Inoculator

HD580 (this one being a black paper/flat plate) is quickly becoming a very special headphone to me, and has replaced HD 600 marble/silver screen as my reference. Paired with the Starlett it is truly remarkable. I look forward to listening to this pairing more than just about any of my other gear.

Look at DG recordings. There will be some lovely renditions.

@SoupRKnowva I had wanted the Lenovo P44w or Y44w, but seems everything is 49" these days. At one point lenovo/samsung/Asus all had some out (probably all variations of the same samsung panel). Will have to settle for a used one I guess.

There is an acer (aopen?) 43" uw and a spectre one on amazon idk about others ;/ 43XV1C PWMIIPHX or E448B-FSN168 both 3840x1080 samsung C43J890 is 3840x1280

I ran a 34” but switched over to a 38” and am very happy. If this is for work, the 38” is nice because the extra vertical resolution really matters with documents up side by side (1600px vs 1440px). I use a Dell U3818DW.

What’s the price of it? Doesn’t seem to be listed on the website…

@rlow I think the Starlett is still $2k, I bought used for a bit less than that. Current wait time is a year for a new one.

One of the best amps I've demoed. Maybe best

The Senn bros club is growing every day!

I got to hear this amp for a while still my plan to own one. Loved every second of it.

The flesh is weak but the ears are happy.

Yeah, they're my current favorite.

I've bought OCC copper cables from every non rip off artist I can think of and his Claire HPC mk2 is the best sounding cable on the market IMO. Actually better than his Noir and with better ergonomics too (no big splitter). You should try a Claire! I've got so many of them around, one for every Audeze...

I appreciate the tip on the Claire @rhythmdevils! I will give that a try for the next cable purchase. Was just about to get an order going for a recently acquired HD 800.

Haha that mirrors my exp with SP200. Indeed quite consistent throughout all THX-moduled amps even up to Bench hpa4. I may not hate them that much tho, maybe because I secretly enjoy some such characters..

@Vtory I for sure see how with a different DAC (I am using Yggdrasil LIM) and cans could bring something together here that works. As is I could not wait to stop listening.

Try it with IEM’s.

I have to admit was a bit nervous to put the suit on with a few extra pandemic lbs on me, but it still fit and I felt like a million bucks once it was on. Maybe getting back to normal won't be too bad.

A suit? weird! Not for over twenty years.

Went to an elder relative's funeral in England three years ago. I made myself decent, in jacket and smart trousers, and abstained from my usual open sandals but... All the guys were wearing ties! I'd completely forgotten about ties!

Good luck with the work. :)

I don't blame Schiit, they need to be sure they have enough to keep selling the Freya+. More kicking myself I cheaped out on the $100 difference when ordering my Freya+. Would have been nice to have a new production backup to my NOS stuff.

holy moses' sandals. word on the street is that WE has first production article 6SN7s out for beta testing. supposedly $650-ish/pair. Sure, painful, but a quad from Schiit plus backup = quad from WE (assuming they sound good) + 5 year warranty? Pick your poison.

Buy now. And wait. This is the way.

Get one now now now

Supply chains for electronics are very fluid right now. If you can get your hands on something today, do it.

@Boops the nubs have it virtually floating at floor level, so these do stick out a bit since the pedestal is just a frame barely wide enough to fit these. Raises it a half inch. Here is a photo. https://photos.app.goo.gl/6jbRSQQGcpa4UJKM6

I do think the changes these gave was a bit extra dramatic because I have engineered/fake wood floors. Really cleaned up the sound of these a ton though. All makes me wonder how these could sound removing the afterthought pedestal and putting on stands. Upscale recommended isoacoustics which I suppose you could get big huge threaded feet and unscrew the pedestal, would be super ugly though.

I've thought about the possibility of replacing the stock "stand" with something much more isolating. But I wouldn't want it to be ugly ;-) Thanks for the pic!

@Poleepkwa I tried to be pretty precise with the microphone. My room and couch are fairly large, I may try to go a bit less tight to the couch in next round of measurements, but open to suggestion there. Bought the DIRAC recommended minidsp mic, which said to point at speakers/straight forward, but I saw there might be advantage to pointing at center regardless of position

Since you are doing 2 channel you could point the microphone forward. 90 degrees are usually for multichannel. Try all 3 microphone layouts and see which sounds best. In my room, a too tight spacing always becomes to dry.

@Poleepkwa thanks for the tips! Will give another measurement a try. In an awkward spot now where DIRAC does not sounds quite right, but going back to no DIRAC sounds like trash and I am hyper aware of the issues with my room/placement.

I know the company making the stuff for Monolith, probably what might have happened was they ordered the parts forever ago and just finally received the last parts that were backordered. Or stuck on a ship for the last few months crossing over the ocean

@netforce Very interesting. Do you think it actually has AKM 4499 in it, or has monoprice just not updated the listing?

Could entirely be possible that it does have the AKM chips inside if they bought a ton in advance. Knowing Monoprice, they do have the capital to have made that happen. But could entirely be possible it was swapped to ESS and hasn't been updated.

Talking with some manufacturing partners about AKM, some said they had supply to last a few months and others at least a year.

The pics do make it look as if it could be plastic. However the visibility of the indicator on the knob(s) would win out for me, but I'm a very 'substance over style' sort.

Probably looks worse in pics than in reality. I’m willing to give Schiit the benefit of the doubt, since like 3/4 of the gear I own is Schiit, I believe they make smart choices (most of the time, Jot 1 not withstanding haha).

So not polished aluminum like the case or their other knobs. Even no more shiny buttons.

That’s supposed to be a great pairing! Auteur. Clear is fantastic. ESX900 also.

You're never out of the headphone game!

I love speakers but sometimes headphones hit just right in a way speakers don’t, and vice versa.

@ColtMrFire thanks for the heads up. I saw that, might have to chat price with him. @loadexfa pointed out the final sale price on headphones.com, which in addition they are giving a $100 gift card with purchase right now. Mighty tempting to give it a whirl.

@Inoculator I'd also be willing to do a personal loaner at some point but I'm unsure about timing. I need to make sure I have these around for some upcoming loaners and they were also offered to Earnmyturns so he's first in line. The gift card offer does sound like a good deal so it may make more sense to jump on that.

That "metallic" sound: Is it more in the highs or mids? In my Clear OG simulation by EQ with my Ananda, there is some tinny quality, a bit as if a loudspeaker was placed inside a tin can, but not unpleasant. More in the mids than in cymbal sounds, e.g., where I would have expected it from descriptions. Is that correct? (Trying to figure out if such simulations are worthwhile or not.)

Again, if I were to try to quantify the improvements, I'd put it in the +10% range, which I realize is enough to bankrupt some of us.

@zonto @Soups mine is arriving today, I will go ahead and put together a short playlist to round out my listening today with stock, then compare same playlist when I swap it and see what I think.

I've compared both Sbooster 24V (bought one since my previous phono also uses the rail) vs Allo Shanti with 5V mod. While minor, the Shanti still had a noticeable improvement in sound quality, both from noise and staging/imaging/etc standpoints. I only migrated off the solution when I got Crystek based DDC which further improved the previous areas.

@rhythmdevils yeah, it is my understanding though that they are not the same. I think 1X for freya S is still nexus but "behaves like a differential buffer" and for the Freya+ it is a differential buffer. Unless I am mistaken, I think folks around here feel the Freya+ 1X is the more transparent buffer.

I have the Freya S. The 1x buffer is definitely more transparent. The 4x has its sins of commission but can be enjoyable.

@Koth Ganesh oh yeah for sure the 4x nexus has it place in certain setups. I have loved with the HD600 how it is like a secret bass boost switch. Just not jiving with this particular setup.

@E_Schaaf After the Sugden A21SE I knew I had to try some other true class A stuff. Had my eye on the F8, but the DSHA-3F wrecked my budget. I figured trying the more relaxed F7 first might be worthwhile.

The F7 sounds a lot like a super DSHA1 when I've A/Bd with headphones, which could also be said of the 3F, though maybe branching off in different directions relative to one another. Of course you probably won't use the F7 with headphones, and 3F isn't a speaker amp so apples and oranges, but all of the above are exceptional amps.

Yeah I will be using F7 as a speaker amp only, so maybe different impressions a bit. I am feeling intrigued at the idea of trying to find something like the DSHA-3f and see how it would sound with my speakers/ You could almost call it ruthlessly clean, but still oozes musicality. Have just never heard anything like it.

I need me a 3F! Really enjoying the Quicksilver + Auteur, but all this synergy talk is tempting me big time. Probably for the best these amps are so hard come by.

Doug is apparently collaborating with CEE_TEE to manufacture the 3F at a more affordable price point sometime in the future, so that may be something to look forward to :O

That sounds like a great combo. I enjoy the Auteur and consider it one of my endgame headphones. i hope you enjoy the pairing for years to come.