Super Best Audio Friends

Well, @KenBall has knocked one out of the park again, big time. Or either he knows what I like. I've been an unabashed fan of Campfire Audio ever since the Newport SHOW many years ago when I first heard the Jupiter and Lyra.



Take the Sennheiser HD650, but correct all its shortcomings, make it into an IEM and we get the Ara. The Ara retains the HD650's slightly thick lows and mid-bass emphasis, but removes the veil, extends the bass fully to 20Hz, and brings about super articulation that only a BA driver can achieve. Other defining characteristics of the HD650, such as narrow emphasis in the upper mids that gives that a bit of smack and edge, and its sedate and smooth highs, are present. In terms of IEMs, I don't know how many of you guys remember the Orion (which was another one of my favorites and one I recently recommended to a friend with a modest budget) - but another way to look at the Ara is to see it as souped up Orion. Like super-souped up.

I'm jumping ahead of myself, but I am not impressed. It's like turning back the clock back to sigma-delta nasties of 2010 (sssshhh, sssshhh, sssshhh). If you want the ultimate expression of the AKM sound, get the RME ADI2. If you want something very close to that kind of sound for x10 less money and don't need the RME's features, get the Modi 3. Topping couldn't do anything with the AKM4497, two of them, which is AKM's second to TOTL chip.



What's disturbing is that the Modi 3 uses the AKM4490, which is only a -112db part! Schiit is actually getting superior results with a far inferior chip (the 4490 is two levels down from the 4497), and only a single chip! Never mind my subjective impressions where I felt the D70 sounded cooler, more "digital", and less resolving than the Modi 3. Scientifically speaking, if you believe in the idea of SINAD being the major indicator of sound quality, you are much better off with Modi 3 at $99. It's not that the D70 is bad; however, bottom line is that that Schiit saves you from overpriced Chinese designed and Chinese made gear.

Notable highlights:

• Employs es9038q2m IC contrasted with es9038pro used in Matrix XSP
• Decent performance, especially considering price and size, but don't expect a giant killer
• Dynamic Range > 125 dB on USB ASIO input, rather impressive for a microcontroller shield product
• Gain Linearity tight to -110 dBFS then less than ± 1 dB to -130 dBFS on USB ASIO input
• While less than ± 0.1 dB there is an odd ripple in the frequency response

Conclusions thus far:

• Measurement behavior hard to predict or extrapolate from one measurement to another - some odd behavior and interactions.
• However, steady state distortion measurements too low to make a difference or tell us anything that we can correlate to human subjective perception.
• Roll off on the high end starts gradually at 10kHz and is down -4db at 20kHz. Hard to say if people can hear this. I think I can.
• "Preamp" should still be treated as digital attenuation where we still want to keep the attenuation to a minimum.

A blast from the past and history lesson. Decades before the ortho craze reignited with the HiFiMan, Audeze, and Dan Clark Audio a bit later, there were orthodynamic headphones from the 70s. These two headphones in particular were modded by @rhythmdevils, who has recently arisen.* One thing to keep in mind is that they do not sound good in stock form.



Take a look at the driver diaphragm. Sure it's not "nano" meter scale material (and that's probably a good thing when it comes to durability); however, take a look at how fine the traces are! That's Japanese manufacturing at its best. (Fostex was the OEM).

Canceled gigs etc no revenue. Keeping the creative musical community intact is so important not just for the health and livelihood of musicians around the world but also for the future of vibrant musical communities that foster creative music that we love.

Here’s a link to a great way to help.
https://covid19musicrelief.byspotify.com/en-us

Here’s also a direct link to the USA based Musicares paypal donate page. The other link is better because it’s matched $ for $ by Spotify and is global but CC only. https://www.paypal.com/fundraiser/charity/6808



Every single member on this forum should donate or walk the plank. Thank you. I miss all of you dorks.

I came on these late because I had the troops take a look at this first (that is screen it because I don't like wasting my time these days) to see if this was worthy of contention. Now I wish I got these direct and earlier because I am rather smitten by them. Do I feel the clouds have parts and I have been touched by the hand of God? No. However, these do two things particularly well: bass extension (for an open dynamic driver) and "speed". If there is anything that comes to mind, it's the STAX SR007. Yes, we can say that these are a dynamic driver version of the SR007 (with the both the limitations and strengths of dynamic drivers). I could be that I am just happy that there have been more dynamic driver designs lately. A few years ago, it seemed like "do we really need yet another planar" when it seemed that everything new that was being released was another ortho, usually with an letter appended on a prior model's name.

@Philimon Asked if I would be willing to test out his Symphones V9 build, which he got from Wabi Sabi Headphones. Given @purr1n's recent love thread on the RS2e, I was admittedly curious.



These remind me a lot more of the HP1000 I heard years ago than they do the SR60s I owned even more years ago (many more years). They are brighter and more aggressive than the HP1000. Less dark and warm overall. But they have more of the sense of refinement I remember from those, whereas the SR60s were grating and rough.

It has arrived, and was very easy to setup after watching Toto's YT install vid, maybe 20-30min including watching the video. Introduced to me in 1999 during my first trip to Japan, this marvel of modern technology had me amazed. I always wanted to bring one back, but the difference in voltage and messing around with electricity in the bathroom never really appealed to me. Then when they arrived domestically the price was through the roof.

Look what the cat dragged in? I knew Drop was working on a turntable collaboration with Audio-Technica, so when this became available, I called Drop to get a sample. I should have kept tabs on it earlier, so I am a bit late to the punch. I know something like this can seem to be too lowly of a table for me; but in all honesty, there is no such thing as a bad turntable. Something like this is light years ahead of what I had when I was a teen in the 80s. At the price point, what I look for is the basics, for everything to work without any oddities. This is something which I feel the Drop Audio-Technica Turntable pulls off. I have yet to listen to it yet (very soon tonight), but from my unpacking, feeling and touching the components, and analysis of the design, my magic ball tells me this will exceed my expectations for $350. (I've dealt with many cheap entry-level tables, and I usually have something to point out, but not so here).

It's no secret that we as SBAF like/love our ZMFs, both because @zach915m engages within the community and is a cool guy, and because the headphones he makes don't suck. Nowadays, ZMF has a headphone lineup expansive enough that it's worth putting together a compendium to have some general information and measurements in one place.

A few things are important to note when considering buying a ZMF. All of them have some degree of ZMF-ness; varying degrees of coloration of timbre, richness in harmonics, and cup resonance play (yes, even the open models have this. Look at the CSD measurements on this site). Also, all ZMFs can be tuned to some extent by rolling some pads; that and the differences that wood makes will be discussed later on below. Thus, the notes here will be general notes on the headphone as a whole, not comprehensive on what is possible by rolling pads to taste.

...using HD800S drivers. How it actually sounds like to me: Well... basically kinda like a cross between HD650 and HD600 with slightly better bass extension. It's complimentary to my (still here) HD800S

Pics or it didn't happen: