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deepak

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Posts posted by deepak

  2. AKG K340 electrostat-dynamic impressions/pictures

    in Headphones

    Posted

    First of all my mailman is awesome. This is what it looks like right now outside my apartment. All that snow on the deck is fresh, and it's going to continue for another 5 or 6 hours. The entire town has pretty much shut down (I didn't have to go the hospital, so I spent all day comparing headphones, what a life) yet I still get my package!

    snow.jpg

    k340lavry.jpg

    This pair is bone stock, NOS.

    Overview

    My K340 says "electrostatic-dynamic systems" on the earcups. I'm not sure if they are bass heavy, bass light or the third one. What I do know is that they are a NOS pair that only has around 10 or so hours on them. I've been in contact with my seller the whole time who was really friendly and just today he told me he was the first owner, didn't use them much because he didn't like the way they sounded out of his receiver. Thus they've been in storage until he decided to sell them. I have not burned them in, I just had to listen to them as soon as they arrived.

    The headband is really plush, I don't see myself replacing it and the the elastics are pretty strong, not as strong as the ones in my K1000 or a K501 I used a lot, but they stay on my head really well. The cord on my pair is perfectly intact, no tangles so I was trying to be really gentle with it. It stretches out just over 6 feet, which is pretty short. Comfort is amazing. It's probably the most comfortable phone, ties with my (now sold) AudioTechnica A500 which just disappeared off your head after a few minutes. The only thing that puts the AT ahead is the K340 is really heavy. Thepleather pads (which are in perfect shape) are alright, but became uncomfortably hot and sticky after 4 hours of continuous use. Any sudden head movements doesn't move the headphones much unless I'm really trying. I still might replace the elastics for a slightly tighter fit.

    So far music I've played:

    Massive Attack - Mezzanine

    The Prodigy - Fat of the Land

    Mogwai - Mr Beast

    Sigur Ros - Takk

    A strange selection of music? Yup.

    I mostly got these for electronic music, which none of my other headphones really excelled at. The K1000 just can't do really low bass, and I prefer intimacy in electronic music. The HF-1 is too congested and small sounding. TheHD650 was what I turned to...it was acceptable but wasn't bringing me the last bit of nirvana. The Mogwai was thrown in since it has many dynamic passages going from really loud to quiet. All music was encoded from CD in lossless.

    Equipment:

    It's unfortunate but I have to use the headphone amp in the Lavry for the time being. However I feel that it has an excellent, discrete headphone amp that competes with most of the SS offerings that I've heard under $400. Also the DA10 has a ridiculous amount of overhead, putting out 7.75V at max volume (# 56).

    For my preferences I listen at soft to moderate volumes at all times and prefer to listen in a perfectly quiet environment. The HD650 will be the main headphone I'll be comparing it with, since they're both roughly in the same price bracket and like I mentioned before I want a notable phone for electronic music.

    For most of the music listed the HD650 was played between 12-20. The K340 between 20-28. The K340 is much harder to drive. I didn't have an SPL meter, but I feel I did an alright job in level matching.

    These are impressions from about 5 hours worth of listening:

    Mezzanine:

    First album I played was Mezzanine. Angel is a good track to test for bass extension, and volume. It was a little weird hearing this on the K340, it didn't sound exactly like how I wanted it to. The bass was absolutely amazing, went really deep and had great body and slam. But, there was something really weird about the rest of the percussion, the snare and cymbals sounded more distant and slightly muffled.

    Next came Risingson. Now this gave me goosebumps. All of the percussion just sounded perfect. When the guy started to sing it just sounded holographic with the background vocal stuff (dream on...), incredible my eyes went wide open. I played the track again 3 times :D

    Really the rest of Mezzanine was the same way. It was like hearing the album for the first time, the midrange was just amazing. Risingson, Teardrop, Man Next Door are my favorite tracks and this was the best I'd ever heard them. Most impressive about this headphone (that I gathered from this album) is the very textured deep bass, amidrange that gets out of the way (doesn't impart a house sound), 3D imaging, handles dynamic passages very well without the need to be cranked up to uncomfortable levels.

    Verdict: I listened to the album again on the HD650 and it didn't hold up well. The K340 clearly had it beat. The H650 midrange just wasn't cutting it, and it sounded 2-dimensional, which isn't doing justice for this album.

    Fat of the Land:

    Not as well recorded as Mezzanine. Not so many oohs and aahs here. Still I grew up on this album in high school, destroyed 2 CDs now on my third. This CD sounds good on the K340, but equally acceptable on the HD650. One thing I heard for the first time is the echoing off of the vocals on certain tracks that the HD650 wasn't doing, the Senn sounded more flat and dead for most of the vocals. Switched to K1000 to make sure this wasn't a result of the closed design and I heard those additional details I was hearing in the K340. Also on theHD 650 bass it hits hard, then disappears. A lot of the bass on this album is pretty distorted and is meant to fade in and out very quickly, the K340 was able to capture this attack/decay pattern more accurately. Still this album needs to be heard on a speaker system to really hear the bass effect.

    Verdict: K340 slightly edges out the HD650. I could live with either.

    Mr Beast:

    This album starts off slow then explodes into absolute madness (from Auto Rock to Glasgow Mega-Snake). I really loved this album with theHD 650, it has lots of bass, and is able to capture the magic of the piano. I'd usually listen to it on the K1000, simply because it was more dynamic, where theHD 650 made most of the album sound like every other generic post rock band (quiet, static, compressed). The K340 just rocked this album. Congested parts (Glasgow Mega-Snake) sounded congested and compressed. Dynamic songs (Friend of the Night) sounded dynamic and full of life. Plenty of body and warmth. Still the K340 lacked that absolute last level of high frequency extension that made cymbals sound a bit more artificial. TheHD650 made them sound more real.

    Verdict: aside from the last bit of high freq. extension the K340 lacked, I can say I enjoyed this album with the K340 just as much as the K1000. More in some parts that required the warm low bass andmidbass.

    Takk:

    Ah tough album. Very difficult to capture all the beauty and emotion in this one. If I had a world class speaker system I could just turn up, turn off the lights, this is how I'd like to experience it. But that's not happening in an apartment...so onto the headphones. I really love this album. I played it twice through on the K340, then once on theHD650. The K340 did it. The midrange was able to capture every last drop of emotion from the vocals, background singers, and the rest of the electronic parts. After hearing this the K340midrange is definitely more upfront compared to the HD650. The HD650 sounded dark, and sucked out a lot of the magic in this album.

    Verdict: I'd keep the K340 if only to listen to Sigur Ros, over and over, and over again ;)

    Conclusion:

    On the headstage - it's very intimate. Not very wide or tall, but very deep. Imaging is superb, sounds meld together and seperate effortlessly creating a 3D image, I haven't heard this in any other headphone save for the Qualia, HE90, K1000 and the Omega 2 (I have not spent much time with the R10).

    If I had to compare my K340 to any headphone I'd say it sounds closest to the Omega 2. Prominent, textured bass, stunning midrange, 3-D imaging, intimate headstage, with a high end that is slightly rolled off in the extremes.

    Next up I plan on playing a lot of classical and jazz. Of recent I've been obsessed with the Star Wars soundtracks so I'm looking forward to seeing how they fare.

    I have another pair of K340 on its way (maybe tomorrow?) so I'm interested to see how if it sounds different or the same. All in all great day, god bless snow.

    • Like 1

  4. New source

    in Home Source Components

    Posted

    The Stello will be the pre-amp, and it'll also be the DAC when I'm listening from my computer, and maybe it'll do redbook duties too if I feel like using upsampling. I sold my Dynahi because the Stello has a built-in headphone amp that runs straight from its discrete, class-A output stage.

    So it sounds good driving the HD650?

  7. New Nine Inch Nails album April 17

    in Music

    Posted

    The track list:

    01. hyperpower!

    02. the beginning of the end

    03. survivalism

    04. the good soldier

    05. vessel

    06. me, i'm not

    07. capital g

    08. my violent heart

    09. the warning

    10. god given

    11. meet your master

    12. the greater good

    13. the great destroyer

    14. another version of the truth

    15. in this twilight

    16. zero-sum

  10. How much difference does cables make in your system?

    in Audio Accessories

    Posted

    Cables make about as much difference as subtle EQ. I pretty much agree with 909's response, except I think it's too safe, I'd go just a bit further -- the response applies to most cables, but if one were to compare, for example, the most extremely bright cables with the darkest, I think the differences would be audibly different. For example, my Pure Silver Sound Quartets are audibly superior in the upper frequency band to most every other interconnect I've tried...in my system. I need to track down a pair of balanced silver interconnects for cheap. It doesn't have the midrange to die for that my Cardas Neutral Refs do, but it's got more air and detail than anything else I have by far.

    Still my favourite response:

    Thats one of the reasons I want to try the Nordost. I spoke to a dealer when I was in NYC who sold Nordost cables. He told me not to bother with the Valhalla, Frey, etc and recommended the Blue Heaven. He said it would get me 90% of their top end sound since they all use the same basic design.

    And most reports of the Nordost cables in general were that they're very detailed, almost like pure silver cables. It should be the easiest to see a difference between it and a pure copper IC.

  11. How much difference does cables make in your system?

    in Audio Accessories

    Posted

    Don't worry about my health :D

    Up until this point I haven't cared much for cables, I had a couple of boutique cables but sold them to fund other upgrades. Mostly they were used on lesser dynamic systems, and I never really tried to discern a difference since I was so busy.

    This is really something that I plan on doing once a week or every other week just for the fun of it. And I'd like to post it on HydrogenAudio since their DBX forum doesn't have a cable test that has been passed yet. And hey if I pass it will either shut a lot of people up, or piss off a lot of zealots over there.

    A/B testing to see if I can choose which cable is which. The cables I'm going to use were stated in the first post.

    I'm switching my system to single ended next week, taking out my balanced Mogami cables and replacing it with the Monster IC. Hopefully I won't be waiting too long for a good deal on a Blue Heaven, one just slipped through my fingers a few hours ago.

  19. Full size speaker help

    in Speakers

    Posted

    Thanks for all these recommendations. I'll try and do as much auditioning as possible, really this setup probably won't even be in the infancy stages until November/December.

    Nate I'll definitely try and make it to Nashua in the coming weeks.

  20. Full size speaker help

    in Speakers

    Posted

    I'd try to hear something in Focal's 800 V series -- perhaps the 836.

    Unfortunately, the Diva (the cheapest full-range of the Utopia line) is out of your pricerange.

    Quad? ESL 989 appears to appear under US$5K...

    Martin Logan -- definitely check them out.

    Nearfield Acoustics Pipedream -- they've come down in price quite a bit. Some of the best speakers I've ever heard.

    Wilson Benesch...

    I'm not too sure if I want to dive into electrostats again...I had a pair of STAX and they were very picky about music.

    On the Quads, aren't they really good for classical?

    I'll try and audition the Martin Logans sometime.

    At that price I'd keep an eye out for a pair of Legacy Audio Focus 20/20. They are easily one of the best speakers I've heard regardless of price. Another speaker you might want to consider is the Selah Audio 3D: http://selahaudio.com/id134.html. I heard a pair of these recently and was very very impressed.

    Are you planning to use your Aleph30? If so the Focus 20/20 will be a better match as they are very efficient speakers.

    Not necessarily going to keep the Aleph. I was thinking of selling it since it puts out a ridiculous amount of heat.

    Thanks for the suggestions

    For the Aleph you might want to consider something full range, like the Omega Max Hemp or Omega Revolution for example.

    Cool will try and get an audition

    Not to nitpick your decision but why? I would think that if ultimate fidelity is the goal while keeping costs "reasonable" that a great solution would be two speakers and two subs.

    Really, I'm just hoping that you'll take a flier on Outlaw Audio's new speakers and put them with a pair of the LFM-1's.

    I guess I've never heard a proper setup where a sub was perfectly integrated with the music. It always seemed like after the crossovers cutoff (80-100 hz) the sub just made the bass sound separate from the music

    Has anyone heard anything by DynAudio? I'm liking the reviews and they have a more conventional appearance.

  21. Porcupine Tree new album info

    in Music

    Posted

    I've never listened to Porcupine Tree, what's their story? Prog metal?

    I don't really like the Mars Volta because while their compositions are interesting, I feel like that, ultimately, they don't really go anywhere (no real theme, lack of cohesion, IMO of course). Is Porcupine Tree anything like them?

    I really dislike The Mars Volta. Can't stand their singer and the cryptic bullshit they spew.

    Porcupine Tree is nothing like them, they actually have a singer that can....sing! And it's more progressive rock than metal. With the exception of a few tracks on Deadwing (which Steven Wilson admitted to being a bit influenced by Opeth after their last side project) most of their music is pretty mellow.

  23. Full size speaker help

    in Speakers

    Posted

    Seems there's a very high chance I'll be getting into my first choice hospital for my residency which means I can buy a house in the neighboring town.

    I'm looking for a full range set of speakers, that normally sell for under $4500-5000 used. Mainly listen to all types of jazz and rock. I listen to pretty much all types of rock, but if I had to place emphasis it would be classic and prog rock. What I'd really like is exceptional imaging, soundstage, midbass and midrange performance. I don't need the absolute authority in bass and treble extension. I'd prefer to keep this strictly 2 channel; no subwoofer.

    Basically something fun to listen to that still have all those audiophile qualities ^-^

    As for associated components, I intend to keep my DA10 as source, but this would probably be the first thing to be upgraded to a much superior transport/DAC. Also some speakers that don't require ridiculously expensive preamp/amps to shine would be nice ;D

    My hifi speaker exposure is limited but I'll say I was extremely impressed by a colleague's Avantgarde Duo setup. And I also heard the Wilson Audio WATT/Puppy 8 and very briefly the Von Schweikert VR4 SR. Obviously all of them are out of my price range but I could easily live with any of them.

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