The diary threads seem to be popular here. I think I'll give it a shot, I just don't want to call it a diary. There are a few things I want to post about, but not write up a full review or article.
My portable rig has been a source of discovery. I went for the Fostex HP-P1 in the hope it would work well with the Symphones Magnums. However, just before I was to leave for Australia for Christmas, a pair of prototype HD-700s arrived and I didn't think the Fostex alone would cut it. By chance a fellow Aussie was selling a Triad Audio L3, so I nabbed that at far less than new. The results were much better than expected. Even with my main rig here, I can grab my portable rig and still very much enjoy music out of it. The combo simply nailed it, much like a good desktop rig does.
A useful discovery about the Fostex is that it works perfectly well with FLAC player on my iPhone or iPad, even with high-res files. I have quite a few albums I not been able to listen to without downsampling them, which I dislike doing, so this was indeed a pleasant discovery. Not only that, if you are playing music with FLAC player and the screen is locked, a double-press of the home button will bring up the music controls for it, not just the default Apple player. I just tested it with Getz / Gilberto (from HDTracks) and the sound was fantastic. Mind you, the overall cost of the entire set-up, including headphones was quite huge, so it should sound great.
Another discovery with my portable rig was with my RE-ZEROs. I stopped using them as they are, in effect, all mids-and-highs, which is useless for quite a range of music I like (and even for music that they are more suited). I was testing the HP-P1 with them to see if I could hear any hiss (a tiny amount, not enough to matter) and thought I'd try them with the L3 and bass boost. Now that worked surprisingly well. I never thought I'd own an amp with any kind of tone controls, but I have to admit, there are times a gentle boost to a pair of cans, rather like my Stacker II hybrid amp gives by its design, can be very beneficial. Sometimes a tiny bit more of some aspect of the frequency response, soundstage or detail is to push a good listening experience into a great one.
I finally got my LCD-3s back, with new, fault-free drivers (fingers crossed). I sent them off before I went on holidays and hoped to have them back on my return, but I've had to wait almost an extra month for them. My returned pair have closest to the best graph of all the Audeze headphones I've owned. Maybe it's because of their absence, but I was reminded again why I like them so much, as they have all of impact, detail and a seductive smoothness to their presentation and are a perfect match for my "wire-with-gain" main amp.
My portable rig has been a source of discovery. I went for the Fostex HP-P1 in the hope it would work well with the Symphones Magnums. However, just before I was to leave for Australia for Christmas, a pair of prototype HD-700s arrived and I didn't think the Fostex alone would cut it. By chance a fellow Aussie was selling a Triad Audio L3, so I nabbed that at far less than new. The results were much better than expected. Even with my main rig here, I can grab my portable rig and still very much enjoy music out of it. The combo simply nailed it, much like a good desktop rig does.
A useful discovery about the Fostex is that it works perfectly well with FLAC player on my iPhone or iPad, even with high-res files. I have quite a few albums I not been able to listen to without downsampling them, which I dislike doing, so this was indeed a pleasant discovery. Not only that, if you are playing music with FLAC player and the screen is locked, a double-press of the home button will bring up the music controls for it, not just the default Apple player. I just tested it with Getz / Gilberto (from HDTracks) and the sound was fantastic. Mind you, the overall cost of the entire set-up, including headphones was quite huge, so it should sound great.
Another discovery with my portable rig was with my RE-ZEROs. I stopped using them as they are, in effect, all mids-and-highs, which is useless for quite a range of music I like (and even for music that they are more suited). I was testing the HP-P1 with them to see if I could hear any hiss (a tiny amount, not enough to matter) and thought I'd try them with the L3 and bass boost. Now that worked surprisingly well. I never thought I'd own an amp with any kind of tone controls, but I have to admit, there are times a gentle boost to a pair of cans, rather like my Stacker II hybrid amp gives by its design, can be very beneficial. Sometimes a tiny bit more of some aspect of the frequency response, soundstage or detail is to push a good listening experience into a great one.
I finally got my LCD-3s back, with new, fault-free drivers (fingers crossed). I sent them off before I went on holidays and hoped to have them back on my return, but I've had to wait almost an extra month for them. My returned pair have closest to the best graph of all the Audeze headphones I've owned. Maybe it's because of their absence, but I was reminded again why I like them so much, as they have all of impact, detail and a seductive smoothness to their presentation and are a perfect match for my "wire-with-gain" main amp.
