Source AV Meet Impressions

Oh, oops! Sorry, I didn't mean for that response to sound like I was hinting at anything!

Well, other than that I'm hinting I have a lot of things to send to you. Haha

Take your time, man! I'm really not in a hurry.

 

All righty...woah SBAF saves posts even though I've timed out. Neat!
*I can't seem to upload all of my photos in one post, there's 21 of them*

I made a kind of video series of the event at some of the exhibitors.

Spoiler: 4-Part Video Series

^ Skip to 2:36 if you want to hear some discussion I had with the HIFIMAN representative.

Spoiler: Video Time Point Markers

Table of Contents:
1:02 - Sennheiser HE 1
4:47 - HIFIMAN Shangri-La
6:59 - MrSpeakers Ether E
9:44 - n3rdling's do-it-yourself electrostatic headphone
12:04 - Ranking these headphones
13:22 - STAX SR-009
14:52 - Binaural song recordings

Binaural song recordings (all are 16/96 [the original binaural recordings were 24/96 and I just trimmed the recordings to the songs of interest]):
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/2816447/Sennheiser HE 1 - The Eagles - Hotel California.flac (36 MB)

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/2816447/HIFIMAN Shangri-La - Natalie Merchant - Carnival.flac (53 MB)

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/2816447/MrSpeakers Ether E - Natalie Merchant - Carnival.flac (44 MB)

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/2816447/STAX SR-009 - Natalie Merchant - Carnival.flac (50 MB)

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/2816447/STAX SR-009 - The Eagles - Hotel California.flac (39 MB)

Note: the SR-009 recordings are NOT in a quiet listening room, so there's other stuff going on in the background that you can hear when I was doing these recordings. All tracks also have ReplayGain metadata in it if you want to use it.

Electrostatic Headphone Impressions

For the impressions of the event, something to keep in mind is that these 15-minute listening sessions (for the HE 1, Shangri-La, and Ether E) were done in quiet listening rooms (ideal), but with a selection of [unknown mastering origins] music that you may or may not know (not ideal). This is especially in the case for the HE 1 where the Sennheiser representative would play 3 or 4 pre-selected high-resolution tracks to you (some were able to choose a song if Tidal had it, I believe).

All of my impressions can be heard in video 4 above if you're looking for a podcast-like experience, as opposed to reading this.

Spoiler: HE 1

So speaking of which, the HE 1 was the first listening session I attended. To be perfectly honest, I intentionally chose to use most of my time getting nice photos and some media coverage (video 1 above shows and explains the HE 1's power-down and power-up process). It was either I get the most out of this experience (note: experience as a whole, not just a listening experience), or I get to listen to some test tracks in which I may or may not know. Indeed I did get to listen to 3/4 of Hotel California though, which is at least a track I do know, but again of unknown mastering origins. Keep in mind that all the songs Sennheiser had pre-selected were recorded with Neumann microphones, a company that they own, so there's a Sennheiser bias to the whole experience.

The HE 1 uses eight ES9018S DAC chips in differential mode, so there is no common ground and everything is 100% balanced. To me, I could still hear a bit of that "SABRE SOUND[sup]TM[/sup]" quality to the system, which is a little bit of a bright sound in the upper-midrange, but it was pretty much buttery smooth throughout the rest of the frequency spectrum. It had all the goodies you would expect from an electrostatic headphone, meaning very fast speed, terrific imaging, and a silky treble quality. If I were to describe the sound in one term, it would be neutral. I've heard the Ultimate Ears Reference Remaster before, and I got a very similar kind of impression: music is just "there" and there's nothing else. Although the HE 1 didn't "wow" me, it was just kind of a sublime listening experience for me where I could appreciate the music.

Coming from what the HD800 and HD800S sound like in terms of the soundstage, I was very pleasantly surprised to hear the HE 1 to have a more intimate soundstage relatively speaking. I have always disliked the HD800's rather superficially large-sounding soundstage.

I actually did use the crossfeed knob on the HE 1 system to see what kind of effect it has (there were 3 options for it), and I honestly couldn't really hear much of a difference between the different modes, at least not with Hotel California.

Spoiler: Shangri-La

Fifteen minutes later, it was time to listen to the Shangri-La. I had previously heard the Shangri-La at CanJam at RMAF last year, and honestly I was not impressed with it at all: It was extremely bright-sounding. This time around (apparently it was revised since then), it sounded much better. Think of the SR-009 but with more of an emphasis on the upper-midrange/lower-treble instead of the mid-/upper-midrange. It still had an overall sizzley-bright sound to it, similar to my experience with a stock HE-500, but it was much more toned down. If you download the binaural audio recordings I made above, you can get an idea of how this sounds compared to the SR-009.

For a HIFIMAN headphone, I was expecting harder-hitting bass compared to what I was hearing in the Shangri-La. The bass is still nice, just not as impactful as I was hoping it to be. To me it was like the HE1000's bass without as much oomph. Speaking of the HE1000 though, the soundstage presentation of the Shangri-La reminded me of the HE1000 a bit in that it was more deep than wide, but more even in overall dimensions. I think it's one of the more open-sounding electrostatic headphones I've heard.

Spoiler: Ether E

Like the Shangri-La, I had previously heard the Ether E at CanJam at RMAF last year. Being revised since then, I was excited to see how it has evolved since then. This time though, it was on an insanely beastly Blue Hawaii/Chord Dave rig. Coming from the previous two listening sessions, my ears were kind of attuned to a high-profile sound, and the Ether E didn't disappoint. Being the only affordable headphone of the three, I think MrSpeakers has done a great job of tuning the Ether E to sound like an electrostatic headphone, but at the same time not: it keeps the fantastic imaging ability of an e-stat without sounding too fast, all the meanwhile making it still sound like a MrSpeakers headphone.

Similar to the HE 1, I found the Ether E to have a more intimate presentation rather than really open, which I prefer. The low-/mid-bass sounded a tad bit boosted to me, which is a MrSpeakers sound and adds some nice warmth going into the lower-midrange to Give Life Back to Music. Hearing no bass in an electrostatic headphone is somewhat of an old myth: it mostly applies to speakers rather than headphones (and this is why Martin Logan speaker systems are a hybrid estat midrange-tweeter/dynamic woofer). Having the slightly-boosted bass in the Ether E would probably completely eliminate that myth, hahaha. I don't have any complaints about the presence of the bass in the music, but on a more technical note it sounds a little slow/woolly to me.

Moving on to the midrange as a whole, the Ether E kind of has a bright sound in the upper-mids, and combined with the warm lower-mids, it creates a more forward midrange listening experience. A great listening experience for vocals in general, but sounded a taaaad bit sibilant to me.

The treble, in typical MrSpeakers fashion is very smooth overall. It retains the grain-free treble response from the fast drivers, minus having the STAX "ETHEReal" sound signature (okay, bad pun).

Spoiler: SR-009

I don't think the STAX SR-009 really needs an introduction since it's been around the hi-fi community as a whole for quite some time now.

For me, I have always found it to be too bright for my tastes. On the Blue Hawaii, I find it to have too large of a soundstage for my tastes as well, which is contrary to what many others would prefer to hear the SR-009 on. However, on their own SRM-007 MKII tube amplifier, I actually found it to be listenable. The brightness was bearable to me, and the soundstage was more intimate with solid imaging.


I brought my SR-207 with me since I was interested in hearing how it compares to the SR-009 on a STAX amp. As I've heard before, the SR-207 actually has more bass than the SR-009; again, kind of destroying the ill-lingering stigma that estats don't have bass. The SR-009 definitely has much more air than the SR-207 and is much, much faster, being able to pick up details much more easily than the SR-207, almost too much so and might be one reason why MrSpeakers opted to go for a tuning that wasn't as fast.

Overall though, I'd still give the SR-009 a pass. Its sound signature just isn't my thing, and I still yearn for a SR-007 MKI with a Liquid Lightning 1.

Spoiler: n3rdling's Orpheus Clone

This, was very interesting to hear. I know that chinsettawong creates DIY electrostatic headphones, and I've heard a DIY estat before, but this was just mind-blowing to me. If you know what the SR-007 MKI and SR-009 sounds like, this "Orpheus Clone" is like a mix of them. It was just a very technical/musical-sounding hybrid. You really have to give it a listen yourself because I was/still am at a loss for words on how to describe it other than that. It has a bright upper-midrange similar, but much more toned down, to the 009, but a warm, and pretty much transparent, bass and treble response on the other ends of the frequency spectrum. It sounded very fast like the 009, but at the same time didn't sound ethereal like a typical estat.

The imaging was amongst the strongest and most well-defined of what I've heard in any headphone system: very, very solid. The soundstage was also airy similar to the 009, but that could be attributed to the Blue Hawaii amplifier it was hooked up on.

I think projects like this demonstrate the enthusiasm this community can have. Learning about the technology of how something works and applying that to make something of your own is, in my opinion, the ultimate realization of this hobby. I've been wanting to read Roger Sander's "Electrostatic Loudspeaker Design Cookbook" to learn more about the design of electrostatic speaker panels, and n3rdling's creation may have just motivated me even more to look into it. Getting into the world of DIY estats is no trivial task and I have a lot of respect for people who venture into it.


The yin and yang were in perfect harmony with the "Orpheus Clone".

Other Headphone Impressions

The event had headphone systems that were outside of the realm of electrostatic headphones, so I wanted to cover those briefly as well.

Spoiler: HIFIMAN Edition 6

This was my first time hearing the Edition 6, so I have no basis on its sound in previous revisions. I actually thought it sounded pretty okay. One of the demo CDs had Hotel California on it (again, of unknown mastering origin), and the Edition 6 had some nice air, a relatively smooth treble response, solid imaging, but the midrange seemed bright and the midbass had a lot of bloat and presence. Not my preferred sound signature, but it was fine overall.

Supposedly, like their older HE-6, this Edition 6 is not very sensitive, so it will need a beefy amp with it. I think the EF1000 did a good job at it? I was manning the SR-009 table during most of the event, which was near the Edition 6 table, and many people were cranking up the volume super loud, loud enough so that I could hear their music playing through my music when I'm listening to a headphone............sometimes the people in this hobby really scare me. :/

Spoiler: Sony MDR-Z1R

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeh.....this was, well, a Sony. It has a very, very warm-slanted sound signature. I liked it much much more on the Questyle CMA400i than on their own NW-WM1Z/TA-ZH1ES system.

Spoiler: Focal Utopia

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeh.....this headphone still has yet to "wow" me. Even on the Questyle "Gold Stack" I still think this headphone is good, but not great. At $4000, I wouldn't even consider it, to be blunt. It doesn't do anything particularly wrong, which is good, but at the same time, it has no character to it. Music is just "there" but unlike the HE 1, it still sounds like a headphone and isn't transparent to me. Something about the midrange and soundstage just seems too off to sound transparent, but I can't pinpoint it either. I might be in the minority of not really caring about the Utopia's sound since it seems to be all the craze these days.

Spoiler: HD800

Actually, I got to hear this on HiFiGuy528's Woo Audio WA8, and I was pleasantly surprised! I typically don't like the HD800's sound, modded or not. On the WA8, that was the first time I actually listened, and enjoyed, more than 4 songs from my playlist. The soundstage was more intimate-sounding on this setup compared to the CMA600i, and its brightness was really toned down, though still present. Two thumbs up for this combo.

Welp, those are all of my impressions from the event in terms of gear. The overall atmosphere of the event was really chill. There were a lot of listening stations set up around the venue, so there was always something for people to do. Talking and meeting people in the community was a fun experience. I liked being able to meet new people whom I've interacted with on the forums, but now I can match a face to a name and a name to a username. : D

Thanks for taking the time to read/watch through these impressions!

 

So it seems like Source AV is gonna be holding another meet on March 25th, who's planning to be there? I'm planning to actually make it this time

 

Yup, will be there like always.

 

Just got around to watching these. Great effort you put into making them

Not sure who was in there with you in the HE-1 demo room, but sounded like a circle-jerk while watching it close and then open (not you, but the other guys).

Seemed the sound was secondary to the ooh-aah look what it can do all by itself wow factor. Far be it from me to judge what get's people's rocks off, but ...

 

Just received this in the e-mail:



I guess the fancy sanskrit name gones with the fancy price.

 

Wonder if they asked @Marvey for permission to use the quote.

Interesting that there are no HF quotes. No idea if there are any comments good enough to use.

 

Did the ED6 prototype have the same level of "openness" that the HE1000 (V2) has?
Also how bright are they in comparison?