Headphone Evaluation

Cincy2 said:
I spent some time on the SPL site looking at their range of products. I had some questions that I posed to their tech support people. I am familiar with their Crossfeed feature. Years ago a company called HeadAmp did this in their amplifiers. It was interested but not revolutionary. The key question to SPL for me is "Do you manipulate the L/R signals in the analogue domain to create a front/center image?" I wouldn't want to use their DAC. I couldn't get the answer from their website.

Eric
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Believe it or not, it is all accomplished in the analog domain. Those Germans! :cool: No AD/DA, no DSP involved at all.


I played around with the older Phonitor tools/circuitry and it does create a more believable simulation of listening to speakers. I can see how that would be a very valuable tool for a mixing engineer who is working in headphones and wants to hear an approximation of how the instruments/vocals are placed in the "soundstage". Having said that, I have been listening to headphones for decades and have racked up tens of thousands of hours so my brain is very used to listening in headphones and creating its own soundstage.... :)



 
Just curious if anyone, especially for headphone listening has played with the Roon equalizer feature to help make a near perfect headphone accent or downplay any undesired frequencies? Would love any recommendation for software or hardware based EQ options.
Nick
 
veindoc said:
Just curious if anyone, especially for headphone listening has played with the Roon equalizer feature to help make a near perfect headphone accent or downplay any undesired frequencies? Would love any recommendation for software or hardware based EQ options.
Nick
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Yes, Roon DSP is a very useful tool for creating your own custom response from favorite cans. It will of course take some time and experimenting to get it just right and of course recordings and quality vary. Also what sound great with one genre may not necessarily sound as good with another.

Roon has very well tuned Audeze headphone EQ settings/presets for various Audeze models. I have tried the EQ presets with the few Audeze headphones like the LCD-3 and LCD-2C and they were spot on for my taste making both headphones sound even better.

Don't be afraid of DSP, it can be very useful with headphones and increases enjoyment even further.

Crossfeed is also part of Roon DSP tools for headphones if one wants to play around with that.
 
Ok, cool... back to Eric's headphone evaluations... I am really enjoying his thread and his exploration! Please keep it up Eric.

By the way, I had the crossfeed function (or whatever the particular manufacture calls it) on a few amplifiers that I owned. I did not like it on any of them. They were a McIntosh, SPL, and the SimAudio. All fine pieces other than that feature. It plays with the sound attempting to simulate the crossover of one speaker to another when you listen to the speakers in your room. They sort of bleed some of the left channel and blend it into the right channel, and vice versa.

Headphone listeners have come to appreciate the distinct left and right channel and center blend that is in the recording and do like or need blending small amounts of the other channel to simulate the open room affect.
 
Thanks Randy. The Abyss 1266's shipped yesterday. Can't wait to try them with Woo amp.

Eric
 
Cincy2 said:
Thanks Randy. The Abyss 1266's shipped yesterday. Can't wait to try them with Woo amp.

Eric
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I Demo’d that setup @ RMAF - one of the very best headphone experiences I’ve had. It will be interesting to see how it stacks up to other combos you’ve tried.
 
has anyone played with the ZMF top open back models? I am very curious also about Audeze LCD 5 which now claims a weight reduction design that is 420grams not 690gms. To me their sound was always excellent but the weight was just such a non starter for me. This hopefully will trickle down to some of their other models.
Nick
 
veindoc said:
has anyone played with the ZMF top open back models? I am very curious also about Audeze LCD 5 which now claims a weight reduction design that is 420grams not 690gms. To me their sound was always excellent but the weight was just such a non starter for me. This hopefully will trickle down to some of their other models.
Nick
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I’m using ZMF Auteur in African Blackwood as my standard/favorite. Something about bio-cellulose drivers that just sounds “right” to my ears. Also choice of wood matters greatly.

The ZMF edged out Audeze, Focal and a dozen others eventually. I only kept a Sennheiser HD600 as backup and that has been my all time favorite for decades as the most musical, fatigue free and pleasant set of headphones. The ZMF raises the bar on musicality with a few veils removed as compared to HD600.
 
veindoc said:
has anyone played with the ZMF top open back models? I am very curious also about Audeze LCD 5 which now claims a weight reduction design that is 420grams not 690gms. To me their sound was always excellent but the weight was just such a non starter for me. This hopefully will trickle down to some of their other models.
Nick
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The Audeze were always good sounding, although a bit bass heavy in my view. However I have never found an Audeze that felt good to me. On the other hand I am totally happy with the feel of the Focal and Abyss.
 
TheOctopus said:
If you get a chance, listen to the German made, SPL line of professional headphone line of products designed for the recording industry. I had a lot of fun listening to my SPL Phonitor 2700B. The circuitry works very well as it is designed to give the mixing engineer a sense of what the soundstage will sound like with speakers while using headphones for mixing, etc. Their newer products offer even more. Fantastic headphone amps even if you don't use the circuitry by the way. The sound is profoundly powerful down low with a meaty midrange that is just right. The music has lots of drive and body while sounding completely neutral as a good amp should. The amp's 120 voltage rails are exemplary for control over any impedance headphone.

3068565-d52795ee-spl-phonitor-2730b-headphone-amplifier.jpg
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ANd this company also makes a killer analog crossover device for mains and subwoofers.
 
After having experienced a variety of headphones and headphone amps, I learned that the output of the Select II DAC in certain combinations of amp/phones had to move out of its linear gain region when the amp/headphone combination needed serious juice. The correct solution is to put a good quality preamp in the system to make sure this is not an issue. There are soooo many different choices. I picked a dark horse from a Czech company called Block Audio. Mike B. introduced me to the brand. The architecture is extremely modular. It is literally made up mechanically and electrically isolated blocks for left and right channel amplification, left / right channel power (batteries!), A/C power / battery charging, display / logic, phono stage and yes even a headphone amp. The design intrigued me. Mike vouched for the sound so I placed an order. Lead times are about eight weeks. During that time, I will be evaluating the Woo WA33 with the Abyss 1266 Phi due in tomorrow. I'll also compare the Abyss to a DCA Stealth closed back headphone. Probably not fair but should be informative. My room is a mess as I am short of rack space and the Critical Mass platforms I have were custom built to individual equipment that I no longer own. The racks are very robust with professional engineering and a great isolation system. If I had to do it over, I would have them build in a standard size instead of custom. I've ordered a more flexible rack system to replace them. I'll put the CM racks up for sale in a few weeks. Hopefully someone will have equipment in sizes that can use them.

In case you are interested in the Block Audio line stage.

LINE & POWER BLOCK SE – Block Audio

Eric
 
Block sounds interesting for sure. I run my system through the Hattor pre-amp with Hattor's optional tube active stage. In this way I can listen to any of my sources either through the speaker amps or the Woo. I have XLR cables running to the Woo. I agree that a good pre-amp really does cement a system.

Good luck with the Block unit. I am looking forward to your results with the Abyss and the Woo combination!
 
I use the Audeze Deckard Class A as a standalone DAC/headphone amp but when the mood strikes to fire up the magic toobs, the Deckard then feeds the WOO amp with its variable out preamp section. Very handy. The WOO WA6 definitely likes a certain sweet range of preamplification to sound its best.
 
I am ordering ZMF Verite Open in November when it will have a new wider more cushioned headstrap option even though his base models are extremely comfortable. I am loving my new Woo WA-6SE amp on my older Focals while I wait for the ZMF. Zack of ZMF is very responsive and both his open and closed versions are great sounding not just great looking. The ability to customize is also very appealing. My high impedance tube amp will work great with the 300ohm impedance of the ZMF Verite. His 50mm Beryllium coated driver has many of the attributes of Utopia 40mm all beryllium driver with perhaps a hair less treble issues. I have tried Meze Elite,Stax 007,Focal Clear MG, Hifiman Arya, DianaV2&Phi, 800s and Audeze lcd4.All sounded very good with my amp many were just not comfortable on my head. The planars except for Audeze all lacked a certain PRAT and bass. All the planars had wonderful wide sound stage but I kept coming back to certain attributes of dynamic drivers that were more in my desired sound. After listening to my friends ZMF VO the wider planar like soundstage and great vocals and separation I decided to skip the more restrictive amp route for electrostatics and possible future headphones choices.
Now the wait. I wish I could have heard the lighter Audeze LCD-5 but $4500 was a tad more than I want to spend.
Nick
 
I've spent a few hours with both the Abyss / Woo and Stax / MSB set ups and can now offer some thoughts. I am feeding the Woo with a balanced output from my Select II DAC. I ran a balanced cable set from the WA33 output to the MSB amp and ran it in PreAmp mode when listening to the MSB setup. The WA33 output was four pin balanced JPS upgrade cable to the Abyss 1266 headphones. The Stax had the factory electrostatic cable. I chose 15 tracks from Chesky / Mapleshade that have the best overall sonic characteristics of my collection and showcase certain elements of recorded sound...bass, vocals, woodwinds, percussion and soundstage. The results so far haven't really surprised me. Some conclusions:

1. The best headphones don't add or subtract anything from upstream components. Both the Stax and Abyss phones got out of the way and let me clearly discern the amp characteristics. I can't say the same for any of the other brand headphones I used. I still have to evaluate the new Stax flagship, Audeze CRBN, ZMF Audite closed and the Meze Elite. I'm going to stop after these. While the Stax and Abyss were far superior to the other phones I used, all headphones still have a way to go to compete with say the tweeter on a Magico M3. Nothing I have heard can equal the metallic shimmer of cymbals like that speaker projected. Now that the prices on new headphones are headed north, I expect to see more innovation in this space as everyone competes for the audiophile's interest.
2. In the absence of a playing track, the MSB had a blacker background than the Woo. The WA33's slight background noise wasn't really an issue with me while the music was playing. The MSB sound did show more contrast from the background because of this.
3. The Woo's vocals, woodwinds and bass were "juicier" than the MSB's in every instance. As I result I could make a more emotional connection to the music
4. The MSB gave faster, more detailed percussion instruments such as cymbals, bones and piano.
5. The soundstage on both systems was impressive and too close to call. This surprised me. I expected the MSB to dominate. I can't say that when the DAC fed the MSB amp directly the results were the same. I'll leave that evaluation for a later date
6. Both systems were capable of presenting some far right/left sounds as being forward in the soundstage. This was very enjoyable.
7. Bass on both was tight and controlled. The WA33's had more bloom on some of my tracks.

Surprisingly (to me) I didn't prefer one system or the other universally. On some tracks I preferred the Woo and others the MSB. If I were economically restrained however, I would jump on the WA33/Abyss train. At half the price of the MSB/Stax set up, it delivers far more than 50% of the performance and exceeds the fidelity of the MSB in some areas. I want to rerun this test again when both amps are being fed by the same Block Audio line stage to see if things changed. I also need to standardize balanced cables. The Woo had Transparent Opus XLRs while the Woo to MSB connection was with very nice but lower level Shunyata XLR's I had laying around.

I intend to keep both amps and use them alternately depending on whether I prefer detail or density on any particular day. There is no wrong answer between the two.

Eric
 
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