[HeadAmpTeam]

Hey there Head-Fi crew, if your in attendance to this year’s Florida Audio Show be sure to swing by our room and say hello. Plus we’d love to hear your thoughts on any and everything you’ve been enjoying at the show so far! We had a great time interacting with everyone Friday and we’re excited to see new and returning faces over the weekend! Best of all we’ve got even MORE gear for the next two days! Can’t wait for you to hear it and until then we’ll drop some pictures to wet your appetite. And a big shout out to STAX for allowing us to have a Sample Direct on loan from them for the show!!!!

 

[DougD]

[Previously posted to Stax X9000 thread ... I hadn't known about this thread when I wrote this.]

Today was an exciting day for me ... I got to listen to both the Stax SRX-9000 and the Audeze CRBN !!!

That calls for a HUGE SHOUT-OUT to Justin & his team from Headamp. I had known there was an audio event called the Florida Audio Expo coming up in Tampa, but it wasn't until yesterday afternoon that I realized that Headamp was there this weekend with a bunch of gear. Since that's less than a 2 hour drive from me, and the opportunity to hear a variety of TOTL headphone equipment doesn't happen often in these parts, I quickly reserved a ticket, and drove over this morning. One of the arguably nice things about a general audio show is that most of the attendees don't have a great interest in h/ps, and so there weren't long lines of people lined up behind every headphone station.

Context:
* 60+ year-old male with what's probably typical hearing for my age ... 14k is the last test tone I can hear.
* I love music and headphones, but I am not a trained or IMO a particularly perceptive "technical" listener.
* my main "poweramp-to-ears" equipment is old Stax. I have several Lambdas models, with a Birgit hybrid of 407 drivers in a 404 shell being the one I listen to the most. The amp is Stax SRM-1/Mk2. My story to myself is "old Stax equipment was TOTL in its day, is much cheaper than new TOTL gear, and still sounds 90% as good." This theory had never been actually tested in recent years.
* my before-the-power-amp chain was upgraded in the fall to Roon Nucleus --> Schiit Yggy LIM --> Schiit Freya+.
* I was looking for answers to 3 big questions:
(1) can I, with my aging ears and amateur listening skills, actually hear any improvements that current TOTL/SOTA gear offers?
(2) If so, is it a big difference, or a small difference?
(3) What would be my first-choice upgrade path ... e-stats, or traditional, or RAAL-ribbon, bearing in mind the perceived amount of *increased enjoyment* and the associated cost.
* I took the #1 Stax Lambda with me, to try to calibrate somewhat for the different amps involved.
* I played a variety of tunes and artists that I typically listen to at home. How the headphones etc sound with "audiophile quality" recordings is of some interest, but how would they impact my normal daily listening is what would drive my purchasing decisions.

Disclaimers: This reporter can neither confirm nor deny the possible influence of confirmation bias in the outputs of the listener's brain, after being provided with various inputs in a non-double-blinded test, in a typical audio show setting with moderate levels of ambient noise and nearby chatter. It's very hard to match levels when switching between different headphones, etc. YMMV. Much of what I heard aligned with what I've been reading on h/p forums, which could be confirmation bias, or evidence of the wisdom of crowds, or both, or neither. It's all subjective opinions, and probably not reproducible. Some equipment got more ear time than others. I liked some stuff and combos more than others, but I didn't actively dislike anything. This is a good time for headphone & music lovers.

My e-stat impressions:
* the HeadAmp Blue Hawaii SE made my Lambdas sound MUCH better than they do at home. (I'm going to assume that Roon music on the Naim streamer is close to a break-even with my at-home chain.) Smoother and yet more precise, very dynamic, bass significantly improved. As a show newbie, I forgot to ask if it was running with the stock tubes or something different. The volume control was continuous, so I assume that means it had the optional ALPS RK50 potentiometer.
* SRX-9000 with the BHSE was the showcase combo. My three word summary is "flawless and effortless." I heard nothing I could nitpick. I came back to this combo a couple of times, might have gotten 60 minutes in total. Awesome.
* CRBN to me was a half step behind. I think it edged the SR-009s. All three are clearly a good step up from my familiar Lambdas.
* I was hoping to also compare the value of an SR-700 Mk2 or -500 or -300 vs the top tier, but they didn't make the trip.
* Nothing sounded nearly as good on the Stax SRM-T8000 amp. Less dynamic, less expansive, bland. In this case, I am pretty confident that what my brain was telling me was truth, not just regurgitations of other people's opinions. So I didn't give it a lot of ear-time. (For some reason, I didn't think to try the Lambdas on this amp.)
* if budget says I can't upgrade both the e-stat headphones and amp at the same time, I now think my optimal path would be to do the amp first. That's different than yesterday's thinking.

Also listened to some top conventional headphones and amps.
* I liked the Audeze LCD-5 very much. It's right up there in the SRX-9000 & CRBN league IMO. In 2nd place was the Abyss AB-1266 Phi TC, which besides sounding very good did not feel uncomfortable to me at all. (But I probably only wore it for 5 minutes.) The HiFiMan Susvara didn't do much for me, which surprised me a bit. Maybe I didn't crank it up enough. Also listened to several DCA models, Meze Elite, Senn HD-800s, Focal Clear MG. Somehow managed to not listen to the Abyss Diana.
* I liked the HeadAmp GS-X Mk 2 amp a LOT. Would also be very interested if they come out with tube sibling. The GS-X Mini is close.
* the new RAAL PDT-1A tube amp was on-hand. I don't think that's technically even available for purchase yet, so a chance to preview it. I didn't ask about the price but I think that will be a competitive offering.

They didn't have a RAAL-ribbon setup here this weekend, so how much I like that as one of the possible paths to my end-game solution is a puzzle for another day. They packed a bunch of gear and listening stations in a smallish room, and can't bring everything.

Anybody going to CanJam next weekend probably doesn't need to be told this but ... must do your own shoot-out between SRX-9000 and CRBN.

Thanks again to HeadAmp for making this happen. No amount of forum reading is as informative or useful as being able to listen to a bunch of good gear, side by side, with your very own ears.

 

[Makiah S]

We had an amazing time this year at the Florida Audio Expo. It was awesome to get to see old friends again and make new ones! Each year, we have such a good time getting to know all of you and the music you love. To that end, we'd like to thank all of you for exposing us to a plethora of amazing new bands, musicians, and songs.

On that note, we're excited to share something with all of you. We had the opportunity to spend a little hands-on time with a working pre-production Mytek Empire Streamer. The experience has left us all increasingly excited for its upcoming launch. While we won't comment too much on how it sounds, given that it's not quite production ready yet, our time with the product in its current state left us with no doubts that you'll be as impressed with it as we were. It is a beautiful state of the art all-in-one wireless music streamer.

Alongside our entire lineup of solid-state class A amplifiers, we had an awesome selection of headphones and DACs as well, including the:

• Auris Audio Euterpe serving as the DAC to our HeadAmp GS-X Mini powering the Audeze LCD-2 Classic.
• Chord Hugo TT2 serving as the DAC to our HeadAmp GS-X MK2, HeadAmp Gilmore Lite mk2, GS-X Mini as amplifier options for the: Focal Clear MG, HIFIMAN Susvara, Dan Clark Audio Stealth, Dan Clark Audio Aeon 2 Closed and HIFIMAN HE-R10D headphones.

For electrostatic headphones, we had two systems running, including the:

• NAIM Uniti Atom Music Player with the HeadAmp Blue Hawaii SE & STAX SRM-T8000 driving the STAX SR-009S and brand new STAX SR-X9000 Flagship Electrostatic Open Back Headphone.
• Mytek Liberty DAC II with our Blue Hawaii SE and Audeze CRBN with that very same system running in the Mytek Room alongside the STAX SR-007 MK2 on Sunday.

We would like to take a moment to thank Mytek president and founder, Michal Jurewicz, for hosting our Blue Hawaii SE and for lending us his time and letting us listen to the Mytek Manhattan II DAC with our Blue Hawaii SE and the SR-X9000 system!

We also introduced a few new products into our lineup, including the:

• Bricasti Design M3 configured with the built-in differential headphone amp, direct stream network card, and the remote control, which was sourced from a vintage Linn digital CD-transport. We also featured the Audeze LCD-5 headphones and the brand new Abyss Diana TC from Abyss Headphones.
• Mytek also provided a sample of their brand new Liberty DAC II and Mytek Liberty THX AAA™ Headphone Amp with an iFi ZEN Stream for direct streaming into the DAC, all of which paired wonderfully with the Abyss AB-1266 Phi TC
• RAAL-Requisite also provided a sample of their upcoming PDT-1a tube amp for dynamic and planar-magnetic headphones. We and our guests loved how it sounded with the Sennheiser HD800S and Meze Elite, and we're excited to have it in stock and ready to ship soon.