Northern Oak

Finally, I begin to understand these terms and appreciate what others meant. Talk about enlightment.

Nay, it was Hi Fi Choice

Yup, thanks for putting it up, took me at least an hour to type it out. Hope it helps.

I am looking at the NAD C541i and the Marantz 6000OSE. Seem likely that we can purchase together then.

I often hear people describing sound using words like "forward", "bright", "warm" and many others. Yet, it is up to our imagination to be able to "audio"-lize what exactly they meant. Some may tell you the amp sounds warm but when you ask them what warm actually meant, they cannot describe that to you. Last night, I happened to chance upon a magazine that has a glossary page that I felt was pretty comprehensive, although I must admit that some descriptions do not help at all. Anyway, for the benefit of those who are lost like me : (Copied word for word from the magazine) Aggressive - Forward and bright sonic character Ambience - Impression of an acoustic space, such as the performing hall in which a recording was made. Analytical - Highly detailed Articulate - intelligibility of voice(s) and instruments and the interactions between them. Attack - The leading edge of a note and the ability of a system to reproduce the attack transients in music. Balance - essentially tonal balance, the degree to which one aspect of the sonic spectrum is emphasized above the rest. Also channel balance, the relative level of the left and right stereo channels Body - Fullness of sound, with particular emphasis on upper bass. Opposite of thin. Boxy - The sound of a loudspeaker with audible cabinet resonances Bright - A sound that emphasizes the upper midrange/lower treble. Dark - A tonal balance that tilts downwards with increasing frequency. Opposite of bright. Decay - The fadeout of a note, it follows the attack. Definition (or resolution) - The ability of a component to reveal the subtle information that is fundamental to high fidelity sound. Depth - Perception of music being produced behind the loudspeakers and inhabiting a reproduction of the acoustic space of the original recording. Detail - The most delicate elements of the original sound and those which are the first to disappear with lesser equipment. Dry - A sound that is devoid of "juice", which usu. comes across as fine-grained and lean. Also a loss of reverberation as produced by a damped environment. Dynamic - The suggestion of energy and wide dynamic. Related to perceived speed as well as contrasts in volume both large and small. Euphonic - An appealing form of distortion that generally enhances perceived fidelity, often ascribed to the harmonic elaborations of some valve amps. Fast - Good reproduction of rapid transients which increase the sense of realism and "snap". Focus - A strong, precise sense of image projection. Forward(ness) - Similar to an aggressive sound,a sense of image being projected in front of the speakers and of music being forced upon the listener. Grainy - A slightly raw, exposed sound which lacks finesse. Grip - A sense of control and sturdiness in the bass. Hard - Uncomfortable, forward, aggressive sound with a metallic tinge. Harsh - Grating, abrasive Imaging - The sense that a voice or instrument is in a particular place in the room Juicy - Sound that has joie de vivre, energy and life. Low-Level Detail - The quietest sounds in a recording. Musical (or musicality) - A sense of cohesion and subjective "rightness" in the sound. Naturalness - Realism Opaque - Unclear, lacking transparency. Open - Sound which has height and "air", relates to clean upper midrange and treble. Pace - Often assoc. with rhythm, a strong sense of timing and beat. Presence - A sense of instrument and voice occupying a place in the listening room. Presence Range - The upper midrange Seismic - Very low bass that you feel rather than hear Sibilance - An emphasis of the "S" sound, often heard on radio. Snap - A system with good speed and transient response can deliver the immediacy or "snap" of live instruments. Speed - A fast system with good pace gives the impression of being right on the money in its timing. Sturdy - Solid, powerful, robust sound. Thick - A lack of articulation and clarity in the bass Thin - Bass light Timbre - The tonal character of an instrument Timing - A sense of precision in tempo. Transient - The leading edge of a precussive sound. Good transient response makes the sound as a whole more live and realistic. Transparency - A hear-through quality that is akin to clarity and reveals all aspects of detail. Veiled - Loss of detail due to limited transparency. Warm - A fullness in the lower midrange/upper bass. Weight - A sense of substance and underpinning produced by deep, controlled bass. And finally, Newbie - A person that usually don't understand the terms above and very likely to burn their pockets in the coming months. Excuse typo and grammar.

hi Guyferd, Care to share what CD player you have in mind? I might be getting one too.

It's time for us to get down to Sim Lim Towers to Tech Publication to get some DIY-Repair books. For repairing equipments, Sim Lim Towers as well as Cash Converter at Toa Payoh are excellent sources for finding spare parts. For instance, I do know that Sony CD players built within a 2 years span shared very similar parts.

I agree with you ting. Higher Impedances -> less noise ; Lower Impedance -> more noise My opinion on this is that the noise out of the headphone jacks, be it high impedance or low impedance load is the same. Both the music and noise signals drives your headphone in the same way. However, as the noise signal is much smaller than that of you music signal, (as described by the SNR Signal-to-Noise Ratio performance), this weaker signal finds it harder to drive the higher impedance load than a lower one, therefore it would appear that it's less noisy on higher impedance load. Just a theory so dun flame me !

That's for sure. From the usual headphone jacks, you will be able to hear some noise in the background but the lineout seem to have some form of noise cancellation, that's why you get better sound. However, when I tried with my Sharp DS8 (Class D amp), the noise was non-existent at all.

hi Audio, Care to share where I can look for the CD3K or AT W1000 in Japan, I am visiting Osaka, Nagoya and Tokyo next week. Thanks.

By the way, ablaze got someone in Japan to buy the CD3K and send it over, right ablaze?

Are you sure it cost US$699 for the CD3000, that's as expensive as the Sony R-10. I thought ablaze got it at a much cheaper price. I remembered he mentioned that the CD3K is slightly cheaper than the W1000, which cost less than S$700.

Remember the story about the boy who cried wolf, hehe ... Touch wood, touch wood

Just in case if you didn't notice, I think tanghy is doing some interest check on the Grado RA-1, perhaps you get it from him after you auditioned it? BTW, tanghy is in Perth.

Sorry tanghy, Bothering you again but are you referring to the Stereophile discs or Chesky test discs ?

N@Z, Just saw your PM, as you can see, he has already announced it to everybody. Looking through his comments, probably the EMP has only improved the sound by perhaps 5%, so I think he will definitely tuberoll, especially since the previous owner had the EMP for about three years. Something about tubes, what does it meant by matched tubes and is it necessary to match all 3 tubes then?

Er... am I getting more confused now ? Does dryness mean the music sound analytical. that it doesn't flow at all?

The CD3000 is known to be a perfect partner with the EMP, so I believe there should be significant differences in sonic performance.

Again, congrats ablaze ! Almost couldn't keep my mums about your EMP. Lucky you on your new love.

It's good to know that the W1000 sounds different from the K501 as I would rather spend my dough on such rather than getting another headphone that's going to be similar sounding to what I have already. Looking back at the K501, I do like the airy and wide soundstaging expressions but there's one thing I don't understand. Rameish earlier mentioned that this can sounds dry, what "dryness" is he referring to? The description of sound by the seasoned head-o-philes can be difficult for a newbie like me to apprehend. Anyone care to elaborate?

Yup, but it's a pity since Rameish just sold the Creek, else ahgoh7 can give it a shot.

Firstly, Music By Design at Adelphi sells the SR60 for perhaps $120. Regarding the amp, there's a wide variety of amps available in the market but you may need to audition the amps first before you decide. In my opinion, Rameish is the best person available to help you and he's our local Corda amp dealer. Finally, it is not difficult to DIY a headphone amp but you got to decide which amp you wanna build, e.g. META42, CMoy etc. www.headwize.com is the perfect source for the designs but you got to find the components first. If you don't mind being rip-off by RS-Components, they have all the components for CMOY available. For META42, you can contact tangent at head-fi.

From what I heard from ablaze, you wouldn't be able to get the CD3000 in Singapore. Get it in Japan and if you do, please tell me where to get it. I will be heading there next Friday. I wonder if I can get tax-rebate, since I'm going to bring the cans out of Japan?

He's PC-oriented so I guess it's some PC sound card

I can attach pics now. Here's both my Sony D66SL and D22SL. My cans say D66 on the phones and D66SL on the box so Gouki, I think you got the right cans, (or both of us got the wrong ones). Congrats!!! http://www.ecat.sony.co.jp/avacc/headphone...ndex.cfm?PD=811