HeadphoneAddict

It may be fixable with different tubes. I'm curious about what Elephas has said in the past about tube rolling the BHSE for his HE60, so I'll have to go back search sometime. Interestingly, I got blasted by Duggeh for suggesting that the BHSE mids were slightly recessed in comparison to the WES (with O2 Mk1, but same with HE60). I was told instead that the BHSE mids were just right, and it was the WES mids that were forward. I'm okay with that too, and not looking for a fight with Doug. However, for me the HE60 have never been lacking midrange presence with my GES or WES, eXStatA, SRM-T1, SRM-1 Mk2 Pro or even a speaker amp with or SRD-7 Mk2 Pro. The HEV70 actually makes the mids a little too forward for me, so I wasn't aware the HE60 suffered from recessed mids till now. Either way, I agree that the HE60 on the BHSE needed more mids and less highs; and he BHSE paired better with the O2 Mk1 and SR-404LE than the HE60. The WES seems to be a little more laid back in the highs and fuller in the mids, and that goes better with the HE60 but not quite as well with the O2 Mk1. It's still pretty good with O2 Mk1, but better with the HE60. I suspect that things might go the other way with different tubes, source, listeners, etc. but I don't know. As for rolled-off upper highs, that describes my hearing - strong to 12 Khz, and audible but reduced by 16 Khz. I agree completely. The eXStatA doesn't give up or sacrifice a lot from what you get with the BHSE or WES. I even think it's a better match for the O2 Mk1 than my previous GES was, with better soundstage, treble and power. And while it is still warm and forward sounding like the GES or WES, it has better treble energy with the O2, at the expense of less organic or lush mids and micro-detail. For someone who likes the Qualia and HP-1000 more than O2, you would probably be just as well off with the eXStatA for occasional stat use. As someone who likes my re-cabled HD800 a little more than my O2, the eXStatA might be a better option for me as well. But I think the improvement with the WES over the eXStatA is bigger with the HE60 than with the O2, and there lies my reluctance to part with the WES until I can spend more time with both amps and become more familiar with them. I still need to try both amps with my Smegma Pro, Jade and SR-003. The bonus is that my SR-Lambda sound great on the eXStatA, while my WES has an HE90 jack but no normal bias jack (side effect of buying the demo unit, can't special order the jacks). Naamanf's B22/K1000 combo off his Buffalo DAC is what convinced me to trade my first O2 Mk1 for J-PAK's K1000 (now I have Naamanf's O2 Mk1, but sadly no B22 for my K1000). However, I thought your WA22 with Sylvania 7236 sounded nice with my K1000, and you may not need the B22 right away. K1000 do seem to sound different depending on serial number, so you may want to wait on a new amp till you try out the K1000 you find.

Great impressions Carl. I debated whether to post the following, because I've been beat down enough times by others here to not enjoy the consequences of posting my impressions of gear anymore. I agree that amp synergy with the HE-5 is important, and not all amps mate well with them. I have tried several amps with them over the past few weeks. I think Miguel's Solo SRG II did very well with the HE-5, and it has more power to drive them than my standard WA6 (non-SE). And I agree, the HE-5 are certainly not recessed, but are slightly forward. But with my WA6 with pseudo dual power supply and Sophia 274B I don't feel like I get the zingy treble or the light slow bass you described with your WA6SE. It certainly beats the EF5 in all but power. It could be my tubes (RCA 6DE7/Sophia), or our sources (PS Audio DLIII), my preferences, or previous hypothesized manufacturing variances; but the WA6 was a little more refined and spacious with the HE-5 than the Solo SRG II, although not nearly as powerful. I'd have expected your WA6SE to be better than my WA6 in most or all areas, and with higher output levels like the SRG II. I'm also finding the SAC KH1000 amp (bought for my K1000) sounds better with the HE-5 than the SRG II or EF5. It has great power, control, speed and definition with the HE-5, just like with the K1000. The problem is while the SAC balance and power is good with HE-5, the micro-detail and transparency could stand to be just a little better, although it does beat the EF5. The ZDT is even better with the HE-5, but I don't have as much opportunity to head downstairs to listen, since the kids took over the basement and my disability has been a little worse. The ZDT puts off too much heat to move to the bedroom where it would sit less than 2 feet from my chair, and my wife would be happy to get the remainder of my gear out of our bedroom and into the basement. I did feel like the EF5 is tuned well enough for the HE-5 sound signature and power demands, and it isn't bad with them for a budget amp. I believe that Fang says the HE-5 need an amp that can put out 2 watts into 32 ohms, so I assume the EF5 can (so does the ZDT). But while decent, the EF5 still ranks last among the other amps I mention here. And, just like Carl didn't feel the EF5 was a good match for the K701, I found the HD800 didn't pair well with the EF5 either. With HD800, a Mullard long plate 12AU7 is an improvement to the bright highs the stock tube gave me, but the bass is not as crisp and the amp becomes even more forward sounding. This change didn't work too well with the HE-5. I do have several other tubes I can try eventually. And, I hate to say anything nice about an SP amp these days, but my Sq Wave XL is a fantastic match for the HE-5 now, as the amp is transformed by the 12v Sigma 22 PSU that I picked up to replace the stock sagging/humming PSU that died over Xmas. I haven't tried it with anything else yet since I only received the S22 today, but the Sq Wave might actually pair with the HE-5 better than most of the amps here at home, except for the ZDT. My impressions may change as I listen to this more over a few days. Still, it doesn't count as Mikhail had his hands in it and they are made no more, the evil bastage. We don't even know if he designed the circuit, but unfortunately we know he built it. When the PSU failed it was no surprise when he didn't respond to my emails and his voice mailbox was full. The improvement with the S22 PSU made me think of how I should have tried my 24v S11 PSU with the Solo SRG II while it was here, to see if that made it even better. The Solo had the PSU1 included, so I thought that should be good enough at the time. And since the amp wasn't mine I didn't want to risk finding something unexpected that would hurt the amp. I can say the Solo SRG II worked better this time around with a wider variety of cans than the original Solo SRG that Miguel sent me to try, and it's definitely worth consideration in it's price range. I would still take my WA6 over the SRG II, despite the lesser power, because I listen to more than just the HE-5 with it - the WA6 seems to sound good with most of my full size phones and IEM. I would not be unhappy with the Solo SRG II, however, like the SAC and EF5, the Solo is too noisy for using with my IEM (the WA6 and Sq Wave are great with IEM). For driving the HE-5 I preferred the SAC over the Solo SRG II or EF5, but for HD800 and RS-1 the SRG II was better than the SAC or EF5. One issue I found with the SRG II was that the treble would become slightly strident at very high volumes with my HE-5, which did not happen with the other amps. But at very loud but not extremely loud volumes this was not an issue. Anyways, with HE-5 and the right amp I think the string bass speed, texture and resonances are spot on - and impact is nice. Pianos sound dynamic and clean with no edginess, and notes hang in the air after the keys are struck, with the notes fading slowly as the strings lose their energy (guitars too). Vocals and reed instruments are rich, vibrant and warm. Cymbals have the right tone, ring, shimmer and decay that I expect (lower treble tone is slightly off with the SAC). Detail is great, and imaging is nice and solid and spacious. I still prefer my HD800/ZDT for their wonderfully large soundstage, but the HE-5 are probably my second or third favorite dynamic can. --- Weird, my margins were smaller than everyone elses, then fixed themselves when I edited the post...

Fitz, I think it was great that you took the time to really dig in, figure out the problem underneath the mess, and fix it. Nice.

That makes more sense. Can we add this to wikipedia or something? It's not here either: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=114319726

Wait a darn minute. If zombie eats you then you turn into one of them. They like to eat your brains as a delicacy. Shooting a zombie in the brain is the only way to kill one. If they eat your brain, when you become a zombie then you can't be killed. All zombies die from a head-shot. There's a paradox here.

If they price it for $1,000 I'd be worried it could fail like Windows Tablet PC where the tablets were more expensive than a full laptop with the same performance. At $1,000 many people would take a $999 white Macbook instead. I'd like to see a $699 price point, or less, but $799 may not be unreasonable unless it's not much more useful than an over sized Touch.

I haven't seen this one posted yet. I think it looks/sounds pretty cool. But, it's just a MIDI controller - at first I thought it was a stand-alone guitar to plug into an amp.

I simply asked if this was an Oops.

Is this an Oops? Artamata, Inc.

For the past year I've been using DOTTUNES to run a music server right off my iMac/1GB HD at home with my whole iTunes library and playlists, so I can listen to my playlists on my iPhone's web browser or another computer with web access. You guys could check this out.

Yeah, Hopstretch is selling DigiPete's old Pass Pearl. I had my sights on it, but I still can't afford it, so DigiPete could re-unite with his old phono preamp. But it sounds like he's got his own sights on something higher up.

Cool, I have that same mini Marshall stack amp for my guitar.

I don't think so. I simply spent my time listening to the NAD C555/NAD PP2/Ortofon Blue and it didn't sound much better than my $69 GEMsound PL-USB that I have as an AD converter. This was sometime right before or after Thanksgiving. Most of my vinyl is old 70's and 80's albums, and most didn't sound as good as the same album on CD (without EQ). Usually the problem with both phono preamps was in the bass where it didn't seem to have any deep extension and was more upper bass than low/mid bass. It was like listening to a high-end stereo with 4" full range speakers in a small box. The problem may have been with how my TT/cart is set up, as someone suggested elsewhere where they felt the TT and cart I am using could sound good with the right preamp. Sherwood says he had a a knowledgeable person set up the TT for him before I got it. I guess that if I want to enjoy the music and not worry about the gear so much, then maybe I'm better off sticking with the DVD Audio and CD, or hi-res downloads that I enjoy immensely. Thanks for the help.

Ummmm http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTx_XT2XuEs

Ooops, I thought mine was just average and returned it after 3 weeks. Maybe I didn't burn-it in enough. I figure it's gonna be 4-6 weeks before I can afford that Pass Pearl unless my sale of the Single Power Square Wave XL goes through sooner, dammit. I have a buyer lined up who is waiting on a refund for something before he can send me the money.

nvm

I think the O2 Mk1/717 can seriously challenge, equal or beat your EHHA/HP1 rig, depending on your tastes. And although I have not done a side by side comparison, in my opinion they may even be fairly similar sounding rigs. As a bonus, with the O2 Mk1 you will get the comfort you are looking for and you may not need the Denon once you get the O2 Mk1/717 rig (unless you need the isolation, then get a JH13 Pro). You often can watch the forums and find an O2 Mk1 used for $1300-1400, and an SRM-717 for $1000. I didn't believe the 717 could synergize as well with O2 Mk1 and Mk2 as people had claimed, until I heard it for myself. Then I was upset because my $2500 GES didn't have the power, bass impact or separation that the 717 had, although it had great timbre/tone and musicality (leading me to buy a balanced WES instead, doh!) You'd likely keep the EHHA/HP1 as a companion rig till they "pry it from your cold dead hands". If you still upgrade your dynamic amp, I think the EC ZDT sounds fantastic with my friend's HP1 (and most other phones I have tried with my ZDT, including HD800). And it's very good with my modded D7000, but because my D7000 are not stock I can't really extrapolate that over to yours. I did compare my ZDT to wiatrob's balanced EHHA for 2 weeks and I felt the ZDT was only slightly better (I forget how the LA7000 sounded on the EHHA, sorry). So, you might not think a ZDT is a huge upgrade unless your EHHA doesn't sound as good as Bill's (he claims part of the great sound is some very good hard to find tubes). As a note - I thought the ZD at CanJam was on a similar level as the Balancing Act single ended, and I love the ZDT. After you've upgraded the amp, then you could consider an upgraded cable for the HP1. I know it seems like a sin to re-cable a rare headphone, but I have heard improvements in Grados with an upgraded cable, even among various cable brands (HP1 with SAA Equinox, PS-1 with Moon Audio Silver Dragon, Grado RS-1, RS-2 and HF-1 with APS V3, HF-1 with Jenna Labs). The HP1 really picked up a nice boost in the bass and transparency with the Equinox, and driven by the ZDT with a 4-pin XLR they sound fantastic. My APS v3 cabled RS-1 sounded similar to the HP1 with stock cable, but after the HP1 were re-cabled with the Equinox they moved up a level in transparency, detail and bass. Anyway, just a thought. Some people don't feel cables make a difference, and while I do think they help I also think they should come after phones/source/amp.

I have a non-jailbroken 3GS with 3.01 on it, with all the hacks working for tethering and MMS working, and my visual voicemail and texts and SMS all work fine, as does tethering.

I agree with that comparison. Also, the main advantage that Jerry has maintained all along is that the JH16 Pro can play louder without clipping than the JH13 Pro, especially in the bass (more dynamic range). But it wasn't to substantially boost the bass although it appears that they were able to achieve that in the end as well, from what I've read.

I think the PS Audio in 96K up-sampling mode sounds almost identical to the Stello DA100 and DA100 Signature. In the 192K mode it sounds a little brighter with a more spacious soundstage, but the change is not huge. I slightly prefer my Apogee mini-DAC to the PS Audio or Stello, but I do think they are both very decent for the price. I've heard the Cullen stage IV a couple of times at meets last year, and find it to be a little more refined sounding, with less edge to it in 192K mode, so I was planning to do the mods someday. Of interest, my PS Audio XLR jacks were putting out 5v at 60Hz at RMAF while the Cullen Circuits modded one was doing 2v at 60Hz, which we tested because it seemed like mine was overdriving the eXStatA amp's inputs while the Cullen and the Opus DAC were not. Cullen confirmed for me that they turn down the juice on the output a little if asked.

I only brought the EF5 up since it's part of the "$1000 rig" that Currawong was talking about. It's a decent amp for the price but nothing special when compared to the WA6 or ZDT.

I'm finding them to be good enough to displace my HD600 and HF-2 in my bedroom rig, as it made those sound muddy and veiled. The HE-5 allowed me to sell my APS v3 cabled RS-1, which were closest to the HE-5 but now redundant. In my rig I would never call the HE-5 mushy, but they still don't beat my HD800. I do think the SR-404LE on an eXStatA amp are a little better than the HE-5/EF5 combo, but it's not that easy to get the amp.

Excellent choice. Congrats!

Hmmm...