Bottlehead Forum
General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: Jim R. on October 16, 2011, 03:47:29 PM
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Hey, just a few words on the BH showing at RMAF for those of you who could not attend, or even for those who could...
First of all, it was great to see Dan and Eileen in person (Dan for the first time since RMAF 2004 and Eileen for the first time, and as usual, they are great hosts and such nice people as well! Sorry to have missed Steve Koto, and despite the fact that I spent a good deal of time in the Can Jam room, never did run into him later on in the show. Also unexpectedly got to meet Lee Hankins, himself another nice, friendly bottlehead.
I was able to hear all of the mps -- Smack, Crack with high current modification, Paramount 1.1s w/300bs and AKG K1000s, and the S.e.x. 2.1, plus the nagra tape setup and the prototype dac. Evverything was just really nice and although I didn't get to hear all combinations of amps, sources and headphones, there would surely be something there for every taste and budget.
For me the standout, and a real game changer for me personally, was the high-current Crack with the Sennheiser HD-800s and the BH dac -- in fact this was one of the highlights of the show for me. I had never heard a headphone system sound so musical, so right, and so impressive! This system did full justice to the music, but also had plenty of those audiophile trimmings like thunderous, tight and deep bass, dynamics to die for, tone, resolution, balance, and also a soundstageand imaging that truly was approoaching that of a very well setup speaker system, and better than many poorly configured systems. I really wish I had been able to hear this with more of my music, but I only had my iPod and no decent way to get the bits to the dac, but in all honesty, what I heard was enough to convince me to move the HD-800s to the top of my purchase list, and which I hope to order very soon.
The other system that really did the trick for me was the s.e.x. 2.1 with C4S and my Shure SE425 IEMs. Again, very nice, but not in the same league as the Crack/HD-800s, but just different I suppose.
Anyway, whether Smack or see.x., my concerns about background noise with the high sensitivity 37 ohm IEMs were completely unfounded -- both amps were perfectly quiet on them with the volume way up and nothing playing. I wish I could have heard the s.e.x. 2.1 on some speakers, but I guess I'll just have to try that out for myself. Seriously, I was simply not expecting the kind of sound I got from the s.e.x. and allI can say is that PJ is being pretty modest about his transformer design. This is far more amp than I would have eveer tought, even though I've heard the older version in a number of situations -- headphones and speakers both.
Comparing to other headphone rigs, and I'll talk mostly about the HD-800s here as I wanted to hear them on as many amps as I could get my hands on -- the Crack was the hands-down winner for me. In fact, sources aside, no other amp, SS, tube, or hybrid sounded half as good as the Crack with these cans. In fact, if I had just heard them on the other amps I listened on, the 800s would probbly not be worth the money to me. As a side, I also listened to the Audeze LCD-2s and 3s with many amps as I wanted some reference points for deciding which between these and the 800s I wanted to buy for myself, and I have to say, the Audezes just aren't for me -- too warm, which is exactly the opposite of what I was expecting.
Anyway, all the folks in the Can Jam room were more than happy to accomodate my wanting to play my music through many, many combinations of amps and headphones, so it was an unparalleled opportunity to compare all these things first hand.
So, after going through all of this over the course of 3 days, my conclusion stands -- HD-800s with high-current crack and BH dac was the best thing I heard at the show, hands-down, and the se.x. 2.1 was the best amp I heard with my Shure IEMs No, I didn't hear every possible amp and skipped a lot of the super expensive ones from Wu, Cavelli, Apex, etc, as I simply can't afford them, but after hearing the Crack/800s, I honestly have a hard time imagining hat it could get any better at any price, and from the performance of the 800s with the rest of the amps, including some that are said to be great matches, it would not surprise me to find they more expensive amps don't sound all that much better, if they sound *any* better.
So, post-show shopping list includes the new sex 2.1 and the HD-800s, and I'll be looking forward to te details on the high-current mod for the Crack.
I did buy one thing at the show, which is the one thing that got my personal "Too cool to ignore" prize, which was the ALO Continental battery powered vacuum tube headphone amp. I bought it and the Cricket line out dock cable for my iPod, as I wanted a portable amp and this one just made my Shures sing. This thing barely gets warm, goes about 6-7 hours on a harge, has a real knob for a volume control and is not microphonic or sensitive to vibration in any way (though I won't be drop-testing it anytime soon). I remember another attempt at a vacuum tube portable headphone amp some years ago, but the batteries didn't last all that long, it got fairly warm as I recall, and was highly microphonic. Ken Ball got this ne right, and although it doesn't have the ultimate bass slam as the RX2 S amp he makes, it has much better tone, nice soundstaging(who needs crossfeed?) a beatiful liquid presentation. Very nice with the Shures.
Good going Bottlehead and company -- you guys make some fine, serious audio gear that us mere mortals can afford, have a blast building and modifying, and which in the end, just play music nicely, which is where it all comes out.
-- Jim
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Sure appreciate the review. Glad to hear the BH gear shows so well. Especially curious about the BH DAC and how it compares to others at the show. I'm currently using a Music Streamer II and have been satisfied but of course am looking forward to the BH offering.
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Here's a link to another impression at Head-Fi.org:
https://www.head-fi.org/t/564854/smack-bottlehead-wot/15#post_7825656 (https://www.head-fi.org/t/564854/smack-bottlehead-wot/15#post_7825656)
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Yea, I attended both Friday and Saturday. Enjoyed meeting and chatting with Dan and Eileen both days, and per Dan's recommendation shot up to the VLT room where Piper was playing some Tape Project tapes, with the BH Tube Repro. Wow! The Tape Project was very impressive and for me was the "best of show." The only problem was that those monster VLT amps made the room a bit hot, so Piper invited our small party of two into the hallway and gave us a detailed explanation of the Tape Project. Very impressive. Despite spending two days up there, I saw a very small sampling of what was available and so I guess my "best of show" recommendation does come with an asterisk. My brain was so overwhelmed the first day that after about four hours I went into sensory overload. Yes, there was that much going on. Next year, I hope to attend some of the lectures.
Amarra was running the sale of sale's, and so I popped for the full blown version and will install it tonight. Spent at least an hour picking the brains of the Amarra folks, and was pleased to learn that I can run Amarra on two different computers simultaneously.
It was quite the show, and it seemed that the USA and European's dominated. Some impressive stuff coming out of Germany.
Sorry, I missed seeing you there Jim.
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Yoder,
yes, sorry to have missed you too. Unfortunately, because of the size of the show and the fact that I didn't have my netbook with me, I more or ess had to rely on chance meetings to find my friends, and I missed many of them. Did see a few and met a few new ones, which to me is what this show is mostly about anymore anyway.
John, please understand that this is not to be construed as a slight against thhe BH dac, but digital is getting really, really good now, and even some reasonably priced dacs are waking all over some of the bespoke dacs of just a few years ago. That said, it is getting harder and harder to tell the etter dacs apart unless you are listening to them each on a given sysetem and can compare them directly. What I heard of the BH dac was definitely comparable to my current personal reference, which I also consider to give even mid-level vinyl a run for it's money, though that is I'm sure, forever going to be a very personal choice. What I heard was really, really nice, no warts that I could detect, and no glare, which is a biggie for me. I think those who are waiting for this dac will definitely be happy, and I'd certainly consider one myself when the time is right. Of course I didn't hear even a fraction of the dacs there, but overall, every year I see more and more systems running music streamers into stand-alone dacs, fewer and fewer CD players, and more tape, which seems to really be making a resurgence, and I'm sure has something to do with the Tape Project demos that have been going on for several years now.
I had been interested in hearing the Bifrost dac from Schiit Audio, but they only had i setup with an optical link from a laptop playing streaming internet radio -- so nothing that is really going to giive you any kind of sense of it's capabilities. Hope this helps,
Jim
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Compared to the smaller local Headfi meets, these big shows can make it tough to bump into the folks you wish to meet. I was really looking forward to yakking with some of the members of this forum but only met a few.
Other than that fly in the ointment, I had a fantastic weekend and I'll do my best to make this an annual event from now on.
The display that Doc and Eileen had was really quite amazing! Five new offerings at one show is a tough trick to pull off. Just demoing one prototype is hard enough to do without having to pull out the soldering iron, replace a tube or give the amp a good whack at least once, but 5!
I guess it's a testament to the design and layout ( Not to mention the fact that this wasn't Doc's first BBQ).
Seeing all the rooms upstairs rolling tape really did my heart good! Folks that know me from the Tape Project forum know how Koo-Koo for tape I am. And while I don't need anybody to tell me what a superior medium it is for music, it's very nice to see it get wider spread recognition.
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Steve,
Yes, just wishsh the whole tape thing could be more affordable -- even 7.5 ips and 7 or 10 inch reels is generally more accesible to most folks, and I actually had a chat with Eileen about this at the show. If TP tapes could be made available in these more common formats, it may help spur more enthusiasm for the medium -- but your right, much more tape this year and I'm sure the TP guys have a good deal to do with this even though it was more than TP tapes and gear that was playing.
We'll try again next year :-).
-- Jim
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I hear what you are saying Jim, but if we did them at 7.5 ips they just wouldn't be at the standard that we feel is necessary to demonstrate the unique quality of studio masters. That said, I do think that someone else doing something like that to help build the number of available titles could make getting a tape setup even more enticing for someone who is considering it. Maybe someone will try to do it Barclay Crocker style, with high, but not crazy high duplicating speed, 1/4 track 7" reels in order to squeeze a full album on one reel, and simpler packaging. No matter what it will still be more expensive than LP. You're looking at about $20 worth of raw tape alone. And it may be only a bit better than LP - or maybe not, depending upon the skill of the manufacturer and their equipment.
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Dan,
I certainly undestand this and where you're coming from, and believe me, if I could swing it, 'd be all over it. I've heard it and it isgood! :-)
-- Jim
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Here's Jim Rebman, left, and Lee Hankins, right, at our table at RMAF. T'was truly a pleasure for both Eileen and myself to hang with the guys!
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Are those 90 degree adapters on your rca plugs or 90 degree plugs?
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It's cool to see some faces put to the names.
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Are those 90 degree adapters on your rca plugs or 90 degree plugs?
We use the adapters these days because I like Pro-Fi RCA plugs and we're always moving cables around and sometimes we need a 90 and sometimes we don't. The really cool 90 to observe in the pic is the 90 degree XLRs on the HD 600 balanced cable at the back of the Smack amp in front of Lee. We also had 90 degree TRS plugs on the other headphones and of course the 90 degree IEC plugs on the Bottlehead power cords.
Oh, and those are Neutrik dual banana plugs on the K1Ks.
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Here's Jim Rebman, left, and Lee Hankins, right, at our table at RMAF. T'was truly a pleasure for both Eileen and myself to hang with the guys!
That is what I had always supposed Jim looked like. Lee's look is a surprise.
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So, did Doc catch me all blissed-out on the Crack and 800s? I can't remember exactly when that pic was taken.
BTW Dan, who ws the owner of those 800s, and what was the aftermarket cable on it?
Still at the top of my wish list, but I will have to wait until spending that money won't be quite as irresponsible as it would be now. These are also suposed to sound quite nice on the Leben CS300 XS, which I aso happen to have one of. That said, it would still be really hard for anything to top what the Crack did for these -- just so different than any other amp I heard them hrough at the show.
-- Jim
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You are hooked up to Paramounts, but I don't know what the square looking headsets are.
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Those are th K1Ks
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Yes, I wish I could have listened to the K1Ks in a more suitable environment -- too much ambient noise to really enjoy them, but really interesting nonetheless. I would have also liked to have tried them with the s.e.x. amp
Just know there was nothing there that was less than wonderful, just different flavors or amps and cans. I did think the akg k701 (or were they 702s) on the s.e.x. was a bit thin and bass starved, but I've not liked those in any setup I've heard them in... and some people love them, and that's the way it goes in this hobby.
-- Jim
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As the guys say, it's actually a shot of you with the K1000s and Lee listening to some HD600s with balanced cables. You both look like you're listening pretty deep. The HD800s were on loan from ironbut - thanks bro! And for a brief moment Andy Regan of Cardas had them running on the Cardas cable with balanced connectors, which really kicked ass on the Smack. It became clear at the show that if your are trying to demo amps you really have to bring first tier cans only, and so I am working up new list of headphones we need to get, with the 800s at the top of the list. I may be thinning out the herd of cans that I have been assembling lately. Watch for some of them in the special deals forum.
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It might serve the Bottlehead crew well to sticky a post with the most pleasing headsets for each of the headset amplifiers.
This, of course, would not mean that others won't find some other sets most pleasing, personal taste and all. But it can serve as a measure of what set you might want to try when considering a purchase.
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For me the standout, and a real game changer for me personally, was the high-current Crack
What's the "high-current" Crack, and how is it different from the stock one?
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We increased the current in our prototype Crack to lower the output impedance. We're going to run it a while and see how it holds up before we decide whether or not to offer it as an update.
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Hey Doc,
You're welcome to use the 800's anytime! (like in Feb.)
I really loved the way they sounded with both the high current Crack and the Smack!
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Steve,
What was the cable on the 800s? Was that a stock cable?
-- Jim
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Yup, just the stock one.