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
