Is anyone building a shopping list for when this is over?

Off-Topic
18

I’m torn… but I’m assuming the Eikons are better for lower volume listening which is what I want.

19

I listen pretty loudly, so I can’t help too much there. I think you may miss some of the slam I love them for at lower volumes, but it certainly won’t sound bad

20

Honestly, I kinda prefer the eikons more fun signature, and imo with the zmf you don’t really get a whole ton of benefits from going with their open backs

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21

Since they both use the same bio-dynamic driver I’d imagine they are both about the same in terms of at what volume level they come “alive”.
I generally don’t listen very loud (with exceptions) and I really like the Eikons, they really don’t sound closed, but I don’t have Auteurs to directly compare to.

2 Likes
22

Appreciated, the more I research the more I like what I see about the Eikons, but holy crap the Auteur’s look amazing.

23

That pretty much settles it then, fun signature? I’m on that like a donkey eating a waffle. Now to get the offer letter to come in.

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24

I have never heard that phrase before lol

From my experience the eikon is a bit more fun, where the auteur is more neutral, both are pretty awesome

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25

Magni 3+ if you’re hooking it up to a turn table for sure. You’ll like their class A like sound. It’s some small but I’m sure you will appreciate it.

26

but i thought the heresy was objectively better and not as hot and sounded better on certain headphones

27

If you want a THX like sound, then yeah the Heresy. If you hear @M0N talk about the Asguard 3 and you want that experience at $100, Magni 3+.

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28

I wouldn’t overthink it too much they are both good amps. And they sound more alike than different.
You might as well just pick the one that comes in the color you prefer.

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29

i dunno what the THX like sound is

30

Not sure if you really want to shoot for a thx like sound lol, I think you would want to look for something transparent instead lol

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31

if by transparent i mean it basically doesn’t color the sound in any notable way so i can focus on how the vinyl and preamp already sounds…

then yes

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32

Gotcha, then the heresy would be pretty great then, the 3+ is a bit less harsh and a tad warmer but they do sound somewhat close, both are fairly clean

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33

I just realized the speakers I want have like a 96 db sensitivity. So I’m gonna probably scale back from a planned bryston 4b³ to a 2b³

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34

i just prefer when most things of sound are as neutral as it can have so i can judge how good the music is… the music should be mastered fun, headphones should just amplify it and i feel like preamps and amps should just increase a sound

35

I’ve found I like building a transparent, revealing sound with my system so I have a base of what sounds pure to my ears so I can the fuck with it with things like tubes

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36

Gotcha, well that’s not really reality unfortunately so you have to make some compromises lol. Things are already mastered the way they are intended to sound for the most part, and of course having a transparent signal chain to recreate the audio would be nice for sure, but everything will color the sound so you can’t do much lol

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37

It’s a common misconception that music is in mastered on colorless equipment.
Everything in the listening chain when it was mastered colored the sound, no one has ever heard just the sound of the recording.

The average THD on a headphone will be in the 1% range, and speakers are worse, those swamp any coloration from almost anything else in the chain (probably not the cartridge on a turntable which may even be worse).

I understand the goal of hearing what’s recorded, but as someone on a different forum said today, if you want to hear what the artist intended goto a concert.

For most of us who’ve been around the block with this audio thing, the goal is really to provide a pleasing reproduction of the music.