I have a holo bliss and a rockna wavelight and i like them with my empy but im looking for an upgrade or complementary headphone.... was thinking of susvara or zmf caldera or atrium ? What would you guys recommend for someone looking for an organic, analog sound along with musicality and timbre (not really a details nerd since i have the empy)
Easy choice for me…Susvara. Bliss was made of drive it and does it fabulously. I also have the Empy and the Sus is totally different. Clearer, more detailed, great timbre. It will become your daily driver. And if you run into a really bad recording, switch to the Empy.
I would honestly say that the Pmax sounds like the little brother of the Bliss. Pmax sounds like it has a great balance between the mids and the top end. The low end is controlled and tight but still has plenty of power to produce the oomph if needed. The soundstage and presentation is where the bliss takes off and leaves the Pmax in its dust. The bliss has one of, if not, the best 3d holographic soundstage i have ever heard from an amp. The pmax sounds a little congested in comparison and it fails to separate the instruments the way bliss does. For $500, compared to Bliss' $3500 footprint, I think the pmax is no slouch. Its a small compact SS amp that can go head to head with my other big amps (bliss, HA-6A, Euforia EVO)
Ordered my Bliss KTE April 6th, 2024, received today May 5th, 2024 at my doorstep. Got a DHL shipping text on Friday May 3rd from a company I didn't recognize, paid the small DHL custom fee's because it said Aluminum Alloy Audio Equipment. Shipping from China went out on Friday afternoon and arrived Sunday around noon here in Toronto Canada... Sounds amazing and I can finally return my friends bliss I was borrowing haha. Now to start burning it in while listening... Almost thought I was getting scammed by a fake DHL delivery since I did not get an email from kitsune or holo audio and on the website it still says processing.
Through my FiiO K9 Pro ESS and Meze Elite stack in my signature, first with no DSP other than neutral PEQ for my preference:
Pink Floyd - Wearing the Inside Out (via Qobuz "The Division Bell"):
Frontal kickdrum pulses.
Frontal and slightly upper imaging of the high-frequency synth noise. The background strings also image from that upper front high-frequency location (I consider treble imaging too high to be an imaging error related to headphones' coupling with my ears and the lack of speaker crossfeed).
The saxophone is a bit right of center, which along with other centered sounds is maybe a channel imbalance on my end (it is still right of center when disabling my EQ), but is otherwise vaguely frontal to being inside my head.
The central vocal is in the middle of my head as though the artist's head were clipping into my own, sometimes with the feeling of the artist moving a bit relative to the mic within my head, its sometimes sounding from the back of my head. Subtle vocalization articulations or clicks are audible.
The left vocals image from lower in the left cup.
The electric guitar images on the front right and a few degrees up, having some tonal distance cues.
The trumpet sounds full and images also a bit right of center.
The left trumpet images from the left driver, maybe a tad further back. Gentle electric guitar strums distinctly image from off of the left driver. The saxophone when playing from the left also images from the left driver with no illusion of sounding further.
By 3:41, the main vocal is now imaging from the upper right where the electric guitar was imaging from.
Each drum set element images from a distinct point across the stage (I try to shan't name them all) I suppose along an arc between the left and right drivers and in front of my face.
With my speaker simulation DSP, well, I get frontal speaker imaging with everything at distinct points along a line between the two virtual channels around a meter before me with maybe only the front right electric guitar still imaging a bit high.
Pink Floyd - High Hopes (via Qobuz "The Division Bell"):
A cacophony of church bells ahead a bit left of center. Birds chirping here and there along a line amid the upper front along with the buzzing of a fly. Some beeps to the front right. A bell imaging from the far front right.
Clear piano imaging from the front left.
Centered electric guitar ahead.
Center vocal now a tad left of center and a bit high, somewhere ambiguously above my forehead.
1:52 Centered and impactful kick drum with salient plasticky membrane vibration noise.
Grand background synths ahead in the distance; I could be conservative in judging said distance.
Guitar on the right sometimes at the driver at least in its higher-frequency content or transients, perhaps feeling like it is somewhere inside my head in that area.
2:35 Quiet background repeat of "Keep walking back again" to the upper front.
2:56 Tactile guitar to the front right, then the sudden appearance of a guitar from the middle rear left of my head; I suppose there was some perceptual ambiguity, whereby it could rather be ahead and left of center. Centered snare. What I can describe as a "massive stage" (bigness and fullness proportional to playback level) and a bunch of instruments, strings imaged high, horns from the front upper right, and a bunch of other things I shan't list in completeness. I suppose I could call this "3D", but again, in the sense of a headphone HRTF artifact that I do not believe to have been intentionally mixed for such a binaural effect unless someone can me inform me otherwise.
4:27 Chime ahead left of center.
5:17 Electric guitar at the middle front right with timbral distance.
Upper treble noise playing out from the right driver.
Bell returns to the upper front right. The decay of said bell has diffuse reflections spread ahead, an 880 Hz (A5, checked with an online tone generator) sounding from the front left.
With my speaker simulation DSP, nothing images from the far sides or any closer than 2 feet, and there are much less errors with imaging height. There is no ambiguity of imaging location or localization in front of me. A large frontal background is cast, though there are voids around that frontal imaging, so no envelopment, but I rarely get full envelopment beyond the frontal image at a concert hall anyways.
"Akira" is pretty vague, but for "Lang Lang at Royal Albert Hall (Live, 2013)" on Qobuz, the album without speaker crossfeed already has a good forward image/externalization for me:
Upper midrange to treble or simply right hand notes image from a point left of center, probably also above the horizontal, lower midrange notes by means dancing around an area a bit further left, some bass sounding more central. I suppose it is a kind of weird imaging error (partly depending on the accuracy of my EQ) with the right hand notes sounding a bit higher before me with the left hand notes imaging in parallel below such, its seemingly being a toss-up whether higher notes for the respective hands image further left or right.
I've found in live concerts that one can hear the piano registers imaging off of the respective parts of the visible piano lid reflection of the soundboard and bridge, hence a distinct sense of image height variation in addition to the lower-register notes inherently imaging further to the right on the piano lid which I believe virtually no stereo recording captures (for proper speaker playback) or intentionally betrays without a special upmix. Anyways, at least for my ears, perhaps distinct piano notes dancing within a right triangle ahead of me and left of center might interpreted as a form of "holography".
I experience similar ambiguities through my speaker simulation DSP as well as my actual Genelec 8341As (in the absence of room treatment), though maybe those speaker renderings more often have the treble properly to the left and the bass to the right like looking at a piano lid ahead from the tenth row. I might also somehow be hearing some of that treble height I expect from live sound, but I also know that some centered vocals can be incorrectly imaged toward the upper left in my room, so that effect probably wouldn't be heard with proper room treatment.
I am simply trying to better understand examples of how others hear "holography" or the purported capabilities of their amps, or what beyond what I have described or simply omitted for succinctness (vocal texture etc., paragraphs of details and sonic events if one wants to get pedantic) I could possibly be missing.
Ordered my Bliss KTE April 6th, 2024, received today May 5th, 2024 at my doorstep. Got a DHL shipping text on Friday May 3rd from a company I didn't recognize, paid the small DHL custom fee's because it said Aluminum Alloy Audio Equipment. Shipping from China went out on Friday afternoon and arrived Sunday around noon here in Toronto Canada... Sounds amazing and I can finally return my friends bliss I was borrowing haha. Now to start burning it in while listening... Almost thought I was getting scammed by a fake DHL delivery since I did not get an email from kitsune or holo audio and on the website it still says processing.
Ordered my Bliss KTE April 6th, 2024, received today May 5th, 2024 at my doorstep. Got a DHL shipping text on Friday May 3rd from a company I didn't recognize, paid the small DHL custom fee's because it said Aluminum Alloy Audio Equipment. Shipping from China went out on Friday afternoon and arrived Sunday around noon here in Toronto Canada... Sounds amazing and I can finally return my friends bliss I was borrowing haha. Now to start burning it in while listening... Almost thought I was getting scammed by a fake DHL delivery since I did not get an email from kitsune or holo audio and on the website it still says processing.
I had the same experience with the delivery of my Bliss KTE. Ordered 3/21/24 and received 4/25/24. The website still says processing. My Bliss KTE sounds great, I'm glad I made the purchase.
I used the search function and tried to find an answer to the question asked many times in this thread. Is Bliss as good as Serene, used as preamp in 2ch speaker setup? There were a few vague responses telling that they should be almost the same but has anyone actually compared these two side by side, as preamps? I currently own Serene lvl1 and I'm thinking of changing it to Bliss. It'd have to perform well as preamp also since I mainly use speakers for music but will probably have to use headphones more and more in future (I have a small child). Another question would be, how well does Bliss work with Dan Clark E3's? Thanks!
I used the search function and tried to find an answer to the question asked many times in this thread. Is Bliss as good as Serene, used as preamp in 2ch speaker setup? There were a few vague responses telling that they should be almost the same but has anyone actually compared these two side by side, as preamps? I currently own Serene lvl1 and I'm thinking of changing it to Bliss. It'd have to perform well as preamp also since I mainly use speakers for music but will probably have to use headphones more and more in future (I have a small child). Another question would be, how well does Bliss work with Dan Clark E3's? Thanks!
I used the search function and tried to find an answer to the question asked many times in this thread. Is Bliss as good as Serene, used as preamp in 2ch speaker setup? There were a few vague responses telling that they should be almost the same but has anyone actually compared these two side by side, as preamps? I currently own Serene lvl1 and I'm thinking of changing it to Bliss. It'd have to perform well as preamp also since I mainly use speakers for music but will probably have to use headphones more and more in future (I have a small child). Another question would be, how well does Bliss work with Dan Clark E3's? Thanks!
I believe Goldensound mentioned in his review of the Bliss that it was a touch better than the Serene as a preamp. You should probably take a look at his review as I am sure it will not have all of the connectivity of the Serene.
I believe Goldensound mentioned in his review of the Bliss that it was a touch better than the Serene as a preamp. You should probably take a look at his review as I am sure it will not have all of the connectivity of the Serene.
I personally purchased the Serene for a speaker preamp instead of just using the Bliss. I'm currently building out a 2ch setup that will be using SS and tubes, and the Bliss is not versatile enough in terms of outputs to handle what I am building out.
I will also be using it to cut down on the number of remotes needed to control the hardware that will be sitting 6 ft away from me.
The Serene will be controlling volume to the speaker amps as well as to the Bliss. That way I only have 2 remotes to keep track of. One to the Spring 3 and one for the Serene.
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