granodemostasa

has anyone ever heard the Wadia 521? what of the 2000 dac?

LOL. sure.... that was a nice dynahi... any reason why you don't like it?

You don't get it... it's precisely because of the sound that the Meier delivers that it is such a great amp for putting you to sleep! And you... Humanflyz.... shame on you! The problem is that you make statements in an authoritative tone about stuff that you can't possibly be authoritative about. readers should be careful to listen to people who shoot their mouths off without regards to those whom they might hurt. There is no way you can be sure about your impressions... you listened to it in Berkeley, a town famous for poor power delivery, and you didn't put Virtual Dynamics power cords and nordost Valhalla interconnects on it, so there is obviously no way that you got most out of the amp. And worst, people like you hurt the bottom line the manufactures we love and share our dreams with J/K! okay now that I've had my fun, let me be real. The dynamics problems of the Opera are not just evident in large orchestra stuff, but in every presentation the amp puts out. I'm not even sure if i could describe it as "dynamics;" what it is, is a flattening of the tones and notes going to the headphone. the vivacity of the music is outright destroyed by the Meier. This is the amp's greatest problem. I could deal with the fact that it's a little warm, that it doesn't have great treble extension, that it's slower, not as clear and the soundstage isn't as great as the SE GSX, but this is the killer for me. While the amp is way too nice to make any real "mistakes" (like smearing, tone issues, tin-can sound, or distortion), it is also too nice to make music sound truly great. I remember the Los Angeles meet, where every time I would go back to my H5 and listen... and think "wow, my music sounds soo dead"... this amp takes me right back to that place. It's not just mid-fi, it's very mid-fi. In any case, my impressions my change by the time i'm done with it... it is starting to slowly grow on me.

Voltron closed the thread! :dance: :dance: :dance: back on topic: (sorry guys for taking the thread on a journey) the SS-1 stole my heart away.... any chances that I'll steal my wallet as well? (I.E. does anyone know if it'll lead to a big/high end production SS amp one day? ) At the meet I had a chat, and Richard hinted that SP was going to go through with it... but did anyone else get this impression? or was it just hoping into air???

I will not click that link, I will not click that link, I will not buy that dac, I will not buy that dac.. breathe... repreat... I will not click that link, I will not buy that Dac, I will not...

LOL. it was a buffet.

Well, it is not the actual impressions that people are pissed about. As I'm discovering, reviews were the tip of the iceberg. What's hard is that there were all these people annoyed at me and I didn't know it before since i stopped reading the impressions thread a long time ago. I obviously didn't mean the comments the way they came out, and I'm disturbed that people found them insulting an malicious...the problem is that no one PMed me or told me at the meet directly about them, so it might be too late to fix the perspective. back on topic: if people disagree with me, anyone's review they are welcome to be like "sorry David, but that was just a bad impression, i thought the Woo rocked and sounded like the best amp at the meet, I had more experience than you, far more, and I think you should listen to it again." and I'm fine with that. but they came after me saying I had purposefully lied, was angry and trying to hurt people; i know I'm not!

Oh....... sorry Tyll! 1. Headroom's people never told me what caused the CD player to stop working, i always assumed it was the player. If you guys knew I had made that mistake, no one told me about it. Tyll!, i'm sooo sorry about that, I hope i didn't hurt your player, the sound out of that thing was my highlight from Sunday. 2. I'm also sorry about the The Hot Dog post, it had three in-meet jokes behind it and should never have been posted on the internet.

well, it does worry me.... I'm torn between apologizing and reforming my ways and defending what i wrote.... but either way, it seems as if the national meet is destroying my reputation... who knows... maybe my 200th headcase post will be the "i've been banned" post.

the thing that is worrying me isn't the impression itself.... but the themes people are reading into what I'm writing. Plainsong seems to think I'm angry at something, but I can't figure out where she's getting it. I actually spent 45 minutes re reading everything i've written lately and I just don't see it...

thanks for the advice... I'm a very point to point person... and don't always care to be diplomatic with my words... and I seriously should.

you know what??? now i am slowly becoming radicalized by all the HF stuff. I have to ask two questions: 1. Why is it that everyone acted too chill with me at the meet, and then gets the impression that it's okay to attack me when we are no longer face to face? 2. why is it that so many people's primary concern is that bad impressions could hurt manufacturers? think about that!

I think i can criticize ray's amps to him, and we still talked well after that. I told him exactly what i was hearing between the apache and the B52, it wasnt' subtle at all. He's a great guy to talk to, who knows what was going on with that amp (interference maybe?), and maybe it just isn't good... but he didn't take it personally at all.

Sorry Tyll, but i think you got it wrong on this one. What many of us are expressing isn't some lack of respect or resentment towards modern production and commercialization in America, but disillusionment with our position as consumers. This is my position: I am a consumer in this hobby, I want my money well spent, I want to have fun with components, and I don't care about sympathizing with amp or headphone or cable or dac makers. Once upon a time for 1700 a person could get an SFT dynamight, it was gorgeous and sounded spectacular. Today that opportunity is passed, the price of gear is rising, the advances in technology are not producing anything better sounding than what we had just two years ago (for the exception of headroom and DIY), and we are seeing a crap shoot about scheduling. I do sympathize with fellow head-fiers, and I think it sucks that there are more than a handful that have waited months to get updates, fixes and mods done to their amps. Not long ago there was a 4K amp produced that had the R and L channels switched. All the while, we see dozens of new extreme amps being produced, with about 10 for sale at the meet, and new products. While it may be far more complicated than that (and there could be all kinds of legitimate reasons what would point to the two things not related to one another), we do start to wonder what's going on. I'll admit, Your company is by far the leader in the business side of things among the amp makers, and as time passes, I'm increasingly imagining one of your (or justin's) SS amps next to my tube amp. While i've always wanted a great tube amp, considering the business state of Eddie Current and SP, I am becoming increasingly hesitant to try it.

http://cls.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?dgtlconv&1182900053 someone with the doe, buy this now!

Hello I tried it out... imaging was seriously lacking (even my zd has a better soundstage), it felt very very very very very tubey (in a bad way). other than that, it has great power, excellent tone, and an amazing ability to drive things. I heard all these K1000 guys rave about it at the meet.... but i can't understand how anyone would want to fuzz up the superb imaging of the K1000, especially after hearing what the F1 can do for it. and the sources they used at the international meet for the K1000 amps were jokes... i wouldn't take them as true meters of how well the F1 can perform.

i saw at least 8 boxes of new extreme amps for sale... but he can't make an update? I'll agree, while i don't like headroom's products (just yet), i do love the way they do business. right now, i certainly wouldn't buy anything from SP, no matter how much i may want to. someone here should check out the Bel Canto dac-3, that thing is pretty good... i didn't hear anything remarkable from the Transporter.

950??? they must be pulling your strings . i"ll ask Mikhail today. I couldn't think why a small transportable amp would be made to cost that much, especially when it competes in size (with PS) with the mpx.

i've not had the DA100 and the monarchy in the same room. the monarchy was Icarium's and the DA100 is Jocelyn's, both are local head-fiers. I possibly could have the match, Icarium lets me, at my table at head-fest. but honestly... that qualia was too amazing, it might turn my head away from dacs for a while.

stock

Dope! Headroom! why.... (headamp might also get into this...)well, i'll A/b it with the Moth hyper dac and see what i can get out of it. if that thing heads over to my table, i'll be like heading into fire... impressions: When Mike got the DP200 i thought it would be a good and clear improvement on the Lavry DA-10, yet that wasn't the case. He thought it was an improvement and in many ways it was, but for the first time... I heard giving up something to get something else in a dac. For the most part all of my dac upgrades were real upgrades, from the oritek to the wavelenght to the Lavry. Yet this wasn't so clear. the Lavry had better detail and separation than the Stello, while the stello was warmer, more exciting, and musical than the Lavry (not a big surprize). That encounter started the slippery slope towards Dac madness. Frankly put, the dacs in this category all sound good, all are good and don't necessarily beat each other out. Sadly this was the case, the Monarchy Dac did somethings better than the VDA-2 and the VDA-2 did somethings better than the Monarchy. Musicality to many this matters most; the Monahcy (not surprisingly) is sweeter, more imagy and lively than the VDA-2 Toneality The Monarchy the VDA-2 are just about the same thing here, with a tad bit of sweetness and shine on the monarchy compared to the more laid back and transparent sound of the VDA-2. Soundstage The Monarchy had a larger, wider soundstage while the VDA-2 was more precise and airy in the soundstage that it had. Synergy I actually thought the Monarchy matched by ZD better than the VDA-2, since it was actually the warmer of the two. Detail and frequency reach were the same for both dacs. Bass/Impact The Monarchy had a slight advantage, but not as much as the Stello DA100 has on the VDA-2. They have very similar bass responses. Note I: couldn't tell the difference between them on the HD650 and had to switch to the Qualia to tell me. All of this speaks to how small the differences were between them. Overall, I did like the Monarchy better, but I wonder whether that may be a function of the tubes and not a general sense of "accuracy" in the dac itself.... I can't say right now. Note II: Don't ****in' ask me whether I used the line out or pre-amp out of the Monarchy, I'm an audiophile, i know what I'm doing.

Hello I'd like to try out some good silver interconnects. Please tell me what i should be looking at.. right now i have my eyes on the moon audio silver dragon.

I got lazy, so instead of writing to sets of impressions, I'll just copy my impressions from head-fi. "the DA100 is quite an amazing machine. forget that it can't do balanced (unless you seriously need it). I can't really claim pin point imaging, nor can i claim it to be the most neutral thing I've ever heard (it's warm, maybe a bit too warm with the HD650 sometimes), but it sure is just about the most musical dac I've heard and sounds exactly like the DP200. IronDreamer noted that he couldn't tell the difference between this and the 220, i thought he had tin-ears or wasn't trying hard enough.. i was wrong, the Stellos all do sound alike and I'd be hard pressed to find differences between them. Overall, the good things and bad things i perceived about the DP200 and VDA-2 are still the same but the HD650 is much less revealing than the K1000/F1, so they don't matter as much. I will add that the DA100 brought out all kinds of texture and "liveliness" and live like qualities that i hadn't heard on the VDA-2. if it wasn't for the VDA-2's superior soundstaging, i would be all over the da100.... don't take this as me saying one is better than the other. i actually think the da100 may be a better overall dac than the vda-2 (and maybe the lavry). However, there are things i have to consider... and i don't think i can give up the accuracy and clarity of the vda-2 just yet. both are fine dacs, and if you are looking at both, the only real question is whether you want something warm and musical v. something analytical"

someone should buy this http://cls.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?dgtlconv&1181086621

turns out the guy replaced his Meridian G08 witht he CD-10 and then replaced the CD-10 with a wadia....