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I made the decision to sell off most of my two-channel stereo system and simplify my life with state-of-the-art headphone equipment. While I am firm in my commitment to do so, I can’t say that I completed the act without some trepidation. I enjoyed a truly exquisite audio system fine-tuned over 30 years. I reached the summit of audiophile excellence with an MSB Select front end, MSB M500 monoblock amplifiers, Magico M3 speakers, and Magico QSUB 15 woofers all integrated with flagship Transparent Audio cables in a heavily treated, dedicated listening room tuned by Jim Smith. What was I thinking?
Instead of explaining my reasons for this decision, I will concentrate on evaluating how close a reference headphone system can come to matching the audio performance of a standard speaker configuration. Going into this evaluation, I will predict that some combination of phones and amplifiers will come close enough for me and for others with limited space or a desire to simplify their audio experience.
Mission: Add to the body of knowledge on how state of the art headphone systems compare to the reference floor standing speaker system I assembled before this endeavor. I retired earlier this year and now have the time to pursue this hobby with abandon. I hope that audiophiles with the same passion for audio that I have but with less discretionary time to research all the alternatives available will benefit from my work. While I have a technical degree (Physics) and worked in technology companies for my entire career, I am not an audio engineer and don’t proclaim to be one. My impressions are those of a consumer addicted to audio that permits the listener to suspend disbelief and experience the music as if the performers were in the room
Core Equipment: I am retaining my Shunyata Everest 8000 power conditioner, Shunyata power cords, Transparent Audio Opus Gen 5 balanced interconnects (DAC to Amp), Aurender W20SE file server, the MSB Select II DAC with clock and power supply upgrades. Most headphone reviews I have found (and I have listened to soooo many) utilize a laptop for a file source without power conditioning of any type, with low level interconnects and with DACs far less capable than the MSB. All listening impressions these reviewers had and attributed to the headphones are suspect because of the limited capabilities of their sources and support equipment. This is the primary reason I chose to undertake this evaluation.
Amplifiers: I will have a range of well-known amps to test including solid state, hybrid (tube and solid state) and pure solid-state designs. Current units on order (lead times are very long these days) include: Stax SRM T8000 hybrid electrostatic amp, Pathos InPol hybrid amplifier, Woo Audio WA33 Elite headphone amp, MSB Solid State Headphone Amp and a McIntosh MHA200 tube headphone amp. I will burn in each amp (powered operation not in standby) for at least one week before evaluation.
Headphones: Audeze LCD4z planar magnetic, Stax SR 009S electrostatic, ZMF Verite closed back dynamic, Abyss 1266 Phi Planar Magnetic, Focal Utopia open back dynamic, Sennheiser HD 820 closed back dynamic. Wherever possible I will use upgraded headphone cables by Moon Audio (Black or Silver Dragon). The Stax cable will be factory supplied.
EQ. Many pure headphone enthusiasts love to measure headphone frequency response and adjust it with software EQ. I will use no such enhancements in this process. I am a Subjectivist at heart. Regardless of that fact, my ears cannot discern and correct for “a slight mid-range dip at 2500 Hz” (taken from a reviewer’s YouTube commentary). The unadulterated sound characteristics perceived by my brain will be reported. Adjustments like this probably help improve headphone performance but my Subjectivist brain wants to evaluate the fruit of the designer’s labor without enhancement.
Reviewed Characteristics. I will subjectively evaluate the key characteristics of the sound that are important to me. These include:
• Vocal realism
• Sound stage breadth, airiness and depth
• Sound stage imaging
• Bass definition and weight
• Treble smoothness, definition and weight
• Presentation of microdynamics (percussion instruments such as piano, drums and cymbals)
I will assign a numerical grade (1-10) for each characteristic along with a brief explanation of the rationale for each grade assigned. Initially the grades will be relative to my reference audio system but as the number of tests increases, they will evolve into being comparative to other headphone / amp combinations. When the evaluation is complete, grades will be solely relative to competing products.
Test Tracks: My evaluation tracks are almost exclusively Chesky and Mapleshade recordings mastered either at 16/44 or 24/96 using omnidirectional microphones. Some of Chesky’s work in the 1990’s hasn’t been matched by any recording label to this day. I dislike almost every recording I’ve ever heard that uses multi track / mixing (and God forbid Autotune) techniques as they sound flat and unconvincing as a surrogate for live entertainment (sorry for the slight rant here).
Value: I do not intend to make any Price / Performance judgements in this evaluation. The prices for the equipment that I am testing are easily available. I leave it to the reader to determine if the performance observed is worth the price of entry. I will say that the cost to approach the state of the art in Headphone systems is an order of magnitude less expensive than doing the same in an equally sophisticated standard two channel audio system.
Feedback: I would like to ask, as a courtesy to me and the readers of this thread, that you refrain from challenging any of my observations in thread posts. They are admittedly my biased opinions offered at face value with no assertion that differing opinions are invalid. I am not an audio professional or a golden ear listener and do not claim any level of expertise beyond the state of being an informed consumer of audio equipment. I will gladly answer any questions about the gear or the test setup but will universally ignore any controversy over my conclusions. If you are overwhelmed by the need to Flame me, please do so by PMail to spare subscribers to the thread from the experience. It would not upset me if there were absolutely no responses to my posts. This is a labor of love and a journey of education for me personally. If I help someone along the way, this is pure upside.
I will make my first post (Audeze LCD 4z and Pathos InPol Hybrid amp) next week.
Cincy
Instead of explaining my reasons for this decision, I will concentrate on evaluating how close a reference headphone system can come to matching the audio performance of a standard speaker configuration. Going into this evaluation, I will predict that some combination of phones and amplifiers will come close enough for me and for others with limited space or a desire to simplify their audio experience.
Mission: Add to the body of knowledge on how state of the art headphone systems compare to the reference floor standing speaker system I assembled before this endeavor. I retired earlier this year and now have the time to pursue this hobby with abandon. I hope that audiophiles with the same passion for audio that I have but with less discretionary time to research all the alternatives available will benefit from my work. While I have a technical degree (Physics) and worked in technology companies for my entire career, I am not an audio engineer and don’t proclaim to be one. My impressions are those of a consumer addicted to audio that permits the listener to suspend disbelief and experience the music as if the performers were in the room
Core Equipment: I am retaining my Shunyata Everest 8000 power conditioner, Shunyata power cords, Transparent Audio Opus Gen 5 balanced interconnects (DAC to Amp), Aurender W20SE file server, the MSB Select II DAC with clock and power supply upgrades. Most headphone reviews I have found (and I have listened to soooo many) utilize a laptop for a file source without power conditioning of any type, with low level interconnects and with DACs far less capable than the MSB. All listening impressions these reviewers had and attributed to the headphones are suspect because of the limited capabilities of their sources and support equipment. This is the primary reason I chose to undertake this evaluation.
Amplifiers: I will have a range of well-known amps to test including solid state, hybrid (tube and solid state) and pure solid-state designs. Current units on order (lead times are very long these days) include: Stax SRM T8000 hybrid electrostatic amp, Pathos InPol hybrid amplifier, Woo Audio WA33 Elite headphone amp, MSB Solid State Headphone Amp and a McIntosh MHA200 tube headphone amp. I will burn in each amp (powered operation not in standby) for at least one week before evaluation.
Headphones: Audeze LCD4z planar magnetic, Stax SR 009S electrostatic, ZMF Verite closed back dynamic, Abyss 1266 Phi Planar Magnetic, Focal Utopia open back dynamic, Sennheiser HD 820 closed back dynamic. Wherever possible I will use upgraded headphone cables by Moon Audio (Black or Silver Dragon). The Stax cable will be factory supplied.
EQ. Many pure headphone enthusiasts love to measure headphone frequency response and adjust it with software EQ. I will use no such enhancements in this process. I am a Subjectivist at heart. Regardless of that fact, my ears cannot discern and correct for “a slight mid-range dip at 2500 Hz” (taken from a reviewer’s YouTube commentary). The unadulterated sound characteristics perceived by my brain will be reported. Adjustments like this probably help improve headphone performance but my Subjectivist brain wants to evaluate the fruit of the designer’s labor without enhancement.
Reviewed Characteristics. I will subjectively evaluate the key characteristics of the sound that are important to me. These include:
• Vocal realism
• Sound stage breadth, airiness and depth
• Sound stage imaging
• Bass definition and weight
• Treble smoothness, definition and weight
• Presentation of microdynamics (percussion instruments such as piano, drums and cymbals)
I will assign a numerical grade (1-10) for each characteristic along with a brief explanation of the rationale for each grade assigned. Initially the grades will be relative to my reference audio system but as the number of tests increases, they will evolve into being comparative to other headphone / amp combinations. When the evaluation is complete, grades will be solely relative to competing products.
Test Tracks: My evaluation tracks are almost exclusively Chesky and Mapleshade recordings mastered either at 16/44 or 24/96 using omnidirectional microphones. Some of Chesky’s work in the 1990’s hasn’t been matched by any recording label to this day. I dislike almost every recording I’ve ever heard that uses multi track / mixing (and God forbid Autotune) techniques as they sound flat and unconvincing as a surrogate for live entertainment (sorry for the slight rant here).
Value: I do not intend to make any Price / Performance judgements in this evaluation. The prices for the equipment that I am testing are easily available. I leave it to the reader to determine if the performance observed is worth the price of entry. I will say that the cost to approach the state of the art in Headphone systems is an order of magnitude less expensive than doing the same in an equally sophisticated standard two channel audio system.
Feedback: I would like to ask, as a courtesy to me and the readers of this thread, that you refrain from challenging any of my observations in thread posts. They are admittedly my biased opinions offered at face value with no assertion that differing opinions are invalid. I am not an audio professional or a golden ear listener and do not claim any level of expertise beyond the state of being an informed consumer of audio equipment. I will gladly answer any questions about the gear or the test setup but will universally ignore any controversy over my conclusions. If you are overwhelmed by the need to Flame me, please do so by PMail to spare subscribers to the thread from the experience. It would not upset me if there were absolutely no responses to my posts. This is a labor of love and a journey of education for me personally. If I help someone along the way, this is pure upside.
I will make my first post (Audeze LCD 4z and Pathos InPol Hybrid amp) next week.
Cincy
. Very impressive. It may or may not be important to you but I like to know where various pieces are made. Audeze is from the LA area, Dave Clark Audio is from San Diego, Abyss is from Buffalo NY. Woo is from Brooklyn, McIntosh is from my home town, Binghamton NY.
opcorn:
... not too late the give tubes a go in the two channel system :lol: