SoupRKnowva

Ive got the balanced version. Fake as in the opposite of "real". Which isn't to say it sounds real, I guess it could be better, but in that its a step function increase in "realness", such that everything else I've heard sounds noticeably less real as a result

realness also isn't a first order effect, its 2nd or 3rd order, a combination of several other things. I would guess micro dynamics, detail, plankton and macro dynamics being the most crucial aspects to creating realness in this context

Out of all the crazy shit I've heard thanks to the locals, the Wavedream and the EC Af are the ones that captivated me from first listen. They made me believe in magic :)

Because of the lack of comparison material a review may not come, but I will almost certainly end up writing about the staging/imaging/separation this thing accomplishes. Its astounding how uncongested it always is

You wouldn't happen to have experience with the Holo Spring 3 to compare it to would you?

I do not, I heard a May at a meetup a few weeks back, but it was on an unfamiliar rig, it was worthy of consideration, if you're willing to deal with software upsampling, and I consider that a pretty big if. But I can't say anything about the spring 3

another thing to keep in mind is that positioning and setup in general with speakers has such a huge impact on sound, and you can't always count on dealers to do that optimally, even if you'd they should be since its their job to sell them

They are big. They need the right amplification which I never see.

I'd say the Naim Statement was more than enough amplification, but the complete lack of any imaging was most likely due to its size relative to the room. I'd say Khorns do a better job of sounding massive than the Grand Utopias too while fitting into more normal sized spaces.

@Mystic oh man, I like pretty much everything they've done since I got into them with Bilateral. Ill do one off each album, White, Restless, The Valley, Third Law, From the Flame, Distant Bells, and Running Low.

And ill have it be known lol that liking Chvrches will probably not guarantee you will like Leprous, Leprous is a progressive metal band, though have been leaning more towards poppier compositions recently

I’m a metal head as well so it’s working for me.

doesn't have to be. :-) now I am curious... I know the AKM line gets brighter and leaner and less "velvet" as we go up the line and that special care is needed instead of moar SINAD.

the d90se is Sabre, 9038 pro, the D90 was AKM4499, I assume the fire had something to do with that

Contrary to your experience, I have a Topping DAC on TV optical because the Gungnir did not cope. Also, it sounds pretty great.

Only downside is now I really want the Elrog 845 too, even though I know it won't make as big of a difference as the 300b did

Seems like you can't use typical magnetic headphones in an MRI so E-stats are needed

Holy moley. Hang in there.

I filled a bunch of pitchers with water last Tuesday before the water went out when I woke up and pressure was pretty low. After that, I bought some water at the store, and luckily I had several gallons of distilled water from when I setup the water loop in my PC in the cabinet I'd forgotten about.

Glad it worked out for you, man. We have always kept some backup water but this whole deal has had me reconsidering how much even if we didn’t lost it this time.

Since I finally got one yesterday the trick is... use the app on your phone for Walmart. I have tried 20+ times on various websites, no dice. The app I got it on the 5th try. Good Luck!

yeah i switched to using the app as well haha i missed best buy and walmart yesterday. as well as psdirect today

Finally copped a PS5 from PS Direct tonight, the gamer gods were shining on me with my queue number I guess.

At first I thought it was a new turbo for your Supra

Lol the Supra struggles to put the power it has down, heaven help it if it had more

Of all the tube set that got shipped to me with the amp, all of them made it in one piece except one of the 6em7 input tubes. Luckily id bought another set of those a week or so back, so I was still able to get up and running today.

A 3-part series on the 2020 Pikes Peak Hill Climb that I worked on is going to be on the MotorTrend app (and somewhere else I can’t talk about yet). I have such respect for everyone involved after documenting it. It is America’s Nurburgring.

The trailer I put together just came out today, as well as the series, if anyone's interested https://vimeo.com/475233185/

If anyone wants to watch it, you can stream it from the MotorTrend app. They have a 7-day free trial so you can cancel before the week's up.

I like the symphony no 9 in there. Makes me want to do some ultra violence.

The magic is really coming through this thing today, I assume tubes needing to break in, but now Im starting to get the hype.

I think there's something impressive about it's lack of impressiveness as well.

An awesome mixture of current favorites and also rediscovering some older jams I hadn’t listened to in a long time. I may not have gone home to see the family, but I’d still call it a successful week

What speakers?

Acoustic Zen Adagio

Just finished reading the entire pi2AES thread, dug out my pi3 w/hifiberry digi Pro running moOde and installed 7" touchscreen to 851N DAC. This is already pretty damn nice for the money. 502DAC (will run this with 7"screen for SW51) and pi2AES with pi4 (will run this on main speaker system) on the way.

I think depth imaging took the biggest leap forward for me via pi2aes i2s vs usb direct from the pi. Congestion in the middle improved quite a bit. Staging improved overall a fair amount too. It’s like my sweet spot got even sweeter

driver section of the line magnetic looks nasty, 12ax7 and chinese 6l6 clone, all cap coupled. 6EM7>300B with interstage transformer on the 845 in the coincident is much better setup

Agreed, I liked the tube compliment more on the Coincident. I don't actually know if the integrated uses interstage transformer coupling. I know the franks do, and the new mono block versions specifiy interstage transformer coupling.

The higher end LM219ia or the 845 premium use better tubes, but that is a lot more money, within striking distance of the new coincident mono blocks and honestly more than I wanted to spend

The holy grail - SET with enough power and bass control (damping factor) to drive average sensitivity speakers to satisfaction (at a sane price). Let me know if you find one!

Im convinced that a 25ish watt 845 amp will do the trick, just gotta find/pick one, im looking at Coincident and Line Magnetic though if anyone has any other recommendations im all ears

One of the few speakers I have heard at RMAF that were very good sounding and somewhat affordable.

Frequency response is spot on, obviously they have an incredible dynamic sound, incredible technicalities. But they’re also super comfortable, even with my Klingon head, for long listening sessions

And for soundstage, sure it’s not as expansive as the hd800 stage. But the hd800 is empty and hollow, this is fleshed out and holographic, much more precise and more 3D.

The Wavelight is really a great match for the Utopia.

I think I actually still prefer the Gungnir DS. I know im weird here, but I was thinking based on Marv's wavedream comments it might be what I wanted, but I guess the wavelight is different enough.

Ill be getting to compare the Wavelight and Wavedream here in a bit with @famish99 though, so that should be enlightening.

I have some material leftover I could give you next time we meet up.

I still stand by my HD800-Jmod.

Jmod alone +EQ would be fine, but that piece of rug liner helps smooth out the sound just that lil'bit more and brings in the diffuse stage a smidge.