Well they arrived...and my initial impression was: "oh dear these sound really broken - the image is all on one side and there's no bass or treble"....
About 20 minutes later I realised I hadn't turned off my room correction :o) One click of the TACT remote and..wow! these really are superb, Now I can see (or rather hear) why people raved about these things. I listened to some of my own masters (16/44,1) btw...and they sounded better than when I made them - I wish I'd have had these in the studio at the time. Overall a very balanced sound - no frequency anomolies, very VERY dynamic, crystal clear but not fatiguing in any way and plenty of tiny details previously inaudible can now be made out. Also, loving the "out of head" sound that I have never associated with headphones before. Encouraged by the transparency/detail that I can get from these things I thought I'd do some tests: 1) tried going from the DAC (MF) out via the MF tube buffer rather than via the record-outs of my Linn 5103 - ZERO audible difference 2) Physically took the (bypassed) TACT out of the digital loop - ZERO audible difference 3) Took the tube buffer out - slightly less "warmth" or "weight" to the sound but the difference was very very subtle. 4) Took the ALTMANN JISCO & UPCI out from between the TACT and DAC...sound definitely went downhill at this point - some glare and lack of precision in bass now audible 5) Tried analogue outs of SB3 into STAX driver...not bad at all - for the price a great sound - but less engaging/exciting/captivating than the MF DAC. Tope end not as precise. Lack of bass weight & precision. Slight mid-range glare.) 6) Went back to my normal setup (SB3-Altmann JISCO-Altmann UPCI - TACT 2.2X-MF DACv3+PSU+MF Tube Buffer-Linn 5103) and swapped the linear SB PSU for the stock wart..shock horror - ZERO audible difference) - checked with speakers and the linear had to come back...so something about the wart must be upsetting my power amps somehow...) 7) Tried streaming WAV vs FLAC - ZERO audible difference 8) Tried turning off the analogue stage of the SB3 - ZERO audible difference 9) Tried a bunch of different (medium/high quality) digital cables (SPDIF) - ZERO audible difference 10) stopped unplugging things, made a nice cup of tea and spent the rest of the evening rediscovering some very nicely mastered albums from the late 60's early 70's. Conclusions: 1) If these cheap ($900 - !) phones sound this good, I wonder what the Omega's sound like... 2) Actually going back to my speakers left me feeling quite OK - I can hear what I'm missing but I can live with it...thank goodness. That electrostatic midrange is very seductive, though. 3) Most of what I heard is in-line with my experiences in the studio. Simply putting the signal through another processor does NOT automatically create an audible degradation in the sound. Just as well really, since what you hear from a CD has been through all manner of processing devices/software...and the reason why it is going thorugh those processors is to effect some kind of audible "improvement". As usual YMM considerably V Cheers Phil -- Phil Leigh You want to see the signal path BEFORE it gets onto a CD/vinyl...it ain't what you'd call minimal... ...SB3+TACT+Altmann+MF DACXV3/Linn tri-amped Aktiv 5.1 system and some very expensive cables ;o) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Phil Leigh's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=85 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=36055 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
