I'm a serious musician and audio has been important to me since the 1960s. This system is my third major upgrade in the last 40 years.
You can see that it's important for me to integrate my system into our apartment living space, that I share with my wife of 39-years. It was important for the speakers to be physically attractive as furniture and, most importantly, be very musical.
The analog front end is incredibly revealing. When I'm seriously listening I pull the speakers out to the positions that you see, which was determined using Sumiko's Master Set technolog. Rod Thomson of Soundings set mine for me. Believe it or not, that table to the left is no problem for either imaging or frequency response. The narrow set is defined by that short wall and the opening into the hall and foyer. The image goes out past the speakers and centered vocalists are about 3/4 the way up the armoire in the center and depth goes back to the back wall. You'd be amazed at the bass from this system, particularly given the wonderfully open and textured midrange.
At other times the AKG headphones and incredible Woo Audio amplifier provide a great alternative for listening without moving the furniture around.
The Korg MR1000 is used for live recording and archiving vinyl using 1-bit DSD at 5.6 mHz.
System edited: I replaced my Sumiko Blackbird cartridge with Soundsmith's The Voice Ebony, with .6mV, tracking at 1.4g. Mine's the medium compliance version. I'll try to post a review soon.
My MC46 has a headphone jack on it, but I haven't really used it other than just to try it for a moment, as headphones have never been a priority. I really doubt I would use headphones outside of straight from the iPod, not that I wouldn't enjoy a better setup, just being realistic in the way I live. So, if I ever do go up in class over my PX100's, whatever I'd choose would need to work with the iPod, hence my question(s). I also use them ('phones/iPod) at night if/when I have trouble sleeping, so smaller equals better, but I don't like buds...maybe it is just the stock apple buds turned me off to them.
It is a "bummer" that the Cardas upgrade is so much better on these 'phones, as once we ('philes) know this, it is a must to do so!
My PX100's, while not on par with your 701's, also took a long time to break-in, they were a bit too dark for me until the finally "came to".
No, not satisfactorily, since the 701 demand pretty strong juice. The Ultimate Ears are fantastic with only the iPod and on a par with the AKGs for timbral balance, with slightly stronger bass. I seldom use the UEs at home.
Over at www.head-fi.org lots of people talk about the Grados and most of the Sennheisers work well with just an iPod. Those tend to sound a little thicker in the mids and have a little bass hump, but many people love them.
One other warning about the AKGs, they require a lot of break-in to sound they're best (100-200 hours, IME). I liked mine right out of the box, but the Woo amp is one of the very smoothest around and a great bargain at $545 (spring for the upgraded rectifier in a system as nice as yours). With "ordinary" amplification and average sources many people complain about the AKGs being too etched and lacking bass and needing 300-hours of break in. With your good sources I don't think you're going to have those problems.
A Wilson guy is going to want the "air" and accuracy of the AKGs vs. the slight euphonics of Senn and Grado, IMHO. Upgrading the cord to Cardas was a significant step forward, but not essential to really enjoy the 701s, IME. It's a bit of a pain since it needs to be hard wired, while the Senns and Grados accept plugs.
I also own a set of Audio Technica W5000 cans, which are highly regarded, but not as good as the AKGs, IMHO.
The timbral balance of my headphones and my speakers is very much the same, but I prefer the speakers when I'm allowed to crank them to realistic levels and sit in a good spot for serious listening. The cans are a great substitute for when I can't do that because of others in the house. There's nothing like the pants flapping in the breeze and powerful bass notes slamming into your chest, that you can't get with cans.
The AKGs are semi-open. Occasionally I'be wear the cans while running the speakers at a realistic level. That's an "interesting" mode of operation. It validates for me that the two systems are timbrally consistant. At that point there's so little difference that I just stay with the speakers, preferring not to put hours on the tubes in the Woo.
Wow Dave, I am very envious of your home headphone rig!! What is your thoughts of this vs. playing through your system? Also, did you compare the AKG's to any others? I read so much good about the 701's.
"I also enjoy listening to my iPod via headphones, I replaced the stock buds with Senn. PX100 headphones though."
For travel I use Ultimate Ear Triple.fi 10 Pro IEMs, straight out of either the iPod Classic 160-gig or my iPhone 16G. At home, now that I've got the Wadia, I route the signal to my Woo Audio WA-6 headphone amp and drive my AKG 701s that have been recabled with Cardas. That's a really sweet set up.
Thanks for sharing your findings Dave, they mirror mine, and others; I would have been puzzled if you found it differently.
Talking with one reviewer, before I received my iTransport, he told me that in his experience, he heard absolutely no difference in high dollar transports vs. cheap transports, as long as he used a DAC that reclocked the signal.
I also compared the coax cable supplied by Wadia to one from Pure Note and I couldn't tell any difference there either; I use the cord from Wadia.
I also enjoy listening to my iPod via headphones, I replaced the stock buds with Senn. PX100 headphones though.
Yes Mapman, I'm in the DAC is VERY important camp with you. I'm really pleased that my Playback Designs allows me to take advantage of its DAC with other inputs.
What you describe sounds consistent with my belief supported by my server listening experience that most of the cost involved in getting good sound from a audio server has to do with the DAC and the same factors in an audio system that typically make for good sound otherwise.
Good news, I just compared the playback of a track from the CD I downloaded to iTunes this morning, using Lossless with error correction, to the same CD on my Playback Designs MPS-5. I could not distinguish them. The iPod/Wadia combination benefits from the upsampling in the PD, just as much as the internal CD-drive does. I'm VERY pleased with this result.
When I play the same CD through either my Oppo or my modded Pioneer Elite, it's not near as good sounding as the iPod/Wadia/PD trio. In comparison the Oppo and Pioneer are congested and add a layer of glare. This bodes well for my planned server-based system that'll feed into the MPS-5.
I think it's really remarkable considering that I used a POS Dell to make the original transer to Lossless. That CD transport had to cost all of 10-bucks, yet the end result is right there with my expensive one-box CD/SACD player, at least when I run the file through the player's DAC. BTW, when I use the Oppo and Pioneer as CD transports and run their digital signals through the PD MPS-5 I get the same improvement in quality.
Oh yeah, I listened to the file straight from the iPod to my headphones (actually I used the headphones for all my comparisons). It was timbrally accurate, but I lost a lot of air and ambiance cues. The glare wasn't as bad as with the Oppo, but it was there at a low, but tolerable level. Perhaps the error correction routine of iTunes actually is superior to a direct read of a CD with a lesser quality transport. I don't really know why, but the iPod playback is actually slightly superior to playback on the low end CDPs that I own.
That makes you wonder how good iTune's error correction process really is. I think that I got a good transfer on this sample CD. I'll try to carve out some time to compare it via all the sources.
Most of my transfers have been just fine, but I have one track that will not fully transfer to iTunes, even with EC on; this track played fine the last time I played it on my Meridian G08. The G08 always did a great job reading CD's.
Other than that, everything I ripped sounded the same as the original to me.
Brianmgrarcom said: "Something to think of Dave, a tip I got from others; rip all songs with error correction turned on, assuming you are using iTunes, as I don't know if others offer this option. This takes longer to rip, quite a bit actually, but I'd rather do it once, and do it right (or best)."
I checked my iTunes Preferences this morning and I DO have error correction set. However, just in case something was amiss in the past, I'll rip something new today and use that for my comparison.
I thought that I had that set, but I'll have to check when I get to the office on Monday. The distortion is so noticeable that I think something like that may be going on. Other tracks seem hunky-dory. I'll see.
Something to think of Dave, a tip I got from others; rip all songs with error correction turned on, assuming you are using iTunes, as I don't know if others offer this option. This takes longer to rip, quite a bit actually, but I'd rather do it once, and do it right (or best).
Let me know if you're ever back in the area. Given their crummy division, the Broncos may give reason to watch again. We'll see...
I'm going to have to follow up about the Wadia. On shuffle I'm hearing the occasional song that's unfocused and rough, to a small degree, but enough to get my attention. I haven't had time to compare those songs straight from the iPod and straight from the original sources. It's not all songs, so I'm thinking that there may be recording errors with some CDs, but I don't know how to check for that, other than by ear. They were all ripped to Lossless on an inexpensive Dell desktop PC and I've never noticed roughness when listening to the iPod on trips.
