That’s a great, pleasantly laid back headphone.
Once you get them enough power they’ll really sing (as much as I love it, the DFC is pretty underpowered. Great for lower impedance, efficient headphones).
Do you have a tube amp? Because if you don’t and you have the verite and aeolus you really might want to get a mid to high tier one lol, zmf just love tubes
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sounds like you just occupied my next 48-72 hours in tube amp research lol thanks!!
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Yeah tbh my verite very rarely leave a tube (although if I had an eikon or aut I actually prefer a warmer solid state or hyrbid)
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Good to hear, I had no doubt you wouldnt enjoy! Joshua Valor had a video about a ~40€ tube from amazon, which he used as a preamp with the 789. Might wanna check that out.
I bought it and I use it as a preamp for my living room speakers, sounds fantastic!
I saw that! Pretty cool idea!! Did you change out the tubes or just the stock ones? I actually went full hog as usual and bought a Bottlehead Crackatwoa… Looking forward to hearing it!
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Nice, I look forward to hearing your impressions. I’ve heard and love the Bottlehead Crack w/ Speedball, but I don’t trust my engineering skills to assemble one myself
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Damn, just googled it and saw it for the first time.
Looks beautiful. How are your impressions? Is there something in the concept I should know, @Onaha said he doesnt want to assemble one? 
Bottlehead sells kits that you have to put together yourself. They occasionally will sell assembled amps, and there are people who build and sell them for a markup, but the bulk is kits that need your assembly to operate
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Ok so I’m listening to the Crackatwoa now with the Verite Closed… Doing a back and forth now, which I know isn’t conclusive, but it clues me in to what I should listen for.
I am running Tidal to VMV D1 into the balanced inputs of the 789, and the single ended goes into the tube amp. I am plugging in and out of the single ended output of the 789. So far I’ve listened to Jamie Culum, Young the Giant and my own album.
If I had a gun to my head now, I would say the Crackatwoa has a bump form like 150hz to 250hz-ish (I’m not looking at any graphs and am no mastering engineer, but I record and mix my own music) and a small roll off at around 100hz. Then, slight boost from 1k up to maybe 7khz, after which there’s a small roll off as well. Also, the tubes give me a bit of compression. I definitely think strings are benefiting from this. Vocals sound “warmer” and closer… you can sort of feel more energy coming from the performances. That said…
…I’m preferring the 789 at the moment, if I’m honest. It gives me a better sub response for kick drums, the cymbals in things seem a little less aggressive to me, and I hear more high end “air”. My first thought when I compared the two was that the 789 gave me more definition, more resolve, and I liked that. I think it has to do with coloration (duh) or lack thereof. It could also be I’m much more acclimated to modern mastering and those kinds of fuller spectrum sounds? I’m enjoying the hell out of the tube amp though; it’s my newest toy, and it looks quite imposing. Longer term listening will tell. I’ve only listened to like three albums, so this is very early impressions. I can’t really speak to imaging, I can’t find too significant a difference.
I can see how this is where one reserves certain genres for tubes and SS for others. The real takeaway for me though is that, duck, I really love Mind Over Matter by Young the Giant…
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Very nice. Nice taste in books too. Infinite Jest is a masterpiece
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How much time have you put on it so far?
Maybe 3 hours? lol not much at all.
New or used? Tubes need some time to burn in, so leaving it on for a few days can improve the sound
Used (8months, from the ad), but yes, that’s very true, it hasn’t warmed 100%… It has the stock tubes, and I got a Mullard CV4003 with it that I haven’t tried.
Hi M0N, how would you describe the sound of the sendy aiva overall? I love its design, but some people say there are significant dips in the freq response which I don’t really want
It’s generally a brighter v shape sound, aggressive and forward, somewhat lean sounding, narrow stage, good detail, impact is ok, dynamics ok. Generally not my favorite overall, but a somewhat fun listen, but personally I’d rather just have something like a sundara, or some of the higher end options, but for the price they now go for it isn’t bad
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Thanks. They are not really that similar, but how does the aeon x open or aeon rt open compare to the sendy aiva? I compare them because they are both pretty well built and come in a travel friendly package.
Hmmm, so I think tonally the aeons sound more coherent, better fullness, similar detail, dynamics are lackluster though, stage a bit larger. I might rather have the aeon but the compression on the older aeon drivers really bother me (which was addressed on the aeon 2)