|
Post by krisno on Feb 17, 2008 0:14:15 GMT
Hi guys It's me, one last time. My AKG 701's experience on the X-CAN v3, was good for a little while, but then I tried a VERY cheap solid state amplification instead, using the same source(X-dac v3), and I saw what I was missing. 1) In movies and music the X-can v3(tubes?) really makes me miss out on the 'placement' of the different instruments and also on the details with a good maring. It really amazed me. So I am selling the x-can v3. 2) So you guys where right. But should I get the Heed Canamp or the Corda Arietta as a replacement? The Arietta seems as a higher production quality product. I still think the Canamp looks 'flimsy', and its big. Has any of you guys heard canamp vs arietta?? Which is the warmest? Do you guys know of anyone who SELLS the Meier Corda Arietta or Heed Canamp USED, to europe??!?!?!?! I want to buy it. Thanks. lets hope this will be my last post K
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Feb 17, 2008 0:42:31 GMT
Krisno I hope not ! Many members would be interested to hear what you eventually choose that sounds better to your ears with the X-DAC V3 and AKG 701 . I hope you find what you are looking for.
BTW, I am curious as to how the little Voyager would go in this scenario. It does a fine job into Sony MDR-CD780 and ATH W1000 from my modded X-FI soundcard. SandyK
|
|
leo
Been here a while!
Team wtf is it?
Posts: 3,638
|
Post by leo on Feb 17, 2008 1:57:05 GMT
Voyager is a wonderful little amp but it may not drive the K701's loud enough for some people, it drives them loud enough for my ears and remains clean at max volume but the K701's really do take some driving if you like it loud. Maybe the higher gain would suit these cans better? The Solo's the better choice with these IMO. The Voyager drives the AT A900's much better
|
|
leo
Been here a while!
Team wtf is it?
Posts: 3,638
|
Post by leo on Feb 17, 2008 1:58:57 GMT
I've heard the Heed but not with my K701's, I've never heard the Arietta Krisno, your always welcome on here so please stick around
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Feb 17, 2008 2:07:14 GMT
Leo I only mentioned Voyager because it should meet Krisno's financial requirements. (?) A second hand Solo would be hard to come by at a suitable price. Alex
|
|
leo
Been here a while!
Team wtf is it?
Posts: 3,638
|
Post by leo on Feb 17, 2008 2:09:53 GMT
Yes, if he had other cans like the AT's the Voyager would be great. Like I mentioned above it drives the K701's loud enough for my ears but may be a bit low for others with these cans
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Feb 17, 2008 2:14:40 GMT
Leo I bet that you posted your reply, while I was still editing my original ? Alex
|
|
leo
Been here a while!
Team wtf is it?
Posts: 3,638
|
Post by leo on Feb 17, 2008 2:37:32 GMT
Yes I did
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Feb 17, 2008 2:41:33 GMT
It's not the 1st time, Quick Draw McGraw !
|
|
leo
Been here a while!
Team wtf is it?
Posts: 3,638
|
Post by leo on Feb 17, 2008 2:52:35 GMT
My typings shite
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Feb 17, 2008 2:58:13 GMT
Ditto. That's why I often come back and edit. Then I think of something I should have said the 1st time !
|
|
FritzS
Been here a while!
Sound of Blue Danube
Sound of Blue Danube
Posts: 1,364
|
Post by FritzS on Feb 17, 2008 5:44:10 GMT
Hi guys Has any of you guys heard canamp vs arietta?? Which is the warmest? Do you guys know of anyone who SELLS the Meier Corda Arietta or Heed Canamp USED, to europe??!?!?!?! I want to buy it. Why not GSP Audio Solo? I have best experince with my "green" Solo and my K701 I hope we can see you more often here ;D
|
|
|
Post by dc on Feb 17, 2008 9:02:58 GMT
Well I owned the heed canamp and meier audio corda headfive at the same time
the Arietta is said to be a slightly improved headfive, biased into a class A and a few other improvements. I haven't heard the arietta personally, but it is said to be marginally better, but not a whole other beast.
i will make this quite clear. as soon as i bought the heed canamp, even before i modded it, the headfive got NO use. i did a comparison over a weekend and there's no contest the heed canamp beats it in all departments
this was done with my AKG K701 and OMZ so apart from the DAC used the same gear as you. the synergy between the K701 and heed canamp is amazing.
|
|
|
Post by krisno on Feb 17, 2008 10:26:47 GMT
DC:
So you don't need golden ears to hear the difference between the head five and the heed?
The Heed seems flimsy build quality, and as I have said before, it has no transistors, the build quality 'innside' seems cheap. What about the PSU in the Heed, is it of high quality or homebuilt?
Meier has this crossfeed thing which many people likes, and its 'a brand'. Will I notice any big difference? If not I get the Arietta, its half the price. I have spend enough money on this allready I think.
Or I can try to sell it all, and get the Corda Opera with built in DAC. But I won't do this if anynoe tells me that the MF DAC is just so much better; if not, the opera is alot easier, and got this hybrid balanced thing also.
Anyone want to sell me a used Heed then? Graham Solo is just too expensive... and can you hear the difference?
K
|
|
|
Post by dc on Feb 17, 2008 10:38:31 GMT
no, I don't think you need golden ears to discern the difference
it is a very large and noticeable difference (to me it was)
it has a couple of transistors but not a complex output stage or anything like that
I believe the PSU is not even regulated. When I had a look at the insides of the headfive and the canamp the canamp looks like its parts are missing
But at the end of the day, pricing and design and parts etc. aside the canamp is clearly more powerful and dynamic and with a bigger soundstage. its details were comparable, but the combination of everything gave it an easy victory over the meier product
the crossfeed is very subtle and for most tracks won't even have much effect, it's mainly for older tracks with very obvious stereo panning that it makes most difference. it also softens the sound ever so slightly though losing a bit of dynamics - not a fan myself of the crossfeed
|
|
|
Post by krisno on Feb 17, 2008 11:10:03 GMT
But I read posts now, after the 'days of glory' for the Heed has passed, that its 'muffled', and 'not the best', etc?
I mean, does the Heed work with anything other than AKG?
Hmm, if I can get one cheap I might get it, or I will get the Meier. You know, I actually thought the crap output on some active speakers I got sounded better than the x-can v3. I never knew positioning and details was soo bad on tubes(in movies) compared to solid state. Solid state really is the future, and tubes are the past. Probably why Krell doesnt do tubes... nor NAD !
But I am having trouble selling the x-can. Maybe put up a post at head-fi.org. It's only been used for 20 hours!
Has anyone tried the Corda Opera? How is the DAC there compared to MF -XDAC . What about amplification?
|
|
|
Post by krisno on Feb 17, 2008 12:35:54 GMT
Will a tube swap in the X-can v3 fix my problems?
Honestly, the 'placement' of instruments in tube amplifiers = non existant. Really disapointing.
Secondly, quite a bit of details dissapear.
Can any of this be fixed with swapping out the tubes?
K
|
|
|
Post by fanboi on Feb 17, 2008 12:51:58 GMT
Kris, be fair - you have heard one tube amplifier and did not like it, fair enough. That hardly qualifies you to make such sweeping statements. I am sure you would not diagnose an epidemic of measles after seeing one case.
|
|
|
Post by krisno on Feb 17, 2008 13:04:19 GMT
This is supposed to be a very good tube amp...
Will a tube-swap fix my problems? I think I ahve to go back to solid state, details and bass and positioning is just so much better. I think the Meier Corda's are warm amps, probably be good.
|
|
|
Post by PinkFloyd on Feb 17, 2008 13:17:13 GMT
Will a tube swap in the X-can v3 fix my problems? Honestly, the 'placement' of instruments in tube amplifiers = non existant. Really disapointing. Secondly, quite a bit of details dissapear. Can any of this be fixed with swapping out the tubes? K Hi Krisno, Stick around mate, you're most welcome here I don't know what the heck is going on with your X-Can v3 but, from the way you are describing it, it's not indicative of any X-Can v3's I have heard over the years. The X-Can v3 / AKG K-501 is (IMO) a very very good combo indeed. Great results can be had by valve rolling, or as the yanks call it "tube rolling", I have heard quite a few thin sounding v3's and it's quite amazing just what a transformation you can make by rolling in a couple of valves. They won't break the bank (if you remain on the sensible side of the likes of bugle boys) and a pair of 6N23P or 6N1P-EB, for example, would certainly reap sonic rewards compared with the stock 6922. It could also be the case that your stock valves aren't firing on all four.... please don't discount this great little amp without at least trying a valve roll. Same as DC I found the Heed canamp to absolutely shit all over the Meier house sound. I built the meier Ha-1 MKll and didn't like it at all.... it had the typical "soul free", clinical LM6171 presentation and generally sounded thin and pastuerised. Absolutely crud at driving the K-501 (not too bad with HD-600) and if Jan's latest offerings still implement the LM6171 I'd be inclined to give them a very wide birth if you're going to driving K-701. More on my meier build here.The Heed, on the other hand, has the necessary muscle required to drive the AKG K-501 with ease... it really takes a grip of the drivers and doesn't let go of them when the going gets tough. Don't be concerned with the innards or the general appearance of the amp (in reality it's actually a very nice looking, solid amp) it's the SQ that counts and given the fact you're looking for an amp to drive the K-701 it's certainly one that would appear quite high up my list.
|
|
|
Post by krisno on Feb 17, 2008 14:30:34 GMT
The X-Can 3 sounds nice, its not anything wrong with it. It's brand new, and I got it running on a little pinkie v3i.
The thing is, even the most crappy solid state amplifier on the AKG K701 sound better.
The Xcan3 bass is muffled, not sharp vs cheap solid state. The Xcan3 details of the music is missing, though it is nice and soft to listen to. The xcan3 in the movies 'Star Wars 3, the new one', on the intro movie, you see spaceships flying. On the cheap solid state you could REALLY get into the movie, and hear the planes fly by , and position it perfectly. You are not able to do this on the Xcan3! The Xcan3 sounds '3D', but it does not position the instruments the way solid state do.
Also, you really hear the transparancy around for instance gun shots, which I not noticed on the xcan3.
If a tube swap to some high quality tubes will fix it, then I might be happy. but in general i think, solid state is the better thing for akg k701 if you want the most fun out of it.
But well, diana krall has never sounded better on the akgs with the xcan, but thats about it. It sounds sort of muffled compared to a SS.
I use xdac 3 as source with nordost silver interconnects, so the source is not my problem! ;D
Any comments Mike?
P.S. I really like the sound of the Marantz solid state amplifier brand, what comes closest to this. People say Meier is warmer than Heed. and it's half the price you know! Also its nice with anything that got PSU built in. No cable clutter.....
|
|
leo
Been here a while!
Team wtf is it?
Posts: 3,638
|
Post by leo on Feb 17, 2008 21:08:37 GMT
The K701's need current! I would not recommend ANY amp that uses op-amps on the output, the Heed should be ok as it has current boost transistors on the op-amps output which are supposed to be running in classA ;D K701's are good cans IMO, they need a mans amp to drive them though
|
|
|
Post by krisno on Feb 17, 2008 21:11:25 GMT
Would Lehmann black cube be good enough??
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Feb 17, 2008 21:18:26 GMT
Krisno Miguel and many others will vehemently disagree with me on this, but I believe that to get transparency, i.e. space between instruments and voices, among other things, you need WIDE bandwidth. Many, but not all, valve amplifiers simply do not have adequate bandwidth to retain the harmonic structure into the higher order harmonics.Or for that matter, low enough signal to noise ratio, which with valve amplifiers is almost always below 100dB. This is well short of what better solid state amplifiers can achieve. Go for it Rick ! But you will never change my opinions in this matter ! SandyK
|
|
leo
Been here a while!
Team wtf is it?
Posts: 3,638
|
Post by leo on Feb 17, 2008 22:18:22 GMT
|
|