pure5152

damn, that's surprising to me because i felt like the magni unity was overall a smooth and musical amp-- if anything I felt like it had less grain than the piety because the treble was much smoother/less harsh than the piety's, but maybe we're talking about different kinds of grain? (I'm mainly thinking grainy treble)

I'm with pure on this one, might just be different kinds of grain but the Piety seems to accentuate treble sizzle whereas the Unity was just shockingly balanced throughout the upper octaves. Definitely "textured", but nowhere near being glarey or etched as the Magni 3+ was.

But I also hear the Piety as being really clear in terms of staging, more present elements upfront. Maybe that could be grain, things feel a bit more obfuscated on the Unity in spite of the better resolution?

I’ll pull the Magni Unity out tonight for some more comparisons, but I recall it sounding pretty congested too. It’s a Magni though, so I didn’t fault it for that. Oddly enough, the TA-66 is the least congested amp I have in many ways.

FWIW @theveterans tells me mini c sounds good on the midguards halo output

@Ganzy I don't think the Midgard's Halo output impedance is as high as the Asgard X which can have an reverse effect than Midgard's I'm guessing. Midgard's Halo does increase the holography and tightens up the bass which meshes with the Mini C's inherent warmth really well

If getting dislikes is miffing you enough to harass long time members, your account is not going to last long around here.

@YMO You *know* I am. Yeah: Paradox,HD-600, ESP-950, and CFA Jupiter. As you see, they require very different amping. I'm hoping to end up with two rigs; but if I keep three, that's fine too.

Clear the decks! Moar music!

@zonto I was trying to find the headphone setup thread and I think it was deleted T__T

$50 shipped.

Great. I will take your 2541.

Don't let YMO take advantage of you - $50 and I will cover shipping like a real man

The stock FR for that HD580 he showed me scared the shit out of me.

For those curious, here's tommy's measurements of my stock hd580 (red) vs his personal modded hd580 (green): https://i.imgur.com/532zMAq.png

Holy crap is right...that's some transformation!

It's crazy how much useful functionality is packed into this little amp: it has an internal WM8741 dac with spdif/usb/tos inputs that actually sounds great (esp fed using pi2aes), additional analog aux and phono inputs, fixed biasing with external knobs and dial, and even speaker outs! Transformers are hand-wound by a guy who used to work at tango. All in a package with a footprint less than half a sheet of paper.

Unfortunately it looks like the amp may only be sold within Japan; need to send an email to Andix to be sure. I bought it from a head-fier who literally hand-carried the amp from Japan to the US. I don’t know about shipping it around because I don’t have secure shipping material for it, but I’d love to bring it to future SBAF meets to get some ears on it. It’s good enough I’m considering selling my starlett.

May I ask about the tone and, uh, speed? Just wanna know if it's on the "zippy" or the "mellow" side of things.

Sleep

I'm building a "training wheels" version of your setup. pi2aes -> SFD-1 Mk2 mod -> T3 -> clear. Rolling tubes in the T3 to find a nice balance of liquidity and control

Such a great idea... rollable transformers...

Looking forward to your impressions! I just recently swapped from nickel to amorphous. Quick question, is the plugin PCB layout for the LL1948ag the same as the LL1676 (I assume you have these originally)?

Thank you! I should post something soon, I've just been super lazy haha (in short, doug and I agree they're a clear upgrade from the ll1676). Unfortunately it isn't -- I think there's a pin swap. if you search the datasheets for the ll1948ag/ll1676 it's slightly different; I had to have doug design a new board for the ll1948ag. That said, the actual boards are plug-in replaceable!

@robot zombie porn with character development

@robot zombie maybe you will virtually cry when you get a virtual STD from VR porn

Hmmm... I dunno. That's more reality in my porn than I usually like. Think I'll hold out for the singularity, when AI will just simulate us all doing whatever.

The me in that singularity-verse can worry about that. Maybe he can get the AI to simulate him listening to music on a system so good it's literally sex.

If hair buzzing on a Grado driver is called grattle, what is hair buzzing on a Focal or Utopia driver called?

It's grattle with "metallic timbre" ;)

^nah, Frattle.

You need sleep.

Looking forward to your write up pure5152! Heck, keep is short and simple, a paragraph or three, just to help ignoramuses like me understand the basic trade offs.

Yeah of course crenca! It was a fascinating learning experience going back and forth with doug and also reading white papers/textbooks. I wish I could write more here but there’s a 420 character limit. I’ll definitely explain in my write up later.

I went a bit overboard and decided to get the silver version of the LL1948 (LL1948ag), after hearing craig praise its sonic qualities: https://eddiecurrent.com/228-2/

@Vtory buy @pure5152 BW1. That would be Grado heaven without breaking the bank.

@YMO Maybe not for me. I've owned bw quite long. It does dimensions but I also need speed and plankton at the dsha-3f level if I waste cash this time. Sadly I know bw can't do it to that extent.

Didn't know you had a BW. My bad. I should get a higher end SS amp.

Nekkar is good shit thou. If you like Hard Prog, try T2.

@spwath do Supper's Ready high.

@YMO I'll have to try that when I am back at college. Though I am in Colorado now, I am not 21 and don't know anyone. Plus at college I have my big jbls.

Hawaiian BBQ is sooo denk

Lets continue to spam on pure5152's profile page. It is awesome.

@pure5152 @pure5152 @pure5152 @pure5152 @pure5152 @pure5152 @pure5152 @pure5152 @pure5152 @pure5152 @pure5152 @pure5152 @pure5152 @pure5152 @pure5152 @pure5152 @pure5152 @pure5152 @pure5152 @pure5152

Yes, those yoga blocks as headphone stand is a terrible idea. It will definitely hyperextend those headband and make them loose. May be he has a big head and it doesn't matter to him

I also hope you have your RGB keyboard ready too. I think he uses it on the mode where it ripples from where you press a key?

We have a Zeos fan club right here..

LOL good point. Utopia may as well be a pair of small loudspeakers by how open they are.

What are your impressions about Fiio BTR5, is it a good device?
Do you think the BTR5 balanced output can competently drive a Sennheiser HD-600?

I think it can, it definitely does a better job than the es100, which makes stuff sound underpowered.

Just tried it with the JAR 650, and it sounds pretty dang dynamic, with surprisingly wide soundstage and everything. It sounds a lot better than I thought actually, holy shit.

Yeah, that's truly the ultimate joy of the hobby right: stop caring about components and just enjoy more music, and appreciate the slight differences each headphone you may have may bring.

The only reason I got the Utopia was I was just to curious to hear how it sounds with the 3F, given the Clears already sound so exceptional. Balanced cable arrives tomorrow so can't wait to hear how it is.

Full disclosure update: I actually reverted back to regular utopia pads. The added bass and warmth was nice, but I ended up finding the 6khz peak too fatiguing/grating after a longer time listening.

Stellia pads on Utopia get a nod from me, but I get to play with these things for free. Stupid how expensive the Focal-brand pads are...

Ummm... April fools?

Lol yeah definitely. Beats solo pro isn’t even wired. Decided to edit my original status to something truer, because the original status was just kinda stupid.

Dekoni Elite Hybrid pads are worth trying, though on some amps, like the Feliks Euphoria, they turn the Utopia into a bloated muddy mess.