May 30, 200917 yr The Audeze planars are going to be interesting. The enclosures they are using are nothing to write home about but they still sound good, are easy to drive (we listened out of a Gilmore Lite) and will probably be < $400. The engineer developing the drivers said he'd be very happy to have a dialogue with the enthusiast community -- pm me if you want his email. Was the engineer Sankar? or somone else? Even if the enclosures suck, can you describe the sound more? (all that really matters for the moment is if the enclosure is reasonaly rigid and fully open, which it should be). Dammit NoNoNoNoNoNo/Colin, where are you with the gazzilion snaps!!
May 30, 200917 yr I declare the hf-2 a winner. beautiful grado midrange, not overly bright. bass a bit boomy but it sounds fun to me. I'm the proud owner of pair #12.
May 30, 200917 yr Steve! Dude! Wake up! Maybe you can help them with the housing, they seem to be using off the shelf headphone frame for their new drivers (the size of T30, huge). I'm more behind than I realized. Can't seem to find a pic of them.
May 30, 200917 yr It does look nice, can't argue against that. The big question is how does it sound?
May 31, 200917 yr I'm more behind than I realized. Can't seem to find a pic of them. No pics yet Waiting for some.
May 31, 200917 yr HF-2 is indeed a winner. Nice smooth (not overly so) sound, does nothing wrong to me. This is with bowls; didn't like them with flats. I'll be comparing them to the ESW10 tomorrow. HD800 is another clear winner; I haven't heard any other headphone sound so right. I wish I could afford this.
May 31, 200917 yr A bare Pico Slim (and its "competitor" The Shadow, also bare) were there. A raffle-rigging cetoole was also there.
May 31, 200917 yr Was the engineer Sankar? or somone else? Even if the enclosures suck, can you describe the sound more? (all that really matters for the moment is if the enclosure is reasonaly rigid and fully open, which it should be). Dammit NoNoNoNoNoNo/Colin, where are you with the gazzilion snaps!! Sankar is the engineer here. For me, they sound very good and, if they sell for ~$350, are the best value among the new headphones. Is the HF2 shipping with bowls or flats? It's shipping with bowls. TTVJ has a show special of $5 off for flats. I bought some flats to go with my HF2s. I agree that they sound awfully good, but not too much like vintage RS1s. They have no exaggerated sibilance whereas for me, RS1s sound like somebody is sticking needles into my eardrums.
May 31, 200917 yr If anyone can can order two pairs of flats for me and send them out to Malaysia later once you get back home, I'd be really grateful. I'll pay up using Paypal of course.
May 31, 200917 yr Anyone get a listen to the new Woo stat amp yet ? I listened briefly and it was indeed nice. My audio vocabulary is limited so bear with me. It did not strike me as slow or soft as I have read about some Woo amps; my SR-Omega sounded good on it. It had all new production tubes, Tung-Sol 6SN7 and Shuguang (sp.) 6CA7, the newer special model. I definitely think it is head and shoulders above the A10 but that probably does not surprise many. The A10 has the Ray Samuels sound which may appeal to some but is not my cup of tea. I prefer my ES-2 to both amps but i am biased and out a shitload of money there, so go figure. I think the Woo will be a great addition to the electrostat market. The BHSE sounds great also. We hooked up an ES-2 and the BHSE to the same source and I must say that I was surprised the ES-2 held it's own with the O2, several others felt the same but I will let them speak for themselves. But for the money the BHSE is a clear winner.
May 31, 200917 yr Author Rainbow of Pico amp/DACs Pico Slim (chassis parts not ready) Blackbird Audio's vendor table with Heed CanAmp Eddie Current Balancing Act AMB y1++ (Gamma 1) FallenAngel's balanced Beta22 velogreg's Trafomatic Experience Head One jpnums' Stacker Hybrid mikeymad's Marantz SA-7S1 Woo Audio WA5 Luxman P-200 - top panel engraving Woo Audio WES Woo Audio WES 6CA7 tubes Woo Audio 22 Registration table - jpnums, LFF, Iron_Dreamer, zippy2001 EMI/Capitol's donation stash Spectral SDR-2000 DAC and SDR-3000 transport Rockhopper Audio Buffalo DAC PS Audio PerfectWave transport & DAC
May 31, 200917 yr Some more general ones... Smyth: I did not expect that realism that people were raving about, but this is the real deal. I briefly sat down at Beyer and did their little head motion thing... a toy compared to Smyth's stuff. HF-2: a little extra bass oomph, but very good balance. Preferred it over HF-1 and RS-1. Nick Drake's Fruit Tree (acoustic folk) sounded incredible. Shure headphones: The highest model SHP840 was rather nice and not too closed sounding, comfy, and solid. The lowest 240 model is bad. L3000: Just not my thing. Sounded artificial. D5000: Definitely not my thing. Weird, boomy, bland, something. Monster Beats: lol. sources and amps: everything sounded good to me, but I don't recall using anything outside of the usual good HeadAmp, HeadRoom, DIY stuff. Lots of nice upstream components at the meet. I also expect cetoole's C-2C impressions... lucky bastard
May 31, 200917 yr On the other site I saw a picture of Woo DAC. Has anyone had a chance to listen to it ?
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