KobaltBlau

Hi Folks, I don't have much experience/ability to describe the flavor of the sound, but I will share some observations: I really use ABA testing to help highlight the differences between various equipment, particularly by using my own equipment in part of the chain. While a meet is a very unique experience, with opportunities to listen to all sorts of stuff, it usually does not offer the chance to do rigorous ABA'ing, for example taking music that you like a source that you like, cans that you like, and trying 5 different amps back to back. For example, as you will see below I was very impressed with the HeadRoom Desktop with Max module, but at a previous meet I was very impressed with the Meier HA-2 MKII SE, and I don't really know how to compare those two because months elapsed between my listening time with those units. What a meet does excel at is giving you a chance to listen to a set-up that is completely different from your own, from the music to the cans, and show you how good that can sound. However, I do think that it is better if you can use familiar music, which is sometimes a challenge at a meet due to differing sources (computer, portables, disc players). Headphones: I spent a limited time on cans this meet, listening primarily with stock HD650s (there were 2 pairs at the meet, thanks for letting me use them so much guys), my own stock HD580s, and I also spent some time with the AKG K701s. All of these are great headphones, and I also find all of them very comfortable. While the HD650s certainly show their superiority over the HD580s, to me the differences are not huge, and I think for under $150 the HD580s are an amazing value. With the HD580s, I could still notice the differences between $1000 amps clearly. On the other hand, you could probably say that the HD650s are a great value at their price point as well. The K701s are a wonderful can as well. After reading impressions on forums, I expected them to be somehow brighter or less ?full-bodied? than HD6X0, but I thought they gave a balanced treatment to the music. My personal preference still lies toward the HD6X0 with the gear I tried, but not strongly. I would not hesitate to pick up a set of K701s, they were very impressive overall. Now, if only someone could bring a set of Darth Beyers to a Seattle meet Amplifiers/DACs: My amp time centered around the ?maxed? HeadRoom Desktop that they sent bhjazz for our meet (yes Young, I really was hogging it. Sorry! ) I quickly honed in on it as a ?benchmark? unit. If my information is correct, this unit is a HeadRoom Desktop Amp with all upgrades, meaning the Max amp module, stepped attenuator, and Max DAC. On HeadRoom's site it prices out a bit over 1500. Unfortunately, on their site it highly recommends using the DPS with the unit if you have the Max upgrades, and I wasn't using a DPS because as far as I know they didn't send one to bhjazz. The unit sounded great as it was, but of course I wonder how much difference the DPS would have made. I made several ABA type comparisons with this unit. First, I tried the amp section versus the integrated discrete headphone amp in my Zhaolu, using the upgraded DAC section in the D2C Zhaolu for both configurations. This was a very noticeable upgrade, as should be expected. Then, I tried the HeadRoom DAC section versus the upgraded Zhaolu DAC section, using the HeadRoom amp section in both cases. Again, the improvement in clarity and control was easy to spot. I must also note though that at around $200 I do think that the Zhaolu is a great value, with a few of the right upgrades. Moving on from the Zhaolu, I wanted to compare the amp section with a couple of other possiblities. In each case, I used the Desktop's DAC section. First, I tried a ?maxed? PPA with a DPS owned by Xtreme4099, I don't know the exact specs but apparently it is pretty pimped. The ?maxed? HeadRoom Desktop walked away from this one, with a sound that was both less bright and more controlled. Sergey (Xtreme4099) suggested I compare with the LISA III instead, so I did, also using a DPS with the LISA. This was much closer to the Desktop's amp section, with good clarity and separation, but I still felt the LISA had slightly more distortion than the Desktop's Max amp section. However, I think the comparison spoke well for both the LISA and the Desktop. I think part of my preference for the Desktop was ?synergy? with my Senns and the Desktop's Max DAC, but I still felt that the sound quality of the Desktop was slightly clearer. Finally, I had the chance to compare this ?maxed? Desktop with a new offering from HeadRoom, the 2007 Portable Desktop Amp. This is roughly a half-height version of the Desktop, but it also has internal batteries that allow for about 12 hours of runtime untethered. This is an impressive piece of engineering, and as of now it is a single model, without the module upgrade options of the standard desktop (such as Max module or Home DAC etc). It runs a thousand bucks. I initially thought that it was missing coax in and line out, but they are simply on 1/8? jacks which makes perfect sense due to the unit's size. According to their site it uses the ?Home? amp section and the standard desktop DAC electronics. This is a really neat unit. In ABA-ing with the maxed Desktop, the Portable unit showed that it is very impressive itself, with a similar character (not surprise), and sound quality that was pretty close to the maxed Desktop. The differences were there, but they don't jump out at you. For example, if you had a ?maxed? desktop at home and a Portable for work and flying, I don't think you would feel like you were compromising when you are using the Portable, even with the same cans. All in all, there isn't really anything else out there that I know of with the quality, the portability (it's large for a portable, but it is definitely autonomous), and the integrated DAC. It would be hard to go wrong for the price if you need a lot of flexibility. I primarily listened to these amps with the HD580/HD6X0 series, which sounded great, and I have a hunch that many of the HeadRoom guys use 650s a lot too. The K701s sounded wonderful with these amps as well. Overall, I think the HeadRoom Desktop offerings are very impressive as an integrated package. If you're tired of having a bunch of different components of questionable quality chained together and just want to listen to the music, the Desktop offerings could be a great choice for you. If you love tube or op-amp rolling and swapping out one tiny component of your synergy chain at a time, you are probably way off in DIY land anyway