mattyice

I thought that I'd post some impressions to this thread now that the gs-x mini is in the wild. I have serial #3. This is a fantastic headphone amp. Here is a few pros and cons, off the cuff: Likes: 1. Outstanding parts and build quality. Fit and finish are exceptional. Aesthetics are often a matter of personal preference, but I have to admit i find the look of the Mini to be dead sexy. 2. Functionally this amp is very versatile. The built in pre-amp feature works well. Conversion of SE sources to balanced output is quite handy. And then it powers just about any headphone on the market (dynamic and planar) equally well. I love the volume tracking on this amp. It's very tight and precise and gets louder gradually...never in a harsh way or overbearing. 3. Tone of the amp hits the sweet spot for me. Instruments (particularly the ones that I play personally) sound convincingly real. Vocals are authentic and have a layered presentation to them. I can hear the low raspiness of Patricia Barbara when she belts out a tune in The Cole Porter Mix. Fine detail is a hallmark of this amp. I supposed it's function of the quality of the PSU among other factors. Dislikes: 1. Honestly, I have a hard time poking any holes in the gs-x mini. I guess if you must have a tube amp, you have to look elsewhere. There are some very fine imperfections in the top plate in the powder coating. But that's about it.

I got in some time with Ether Stat before the room got loud. First of all, I prefer the 007 to the 009 if that helps understand my preferences. The 007 and ES were actually somewhat similar. I preferred the ES for two reasons. 1. The sound stage width and depth was considerable better on ES. I was somewhat surprised at this. Possibly because I listened before the room got loud I was able to observe this difference more so. Once the room got noisy the cavernous sound stage of the ES seemed to get drowned out. 2. I prefer the mids on ES, especially on the BH that Justin brought. I mostly listen to vocal centric music, jazz and modern folk/Americana. I was hearing voices that were more naturally rendered with lot's of detail. Breathing between notes, chesty guttural notes from deep in the chest. I still love the 007 and it remains my favorite production stat. I'm hoping that it can be improved on with something modern and at a friendly price point.

ETHER STAT in 'da house. Also the new production level Aeon tagged along and it's damn good. Can't listen to the Stat till the meet since Purk has bought all the stats amps available on the Eastern market.

I got a quick response. ETHER Stat will be at the Atlanta meet. Nice suggestion Purk!!

That's a really good idea. Let me check in with him and I'll let you know.

I heard the latest prototype several weeks ago. I really liked the bass response on these. Also very nice mids. Will be interesting to hear the production version and how it comes out.

The Ether Flow that I shared with Purk last week, is an exceptionally good headphone. Some might even consider it a game changer at it's price/performance level. What you have is a planar magnetic with near stat level speed and decay. The whole purpose of the Flow was to increase the "speed" of the driver. Well, it ended up with some additional benefits as well. Based on my own preferences, Ether Flow is better than hd800 and hd800S even with good EQ applied to both 800 variants. Ether Flow matches the technical prowess of the 800/800s and offers a richer presentation with less restrictive amping requirements. I'm all in on the Flow and have it on order. Just waiting for a tracking number.

I have both the LC and GS-1 on loan from another member here. This is my reply to him when comparing the two amp... "The GS-1 is the better sounding amp. Tone and staging are both appreciably better than the LC. GS-1 is "smoother" and more refined across the spectrum. Mids, on the GS-1 are exceptionally good. The LC is slightly U shaped in presentation. While this is fine with a headphone like the hd650 it's not fine with the hd800. I don't see myself using the LC much with the hd800. I really like how the GS-1 is voiced."

Thanks for the link!!

So what were your results for the rest of the amps with the hd800?

I'll take one of those headamp stands, nice!! Just chiming in to see if anyone is organizing something for Friday night.

Love/hate relationship with the hd800 for me. I've owned the 800 three times and also the 800 S. Each time I owned the 800, I committed more to the chain and got closer and closer to what I was looking for. Recently I "reaquired" the 800 classic and had it with the setup: *Regen Amber>Gumby>mjolnir 2 with NOS telefunken tubes (pre-amp)>Questyle cma800r x2 (dual mono) This setup got me very close to the promised land with the hd800. In fact I was quite happy with the experience and was enjoying listening to music as much or more than I ever have. Then I found a simple tweak that took the hd800 over the top. An EQ plugin/calibration tool from Sonarworks. http://sonarworks.com/2015/02/sonarworks-reference-3-headphone-calibration-plug/ There is a "profile" for many headphones including the 800. They have a few EQ profiles for the 800 but I've settled on "flat." There is also a profile based on the harmon curve. This may be the best $99 I've spent in this hobby. The 800 went from bashful bass to unashamed and has wonderful presence and texture. The treble peak is tamed and now I can enjoy the incredible extension without my ears bleeding. Mids are about the same with a touch of wetness to them. Couldn't be happier.

I would loan you the Ether anytime Purk. The 1.1 upgrade really made a nice difference and you should give it another listen for sure. With the Questyle mono block setup, they sound pretty amazing. I go back and forth between Ether and hd800. I don't think that I'd want to give up either one.

Just a few observations on this hp: *fit, finish build quality is top tier...very well done. Only gripe is that the pleather headphone looks and feels a little cheap. Come on Oppo don't cheap out at this price! *the x5 DAP that I'd planned on using with the pm-3 is only a decent pairing. You'll need a portable amp to pair with a DAP if you want to get them most from this hp. I don't give a damn what the specs say. *the pm-3 scales fairly nicely with a desktop amp. Moving to an Asgard 2 the bass is punchier, mids loose a bit of hollowness and come forward a touch. *Overall the sound is fairly neutral with a slight touch of warmth. Decay of notes is very quick as you'd expect from a planar. I give the pm-3 an A-. This is truly an enjoyable portable planar.

My pair will be here Friday. Should be interesting to compare them against the other closed hp's that I've owned...Mad dog, Alpha Dog, Momentum, Denon d5k etc.

This is definitely on my radar. I have a friend who is a dealer and he has heard it. Says he is very impressed. I would really like to give it a listen.

I may give the pm-3 a 30 day audition. I welcome the idea of a portable planar. I need something with decent isolation and it seems pretty decent with this one.

I recently discovered the beyer dt150. Sounds A LOT like the hd650 in closed edition. Ugly as hell though. A bit clunky build quality but the sound quality is there for sure and can be had around $250...sometimes way less. I'm on the fence with the z7 (Sony). Definitely needs a cable change to tighten things up. New pm-3 and el8 closed version on the way soon.