Tried that on my own with no luck.
I’ll post some photos in the internals thread.
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I played around with my speakers placement tonight.
I moved my chair a bit back in the room, dialed in toe in and symmetrical distances from the front and side walls. With the lyngdorf room correction, I’m not sure I even need the REL sub anymore.
Levante will be back Friday and we’ll see how it goes.
Speakers is such a PITA to get dialed in compared to a headphones system that just works.
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It gets easier the more you understand the room, the speakers and what movement of each axis does with your chain in your room. The payoff is far greater, so they make you work for it. A year later I’m still making gains with tweaking location and room treatment.
BTW… you always need subs. 
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We had a pretty special meetup today. Gear included:
- Amps - Riviera Levante (G73R) and AIC10 (G73R), Mass Kobo 465, Zahl HM1 (Ali ) and the Teton Apex OTL
- DACs - Lampizator Poseidon (RCA 5u4g rectifier and rest stock), Rockna Wavedream Signature and Meitner MA3
- Headphones - Abyss 1266 TC and Diana DZ, Hifiman Susvara, Arya Organic and HE6 (4 screw and 6 screw), Tungsten DS, DCA Stealth, ZMF Atrium and a few other lesser knowns and prototypes.
Sources - Antipodes K50 and Holo Red
Speakers - Devore Fidelity O/96
Cables were a mix with a good amount of Double Helix Chimera interconnects, headphones cables, adapters and speakers cables (even a new REL subwoofer cable from Peter).
First impression I’ll share (I’ll add more throughout the week in subsequent posts):
Poseidon-Levante from the speakers taps = best I’ve heard Susvara.
465 pulls a little bit more details, but stage is more interesting, bigger (more 3d spherical, also bigger in all directions from AIC) and just synergy feels more special there. It has this effortless power on tap that you just know you can throw whatever you want at it and it’ll take it easily and give back with more.
465 takes the chain a little more neutral but I think you lose some special sauce by doing that and that’ll come down to preferences.
Imaging and separation with Poseidon is amazing, even with the most complex pieces you can easily hear all the instruments and tracks very clearly.
This whole experience makes me wonder why even chase speakers when it’s so easy and consistent and the room doesn’t mess with you but if I manage to get to this level with the new room then holy F.
HE6 also sounded amazing on my chain but I might give the edge to 465 because it gets more out of HE6 and I think that headphone just works better with solid state amplification. Its stage is on the smaller size so doesn’t benefit as much like Sus does.
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Very jealous. Sounds like you had a good time. Did any of the ZMFs scale up or did they just kind of vibe in their spot?
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From ZMF we only had Atrium which normally I can enjoy and I still consider it the best ZMF but it couldn’t hold ground against the other options in my opinion.
There was a very cool Frankenstein of HD800 driver with HE90 pads and a custom chassis that was surprisingly good sounding and very comfortable
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It hits a niche for sure, and one where i do sometimes feel like i shouldnt have sold mine. But other cans just kept reaching on better gear and the Atrium just stayed the Atrium. Which is not a bad thing either.
That 800 sounds interesting, people love modding their 600s and 800s.
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Yep Atrium has a thing but I would never use it if I had a collection with better option and a good system to drive everything unfortunately
Susvara was a step above everything else. HE6 and 1266 TC are still the subbass kings but their deficiencies are immediately noticable. Tungsten sounds great for what it is but I couldn’t own it with the build quality and feeling in hand. Diana DZ sounded great, might be better than MR for my preferences but the extra $1K in MSRP puts it in a difficult price category that doesn’t feel justified.
I came in knowing what my favorite headphone is, that hasn’t changed. I saw how it can scale even more. I’m curious for Susvara Unveiled which I’ll audition this summer but I’m definitely not buying expensive headphones these days. Everything now will go to tube rolling and room treatment.
I was told by most people who visited yesterday that my speakers sound like Susvara. Can’t say I’m surprised my preferences led me to that but I’m happy the result is even in the ball park of that legendary headphone.
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Yep, that and the fact the design is clumsy and feels like it wants to knock into itself a bunch didnt help.
I think this is the only other headphone that interests me right now.
I brought that one but it is on loan from a friend:
All I know is that Capra Audio ( link to their etsy ) made it as a one-off / prototype. They would have made more but as far as we know you can’t buy he-90 pads new anymore. Audio Sanctuary has no stock.
For me it does but I seem to have pretty difference preferences from others there 
. I find it to be very warm and full but with great energy. It doesn’t have the best texture or resolution but it’s one of my favorites and am a huge fan of it on the Teton OTL with the Tung Sol 5998 output tube.
FWIW I didn’t really enjoy Susvara out of any of the systems this weekend. It’s not bad it just has this smoothness in the top end that sounds like it’s missing air and treble extension next to the tungsten or 1266. Tungsten is still my favorite headphone not including estats and it sounded great out of the Poseidon and levante chain
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Decided to try the long wall as a first attempt in my new room since it’s more symmetrical and will be easier to treat first reflections on the side walls. Will definitely tackle the ceiling. Subwoofer will be added back tomorrow
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The beginnings of a beautiful space!
Instead of looking for a longer cable, It’s your house, look into getting a dedicated line put in right behind the rack where you need it.
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Eventually will take care of that, too many big expenses before that though unfortunately
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Guess I’m going to ask in your thread, Orrman. What’s your opinion on the Wandla GSE you demoed?
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It was fine, hard to say how it performs compared to its price point because I haven’t heard some of its competitors in a long time but I would guess it outperforms most.
It’s definitely solid state delta sigma sounding and it’s not a giant killer some claimed it is. Very neutral and clean sounding, amazing form factor and nice touch interface. Low end was good, treble smooth. It did fall a bit flat with complex passages, that was it’s clearest fault when I listened.
Bottom line - not even close to compete with what I had around here lately (Poseidon, Golden Atlantic 3 and Wavedream Signature) and didn’t really engage me to keep on listening for more.
I didn’t try the different modes because it’s not my listening style.
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So I accidentally fell face first into a Wavedream Signature Balanced at some point and skipped over most of the $3000+ range of DACs (still tried a couple here and there when convenient but really nothing compared) and I want to know from someone with some actual experience in the high end where you’d put the Wavedream Sig Bal technically vs the rest of the crowd. The Wavedream has kind of ruined me and now I just think every other DAC is trash, but I also have nothing even remotely close in price to compare to. Closest thing I can compare with is a Weiss DAC502.
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I’ve never heard a WDSB so no first hand comparisons. That said, every DAC I’ve heard in the $5K or greater used price point is a great DAC that is just looking for a home in the right system. It’s all flavors and nitpicking on the choices you make.
Worry about maximizing the synergy, there will be more differences between DAC with the right cabling and power for them than sometimes between the DACs themselves. I’m sure it’s a different league ballgame when you get into the $15K and up used pricing, but the choices will still be about flavors and nitpicking… and optimized synergy.
The less you worry the more you enjoy. lol
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Summs up my opinions almost exactly. In terms of overall sound aignture it leans a little more weiss than typical ess. Seems pleasent and solid for the price, but its been a long time since ive played around with dacs in that tier. Bass boost gave more overall slam but lost a little bit of clenliness on the transients. Stage did nothing for me at all, but i also just found out that the dip in my hearing is right at 2k (have known i have one since childhood from an audiologist, but didnt realize where it was), so apparently I que off of different things for stage than others.
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I kind of agree with this statement but there are still DACs that are better than others in every price category. I can think of only one DAC that fits in your stated range that I would never owned and really did not like at all - Berkeley Reference 2. Could be a very bad match with my preferences but that was my (and a few others I know of) experience.
When you think of used pricing, there are better deals than others and that can change dramatically how much DAC you’re getting for the money.
Synergy and fit for preferences are the most important things but I’ve yet to encounter a cable or power tweak that were more important than the DAC itself or changing it in case it didn’t fit. Again, just my experience.
I definitely believe the higher end DACs are better across most things as you upgrade, but that doesn’t mean they are better for someone specifically. Especially with Rocknas, if they fit what you enjoy (great slam and transient focused with a little bit less focus on timbre accuracy), it’s very hard to replace them with anything else. I heard from friends the Ideon are the next step up in that case but never heard one myself. There’s also the new Wavedream Reference launching soon and who knows how that will sound.
To make this easy for you - you have no reason to look at any DAC below the Wavedream Signature if you like its sound. It’s very very good and crushes everything else I heard but one - Golden Atlantic 3 and that one specifically is just a very different sound (see note above on the Rockna house sound).
I did feel the Poseidon was a step up in timbre accuracy and imaging but a step back in speed and slam. It is all tradeoffs at these prices and picking the right gear for your preferences, rest of the system and type of music you listen to is critical. The Wavedream Signature is still very balanced, we exaggerate the strengths and weaknesses because they are all good at this level.
This is very true, once you get to a system that you don’t really think about the system anymore and just focus on music - that’s a good sign. I thought I was there with Poseidon but definitely had my quirks with tube DACs eventually make me switch. We’ll see how I feel with the MPD-8.
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My volume pot on Levante went out of alignment somehow. Zero volume is at 11… it turns backward, and isn’t always working.
Everything started when I noticed a faint hum and started raising and lowering the volume to see diagnose what I’m hearing.
This is so frustrating.
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