Anders
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Posts posted by Anders
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Fuck off! Aeeh, ok thanks, see you!
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Now I'm curious. Explain yourself here.
Yes, you seem to be seriously interested. Head-Case is an unusually conform group with its own heroes, enemies and some common beliefs. Outsiders with a different opinion are regularily treated aggressively and often with contempt. They move away soon and conformity is maintained.
Anyway, it is positive that uncensored information is possible on this site with critical discussion of designs and products. In a time of recession and hifi in decline, many vendors stick to headphones as a possible arena for profit or simply for survival. This market is exploding and much of it is sustandard, maybe especially in the "high end". This can only be sustained by constant hyping and Head-Case is not on this hype train.
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Or ask at changstar an headfi, they'll tell you what to think
I don't think conformity is less on Head-Case than Head-Fi.
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You have to remember Tyll still has a website to run. We can piss everyone off and don't care about it, but Tyll can't.
I understand that Tyll like any commercial reviewer must be considerate.
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I'd say "sounds good with contemporary pop and rock" would fall into the category of damning with faint praise. Especially for a $5000 amplifier.
He wrote contemporary music and that is much more than pop and rock for me. There are contemporary jazz and contemporary classical music with low and heavy bass content and sharp transients as well as alternative rock. This music is very demanding and unsatisfactory equipment trashes easily the sound of a complex contemporary music (if you know how it should sound and don't think it is a plethora of ugly dissonance). Taking Tylls review as a clear reservation for LL1 demand that you read it between the lines very much and interpret minor reservations as major. There is no amp that is perfect so then it becomes impossible to write a honest review as it is very difficult to know when a minor reservation is meant as minor or major. It is clear that BHSE got more positive mention in Tylls review than LL1 but LL1 was described as a good amp and not as something you should avoid. He wrote above that he thinks it sounds pretty good.
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The thing about the bass is that it's at the same time way over the top and anemic. There is no sub bass at all and it has a huge peak higher up making it sound like a bloody dynamic. This slow, muddy, thundering bass that over powers everything. As coloration's often do they stand out more on some tracks than others. On some you have the bass drowning out everything and the coloration in the top end wanting to claw your ears out. It's that bad with flat headphones, I don't even want to think how bad the 009 is...
With this elaborate description I am inclinded to believe you. Could that mean that Inner Fidelity also is a part in the hyping business? Or at least grossly understating weaknesses of the gear they review. The recent adoption of Guttenberg should support that view.
Audiojunkie, it is not true that most contemporary music has no output under 80 Hz. Then we listen to extremely different kinds of music. Try it on speakers with a lower limit of 40 Hz and you can easily hear the bass compression. Classical rock works much better on such speakers.
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Besides the safety issues the subjective evaluations of this amp are confusingly different. According to MacedonianHero bass is sucked out below 80 Hz and I get a very similar impression from spritzers review. On the other hand the review on Inner Fidelity is positive although some minor problems are mentioned.
"I'll recommend the big, warm sound of the Liquid Lightning to fans of contemporary music of all types. Hard driving bass lines will be delivered with ample thump, complex crunching guitars will come shining through with a little extra sparkle, but without harsh or confusing distortion...even at fairly loud levels." (Tyll Hersens review of LL1 at Inner Fidelity).
Confusing at least. That reinforces my current policy to only buy things I can borrow for a home audition, in practice it will be very few headphone items.
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Anders, people will see what they are allowed to see, and since they are easily swayed by marketing, it's pure win for those with monetary ties to that site. Unless a vendor really screws the pooch (a la Singlepower), it will always be business as usual.
That PM you got from Jude... did it go a little something like this? :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MRykTpw1RQ
No, Jude said nothing about meeting capitalist scumfoxes in smokey rooms. It was a few years ago and it is sad that Head-Fi has deteriorated even more after that.
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That's exactly it....
They don't need to explain it away. The mods over there have and will continue to delete evidence of the sort posted here without reservations. They don't need to explain anything if it's deleted fast enough
You are right in that, they do what they want without explanation. I only refered to what I observed in the HF thread. Unsubstantiated information was deleted. A person who notice that could very well interpret it as support for moderators' view that there are persons who only want to discredit the vendor. If substantiated information is deleted it will decredit HF. For those who follow a thread I think that such things will cast some doubt over the credibility of HF.
If you really want to spread the information on HF, it would be possible to put it on another site than Head Case and link it. Also that could disappear but there are people who see it.
I think there is some automatic warning system for Head Case. I mentioned the site once on HF by name and after only 15 minutes I got a mail from Jude that it was deleted and warned not to mention that site any more. Everyting else was ok he told.
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And what "evidence" would you suggest be posted, keeping in mind the policies over there?
A post just stating that the soldering job is bad is unconvincing. As a reader I don't know the writer and I don't know what knowledge that it is based on. Perhaps no knowledge at all and just intended to be insulting or starting a flame war? You can't expect that readers of HF also follow the threads at HC. It is not surprising that such posts are deleted. They only serve to support the belief that the truth is supressed at HF. However, I believe that valid criticism is censored at HF in a mislead ambition to serve the headphone community, the business and a naive optimism. Maybe there are other reasons too, personal or economic, I don't know.
What evidence would support the statement? Any that adds something to the statement. How do the author know this, what is the experience behind, reasons for the conclusion, pictures etc. How this is related to HF policies is more than I know. I am definitively no representative of HF and have no inside information so I can't help much here. But it would be possible to post some information, descriptions or pictures that support a statement. Of course, that can be deleted also by a moderator, but then also HF is showing its true face and can't easily explain away it as removal of spam and insults.
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Yes, Defqon, Shelly's and mine about the poor soldering job are gone.
And all this in the post Mikhail era...
I remember one post about soldering at HF and noticed that it was removed, not sure if it was yours. That post was not informative, it just was a statement about bad soldering without any evidence. It is understandable after reading this thread but was just mystifying in the HF context. What was the statement about soldering base on? The writer didn't seem to own the amp, where had he seen it? Or had hadn't he seen it at all and just "knew" that it must be bad because it was Cavalli?
It is easy to remove such a post becuase it can be supposed to be only bad-mouthing. It would be much more difficult to remove it if clear evidence is presented and if it is removed, the censoring will be obvious.
spritzer, thanks for the informative presentation.
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Bass impact and kicking bass with a 727 amp - it seems the C32 is easier to drive than O2.
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Happy end, this amp finally found its best home!
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Good luck! I like the 404 except the upper midrange peak. A reduction is very welcome and maybe a halving would make them much more listenable, retaining the character but with less listening fatigue.
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I have some experience since I stopped smoking. The good thing is that smoke odor usually disappears by itself if the object is kept in circulating air. The smoke odor remains if the object is kept in a closed box. It takes some time, months or years, but it can be better than damaging sensitive materials by washing.
If the surface can be cleaned by water and a mild detergent - do it. Wash things are washable, pads, textiles etc.
Vinegar and other standard methods that often are recommended have been ineffective in my experience. Ozon should be effective but I don't know how go get it.
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Looking forwards to the next CD, holding my thumbs for the auction.
The remaining tracks are here in two archives. It is probably not possible with a free download of all archives on the same day.
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spritzer is too busy with leather research for moment.
The binaural recordings are very interesting as a demonstration of what is possible. They were released as a demo by Stax in Germany many years ago but are equally relevant for dynamic headphones.
I am uploading the binaural tracks and they will be availabe for downlod in steps as zip archicves. First out is Track 1 and 2 that are demos with speach (German and English), sounds and noice. Remaining tracks are music (two downloads). Unfortunately the track titles were slighly messed up in the orginal up/download and some German characters replaced. I am not shure if the last track is included in the orginal CD or an extra - track number is out of range.
Track 1 and 2:
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Most headphones from the 1970s sound like crap by contemporary standards. What is astonishing is how sublime experiences one can have with crappy equipment, at least when being innocent.
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There are some good pictures of the port and the mod in a thread named something like "Stax 007 Mk 2 port mod". A bit down in the Headphone thread. Very useful to save for future needs.
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...oh, and I forgot to mention that SWMBO's retaliation for my SR-007/SRM-717 expenditure was to go out and book a family holiday costing exactly 2.5 times as much as the headphones! (And how could I possibly counter the argument that since I'd spent x on headphones which were just for me, why can't I spend 2.5x on all of us! Bummer!)
That was to empty the wallet before you went away with an even more expensive upgrade!
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Johnny, it is hard to say what went wrong in your case. From my experience I can see a number of possibilities.
1. Don't like the type of sound. O2 is severely lacking in that it does not add prat, slam, romantic lushness etc. It is the best headphone that I own but I was a little surprised that I was not addicted to it and wanted to listen to it all night. I listen mostly to my O2 but even the 404 is in some sense more fun and relaxing.
2. It took me two weeks to find the correct position. I knew about positioning but thought that pressure against the ear was adequate and bending the arcs not necessary. I was wrong and after a slight bending and increased pressure it got more life (but too much pressure is not good either). O2 can loose up to 50 % of sound quality by bad positioning.
3. Insufficient power. I have only tried with 007t and 717 and 007t obviously has insufficient driving capability compared to 717. But I still experience the 717 as slightly insufficient. Not a big problem for me and I am happy with the 717. Imagining a more powerful amplifier the sound should have more impact and more life. However, I have not heard that yet.
4. Too revealing of the source is also a possibility.
5. Expectations. I don't think there is any "best headphone for all". This is often implicitly implied when talking about the best headphone. It is very difficult or impossible to communicate what is so good with the headphone that you think is best yourself, and others interpret the description differently - or expect magic because it is "the best".
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Is SRM-1 solid state? Then the comparison with 007t could be inadequate.
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O2 is extremely dependent on positioning and I had more difficulties than I expected so it took some time. It is not only turning the head cups to the correct angle - the pressure against head/ear is very important. Once I bent the arc too much, with too much pressure against the head, and sound deteriorated considerably. If it is too loose against the head then bass also becomes loose. This is with O2 Mk1 but I expect that positioning is equally important with Mk2.
I assume that SRM-1 is similar to 007t in the aspect of insufficient bass control and punch.
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The main weakness with HE60 is the the bass quantity and this also gives it a bright character. It is very fast and detailed and the midrange and up is very smooth. I think that is the strong point of the headphone and the 404 feels coarse in comparison. The bass weakness is more or less important depending on music. Stax 404 has much stronger bass and and better balance between bass and treble. However, it has a upper midrange peak that can be disturbing and tiring but also can make rock sound more intense with more slam. HE60 has a superior midrange that is even and smooth. Both headphones have weaknesses and I don't think either of them works as an allround headphone for all kinds of music. HE60 sounds more neutral to me while the 404 is more colored but usually better for heavy rock in my taste. With small classical ensembles and similar I much prefer HE60. 404 is also less detailed and less sensitive to weaknesses in the recording.
007 Mk 1 is superior to both of them in most aspects. I have not yet found any parameter where any of the other headphones is better (at least not after having found the fit and bending the arcs). Someone who wants a more forward presentation may prefer HE60 or 404 or a Lambda but you will not get the very even frequency range of 007, nor the very natural sound of instruments, separation and coherence.
The comparison of headphones is difficult to generalise because headphones interact with the amplifer. A haven't listened much to 007 with 007t because it lacks control and power compared to 717. It is possible that I would prefer HE60 and 404 with the 007t, have both of them instead of 007 if I had to choose. On the other hand, HE60 and 404 also improve with a better amp but 007 requires it. Those who are lucky enough to have got something above 717 could tell more about that, but I am satisfied with 717 and might stop there instead of plunging into the amplifier ordering and waiting-list adventures that we can read about on Head-Fi.
Cavalli Audio Liquid Lightning
in Headphone Amplification
Posted
I said it's conformist, forgot to mention the gatekeepers and their mantras.