sound very bright and shouty. Per ES Lab website: "The memory foam pads gives a more organic tonality and a larger bass extension while the stiff pads take the tranparency of sound to the next level. Please consult us before purchase."

Bit OT, but anyone considering Drop THX Panda closed-back planars? $319 late-bird pricing seems quite attractive..

Nope, no need for Abyss but may need the resistor if you have a lot more sensitive planars.

Off the speaker taps. The front headphone jack has 4 jumper settings for difference impedance 'phones. Normal headphones like Sennheiser HD600, 32 Ohm IEM's sound fine on front headphone jack, but no setting is optimal for Abyss, not able to deliver enough power. Off the speaker taps, there is way more than enough power.

Would love to try Gilmore Lite Mk2 and compare, but year-end shopping has lightened my pockets, especially the Abyss. I WILL say the little SMSL SP200 is driving the Abyss 1266 Phi TC with authority and clarity. AbyssSMSL by drjlo2, on Flickr

Looks like the Clear is $1500 nowadays. Looking back 10 years ago, when the reasonable best dynamics available were Sennheiser HD580/600 with the occasional crazy person who splurged on Sony R10 behind their wife's back, I suppose it's better there are so many choices now. I tend to avoid audio/headphone shows these days, but somewhere somehow Hifiman and Audeze seem to have taken over the world, and the price of TOTL headphones have reached speaker levels. I wouldn't mind sitting down to compare Raal SR1a, Mysphere, Susvara, Utopia, Abyss, and maybe a ZMF thrown in for fun. Where does Clear fit into that scheme of things, I wonder?

There was the original Abyss, then Abyss Phi, then Phi CC, and now Abyss Phi TC... I don't know what came over me, but the 10% Black Friday sale didn't help. 1208191031_HDR by drjlo2, on Flickr

Huh... I guess this THX technology business is not ALL hype after all. In my Holiday shopping binge, I couldn't resist buying the SMSL SP200 THX tech amp for measly $260 +tax. Boy, cheap headphone amps have come a long way since I was last into dynamic headphones years ago... Sennheiser HD600 with ALO cable sounding mighty fine burning in the amp.

Anybody have any idea on price? ?

My speakers are custom jobs at measured honest 95dB/7 Ohm, with bass offloaded to another amp, so even 3 watts are usually enough. But just for fun, I have the infamous Klipsch RP-600M on their way. It's usually a bad idea to rely too much on reviewers, but at the Klipsch's reasonable price, what the heck... Herb Reichert of Stereophile: "The EleKit and Klipsch RP-600Ms together cost only $2600, but musically and sonically satisfied me as much as if they cost $26,000. To my complete surprise, this pairing exceeded the Orangutan+SIT-3 combo in apparent speed, tightness of bass, and boogie PRaT fun factor. The TU-8600R powering the RP-600Ms, sourced by the Chord Qutest DAC ($1895), created a complete under-$6k system, including cables and stands, that I'd be hard-pressed to improve on."

Don't have any DD amps on hand to directly compare, but I bought the Elekit to triple as speaker amp, stat amp via transformer, and to power Abyss 1266 Phi TC planars. And it does have Lundahl's and Mundorf silver/gold/oil caps. (below photo from Stereophile) ElekitTx by drjlo2, on Flickr

Made an impulse buy for this intriguing 300B SET, which is turning out to have great resolution and bass definition for a 300B SET, through speakers, headphone amp, AND driving electrostats via Stax transformer! https://www.stereophile.com/content/gramophone-dreams-27-elekit-tu-8600r-amplifier-kit 1126191526a by drjlo2, on Flickr

Promising-looking Neo Open baffles from Danny Richie...

Sony A7R IV. 61 MP, 10 FPS, 15 stop DR

It was near impossible to find one of these in CA... But well worth the effort. ? 0605191629 by drjlo2, on Flickr

Canon RF 85 f/1.2L looks like a great lens, but $2700 ?! ☹️

CCA C16 8 armature/side IEM can be bought for around $90, and with good copper cabling, it 'should' be good enough, bass included, out of a phone. 0401191533 by drjlo2, on Flickr

Wow, I didn't realize it's been more than 10 years! since I took a chance and ordered HE Audio EH 1.2B electrostats. Dare I order another new 'stat?

I still need a real amp for my Stax OII and SR09, so if anybody is willing to commision an extra one for me, let me know. No timeline pressure, and I am in SoCal. TIA?

Lucky to have found a localish shop that carries this at decent price!