Dyaems
Comparing the Z1000 with Mundorf cable and the stock CD900ST using T51 unamped.
The Z1000 has smoother mids and it has a bit better treble extension. Also, the Z1000 is much less revealing than the CD900ST, even sibilant tracks make its sibilance non-existent with the Z1000. I wonder what type of material Sony used at the back of the Z1000’s cups.
Both headphones extend deep but still don’t have enough punch. The 2 things that the CD900ST wins over the Z1000 are the midrange section and its transparency, but it still comes down to preference, I guess.
The midrange of the CD900ST is more forward, making the Z1000 sound laidback when compared it side by side. Midrange to lower treble detail goes to the CD900ST as well, it is much clearer than the Z1000 for me.
Obviously, bad recordings are bad with the CD900ST. Sibilant recordings become more sibilant, distorted sections become more distorted, while the Z1000 lets you listen and enjoy the music without getting ticked by those bad recordings.
Comparing the Z1000 and the CD900ST with the modded Indeed G2 amp and T51. Now, this is a different story as the CD900ST sounds like a different headphone when plugged into the G2 amp since the CD900ST has a lot better transparency than the Z1000.
Note that my term for transparency might be wrong here since what I mean with transparency is to allow the headphone to sound or produce or to follow how the recording/source/amp is connected with the headphone.
The CD900ST really opened when paired it with the G2 amp. Soundstage and instrument separation of the CD900ST greatly improved while it is the almost same as the Z1000, it still falls out behind the CD900ST. The CD900ST’s bass section gains more ‘meat’ than the Z1000 as well.
Still looking for a Z900 somewhere out there… and I didn’t compare the CD900ST or the Z1000 to the DT48 because I might be biased with it because I never liked the sound of the DT48 even using Ken’s set up in his shop.
Moving to IEMs
Tried the EX600 as well, I love treble but I think the treble is too much when I paired it with the T51. Maybe the EX600 needs a warm amp or DAP for this to sound good. They said that the EX600 is around 90% of the EX1000, I guess I might be skipping the EX1000 and move to its dark sister, the EX800ST.
Tried those UM customs except for the Merlin. The Marvel sounds dark, or too dark for my taste. Mids were the only thing that is good with this. Aero is much more balanced but sounds congested. The miracle has more treble extension than the Aero but it is not fatiguing nor sibilant at all.
If we are talking about instrument separation and soundstage, The UM3x still wins over these 3 universal cIEMs. I guess my basis for this is a headphone since headphones tend to be better when it comes to separation and soundstage, and the um3x really sounds like a headphone to me.
One thing I like about the 3 cIEMS that I tried is their mids. Female vocals sound really sweet with Marvel, Aero, and the Miracle.
I also tried the LCD2v2… This is the first time that I have listened to an LCD-2 for more than 5 minutes and the bass is great. Smooth, full/meaty, tight. I think every great thing related to bass is already with the LCD2.
The Rocco DAP is a great alternative for those who can’t afford to buy a Studio-V as well. Very neutral and clean-sounding DAP. It kinda reminds me of a t51. Although don’t compare it side by side with the studio-V because it has humongous battery life. It has more than 50 hours of FLAC, compared to ~10 hours for the Rocco.
The amp section is a day and night difference as well. And the sound of the Studio-v is cleaner than the Rocco. Both have the same UI as well so for those who are raging with the Studio-V’s UI, it still might not be for you, haha! The Rocco is priced around 6-8k which is 40-50% of the price of the Studio-V for those who are interested.
Racio
Audez’e LCD2 V1 & V2
Given that I only had around 3 hours left to sort thru the myriad of headphiliac gears on hand, I scooted straight to Marcus’ all stock LCD-2 V2 and shot it against my Mundorf’ed V1 so that I could finally have an idea where the Audez’e duo’s design direction is heading to with regards to the voicing of their cans, and have a glimpse where the LCD3 would be at Audez’es grand scheme of things.
Off the bat, I noticed the V2’s thicker pads, and although Sankar sent me these updated leathers, I’ve yet to get around replacing mine (I’m afraid I might screw it up!).
Next was the undeniable weight difference between my copper modded L’s and the stock cans, man, I already forgot how “light” these were in stock form! (haha!) Also, the clamping force was lesser by a slight degree on the newer version, which still felt snug and secure on my noggin’.
Well, on to the more important sonics, using my usual porta-rig as my source and amp, specifically, my trusty RB’ed iMod and my Meier StepDance with an outboard power supply, alternating with Roy’s porta-modded FiiO E9 (that’s a monster of a portable amp bro, it reminded me of my Mini^3 but with gobs and gobs of unadulterated power! I want one!).
I spun my pod’s little HDD’s to Elis & Tom’s (Regina and Jobim) Inútil Paisagem and the flamenco trio’s Rio Ancho from their live Friday Night In San Francisco masterpiece to check if I could pick up any excessive sibilance (on Elis’ voice) and over sharpness on the trio’s mind-boggling tremolo plucks and glissandos.
Expecting the new version to sound brighter, I was surprised to discover that the stock V2 to sound virtually identical to my Mundorf’ed V1s in the top end, even down to the intensity of the background hiss on the Brazilian track (I think I remember Carlo telling me he had the same impressions about the highs).
However, I realized thereafter that if I swapped the cables on the 2 versions, I’d have a different result altogether and would probably share the more popular opinion that the V2’s are indeed brighter. Nevertheless, this only shows the aural impact of this silver+gold gem of a cable on these cans… a cable believer, indeed I am!
Checking the rest of the spectrum, after playing Kraftwerk’s Man-Machine and Carl Orff’s O Fortuna from his Carmina Burana opera (yeah, I get a kick out of the diversity of these two tracks), I not only heard but also felt that my V1’s were way more eager to go subterranean on me than the V2.
I thought the newer version was slightly timid on the bottom end and had to run a frequency sweep to thoroughly check this.
And true enough, the V1 had an edge from the lower mids to the bottom octaves, whilst the V1 jolts my skull every time it reaches the peak of a crescendo, the V2’s fall short. Even listening to Sarah Vaughan’s take on Ivan Lin’s The Island, Sassy’s voice seemed more palpably plump and sensual.
Perhaps this was owing to them Mundorf’s again, or maybe the new drivers are now indeed voiced to tilt towards the highs a bit. I’m really hoping it’s more due to the former than the latter, otherwise, I’d be praying that my now discontinued V1’s won’t ever croak on me!
UM Miracles & Merlins, the CIEM siblings
Well, moving on, after having done with the Audez’e siblings, next up for me were bro Dink’s and Doc RJ’s UM brothers, the flagship Miracles, and the seemingly overachieving Merlins hybrid.
I don’t know with the rest of the guys at the meet, but putting on those demo universal fit CIEMs and having them stick in your ears was torture for me! I had to hold them down with my thumbs into my ear canals while listening or they’ll pop right off!
With all that pain aside though, listening to the same tracks as mentioned above, the Miracles easily had the upper hand in having a tad clearer and more neutral presentation than the Merlins, albeit dryer and less involving to my ears.
To level the playing field somehow, I asked the UM guys to hook up the all-silver cabling on hand with the Merlins and see if these would flesh out the minute details that were slightly lacking with the hybrids compared to the all armature CIEM.
And voila, as I expected, resolution on the Merlins went notches up, and already at par with the crystal-sounding Miracles but with a more enveloping and riveting bass repro to boot! Hey, I’m sold! hehe.
UM Merlins & AKG K3003, the hybrids
So, feeling like a happy camper for finally finding my first ever to be CIEMs, I took a breather and while having a cig break in the foyer with the guys, bro JCRuiz asked if I already had the chance to listen to the new AKG K3003’s… what??!! who has ’em??!! I rushed off and lined up (yep, there was a queue for the only available pair) right away.
Seeing that I only had a few remaining minutes before the whole meet had to wrap up, grabbed the Merlins with the silver cables did a quick shootout between the two hybrids, and focused mainly on treble and mids, as well as sibilance, which my ears seem to be particularly sensitive to and are often the deal-breaker for me.
Anyways, the bass bias tuning ports/filters for the AKGs were not available for demo, so I didn’t see the point in testing bass repro for both.
Although both exhibited remarkable finesse and control around 7kHz to 8kHz, the AKG had a slight tinge of excess exuberance over this region relative to the UM, which evidently caused it to seem less natural-sounding in this respect to these old ears of mine.
It would’ve been way better of course if we were allowed to test out the tuning ports (they were still in factory seals) as this would certainly give us a better appreciation of its full tweakability potential. That being said, I can’t help but go against the tide here and tip my hat towards UM’s way.
Sforza
The LCD2 was excellent with both the Asgard (on Eargo’s set-up with the Audio-GD DAC) and the Burson amp. I think I spent 30 minutes with each of them. Both these amps were tuned using the HD600/650 IIRC, and the LCD2 shares some of their sound signatures.
marcusd
So last year I came out of KenJam1 saying I love lots of things but special mention to ken’s T1. here I am coming out of KenJam2 a year later and still saying the same damn thing. The HE500 maybe be obtainable, but the T1 still stands out in my mind as a headphone I could listen to all day and night.
This was the first time I got to listen to the Burson HA-160 and 160D amp setup. Love the sound, beautiful detail but not a fan of the stepped volume attenuation. It’s too crude and clunky and does not give me great control, to be honest.
Other than that they were beautifully built, components reeked of quality and I loved the low and high impedance options for both units. Members mentioned they paired really well with the HD650 well let me tell ya, folks, the Burson team apparently designed the HA series using the 650 as their lead headphone test unit so that comes as no surprise to me.
For those who want to listen to the HA-160D, it will be with Oliver Pe and the Listening Room team tomorrow onward. From time to time I will be back with the HA-150 headphone amp at the smaller meets.
Thanks to Marvin for bringing the AKG K3003 demo unit in – at the price being offered for the love of god get that pure poison well away from me – the K3003 is starting to get a cult status already with members and quite rightly so.
Once again Ken’s desk was just full of the wonderful and the curious. The O2 Stax I tried last year so need to go there again. The SA5000 does so look like a mini HD800 but somewhat smaller than I had thought of in my mind.
The LCD-2 V2 I enjoyed a lot out of the Lyr and even the Burson. Very smooth and very laid back without losing any of that distinct bass so popular with our members.
It is indeed lighter than the stock can with better padding in my mind though Racio’s brass wonder v1 is now so far from the stock look and heavier as a consequence. It is indeed a tad brighter and cleaner in the upper range than the V1.
Summary
So there we have it folks, another big finish to the end of another great year for the country’s leading website and forum in headphones and mobile audio. I expect in 2012 we will have to find a bigger venue!
