Had an SR009 with BHSE, and it sounded great - but was always lacking in the low end. Eventually I tried this rig with a small subwoofer, which really filled in the blanks - but it also violated the whole purpose of using headphones. l ended up selling the SR009s and BHSE and moved to the SR1a + HSb1, and never looked back. Very happy with the current system.
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Even with EQ, I couldnāt quite the SR-009S to give me the bottom end I wanted ā¦ could get the levels ā¦ but not the āimpactā or āslamā.
Using more involved DSP (starting with convolution filters), Iāve not only got the level where I want it but donāt feel Iām missing any impact or slam.
Same is true with the SR1a, though ā¦
Still need to try Mitchās convolution filters for the SR1a. Especially where you can buy his today. And Iām not sure if I just want to make my tool available, publish my filters (free or for sale), or keep them to myself ā¦
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Iām in this club ha!
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You send me some software filter that increases slam and I will send you the money.
D8000 already has good slam. But I will pay for more.
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All in good time.
I have some talks lined up with interested (and interesting) parties pending patent filing (this is a different thing entirely to what I was talking about last year, which is still going to happen - and that will happen first) - and depending on how those go itāll either be something licensed out (my preference) or Iāll spin something up to get it to market myself.
And to forestall the naysayers, thereās no āmagicā here ā¦ itās all just manipulation of the āamplitude over timeā behavior of any transducer/replay system. There is a lot of āclevernessā in what those manipulations are, and how they are affected and, most importantly how they are generated.
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You give me slam boost, I give you money or praise, you choose.
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Random Amusements/Responses
Some random things that have amused me over the last week (or so), as well as a few repeated questions that should really have been publicly posted:
RME ADI-2 DAC FS switched from AKM 4493 to ESS 9028Q2M
A ton of messages, some frantic, about RME switching the DAC chip theyāre using in the ADI-2 DAC FS from the prior AKM 4493 chip to the ESS 9028Q2M.
Half the questions were āshould I upgradeā or āis it an upgradeā, a bunch were āwhy not 9038Q2M or 9038 Proā (ask RME ā¦ not me) and āwhat do you think?ā (havenāt heard one; donāt plan to).
Mostly it was funny seeing the level of angst about it.
It should be noted that, at this time, this only affects the ADI-2 DAC FS. The ADI-2 Pro FS R BE is still using the AKM 4493, and RME say they have enough stock to keep it that way for the foreseeable future (presumably theyāre reserving the AKM for the Pro model due to it requiring more work to switch out there).
Remastero (aka PGGB)
Iāve had dozens of messages regarding āRemasteroā/PGGB. This is a piece of software that pre-processes (offline, batch mode ā¦ so local files only for now) PCM files using massive levels of oversampling and ultra-high tap-length filters.
Think of it as doing similar things as the Chord Hugo M-Scaler, but offline, using much longer filters and higher degrees of oversampling.
In answer to the questions Iāve gotten:
Yes, Iāve tried it.
Iāve been evaluating it over the last couple of weeks.
What do I think?
If you have a DAC that can take a 352.8, 384 or better still 705.6 or 768 kHz input, with a bit-depth of 24 or 32 bits, and especially if that DAC is a true NOS design, itās worth checking out (free 30 day trial).
Because it creates a new copy of the files you process it is trivial to do a proper, blind, automated and randomized ABX test with it (Foobar2000ās ABX module will do this, though I use my own tool). My recommendation is to do this for yourself.
For me, while there were discernible differences and preferences with/for PGGB files vs. raw (and in some cases even vs. the M-Scaler), they did not occur frequently enough, and were not significant enough (i.e. required audition-style listening for me to discern), to be worth the the storage overhead** (~32-64x increase in file size), vs. just using my M-Scaler.
If I didnāt have the M-Scaler already, and my library was of a more reasonable size (say a few thousand albums), Iād buy it and just use it for the whole library (it never made anything worse).
But, again, I recommend you try it for yourselves.
You may get very different results to mine.
What do you think of the Matrix X-SABRE 3?
Youāre faster on the draw than me, it seems, as I only heard about it this morning; I havenāt heard one.
Itās one unit I am interested in checking out, especially given the performance of the prior iteration and the Element:X.
No, I didnāt buy the Audeze LCD-R
They look intriguing, but I donāt have a lot of time or interest in limited production runs (unless the only changes are cosmetic vs. some normal production headphone) that require dedicated amplifiers.
Very interested to see what, if anything, the 98% trace coverage planar driver (itās not really a true āribbonā) yields in Audezeās future updates.
*Essentially my standard 100-track audition list.
**I have a ridiculously large library; possibly too big now for me to play every track in it again before I expire.
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When I worked retail whilst doing University, the old duckys would always say āI donāt even buy green bananasā.
This is your version.
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A lot of people seem to have forgotten about AKM factory fire last Oct 2020 that burnt to the ground. AKM has had to rethink tooling with other manufacturers. A large impact to audio and for anything that uses AKM semiconductors. Hence some position change for āDACā makers should quantity be necessary for market support.
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When I first decided to revisit electrostatic headphones, it was with the intent of pairing down to just a single headphone ā¦ Sennheiserās HE-1, and using speakers for everything else. But having mentally invested in that path, and then finding it took months to get that rolling and was then going to be well into 2022 before I could expect to get a set, I decided to try a different approach.
I picked up a used iFi Pro iESL and a new set of Stax SR-007 MK2 headphones, with the intent that any shortcomings I recalled from my prior experiments with such things I would attempt to address using DSP and EQ; if, indeed, they still bothered me.
My use of DSP and EQ has become a lot more sophisticated over the years, especially when coupled with modern, lab-grade, measurement systems, better processing and algorithms and machine learning.
Even pre-EQ/DSP fiddlings here, I was greeted with a much more satisfying experience than I recall. This might be down to the iESL being driven off a beefy high-end amp. Maybe my tastes shifted (my hearing hasnāt changed much in the last couple of years, per my regular audiograms).
Anyway, that initial toe back in the water rapidly became jumping in with both feet ā¦
I almost immediately added a set of SR-009S to the Pro iESL and SR-007 MK2. That was followed by an order for a Headamp BHSE, then a Audeze CRBN and today a Mjolnir-Audio KGSSHV Carbon.
Not a path, or direction, I would have guess a couple of months ago.
Now I am anxious to get my ears on the CRBN to see where they sit in relation to my current headphone collection and, in particular, whether they will replace one or more of the Stax headphones or simply be a complement to them.
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Iām really interested in how your test come out. I have an old Stax SRM T-1 amp that is looking to power something, maybe the 007-MK2. Has the rare US made RCA tubes.
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Iād be very interested in your thoughts about these others compared to the iESL, which I have. Iāve only ever heard that and the Stax 323A. Iāve seen such mixed views on the iESL, and only liked it once I used it with the TT2 in amp mode.
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My initial iESL experiences were extremely disappointing. To the point where I had completely sworn it off. But encouragement from a friend, to try it with more capable amplification, had me give it another go ā¦ and what I found there was completely different.
Different enough, in fact, to have me head-long down the electrostatic rabbit hole ā¦
I had sold my TT2 before I got my own iESL, but assuming youāre coming off the XLR outputs on the TT2 it should have more power than the HSA-1b does feeding the iFi unit, and the HSA-1b/iESL combination sounds great.
Itāll take some time for me to get a baseline between the two amplifiers I have coming in (BHSE and KGSSHV Carbon), the electrostaticās I already have, and how it all meshes with the CRBN.
After which I should be able to talk somewhat intelligently about the performance of each.
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Thanks for all that! Honestly I think Iām just wanting reassurance that those other amp/energizers which are far more expensive typically are not on a completely different level so itās one less thing for me to chase. It was listening to the Orpheus that got me interested in e-stats in the first place.
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Iāll be adjusting a few things in this setup today, but in the mean time ā¦ spot the new arrival(s) ā¦
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So ā¦ after not doing anything much with headphones for months, I got back into them to a certain extent, mostly fueled by the abortive foray into HE-1 territory - which then got me exploring the rest of the electrostatic world.
The end result is the following setup (excuse the crude diagram; Iāll do one with proper graphics in a bit - since I have to create those for another project anyway):
Everything there is here, installed and in use now, excepting the Audeze CRBN which I ordered on launch day and am just waiting for them to ship (current estimate is 2 more weeks).
Likely future changes include:
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Replacing the LCD-4 and RAD-0 with a single TOTL planar headphone. Likely the LCD-5 - but possibly whatever the successors to the AB-1266 Phi TC or Susvara are.
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Selling the HD800S and HD820
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Adding the upcoming RAAL-requisite ribbon-driver circumaural headphone.
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Either replacing the HSA-1b with the upcoming RAAL-requisite tube amplifier, or possibly just adding the tube amplifier.
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Upgrading the Mjolnir-Audio Carbon to a Carbon CC (as soon as they are available again).
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I have to decide whether to keep the Ćtude in this stack, or swap the Ultima 5 back in. I donāt need both. The stack looks better with the Ćtude.
It is perhaps worth noting that both the Chord Ćtude and the iFi Pro iESL can also drive conventional dynamic and planar headphones. Theyāre not currently setup to do that as I have no headphones that benefit from doing so.
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That is a lot of drool worthy gear!
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This is a complexly simple chain, loaded with great gear.
Question: how do you manage to connect all those amps to the Daveās outputs or you use more than a āsingleā Dave?
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Great diagram.
My DIY efforts on my system, with far less devices, are much more jumbled. (Possibly because Iām also trying to do input/output capacity planning for SE and balanced gear.)
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