Source AV meet impressions

Discussion in 'The Meeting Place' started by Bill-P, Feb 5, 2018.

  1. I_want_all_the_tacos

    I_want_all_the_tacos Friend

    Pyrate
    Joined:
    Oct 3, 2017
    Likes Received:
    440
    Trophy Points:
    63
    Location:
    San Diego, CA
    I was JUST about to ask this. After reading these impressions I've been considering if my ears are just completely broken and I should give this hobby up. Whenever I hear Auteur with Auteur pads I am always immediately struck by how close to "neutral", or at least well balanced it is, whatever that means in headphones. Maybe just slightly warm, but definitely not overly warm. Yeah, the Eikon pads definitely warm the sound up a fair amount so now that makes more sense.
     
  2. allegro

    allegro Friend

    Pyrate
    Joined:
    Nov 4, 2017
    Likes Received:
    637
    Trophy Points:
    93
    Location:
    Florida
    This is interesting. I can swap pads on my Elears with Clear pads direct swap no mods and have a spare set of phones I can actually enjoy? Cause I hate the things now. If so who has the Clear pads for sale? I am talking pull off push on otherwise I will probably just sell the Elears.
     
  3. neogeosnk

    neogeosnk Friend

    Pyrate
    Joined:
    Sep 28, 2015
    Likes Received:
    1,882
    Trophy Points:
    93
    Location:
    Los Angeles, CA
    It's pull off, push on. They're $200 for the pads or so.
     
  4. Ice-man

    Ice-man Friend

    Pyrate Banned
    Joined:
    Oct 12, 2015
    Likes Received:
    3,455
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Hmm...$200 for pads or $200 for 6xx which sounds better in the first place. :rolleyes:
     
  5. Melvillian

    Melvillian Friend

    Pyrate
    Joined:
    Jul 3, 2017
    Likes Received:
    1,345
    Trophy Points:
    93
    Location:
    Los Angeles
    Yeah their prices are just absurd. A replacement headband for the Clear is $800. LOL
     
  6. Taverius

    Taverius Smells like sausages

    Pyrate
    Joined:
    Dec 27, 2017
    Likes Received:
    3,026
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    Rapallo, Italy
    $800! :eek:

    It's a super-complex headband with a gazillion tiny metal bits with tight tolerances, sure, but 800$? When suspension straps exist?

    Heck, that's the price of an AFO, itself not a cheap can!
     
  7. Skyline

    Skyline Double-blindly done with this hobby

    Pyrate
    Joined:
    Sep 28, 2015
    Likes Received:
    3,426
    Trophy Points:
    113
    I've always been curious about Focal products.

    Those two posts cured me instantly.
     
  8. Soups

    Soups Sadomasochistic cat

    Pyrate Contributor
    Joined:
    Dec 26, 2017
    Likes Received:
    1,598
    Trophy Points:
    93
    Location:
    WA
    The time seems right for a company that focuses solely on comfortable replacement suspension strap systems for all these expensive, uncomfortable headphones. After all, people who own them are only multiplying, and all of our heads and necks hurt, and probably could afford a few hundred $'s for an alternative.

    I'm sure this business would not be easy, but if I could mount my Clears on the newer Audeze suspension systems (e.g. LCD2C) without changing the sound, I would. And they can upsell bedazzled versions as well, since only shiny gems could justify $800 for a headband.
     
  9. allegro

    allegro Friend

    Pyrate
    Joined:
    Nov 4, 2017
    Likes Received:
    637
    Trophy Points:
    93
    Location:
    Florida
    Point taken! However when both @Bill-P and @Melvillian recommend the Clear pads for Elear that gets me interested. I spent more than $200 on tubes last month:)
     
  10. miceblue

    miceblue Friend

    Pyrate
    Joined:
    Sep 30, 2015
    Likes Received:
    66
    Trophy Points:
    13
    Finally got a little time to post. This was a really fun event! There was a large turnout at The Source, and some of the mods people did were incredible to hear.

    I uploaded some photos from the event on Flickr.
    https://www.flickr.com/gp/miceblue/8Gibf6


    The big highlight for me was the VOCE, but the modded HE-4XX and of course n3rdling's Orpheus Clones were quite impressive to me.

    Talking about the VOCE, in terms of the build, it's rock solid. The earcups are made of aluminum, so they're quite sturdy. Unlike the 009's outer grill mesh, you can't really poke at it on the VOCE due to the thick spiderweb grille pattern. The earpads are like those of the Ether Flow but with a circular opening instead of rectangular. The cable is removable as well; it's secured on with some screws so you can't accidentally yank them out and subject yourself to potential high voltage situations. The cable is made in-house, so it's a silver-plated, low capacitance, round (not flat), and is around 4-feet long. The end plug is likewise made in-house so the outer housing is also a magnesium alloy and much more durable than the plastic-molded ones of STAX headphones. Each of the 5-pins on the plug is gold-plated.

    In terms of sound, MrSpeakers wanted to tune it so that it's got great bass extension, the clarity of an electrostat, and not have it sound harsh like many estats out there. I'd say he nailed that goal pretty well. If you've heard the MrSpeakers Ether Flow, it kind of has that sound signature but much more refined and effortless-sounding. If you're used to the STAX sound and like it (minus the 007 MKI), you proooobably won't like the VOCE a whole lot because it seems to lack the airy sound of those in terms of its treble region. I think it compliments the STAX, and I would use it more for music listening/music enjoyment than analytical monitoring. It will be interesting to see how they measure. I've had the SR-207 measured a few times by multiple people and it's quite impressive for (what was) a ~$300 headphone.

    The package does come with 3 removable felt filters that you can install right on the inside of the earpads, so you can make it darker sounding if you wish to do so. I found the stock VOCE to sound a bit bright, different than the ~2 kHz brightness that I'm used to with the Lambdas. Comparing the VOCE to the SR-207 on the SRM-252S with the Bifrost Multibit as the DAC and my own music, I found its sound signature to be warm tilted, probably matching fairly close to the Harman Target. What striked me most about its sound though was its imaging. The Lambda series headphones have always had a pretty airy soundstaging ability albeit having a slightly smeared imaging ability, but the VOCE sounds a bit more closed in with more pinpoint-accurate images. I typically use my own binaural recordings as tests for imaging since I was literally at the microphones' positions, and images were much more well-defined and positionally accurate compared to the 207. I actually turned my head when listening to the recordings because they were that convincing to me; that hasn't happened to me in a long time.

    I attempted to capture binaural recordings of the VOCE on the Blue Hawaii/Chord 2QUTE setup, but as you can tell it was quite noisy (I did get to listen to them in a much quieter environment earlier that day). I compared it with my SR-207, and with the thickest filters installed to have the darkest sound. I'm still not a fan of the Blue Hawaii's sound presentation. When paired with the VOCE, the pinpoint accurate images get smeared again, for a trade-off of a more expansive soundstage; similar to my experiences with the 009/207/007 mkI.

    207
    https://mega.nz/#!CIJU2C4C!bWn0NFO_kT2mJq4Fhr8s09QfxvUMqyXkaXI-9uLY3k8

    VOCE stock
    https://mega.nz/#!OEo1EbxZ!xYtxEb9-xxQZZqQodqo2tDifIPeqnRIEHLf0qOJYYUg

    VOCE darkest
    https://mega.nz/#!SUgwnISD!52ipb_G_JVQTT5-iQyJT8c9FlMRWabGVQYdloeBFocQ




    As for the modded HE-4XX, it sounded much less like a HIFIMAN than I was expecting. When I heard it for the first time, I was surprised by its sound. Then I heard a stock HE-4XX and I was less surprised, hahaha. The modded pair worked really well with bright recordings, which I usually can't listen to with stock HIFIMAN headphones.
     
  11. Junki

    Junki Facebook Friend

    Joined:
    Aug 13, 2017
    Likes Received:
    102
    Trophy Points:
    33
    Location:
    United States
    Really appreciate the impressions guys. I'm glad my choice of downsizing my collection to just the Sundara, Elex (Elear + Clear pads), and HD6XX seems like a good one. :)
     
  12. zolkis

    zolkis Acquaintance

    Joined:
    Feb 29, 2016
    Likes Received:
    41
    Trophy Points:
    18
    Location:
    Finland
    FWIW the Voce pads sound horrible IMHO: when I put that on my headphones, I could recognize the negative traits others mentioned as the Voce's faults. So I would not write the Voce off yet; give it a try with the Stax 009 pads for instance and compare them with a 009. Then we'd know one thing.
     
  13. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

    Staff Member Pyrate BWC
    Joined:
    Sep 24, 2015
    Likes Received:
    89,778
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    Padre Island CC TX
    Did I miss a big meet this weekend?
     
  14. netforce

    netforce MOT: Headphones.com

    Pyrate
    Joined:
    Aug 1, 2016
    Likes Received:
    3,111
    Trophy Points:
    93
    Nope, been wanting to host a big meet again though.
     

Share This Page