It’s less than 2 weeks before the start of the Munich High End show, and I’m curious to know who’s coming this time from the community and the Headphones.com team.
I’ll be there full day on Saturday and the first half of the day on Sunday (need to catch a train a bit earlier this time).
Looking forward to see some familiar and new faces!
Myself and @Resolve will be there!
I will be going for the first time.
Should I bring my (open) headphones? Would I be able to try out different amps with it? Does it even make sense, as it’s probably really loud.
It will be loud but definitely worth doing if you want to try out tube amps. Personally… the solid state stuff isn’t worth caring about if you’ve already got something reasonable, especially at shows. I remember going to an ultra high end solid state DAC/amp brand and they were showcasing some grand new product… it sounded totally indistinguishable from the Questyle M15 I was running to use my music from my phone. Though if you’re interested in the various function-based amps like from Zahl, then yeah that’d be worth auditioning to see if the effect is something you’re interested in.
This is not headphone-related, but if anyone stops by the Voxativ (A4.2, E206) or Manger (A4.2, F211) exhibits, I’d be very interested in your impressions, especially the Voxativ FIeld Coil drivers and the Manger P1. Appreciate any comments or impressions from anyone who has heard them.
In most of the areas it is rather loud, so I’d definitely recommend bringing close-backs or IEMs instead. If you are looking to find a specific pairing for your open-backs, unless you’re shopping for a tube amp or trying to find an amp that will drive your Tungsten or Susvara, as Resolve said, you won’t hear any difference because any subtle details will drown in the background noise.
I’m in the camp “source gear matters”, but instead of opening another flame war, I just got an idea we can actually try during the show: Ad-Hoc blind A/B tests. We put a blindfold on a volunteer’s head and plug their headphone either into an exhibited solid state amp, or into a Questyle M15, and do it several times in a randomized order, asking which one they think it is. At the show we could do it with a considerable amount of people, if the folks at the booth let us do it with their gear.
Volume matching can be tricky to do without disclosing the device though.
I want to try some expensive headphone amps (both SS and tube) with my he6sev2 and see if it’s worth upgrading.
Would love to go, but that WE I am in Belgien.
Yamaha will demo the new YH-4000 headphone. Would be nice to have some first impressions.
Thanks
Torben
I will be there - hopefully it will be interesting (beyond the crazy expensive stuff) - I am making my list of stuff to check out.
The problem with this is you need very strict controls for level matching. Even if its only out by a tiny bit, that’s still enough to be a differentiator.
The thing is, I’m of the opinion that there is in fact a difference, and one that blind tests could reveal, it’s just that if people are chasing “transparency”, there’s really no reason to care about it. Once we let go of that ideal, then there’s all kinds of room for intentional preservation of harmonic products in source equipment. And that’s where things like tube amps and the like also become very interesting. But sadly the industry prefers to run with ideas about these products having “a sound”, all while claiming increases to transparency, at which point I have to politely excuse myself from the conversation.
Not sure about that.
Last year in Munich they had the E3 on demo with a Zähl and just opposite with an Astell DAP (forgot the exact type) and the bass performance of the E3 with the Zähl was so obvious different/better compared to the DAP, there was no need for an exact level match. When I cannot do an exact level match, I deliberately turn volume up and down on both devices, to hear the differences at different volumes.
Before that I was also very much in the camp, “no need to care about solid state amps”, but this was really surprising to me.
Unfortunately a Zähl is out of my league.
P.S. Will be most likely in Munich, my last high end, as Vienna is to far for me. I live in Munich, so I am used to get there by public transport or bike. 
Haha, it was a similar experience for me with the DCA E3 in Munich last year: at first it was not impressive at all in the first setup (I think it was a Weiss Engineering booth, dunno which amp they used with their DAC), but when I heard it on the Zähl HM1 it was love at first sight. Now that I own an E3 myself I can compare it running off a Questyle M15 vs a Violectric V222. And the difference in bass performance and imaging + soundstaging is quite audible even if you listen much louder on the M15 than on the V222. I think my mighty dongle just doesn’t have enough current to drive the DCA properly. Plus I’ve noticed that the M15 adds a slight mid-forward coloration, which is often perceived as a narrower soundstage compared to some other dongles and amps in A/B listening sessions.
In the user manual that comes with the Violectric amp Fried Riem mentions that it is not just the maximum output voltage and current that matters, but also how fast an amplifier is capable of delivering large swings of power. I think it may have an effect, as well as output impedance.
Yeah and this is a common sentiment I see from folks and it’s understandable. There could very well be a perceptual effect. But I have yet to come across one that can’t be explained by measurable things, in which case “better” needs to be more clearly understood - and importantly whether it’s something being added to the signal or not. This is where Cameron and I are likely to agree as well.
Still… if there is such an effect, this is one I’d very much like to conduct a blind test with. Folks will say “you don’t need a blind test if it’s obvious”, and I even feel I’ve said similar things in the past. But if that’s the case then it should also hold up in that sort of test, and it would meaningfully shake things up if there’s some evidence to point to beyond reports of “I heard a difference”.
I should note, I know Michael and have spoken with him at length about this sort of thing. He may even be open to it. Because understanding WHY something sounds better to people, if in fact it does, is highly valuable.
I agree with Resolve about the various issues with knowing with certainty whether (and how much) there’s a difference, but experientially there absolutely is for me.
On a certain personal level it doesn’t even matter how much that difference might be caused by something like my emotional feeling about a specific amp rather than an actual difference. My brain makes it an actual difference.
What this does mean, though, is I don’t go around telling people there’s some huge difference between source gear because there are a lot of psychological and technical reasons to be at least suspicious that there are significant differences.
And getting back on track with the topic, we’re even more susceptible to this kind of stuff at shows. They’re possibly the least controlled environments, and where we’re most prone to additional framing effects creeping in that we don’t realize. So I echo the sentiment of approaching it with a certain amount of caution. The same goes for the treatment of show impressions generally.
Also at Munich High-End
Crossfeed and Adjustable Soundstage
The X9 features advanced digital crossfeed for a natural, speaker-like sound, reducing fatigue during long sessions. Users can also adjust soundstage depth and width, with both features implemented digitally to ensure precise control without the distortion or coloration typical of analog solutions
Torben
I am pretty sure I will fail hard at a blind test. 
My surprise favourite of the show was the Erzetich Charybdis which impressed me sound wise, but is not really a beauty.
But I really want to try this one at home.
My surprise disappointment was the HEDDphone 2 GT, it was so boring in comparison to the Noire XO and E3 (all on Zähl HM1, still liked the E3 more). So maybe I should have a separate listen without these other headphones.
