Bad Guy Good Audio Rankings and stuff (under construction) (Part 1)

[hawaiibadboy]

HawaiiBadboy (2 minute audio reviews/unbox)

[Robius]

That box and cable

[hawaiibadboy]

He’s doing the Sony IER Z1R drawers…and I dig it a lot

[luizgarcia]

Hey @hawaiibadboy, i just got my hands on a HE6se V2 and i am curious if you ever tried those with a speaker amp? I read everywhere that you will only hear its true sound if connected to a speaker tap.

I am wondering if this can really be true because i am powering it with a Schiit Asgard 3 and the sound is freaking magnificent and the Asgard “only” delivers 2.5w @ 50ohms. I am using the Asgard at MAX volume though.

If this set can do much better than this with a speaker amp it would be something to behold!

[hawaiibadboy]

@luizgarcia

I read everywhere that you will only hear its true sound if connected to a speaker tap.

I did tap em and …I think my Jot2 is just fine.

If folks believe that…power to them (no pun intended).
Insisting that as fact over opinion?
I reject that.

[hawaiibadboy]

I am Happy Fearless is coming back.

3 models coming

Barcelona $118; It is 1DD+1BA;
Provence $138; It is 1DD+2BA;
Shangri-la $228; It is 1DD+ 4BA;

[Robius]

Provence looks like it’ll be a very dark sounding iem which is my cup of tea.

[Tfaduh]

Wow. These models are cheaper than I expected from Fearless!

[hawaiibadboy]

Yup, using DD’s and dropping to a more competitive and accesible price range seems like 2 good ideas to me

[Frainen]

Managed to demo the Mezze Elite, not enthusiast, but was not in good conditions.
@hawaiibadboy what is your early verdict on the DC Stealth?
As well, not sure we will be able to demo the LCD 5 in Japan. Hard to try all the new headphones!

[hawaiibadboy]

Not a fan of Stealth.
Think it lacks low end and that is one reason i would even consider a closed back.

[Frainen]

Thanks.
I guess we look for the same thing to complement the Susvara.

[hawaiibadboy]

Love this look

[DaveB]

Sweet. I’ll be keeping a close eye on those…now if one isn’t their traditional V shape but a tad closer to neutral I’ll be super interested.

[Dynamic]

@luizgarcia

you ever tried those with a speaker amp?

I did. And I will reflect what @hawaiibadboy said. They do need power and the idsd micro signature could not drive them loud without bass distortion for me. Did the 100 watt speaker amp do better than that? Yes. They sounded the best on the xduoo ta-30. This was pushing that amp pretty hard, but it did it.

Asgard is probably an awesome choice. But I haven’t heard it. A90/d90 just didn’t sound that great (actually, pretty close to the speaker amp, but with less power)

One caveat: if you use a negative overall gain to boost bass eq, you may need more power. Maybe a lot more power.

Improvement once their needs are met is incremental at best.

[hawaiibadboy]

@Dynamic

A90/d90

Thought I was the only dude who did not like those 2.

[hawaiibadboy]

This one is not as bright as L4 or dark as L5 but still a V.

[Dynamic]

@hawaiibadboy

who did not like those 2.

Nope. It’s not like they are bad. It was better than the sp200/m200 technically. So, analogy: these superlinear stacks manage to take a live human played instrument and reproduce it in a way that almost sounds synthesized. That’s my interpretation. Schiit, ifi and xduoo stacks don’t do this for me.

Ironically, I have the new dx3 pro+ incoming as a small desktop source would be very convenient for me currently. I expect this will perform similarly to my Qudelix and that is all I need.

[hawaiibadboy]

I thought the Topping made stuff feel lifeless.
Not neutral.
Lifeless.

[Dynamic]

I think that’s what I said. With more words.