Headphone suggestions
for a Hamburger
December 31, 2003
Wes,
I'm writing from Hamburg. Today, I listened to a Stax 4040
headphones, having my Sennheiser HD 600s with me as a reference. I listened to Wrecking
Ball by Emmylou Harris. So I was very surprised to find your articles on the Internet,
especially since I didn't have a clue if my HD 600s were good or bad -- they were
just the headphones I got from somebody who had Staxes and told me those were good too,
but not as expensive. I never forgot the Stax headphones, however, so I have a few
questions
How much influence does the headphone amplifier have on the
HD 600? What should I look for? What you used is hard to get here and I think very
expensive, but maybe it has to be.
And what other Stax headphones should I look for that won't
have the problem you describe? I preferred the 4040s to the 3030s because I heard more
detail, but, yes, I also thought that this was a bit unreal when I compared the sound with
my studio work. There I use ProAc 100 speakers and Tannoy DMT 12s.
Tobias
I think the headphone amplifier can have a very big
impact on the sound of great headphones, especially neutral-sounding models like the HD
600. I like my HeadRoom BlockHead very much, but it is expensive.
Andrew Pearce, an ardent audiophile and headphone listener,
recently wrote me and suggested I check out the Antique Sound Labs MG OTL headphone
amplifier. I haven't heard it (yet), but at $359 USD, it seems like a great deal and
Andrew's description of the sound got me really excited. You may be able to find it in
Hamburg.
But there are many other choices out there -- the EarMax,
as it's known over here, should be readily available there, as should be the new Musical
Fidelity X-Can V3, which I have in-house for review.
As to the clean, almost hyper-real sound of electrostatic
headphones, I think that's part of their appeal. To the people who love electrostats (and,
while I prefer my Sennheisers, I do count myself among them -- mostly), that's a feature,
not a bug.
I've heard the Stax Omegas, which use a tube amplifier, and
they rank among the best headphones I have ever heard, but if you think the 4040s are
expensive, you'll faint at the price of the Omegas (I almost did).
A real treat, especially if you're using them in your
studio, is AKG 1000s. These dynamic headphones are a tough load to drive (although the new
MF amp does a great job), but they offer incredible bass response and very natural, fluid
highs. And for you, they're local.
Room size and speaker placement
December 29, 2003
Dear Wes,
I recently moved into a "new" 106-year-old house
-- throwing my audio world into chaos. First things first -- I am switching from a 5.1
system to a two-channel system. Having finally settled on a room in which to reconstruct
my audio system, I am struggling with speaker placement. My room dimensions are 12'
8" x 14' 8", with a ceiling height of 9' 8".
Two of the walls (one short and one long) are plaster over
masonry; the other two are plaster over some unknown material. I have hardwood floors.
In your experience, is this room a "small" room
that would benefit from "Loudspeaker Room Placement -- Part 2," or is it a
"large" room that would benefit from "Loudspeaker Room
Placement -- Part 1"? I have fiddled with both arrangements, and nothing has
really grabbed me yet.
For your reference, my system consists of:
Rotel RA-02 integrated amp
Audio Alchemy ACD II CD player
B&W 602s2 speakers on Lovan stands
AudioQuest Turquoise interconnect
AudioQuest Type 6 speaker cable
Keep up the good work!
Dave
Given your ceiling height, I'd rate your room as
mid-sized, but you probably have two problems sitting well back from the speakers and
leaving room behind your listening position for the sound to "bloom." Therefore,
I would work with the setup suggested by the "Part 2." If you don't get the
sound you're looking for at first, keep making very small adjustments to the basic
geometry -- sometimes it takes quite a bit of back and forth to lock in the sound.
Of course, tastes and rooms vary, but that's where I'd
start.
If all else fails, sometimes I have had good results from
setting the room up on the diagonal -- placing the speakers out from the two walls in a
corner, firing toward the diagonal corner of the room. Place your listening chair along
that diagonal line a few feet away from the rear corner -- this gets you further away from
the speakers and gives you a little extra room behind your chair, but you must maintain
precise symmetry in both speaker position and in sound-reflecting surfaces to make this
work.
You might also consider an area rug at the first-reflection
point on those lovely hardwood floors. I used to have a friend who would scatter a few
pillows on his floor just before serious listening sessions. He said it gave him much
greater soundstage depth. He'd always pick the pillows up before his SO came home though!
Biamping question
December 24, 2003
Wes,
I have a Parasound preamp with one pair
of output jacks. I'd like a definitive answer to a wiring question I've always had: If I
want to biamplify a pair of Boston Acoustics tower speakers that have two pairs of speaker
posts, can I run two RCA splitters from the preamp outs to two stereo amps without any
degradation of the signal? Or do I need a preamp with two pair of line-out jacks?
Thanks for your terrific site.
John
A high-quality splitter will be just
peachy. Monster Cable makes a particularly nice one.
Speaker-cable length important?
December 22, 2003
Wes,
I just spent an hour or so on your website (found via SoundStage!)
and really enjoyed your reviews and commentaries. It's refreshing to see someone out there
actually believes that you can have awesome sound without mortgaging the home -- not
everybody can afford $5000 cables and $20,000 speakers. I grew up in a musical world, as
my father had a professional recording studio and I was weaned on Crown, Ampex, and
Wharfdale. Old names I'm sure, but in the '60s and '70s, their stuff was phenomenal.
I am in the process of upgrading speakers and I had a
question about cables. I currently run a Yamaha RX-V850 A/V receiver with Tannoy Reveal
passive monitors. I intend to replace my 24-year-old Electrovoice speakers with the
Soliloquy 5.3s. I also want to replace the old zip-cord wires with something reasonably
priced.
My question is this: Does it make a difference if the
cables are all the same length? My system lives inside an entertainment center, and the
distance to the speakers are approximately 15' on one side and only about 8' on the other.
Should I buy cables all the same length or instead buy one 8' pair and one 15' pair to run
both pair of speakers? The Tannoys sit up on top of the entertainment center (about 8'
away) and the Soliloquy speakers will sit on the floor.
I would be greatly appreciative of knowing you thoughts on
this dilemma. I've never really seen this issues discussed before, so any insight you may
have would be great.
Thanks again for the interesting reading on your website. I
now have a shortcut on my desktop that leads me straight there.
David
I have to admit I'm not clear on why you'd want to run
both pairs of loudspeakers in the same room, unless you're using the Electrovoices as
surrounds -- but that's not what it sounds like.
Many people use several pairs of loudspeakers to get
"fuller" sound, but it never sounds fuller to me, just mooshier. That's not to
say you shouldn't do it -- it's your call and you really shouldn't care what I think as
long as you're happy.
As to speaker-wire lengths, yes I think that the runs
to each speaker pair should be the same length. If you're running two pair of speakers,
you don't need to make all four runs the same length (I reckon -- I've never actually seen
this addressed).
BTW, the reason you want the speaker leads to be the
same length isn't to make the signal arrive at the same time (as I have seen some
"gurus" claim), it's a question of presenting equal loads to the two channels of
the amplifier. Resistance and capacitance change the sound of the signal, so you want to
keep all of those factors equivalent in both channels.
Affordable turntable?
December 18, 2003
Wes,
I used to have a functioning turntable
inherited from my grandparents, but it recently stopped working. I began searching online for a replacement and have
been daunted by the huge variety of styles and prices. Could
you recommend any particular brand to stick to or a particular model that would be on the
affordable end of the spectrum? I am thinking a couple hundred dollars or so.
Trent
I really like the Music Hall MMF-2.1
for around $300. It's a belt-drive design with compliant rubber feet (that constitute its
suspension), and it comes complete with a cartridge. The tonearm is pretty robust, too.
A few hundred bucks more buys you a
Rega Planar 2, which has a better tonearm (which makes an audible difference), but you'll
also need to budget in a cartridge. If you’re really committed to analog, it'll
probably be worth it in the long run -- vinylholics tend to want better and better 'arms
and cartridges.
DVD player for two-channel audio
December 11, 2003
Hi Wes,
I
just ran across your site -- excellent resource!
I want to add DVD to my two-channel setup
(Audio Refinement Complete integrated amp, NAD C541i CD player, Triangle speakers). I don't want to upgrade everything to 5.1 (I really love
my Complete amp -- it sounds gorgeous -- though I'm not so thrilled with the NAD C541i). I
just want to be able to watch the occasional DVD.
So, would it be better to replace my CD
player with a DVD/CD player, or get a separate DVD player?
Which players would you recommend?
Allan
As I'm sure you know, all DVD players
also play CDs, although not all of them do it all that well. Yeah, yeah, I know they're
all supposed to play all the ones and zeroes and that's all that counts, right?
That is the theory, of course, but --
at least to my ears -- that's not how it works. Of course, there's a whole raft of
universal SACD/DVD-A/CD players now, such as the Onkyo SP800, Denon DV2900, and Pioneer
Elite DV-45A (which is under $500!), which are supposed to sound good no matter
which format you play on them. I haven't heard any of them myself, but I'll be making a
concerted effort to report on the Elite DV-45A soon.
Improving soundstaging
December 8, 2003
Wes,
Thanks for the fantastic website. I keep a very regular eye
on it to read the latest news and views from the expert. I would be very grateful for your
expert suggestions.
I currently have an Arcam DiVA CD72 CD player, Musical
Fidelity X-A2 amp, and KEF Q3 floorstanding speakers. I very much enjoy listening to this
system, but the one main thing that really disappoints me is the lack of soundstaging.
Even with plenty of experimentation with positioning of the speakers in the room, there is
limited width and depth to the music.
What would be the best ways of improving this? For $1300 or
so, in general (if it's possible to generalize), would a new CD player, amp or speakers
bring the most improvement? I can't do any room treatments as I live in a shared flat.
I would assume that the speakers are the major factor --
maybe changing to stand-mounted speakers would be beneficial. Also, Ken Kessler reckons
that American speakers tend to do soundstaging better than European. Would you agree?
However, I've also listened to a (unfortunately way too expensive) Chord preamp, which
suddenly made the room seem a whole lot bigger, so obviously the other components in the
chain can have a large effect.
What do you think? Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Mark
Before you buy anything, spend some time playing around
with setup. If you must buy something new (and I know about that desire, believe me), do
so after you've made your system sound as good as possible -- then you'll get the most
bang for your buck.
Paying attention to setup and placement can make any
system sound better.
First, make sure your speakers have room to breathe. I
have written about speaker placement before, so check those articles for details.
But having space around your listening spot is just as
important as having space around the loudspeaker. Try to place your seat so that you have
at least a few feet of empty space behind your seat. You need to get away from the rear
wall so that you don't get early reflections off it (this is known as the Haas precedence
effect), which messes up your brain's ability to recognize the source of the sound. If
your room is too small for this, you might want to try the Audio
Physic-recommended near-boundary setup approach, which is a good choice if your room
is too small to give you that much open area.
You should also look at the side walls of the room
between the speakers and your sweet spot. Breaking up the first reflections from those
side walls can have a dramatic effect on your perception of spaciousness within the
soundstage.
Do you have a rug? That can play a huge role in opening
up your window into the recorded soundfield. If you already have a rug, add a pad under it
-- you'll be surprised at the difference it can make.
Of course, if you've already taken care of all these
details, perhaps you will want to upgrade a component or two, but I'll wager the system
you've described is capable of producing a deeper, wider soundstage than you've heard from
it to date. All it takes is a little lugging and tugging to get everything lined up just
so.
Good luck!
New headphones or headphone cable?
December 3, 2003
Dear Wes,
I greatly enjoy your work. I
am thinking about changing my the cable on my Sennheiser HD&580 headphones. Is the difference between the HD&580 and HD 600
greater than the cable change? And did you get a
chance to listen to the mini-to-1/4" adapter to
see if you thought there was a difference?
Also here
is a link to another guy who makes a cable for the Sennheisers.
Thanks for your all your great writing.
Gower
Is the difference between the HD&580 and
HD 600 greater than the difference wrought by a better cable? That's a toughie. It
depends primarily on where you think the '580s need improving.
The biggest difference between the two models is in
their structural materials, not within the audio chain -- that means that Sennheiser
employs carbon fiber and steel in the '600's framework. If you don't listen to full-range
music at fairly high volumes (not recommended, obviously, but sometimes a necessity in
recording monitoring), you might not hear much difference.
When I compared the two 'phones for my Stereophile
review, I heard differences and preferred the '600s. If I owned neither, I'd definitely
buy the '600s -- otherwise, I'd always wonder if I shouldn't have stepped up to them in
the first place.
But I'm not so sure I'd trade up from the '580s, if I
didn't do recording work. For day-to-day music listening, the '580s do just about
everything as well as the '600s. Of course, if you listen to techno at high volumes, you
might want the solidity and freedom from internal vibration the '600s offer -- but that's
conjecture, since that's not how I listen. (Again, as a pair of working cans in a
recording situation, the '600s unquestionably justify the expense.)
So I'd opt for the cable upgrade over the model change.
I haven't done a miniplug-versus-1/4"-jack
comparison -- which probably represents a failure in imagination on my part, since it
never even occurred to me. Fortunately, my '600s now are connected with Stefan AudioArt
Equinox cables, which are terminated with extremely high-quality 1/4" connectors, so
I dodged that particular bullet (phew!).
The Moon Audio cables look interesting. Have you heard
any of them?
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