purrin

There's a little distortion spike around 3.5k which corresponds roughly with some minor resonance at 7k (easily audible). It was tolerable for me, but I notched it down via EQ anyways. Otherwise, actual HD distortion measurements were excellent across the board including the bass. Some 2nd order in the bass, but 3rd order was very low. Overall distortion, esp from 500Hz on was very very low ~ 0.11%. I'll let Tari post them here. Tyll's results corroborate mine (they actually indicate better results - but our methods are different. I take mine with the headphone calibrated to 90db SPL/A with white-noise).

When I had them on long term loan, I had to apply EQ to push down the bass and a spot in the treble. They are very clean sounding for dynamics - probably one of the cleanest sounding dynamics. Much less distortion and more articulate than the Denons. Not worth $2K though.

Hater P.S. Try using it at 65db. It works better.

The only thing that changed was the "HD700" type. The type is bold on the pre-production, but has thin skinny lines on the production version. Basically Sennheiser had already finished the design and the last step was to build hype for it while they got the production line / QA processes going. As far as the rumors behind the delays (they are fixing the issues), it was probably wishful thinking the part of some people.

Do you mean this?

OK. Got these in today. They sound like flashier HD800s with more slightly bass and also more 6k peakage, but with technicalities (speed, clarity, resolution, etc.) between HD650 and HD800. Overall treble is slightly less and HD800. There is also an apparent midrange suckout. Upper mids and treble are not even, so cymbals, high-hats, snares sound really odd and different depending upon recording. Because of the peaks, these cause me hearing damage at normal listening levels (low volume is OK.) Measurements can be found at the usual places.

Ah crap. Sorry, that one's more my fault. I should have confirmed meeting date in the pm's. Been out of it lately as work's been busy.

I feel asleep for a few minutes after that meal when comparing the portables. I guess this ended up more a micro-meet, but sometimes that could be a good thing. The DSHA-1 was sublime. Tried HD800, LCD3, HP1000, and HF2 on them. Really hard to pin-point the sound because it had some of the best of solid-state and tube qualities. That NAD M51 DAC is the schitt though. We set things up for a head to head comparison with the PWDmk2 (2.02) out of the BA. The M51 had the same tone of the PWDmk2, little bit more delicate in the highs (PWDmk2 was a hair more dry with bite). Tons of bass to flesh out the bottom. Differences were subtle: PWD had more dynamic gradation, more able to play loudest sounds louder and softest sounds softer; and its soundstage was more open. Both had equivalent scary levels of resolving power and weight. The NAD USB seemed largely immune to data source (iPad and PC: sounded the same to me.)

Beverages and extension cords are a good idea. Sending out my info. Let me know if someone still needs it.

Does anyone know if SR009 dis-assembly (removal of earpads and driver unit) is any different from the 007? I doubt getting to the stators or diaphragm will be necessary. A friend on mine on HF somehow had ants crawl through the cable entry: I blow on it, hoping it will get dislodged, and it did - but out now come tens of ants, if not over one hundred. Like Ellen Ripley in Aliens I realized in horror that I finally found the nest of ants - in my SR-009. Anyways, since I don't have my 009s anymore, I was wondering if they are similar to the 007s in terms of opening up the cable entry and a removing a couple of screws to get the driver assembly out of the frame. I assume the 009s have the dust covers just like the 007. Any helpful pics would be appreciated. I wonder if STAX used some kind of sauce on the diaphragm or dust covers of the 009 that attracts ants.

Who said I ever had those?

I've got a production unit coming in for "evaluation", but I doubt anyone here really cares about it.

The K3003 has some serious problems. Peaky upper-mids and lower treble. Severe integration issues where the bass doesn't keep up with the treble. (Think ML Aerius.) Still probably one of the better universals from what I understand.

It's all n3rdling and blubliss' fault.

So I was blowing these 4A rat shack fuses (had no problem with a higher quality 4A fuse that I pulled from the BA) on a T2 (blubliss DIY), and decided to hook up the wattage meter just to see what was going on. The logger can only take data once every second, so I assume the "Max Amps" and "Max Wattage" mean the max recording during that one second interval. Hopefully this will be some use.

One more spot open again Vince. You sure you want to drive that far again? I've got a T2 sitting here for your 009s.

I hear a more liquid smoother presentation with 24/88 or 24/96 compared to 16/44. Could be the DAC or how the post-filter is applied differently though.

LOL, The 307 doesn't count. Aren't there only two in the universe?

I've got some vintage Osram PX25s in mine. I've heard other PX25s, PX4s, 300Bs; and I haven't heard a tube that made the BA superior in bass control to something like a Dynahi. Heck, even the Super 7 has tighter more controlled bass than any of these BA configurations. I would have no idea how the 307A's would perform in this regard.

Craig did say he took one of them apart to see what Electraprint did with that particular transformer. I didn't really pay attention, but it was something along the lines of how the secondaries wires lined-up with the primaries. The other thing is I noticed is how thin, tightly packed, and precisely cut the laminations are (you can just barely make out the individual laminations in the photo Mike posted.) Would be a serious pain to put together if the E's and I's alternated with each layer, which I believe could be the case. But still, the BA does sound more "rounded" or "muffled" in the bass and less clear compared to well implemented solid-state. It really can't be helped given its design (maybe it could use more power.) I do feel where the BA really shines is with sensitive low-impedance headphones (AT's, Grados, etc.), not that they do a bad job with the HD650s or similar.

Silver secondaries and some secret sauce winding? I know it's 5k to 16.

You seem to be doing just fine on HF, why do you think coming here will give you better answers?

One of these days, I need to hear the HD650 out of really crappy setup. They've never sounded "boring" or "veiled" to me, but rather involving and laid-back.

I don't disagree. Even the lowly Objective2 chip-based amp did certain things better than the BA with the LCD3, so I have a good idea how they might sound on a dynamid or dynahi. Won't matter anyways as I don't plan on keeping the LCD3s for much longer. I was hoping to get some aspects of the 007 with the LCD3, but it's not close, especially after direct comparison.

The HV sounded flat to me. It ones my of pet peeves. I'm partial to the inner resolution, I mean, distortion of tubes.