I'm Sailing Away

This appears to be more a thread that’s slowly become an impromptu, random, personal blog than anything else. Certainly not the original intent, but I guess I’ll go with it for now …

Portable Stuff

The rationalization/simplification of my portable audio setup is complete. Well, excepting some minor odds and sods that aren’t really worth expending the energy to sell.

  • Astell&Kern SP2000 Cu
  • Chord Hugo 2
  • Lotoo PAW S1
  • Empire Ears Odin
  • Etymotic ER4-XR

Even then, most of my portable use cases are just iPhone/AirPods [Pro | Max].

I do have a Sony MDR-1000X, WH-1000XM3 and WF-1000XM3 I also want to sell, but those may be “craigslist” material.

Sennheiser HE-1

My dream to get down to a single headphone system and, indeed, single high-end headphone has been brutally killed. Callously slain at the hand of Sennheiser’s staggering lack of responsiveness.

That’s both in regard to trying to get the purchase process going (“Please take my $60,000!”), as much as (not) getting any information on their future in relation to the “Sonova” situation.

Very disappointing.

Particularly since I sold my relatively recently acquired HE90/HEV90, something I’d not spent more than 100 hours with before having to pack it back up, in the face of an offer I couldn’t, but clearly should have, refused.

What now?

The HE-1 issue, coupled with not having listened to headphones for more than two hours in the last two months, raises other questions.

Is it even worth me keeping a “proper” headphone setup?

If I do, it is quite clear I do not need nearly the level of specialization and variety I have now.

I suspect another round of rationalization, starting this week, in the realm of “conventional” headphones.

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I am heading to Definitive Audio in Seattle sometime next month. It would be interesting to demo the HE-1. Do you think that they have a demo available?

For reasons of travel, and my wife’s bat-hearing intolerance for (“turn that down”) speaker-driven audio, it looks like I will be headphone-centric for the foreseeable future.

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They did before I left.

Give “Mel Mesick” a call and ask (tell him I referred you).

They have $1M+ listening rooms … so if they no longer have the HE-1 there it’s at Sennhseiser’s behest (I am pretty sure @antdroid took my lead and got to listen there).

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Thanks. I will do that. I have been a customer there for over 35 years, and bought my Bartok from them.

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I did contact Mel, but I got pretty busy and then forgot about it and never got back with him! I still would like to at some point. Definitive is also a store my dad and I have shopped/purchased from for a very long time as well!

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All around great crew at Definitive. Years ago as a desperate college student I took my broken thrift store turntable in to them for help. I think they took pity on me as they happily spent a good 20 minutes teaching me how to replace the belt, general turntable maintenance, and what type of cartridge to look for as a value upgrade. Made a big impression that a hi-fi store would help me out like that even though I couldn’t afford to buy anything in the store.

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I think that they look at each customer as a potential customer for life. So they invest the time to create a good relationship with them.

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Love the peeps at Definitive. Great place to shop. Nothing but love from me.

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A little Lagavulin … (hey, it’s early …) …

A little Linn …

A little Lynne …

Add a little Lovin’ …

And suddenly I find an escape from my non-headphone-listening-solace … in the form of an SME Series V (HTFH Silver), and a new bearing for the turntable.

Another week and the next batch of LPs from my collection in the UK should be here* …

And that is, as “they” say, “that”.


*I’ve stopped doing needledrops. It’s not time/cost-effective. If I want to listen to vinyl, I’ll play the actual LP. I bought digital copies of all the vinyl I have that was actually available in digital (most of it, now) - and only the remainder will get needledropped.

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I enjoy my LP’s each and every day

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I’ve spent the day piddling around with some electrostatic stuff, just to “make sure”, ahead of the big headphone purge. No, not the HE-1. And since BHSEs and Carbon CCs are not a same-week, let alone, next-day proposition, not those either. Though that’s the path I’d wind up on absent an HE-1.

I decided to revisit the Pro iESL.

My first foray with it was not great. I had been advised that best way to feed it was using the Pro iCAN, so that’s what I tried. That did not go well. I couldn’t get satisfying levels with the SR-007 or SR-009, it was easy to wind up with bass issues, and, well, it just wasn’t meant to be.

I’d since been advised to try it using a proper speaker amplifier, and I finally had the motivation to do so. In fact, I’m going to give it a run with my Chord speaker amps, the speaker outputs from my WA234 MKII and … what I’m running it off right this moment … which is:

RME ADI-2 Pro FS R BE → Raal HSA-1b → iFi Pro iESL

(Excuse the quick-n-dirty cell phone shot).

What makes this interesting is that, in theory, this trio can drive anything from the most sensitive IEMs, through pathologically hard to drive conventional headphones, the SR1a and electrostatics … all in one compact (half-width) stack!

And off the Chord stack I can put the Pro iESL ahead of the SR1a interface, and switch between them using the Pro iESL without having to add cables, move anything around, or deal with external switches etc.

Anyway, going into it I wasn’t sure the HSA-1b (off its speaker outputs, of course) was going to have enough grunt to juice the Pro iESL any better than the Pro iCAN did (I have no such concerns about my Chord amps).

Turns out it does.

And it results in a very different impression of the Pro iESL.

Now, you will need to run the HSA-1b with the input attenuation set to 0 dB, and from a balanced source, with the Pro iESL on its 24 ohm setting if you want to run the SR-007 or SR-009. For good measure, I upped the reference level on the RME to +13 dBu - though that wasn’t strictly necessary.

But doing that gives me full range on the HSA-1b’s volume dial, with my preferred listening level being right at the middle of the dial, and with plenty of headroom even for quiet tracks, and a vastly more convincing result than from the Pro iCAN.

More thoughts, and pictures, as I piddle around with it more …

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It’s been a week (and a bit) of doing more headphone listening than on speakers. I attribute this more to having new stuff* to play with than anything else:

(Okay, so only SR-009S are new this week … the SR-007 MK2.9 were last week …).

Still running mostly off the iFi Pro iESL, but now fed from the Chord Étude and Ultima 5. Those amplifiers have distinctly different signatures to the HSA-1b. They’re also MUCH more powerful, and need ~25 dB of attenuation, and the Pro iESL set to either 96Ω or 64Ω. But its a combination that’s as good as I’ve heard this side of a KGSSHV Carbon or BHSE - and the signature might even be preferable to some (if not the technicalities).


Some possible movement from Sennheiser on the HE-1, as a result of a Head-Fi article and me posting my lack-luster HE-1 pre-sales experience there. We’ll see where that goes. I’d given up on the HE-1 specifically, and not doing much headphone listening now either, so it may just be a case of “the horse has bolted” at this point.


Full-size headphone purge still has to happen. I imagine the listing for that begin this weekend. I have a good idea of what that looks like. I am barely using headphones at all, due to being able to run speakers whenever I want, so the obvious candidates to go are the closed-back stuff - followed by specialty pieces.

Likely-listing-line-up is as follows:

ZMF Eikon (Bloodwood):

Love them, on multiple levels. There’s still a certain magic to the bio-cellulose driver. Always been something of a guilty-pleasure. Didn’t get the head-time they deserved pre-Florida, and it’s just too hot here to do closed or semi-closed cans when I don’t need to. VERY likely that I swap/trade to an Auteur (for the bio-driver), if I stick with more than one headphone.

ZMF Aeolus (African Blackwood/Brass):

They’re glorious, and fit almost every taste, genre and scenario, but they’re also the least-used ZMF headphones I own. Which is ironic, because they’re probably the most agreeable (tied with Auteur) of the ZMF line-up for the broadest audience (and maybe the best “My first ZMF” offering).

Sennheiser HD820:

For a while, these were my favorite closed-back cans. I still think they’re extremely enjoyable, and I absolutely love the build and engineering. The glass-backs are absolutely unique. I want to keep them just for all the non-audible cool-factor elements. But closed-backs just aren’t a good fit here.

Focal Stellia:

Replaced the HD820 as my favorite closed-back. Fantastic build and presentation. Thoroughly engaging performance. Maybe Focal’s best-overall headphone (certainly, for me, their best overall tonality). Love the colorway, even if I was very skeptical at first. Thoroughly exploited their ability to be driven by pretty much anything. Hedging hard on these. If they weren’t closed-back, but still sounded the same, I’d probably keep them … but … Florida

Other possible near-term casualties of my headphone-malaise:

LB-Acoustics MySphere 3.2:

It was a relatively easy choice for the 3.2 vs. the 3.1. They’re remarkable in multiple dimensions. Focal Utopia rivaling/beating speed/detail. Superlative micro-dynamics and resolution. Closest thing to the SR1a you’ll find for imaging, stage and openness - that can be driven off normal gear (even good portable stuff). A bit fussy on fit. But mostly out of place in my renewed speaker-focused listening and having committed to portable/transportable listening being one DAP and one set of IEMs.

Rosson Audio Designs - RAD-0:

>95% of the technical performance of Audeze’s LCD-4, with no need for tonal correction, much easier to drive and with the most interesting and varied (and compelling) aesthetic (this side of speciality ZMF stuff) of any headphone currently on offer (IMO).

If I didn’t ALWAYS have EQ and serious power available (for the LCD-4) in any situation where I’d be listening to a headphone of this physical magnitude, the RAD-0 would rein supreme.

But I do … so …

HEDD Audio: HEDDphone:

Still love the sound of these, even if they didn’t top all the other flagships for half (or less) the price. They do some things that you can’t find elsewhere at any price. Only letting them go because I have the V1 (short yokes) and either my head has gotten fatter or I’ve become more sensitive to the way they fit … and I’ve not yet been able to get the yokes changes by HEDD.

Entirely possible I’ll sell (relatively) cheaply and by a V2 (longer yokes; only change).


*All stuff I have heard, at length, before … so think of “new” as a “re-visit”, with some other parameters/components changed.

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You are still planning to do a considerable amount of life-aboard-boat in the future, aren’t you?

I’m thinking that’s a tougher environment to optimize for speakers, so while you are gallivanting around the world’s wet places, headphones will again be the preeminent sound system, as least temporarily. Yes/No ?

Did you have much time with the 1266? Didn’t resonate with you? I can’t get past the headband, but would happily have the sound in a normal fitment.

Haven’t you seen his boat? 10 bedrooms and a dedicated listening room, acoustically dampened…but never damp.

Yes, on and off for six months of the year, with probably a couple or three months each year actually living/travelling on the boat. Until the various restrictions are lifted and life it back to coming/going as we please.

I’ll have a headphone setup on the boat, but I don’t know that it’ll be the preeminent sound system. It would have been the HE-1, had that worked out (there’s a small chance it still might, if Sennheiser actually wind up reaching out like their rep on Head-Fi said t hey would). I expect most of my headphone listening would be in the master or via wireless cans, on this new plan - since I’m likely to be doing other active things a lot more.

But in addition to the distributed “every stateroom/deck/salon” system we’re having custom installed in/on the boat, I’ll still have a 2-channel speaker setup - it’ll just be done differently than on land.

Things like the speakers having to be bolted down, and running on retractable sliding panels built into the deck so they can be quickly moved out of the way and then put back exactly where they were at the press of a button. That limits the size/scale a bit, making it impractical to go much beyond something l like a Linn Akubarik or B&W 803 D3 (or maybe an 802 D2).

I had about four years with them.

I bought the original AB-1266 in early 2015, did the Phi upgrade when it came out, and then the Phi CC upgrade (which was really just new pads). I loved them, for a good number of genres (really just big complex classical stuff I didn’t care for them with - which is true for me with all planars to date), despite their less than ideal ergonomics - never found them uncomfortable, though occasionally somewhat inconvenient.

The Phi TC came out and there was no upgrade option.

You had to buy them outright as a new unit. And given the very poor prices that used Phi CCs were. fetching, I decided not to bother. I figured I’d just sell them (which I did at the end of 2019), and see what came after the TC … basically skipping a generation.

This made even more sense to me at the time as I really hadn’t used the Phi CC since I’d gotten the SR1a (other than for comparisons), and while I felt the TC was a reasonable upgrade in terms of technicalities, the tonal change wasn’t as compelling.

I had no idea it’d be coming up on three years since they were announced and still no update to the TC* …

Though at this point, that’s probably a good thing. I’m doing much less headphone listening (pretty much none for 8 of the last 10 weeks) than I was. I’m actively pairing down my collection. And I probably won’t buy whatever the next AB-1266 iteration is unless it also changes the frame/strap/mounting setup to something more conventional.


*So either there won’t be one, which doesn’t seem likely, or the TC is old enough that something new is probably “due”. Maybe when the show cycle gets to start up again. But it’d be a bit like buying a Susvara now (if I could get past my issues with that, and liked it enough beyond them) … if I do they’ll probably announce a successor … the time to have done it was years ago.

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That’s why I’m still with Phi CC. I spent 12 days comparing both side by side in 4/2019. Not enough difference to convince me to take the loss by selling/buying, and like Torq says, no upgrade path. TC left / Phi right.
image

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Heck we took 4 boats over the the West End in the Bahamas, head back Wed. But not sure about the lower Carbi as its too much of a chance with Hurricane season looming.

Such a odd driver. It needs to be the right distance from the ear, and have enough venting/air gap between or out of the pad to have the bass level right.

I have a Diana Phi coming today for a demo. Wonder if its as picky with fit, and how close it is tot he 1266, same driver in 63mm format.

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