Super Best Audio Friends

The evolution of the original irreverent and irrelevant and non-authoritative site for headphone measurements, i.e. frequency response graphs, CSD waterfall plots, subjective gear reviews. Too objective for subjectivists; too subjective for objectivists

Throw away your APx555s! Just kidding. Actually, there is some truth to this, particularly if you interest is SINAD and audibility from a scientific perspective. Considering that most of our listening with with CD-quality (or worse), which has a limit to 16-bits. 16-bits is 96db of dynamic range. So really, we don't need measurement gear that does better than that. Even moreso when we consider that the signal to noise ratio of microphoned instruments or electronic instruments plugged into mixers is probably no better than 55-85db.

[​IMG]

Which makes us wonder if we should not just cut off the lower part of the graph below the -100db line. Think of it like tolerances for automobile body panels. What's considered acceptable tolerance for the gap? 3mm, 1mm, 0.5mm? I'm sure Toyota's spec is probably much tighter than Ford's or Chrysler's (Tesla probably doesn't even have one, their spec manual likely being "use eyeball" or "whatever Elon says is OK for the day"). However the fact is, after a certain tolerance spec, it's not going to matter to the human eye. I'm not going to care if the gap between the hood and front quarter panel is 0.01mm off from spec. The reason is because I cannot see this.
I have an audio pal in my area who recently came back from Canjam Socal with some new purchases. Unfortunately, his wife disapproved him to own two similar-looking 4k headphones. Plus, my serious audio sessions (usually done with Susvara) were often bothered by some party people living around me. We found our interests coincide and I was willing to help his family crisis lol. At the end of the day, I could snag -- as per him, steal -- his pair of Stealth for myself.

[​IMG]

TBH, I've had prejudices for DCA and Harman target respectively. Listening with Stealth for several days made me revoke most of the bitching claims I made before. Maybe less for DCA as I still think their prior products were weaker than competitors. But for the Harman target, I should have rigorously separated my dispreference toward Harmanzing EQ from a legit target-driven product. My criticism was not based on real products. How clueless I was.
@ChaChaRealSmooth asked me if I would lend him my Veloster (and presumably let him drive it hard) if he ever down here in Texas, and I was like sure. I'm not possessive of my stuff, and besides, I can't take it with me when I die. Stuff comes and goes. People come and go. Impermanence is a fact of life. Anyway, this led the conversation about the car stereo. I mentioned that I should take a frequency response measurement of the Infinity 8 speaker sound system (Harmon, JBL Samsung, etc.) and he said that he would be interesting in seeing it. I do have plans to upgrade the speakers. I'd love the put in one of those DSP/amps, but this could be difficult given that the headunit sends proprietary CAN-bus (with SPDIF) signals to the factory DSP/amp unit. Nothing would be stopping me from inserting a DSP/amp after the factory amp though, to de-fuckify the sounds as the factory unit actually does some EQ, lifting up the highs.

[​IMG]
I had no intention of reviewing the Lyr+ until a few members pointed it out at the Texas Show and I started getting questions on it. This will be going out on the loaner tour. I will take measurements later because I am curious about the solid-state mode and tube mode. FWIW, the sound-state mode actually sounds pretty good and actually may be preferable to the tube mode depending upon what you are looking for. The Lyr+ will default to this if there is no tube in the socket. (Note that I never cared for the LISST solid-state tubes). The solid state circuit is built into the amp, so there's no need to drop in any silver dildo nuggets. I will proceed with a question and answer format:

[​IMG]
NITSCH x Schiit Magni Piety technical measurements
Listening evaluation picture:
02 DSC_0941_small.jpg
  • Magni Piety inputs switched between Yggdrasil LIM and Holo Spring 2 KTE SE outputs.
  • ECP DSHA3-F switched balanced inputs between Yggdrasil LIM and Holo Spring 2 KTE balanced outputs.
This provided considerable flexibility during listening sessions. There are plenty of impressions threads on the forum where more detailed and nuanced thoughts about the various components are discussed. For my preferences, either I like how it renders music or I don’t. Piety often felt as if it was a skillful combination of the powerful bass reminiscent of EC 300B, magic mid-range of SW51+ and high end transient response usually associated with Cavalli amps. I will be acquiring several for my lab.
Anyway, @tommytakis, my personal Korean snacks consultant, sent me two bags of the Haitai Korean Butter chips. I"m sold. I think these may become a staple in the house, if I can get my hands of them. Maybe next time the family is in Houston. We hit an outdoor mall there with our favorite hole-in-the-wall Hong Kong Dim Sim place. Next door to that is an H-Mart. Before we head back home, we hit the H-Mart and load up the cart with bunch of goodies like Gochujang (Korean red pepper paste with fermented soybeans - think miso), red pepper flakes, special Korean soft tofu. The rest of the cart is then filled with snacks. These snacks disappear after three days.

PXL_20221001_153811973 (1).jpg
HaiTai Korean Butter Chips
I purchased this little T9 amp in July on the advice of my good friend doctorjohn. You can read his original review here:

https://cheaptubeaudio.blogspot.com/2022/06/aiyima-t9.html

[​IMG]

This unit is really exceptional. It can be purchased from Amazon or your favorite CCCP sponsored online marketplace for around $129 USD. It is worth every penny. I purchased it to use as a stopgap until my single-ended 2A3 project is completed later this year, but I have become so enamoured with it I wonder why one really needs anything more.
I have this on loan. It's overdue. Just a tease for now. Will write some stuff tomorrow. Yes, it's glorious.

PXL_20220920_030841281.PORTRAIT.jpg

In another thread, I can't remember where exactly (readers feel free to point out where I buried it), I posted a list of "Summit-Fi" tube amps I've heard and assigned them rankings per game character builds a la Diablo 3 or Xenoblade (S-tier, A, B, C, etc.). I am still debating whether I actually want to start a formal thread of tube amp rankings because I eschew these kinds of rankings for the following reasons: 1) they greatly oversimplify; 2) audio isn't a game where one or two kinds of character builds will objectively dominate leaderboards; 3) they do not account for personal preferences; 4) they do not account system synergies; 5) they allows readers to take the easy way out, not doing any exploration or research on their own, to just buy what somebody says sounds good, which rarely leads to the exceptional dish.

The Stellaris remains at the top of the leaderboard!
When members of SBAF mentioned the RU6, it did pique my interest. Wow, a portable R2R DAC dongle. Knowing the complexities of R2R design, particularly those that use discrete resistors, and the need to develop suitable oversampling filters (this isn't the 90s anymore where chips were available to do this, and even back then, they took up significant space), I had my doubts.

PXL_20220904_171111701.jpg

[​IMG]
Like the OG Autuer before, the Auteur Classic is the most "neutral" sounding of the ZMF lineup. The Atrium is bassy, the Verite Open is laid-back, the Verite Closed maybe a bit midcentric, but these three are rich and full sounding. The OG Auteur had been said to be somewhat HD800 sounding (well not that bright, but you get the idea). The Auteur Classic is somewhat like the HD600 of the ZMF lineup. Because my JAR600 are out on loan, I've been using the Atrium and RS-1X (Gerod pads) recently, so it took me while to acclimate to the change. I found the timbre in the highs slightly artificial while using DS DACs, but a switch to a multibit DAC fixed this.

PXL_20220901_163438928.PORTRAIT.jpg

With respect to technicalities and scalability with better upstream components, the Autuer Classic is behind the Atrium and Verite. It's not far off though. This seems appropriate given its about $1k less. Depending upon the recordings one listens to, this may not matter. (I feel a good discussion on source first, amp first, or transducer first is warranted because a lot of this will depend upon the recordings one listens too - and of course one's experience and budget). Now getting back to the HD600 reference? Well the Autuer does share the HD600's small bumps in the presence region and midbass. The lower-mids aren't emphasized so this contributes the clarity aspect. Finally, transient response is somewhere between Atrium and Verite.
The reason I got these was to have Grado RS1 series that weren't too thin sounding. Per my Grado RS-1X review, I found the RS-1X to be thinner in the lows - it did not have the localized mid/upper bass bump of the prior RS1e. See below graph where the 1E (in gray) has a bass bump centered around 160Hz.

Gerod S-Small pads (left) vs standard Grado bowl (right)
PXL_20220827_011310189.jpg

While I loved the more resolving driver of the RS1X, and the fancy wood resonance from the triple wood sandwich, I preferred the nice punchy bass bump of the RS1e. So what to do? I think @Philimon turned me on to alternate pads. I know Amazon had a set that were similar to the Grados, but more squishy so they set closer to the ears. These Gerod bowls take a slightly different approach. Taping the standard bowls helped a bit, but this approach seemed ungainly or unwieldy. It felt too cheap, too DIY.

My ultimate goal was just to get back that RS1e bass bump without changing too much else. That is to retain the charm of the RS-1 upper mids (or the terror of it depending upon your point of view). The latest F-cushions worked wonders on the SR-225X and HF2 to make them rather neutral sounding, but simply do not work on the RS1e/x series. The F-cushions on the RS1e/x series results in too dark of a sound with significantly depressed mid-treble. So I took a small gamble on the Gerod pads on Amazon.
It's a different flavor of neutralish compared to the C. Instead of a slight midrange emphasis, the Mini S has low bass emphasis. Subjectively, the bass emphasis is there but not as high as the measurement above would suggest. The bass doesn't intrude into the high bass or lower mids. There's no excess thickness often heard on bassier headphones. There's a very tiny BBC dip going on in the upper mids which I find desirable, especially with natural mic'd recordings in reverberant venues. Note that this BBC dip is the opposite of the Harmon target when it comes to the upper mids.

ETA Mini S
Frequency Response
upload_2022-8-9_9-41-47.png

The Mini S is a semi-open design that often comes with associated usually "better" sonic qualities: snappier transient response, more spacious headstage, improved responsiveness to small signals, etc. The Mini S does scales a bit better the the Mini C with more expensive gear, but like the C, it doesn't need an "amp" or "DAC". It sounds good great from the Android dongle and great from the iFi GO Blu. (Audioslave and STP are sure sounding pretty good and energetic instead of softpoo).