SBAF 2022 Schlong Nominations

Discussion in 'Leaderboard, Overboard, and Deals' started by purr1n, Sep 23, 2022.

  1. joch

    joch Friend

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    Late again, but can I nominate ZMF replacement pads for appreciation?

    I thought replacement pads were mainly “same same but different” if they were leather (or velour, etc). Then I got some ZMF replacement pads because my originals were getting loose around the grippy lips(?).

    The quality is nice—nicer than those by Dekoni, and are actually similar in price if not less. I really appreciate that ZMF has different pads for their headphones that markedly change the presentation, and the different sounds are not wonky. That is, you can have an auteur or Be pad for different moods and not want to rip your ZMF headphones off because the mids went into a blackhole. Zach made sure the pads work, and I don’t have to take a gamble on $80 pads. How many makers do you know make options for you to pad roll?

    I know you guys know this already, and I’m late in realizing this.
     
  2. earnmyturns

    earnmyturns Smartest friend

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    My votes:
    • Atrium: brings out the lows and mids in electric jazz like nothing else I've listened to, kick drum, bass guitar, lower end of piano, Fender Rhodes, electric guitar, sax have scary density and color, almost too much in revealing the guts of the piece. VO is almost thinly polite compared with. A dark red blood transfusion.
    • ETA Mini C: honest, up-front, easy to drive but able to take power and scale up, competent across genres and instruments, the best bang-for-buck headphone I've owned, a keeper for travel and office, and the only headphones I own that pair well with Hugo 2, a well-designed low-cost component fixing the sins of a much pricier one.
    • Piety: it's almost absurd that this inexpensive little amp could keep me satisfied for weeks away from my big tube amps by thickening the lines enough to create a material image without blurring them, and holding its own with a lot more expensive components (Soekris dac2541 and ZMF VO in particular).
     
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  3. penguins

    penguins Friend, formerly known as fp627

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    new post for visibility rather than an edit, please do not disregard the first post on pg2.

    anyways, i had loaned the jar600 v1 before and like it, heard them at meets, etc. mine arrived after my first post in this thread and ive used them a lot is what i can say right now. also what marv said. maybe ill write more coherently tomorrow.

    i would also like to clarify that I am not nominating linlai specifically as an honorable mention but rather all of the good sounding modern tube production companies for reasons previously mentioned, especially new WE for going through all the trouble they did to get original equipment, technical data/info from AT&T, etc and make better sounding tubes and not just churning out crap to make a few $
     
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  4. roshambo123

    roshambo123 Friend

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    Atrium - One of the most capable headphones ever. Price is very un-SBAF, but even at $3k it scratches the itch for some people that $6k couldn't.

    Haven't heard Piety so can't vote for it, despite I love the idea.
     
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  5. Slade01

    Slade01 Almost "Made"

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    I'll add my vote for the Piety. The price to performance offering that little amp provides is astounding. Its superpower is the amount of engagement it offers. For what it does, its incredible for sure. It's even made me question my real tube amp once or twice, of which I sold the Piety to remove such temptations!
     
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  6. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Caldera. It's really grown on me over time.
     
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  7. insidious meme

    insidious meme Ambivalent Kumquat

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    You know you want to nominate something, but everyone has already said what you wanted to say about them. (That and I actually had time to listen to them at this point.)

    ETA Mini - C thru the Piety.
     
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  8. caute

    caute Lana Del Gayer than you

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    All here from @earnmyturns to @insidious meme—added to nominee post on page 4! (Just fyi—the post with the bold header text and spoiler text list is the one we are going off of.)
     
    Last edited: Jan 7, 2023
  9. caute

    caute Lana Del Gayer than you

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    Which post on pg 2? I see @RestoredSparda's at the top. Please let me know if I am missing something.

    What would you like me to count your vote as, if not LinLai and you had to pick one maker of new prod. tubes?
     
  10. penguins

    penguins Friend, formerly known as fp627

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    5th post from bottom.

    I guess I specifically did not pick one tube mfg because that isn't the point of the nomination. It's more that fact that people are bothering to do so despite it being what I imagine not as profitable venture relative to the amount of capital that would be needed. Although I guess WE also gets away with their higher pricing a bit more given how much vintage WE tubes sold for vs other mfgs.
     
  11. joch

    joch Friend

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    10 years ago people would get excited for 300Bs (or 2A3s, et al) that we kinda scoff at now. The quality of choices available now is just amazing. I was hesitant in the past about tube amps, but not so much now.
     
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  12. caute

    caute Lana Del Gayer than you

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    Apologies, don't know how I missed your post—but got you all counted brother. "Modern Prod. 300B Tubes" as your vote for those tubes in general under misc.

    Edit: @Clemmaster, @PacoTaco, @JK47, votes counted!

    Atrium and Mini S really fighting it out! Need to hear them both...

    @Azimuth, @Jinxy245 added your votes!

    Edit, 1/23: @PacoTaco vote tallied for Gryphon.

    Edit, 2/7: @hifiandrun added vote.
     
    Last edited: Feb 7, 2023
  13. Clemmaster

    Clemmaster Friend

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    Given the late release and the loaner effectively starting now, I bet it will get a lot more nominations next year! Can’t wait to hear it at home. CanJam was really f-ing loud (especially with that overexcited teenage girl dude that kept shouting at his buddies how great his ZMF headphones sounded :rolleyes:), but even there I could hear great potential!

    I forgot to nominate my favorite headphones of the year: the Atrium for performance and longevity, as I can’t see how I could ever get bored of its sound.
    Listening to it with ECP T4 or Bakoon HPA-21 in current mode, its technical abilities are extremely solid (despite its sound profile favoring emotion/expressiveness over detail), even next to the Susvara + Oor combo. And, of course, there’s everything else that it is known for on top of that!

    Can’t wait for the closed back version so I can finally listen in bed at reasonable volume :rolleyes:
     
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  14. PacoTaco

    PacoTaco Friend

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    I have two nominations!

    Modius-E...for making a weirdly good Sabre D/S that is somehow way better than it should be. I hope they fix the Magnius the same way in the future. Otherwise, it's Jot2 or bust with this DAC.

    Symphonium Helios...For somehow making a BA IEM without many BA issues. In a world where people keep recommending the Monarch V2 and terrible EST timbre, some crazy people in Singapore made a 6-BA IEM that does what everyone says the Monarch V2 does for the $1000 bracket.

    If there was a shit award, I'd give to the Hifiman Edition XS. Everyone yelling "it fixes the Ananda's tonality issues!" must have heard a different headphone, because it sounds just as plastic with worse peakiness in the treble. The Sundara remains the only modern HIfiman with any sense of macrodynamics (exception to the HE6SE of course.)
     
  15. JK47

    JK47 Friend

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    Yeah, Modius E for stupendous value, buuuuut I do use it with Cinemag XLR/SE converter...
     
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  16. Azimuth

    Azimuth FKA rtaylor76, Friend

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    • NITSCH Piety: Not just for the hype, but how this this was strategically pulled off by CEETEE and the partnership with Schiit. And for it’s amazing performance. I never thought I would ever be a Magni owner, but here I am.
    • ETA Mini S: Not biocellulose, but better. Everything the Foster semi-opens should be and in a much more portable form that we all thought we did not know some of us needed.
    • 7HZ Timeless: Another winner in sound that happens to be a planar magnetic IEM. All other planar IEM’s are an embarrassment to the Timeless. Truly incredible achievement.
    • Schiit Freya: For the “Other” category. Amazing performance in either SS or tube - S or +, pick your poison.
    • iFi GoBlu: because it’s the one device to make you realize you don’t need a separate DAP. Really the Gold Bar should get the Golden Schlong, but that was nearly limited as Folkvanger.
     
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  17. Jinxy245

    Jinxy245 Vegan Puss

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    I am hesitant to recommend since I only received my Mini-S yesterday and so I might be subject to a bit of new toy syndrome, but holy hell these punch way above their price. I've been burning them in by listening to them almost nonstop and have enjoyed everything I've thrown at them. Sure not the widest, deepest stage but it's coherent. Plenty of detail and no ear daggers.

    definitely Mini-S for value
     
  18. PacoTaco

    PacoTaco Friend

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    I have one more nomination if it's not too late: the ifi Gryphon. I was incredibly surprised how good it sounded, even compared to some desktop systems.
     
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  19. hifiandrun

    hifiandrun Almost "Made"

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    I'd like to bring up the Yggdrasil + for consideration. The Yggdrasil OG A1 was listed as "Class E" when the Gungnir MB A1 won one of the three gold schlong awards in 2015. But the Yggdrasil haven't won an award since (edit: sbaf schlong award). The Yggdrasil has gone through several updates and upgrades over these years. For example, the recent Yggdrasil+ chassis is a great example of industrial design that is great looking, very user friendly, and future proofing of upgrades. IMHO, the Yggdrasil+ is a true legend in the DAC history that is also currently in production. Thus it deserves a gold award nomination, even if the Yggdrasil may not be at high performance-cost ratio by Schiit definition.

    (declaimer: I've been fortunate to have a Yggdrasil+ with OG flavor for just about a week and I've heard the LIM flavor recently. And this is the single most expensive DAC I've ever had, thus I have limited experience and could be biased).
     
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  20. Erroneous

    Erroneous Friend

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    Ok. We are firmly in February 2023. Can we go ahead and close out 2022 Schlong nominations? Shit is getting a bit long in the tooth.

    I get it if the results are forthcoming, but gotdamn let's cut off the nominations.
     
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