What have you purchased recently?

Thank you, will try to do it. But I found when trying with the streamer, it is really hard to put thoughts into words.

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Yes absolutely, streamers are incredibly hard, best i have come up with is when using known equipment forward of the streamer listening very hard to WELL known to me tracks and doing my best to describe any more resolute qualities that my HP or speakers are exhibiting.

Usually i use tracks like:
Bubbles by Yosi Horikawa,
Red River Valley, Cassandra Wilson,
Sisters of Mercy, Leonard Cohen,
Grandma on the Roof, Alex Weston,
Teach me how to Dougie
Kroumata Pieces, Kroumata Percussion Ensemble
Medellin & Faz Gostoso, Madonna
Spanish Harlem, Rebecca Pidgeon
John the Revelator, Son House
The Block, Too many Zooz, Subway Gawdz
Barley, Liz Wright
to listen for ever sharper edges and separation. I also listen for depth, forward and back of the speaker plane, or my eyeballs when using HP’s, outer edge soundstage width, height and very importantly how “BIG” imaging and vocals sound, ( i call this “Big head” syndrome) :rofl:

Lastly, i honestly just want to know all the components you have in the chain and if you simply find things enjoyable, any quirks or complaints, is it all simbiotic and simply enjoyable :hugs:

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Reasonably priced. Love everything about it, apart from the logo.

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REALLY looking forward to listening to my endgame chain. This is the last piece of the puzzle, an Arctic Apeiron :smiling_imp:

I opted for upgraded terminations since it’s my final purchase.

Gonna leave it burning in over the next few evenings before I give it my full attention at the weekend.

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Man, you really picked the right termination with AECO, thats my goat

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Still burning in (Arctic rec 100 hrs), but I did give it a little listen this morning - wow.

I love my expectations being subverted. I thought that I’d simply hear more bass and less treble. I have noticed an ever so roll off in treble, only noticed on cymbals in some parts of some track (the end of Tool’s Lateralus, for instance). It’s very minor and took me 30 minutes to notice it all.

What I did notice but did not expect, better bass texture, sharper sonic images, clearer separation and better defined image placement in the soundstage. The latter is something I would’ve paid money for on its own! It’s seems that the depth dimension is just a hair more accurate, but it has a surprising large impact on my perception of sonic image placement. The way I discern this is I imagine I’m sitting at the drum kit that is being played. When sitting at a kit, you have a clear sense of how close each aspect of the kit is to you in terms of depth, as well as height. I’m sure seems like such a minor thing to some, but being a drummer, it’s one of the first thing that I listen to to assess gear as it is one thing that really adds to the experience for me when it sounds more “correct”.

Very pleased with this purchase so far. The refinement to my chain is minor but even 5 % “better”, however I define better, is worthwhile.

Thanks to all who helped steer me down this path.

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The new version of FTA Themisto Aes.

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I saw these in passing and I was curious to see how much 25 Euros can get you these days. The 7Hz X Crinacle: Zero 2.

The answer is a lot. For the price these are impressive, not blow your socks off but competant.

They feel ok, a lot of plastic but the metal plate on the outside gives them a more expensive look, just don’t expect anything more than basic.

The general sound is decent. Close to Harman tuning with decent amounts of bass and treble that most of the time feels defined and fairly fast. Inoffensive highs and enough bass although the subbass is more a feeling than any kind of detail. It is an easy listen if you don’t want to try to listen too critically or to pick out more then the surface of the music.

They show their weaknesses in busy passages of music where the single 10mm driver loses control particularly in the treble and lower bass leading to things getting a bit fuzzy and sometimes sharp. There is not much in the way of soundstage and the music feels very much a single middle of the head blob

Cable is not much and nor are the tips but for, let me say it again, 25(!) Euros a really good buy. If you need some IEMs to throw about, to wear while doing outdoor work or just to chuck in a bag and not worry about I would say these are very well worth it. As an entry point into audiophile IEMs for someone new these are outstanding with their close to Harman tuning and would make an excellent gift to someone younger.

I bought these more as a curiosity but for the price point I came away impressed and will be using them more when I want something I don’t mind getting scuffed.

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There’s soooooo much worthy of our money under $50.

I haven’t quite finished my IEM game yet and so ordered two new sets, both £25. I have much more expensive IEMs, but as you have stated, it is hard to believe how good some of the budget stuff is.

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The first of the new IEMs to arrive.

The snappiness and tactility of this is excellent. It ain’t a huge stager and the imaging is acceptable, but separation is good enough to tackle some of the more well-recorded prog that I listen to. Satisfying low end, the tactility of drums really make this a fun listen. Sounds slightly veiled in the treble but not enough to detract from my enjoyment.

Excellent for the £25ish I paid.

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And then this landed. Not quite as resolving as the above Cadenza but just as fun. The warm, bass heavy tuning on this is well judged. The tuning didn’t get in the way for any of the tracks I listened to this afternoon. For £20, I am not regretting spending the money.

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What’s the build like on these two? Do you prefer one over the other at this point?

The QKZ does feel a little cheap but acceptable for the price. The Cadenza feels well made. Standard, flush 2 pin on the Kiwi Ears, too, so I could use that with an aftermarket cable.

I really like both. The Cadenza is cleaner and so I’d lean towards that, but both are fun and engaging.

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I just got my Topping A70 Pro today mainly to use as a preamp, but I am going to have fun using it as a headphone amp cause why not. I only tested with my Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro so far because I heard a couple of Topping amps broke people headphone so I wanted to test things out to make sure its safe to use. So far, even with the Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro headphone, I am liking what I am hearing. Nice crisp and with good overall clarity. People called this transparent, but I don’t know if I would call it that because this sounds more on the brighter side to me… It could be the headphone though, idk, so I will probably test out more gear later on it.

I bought this as a recommendation at first from Pearl Acoustic Youtube channel after a great amount of praise on the Topping preamp. Then someone informed me the Topping A70 Pro was a better preamp than Topping own dedicated preamp, the Pre90. So I just went with this since its newer. The remote control also working pretty well which is nice since I heard the Pre90 had an awful remote control range.

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Beyers are known for that treble! What ohm version are you using? I felt that the 250 ohm which I enjoyed were slightly less sibilant than the 80 or 32 versions, which I could not stand.

Its the 250 ohm version.

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Ah nice, yeah that’s the best one imo. I have thought about buying a pair just to have it again for being a classic that is practically indestructible.
Perhaps it is doing weird stuff to the headphones, but I have no experience with that tier level yet. I hope the listening goes well, I bet it will be interesting to see how different headphones work with it!

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It’s only day 2 for me on the Topping A70 Pro, but I got mix feelings on it. As a headphone amp sound signature, I prefer the Schiit Midgard Halo output tuning more as it sounds more pleasant and natural and the bass output feels stronger yet the Topping A70 Pro plays louder.

But I like the Topping A70 Pro more as an amp because it has a remote controller that’s actually pretty good, clarity is a step up from Midgard, details are push more forward than Midgard, and I have more headroom on the Topping A70 Pro vs the Midgard.

The headphone combos I used it so far is A70 Pro (headphone amp) to D770 Pro, DCA Stealth, and Jomo Audio Nautilus. D770 Pro was the only headphone that was sibilant to my ears.

The speaker combo I tried is A70 Pro (Preamp) to Schiit Rekkr/Tiny Radial speakers and to Starkrimson Ultra 2.0/Platimon VC One. Schiit Rekkr/Tiny Radial was sibilant in this combo while the Starkrimson Ultra 2.0/Platimon VC One was not.

I noticed the cheaper gears are more prone to sibilance while my more expensive gear was not. I wonder if it’s because the highs are more refined on those gears and maybe the A70 Pro is a transparent amp/preamp? As a headphone amp, I think it’s pretty ok so far. As a preamp, I like what it’s doing and I am happy with it so far.

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Holo Cyan 2 to compare with Wandla GSE

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Transparent is a meaningless word. Though that’s true of a lot of words used to describe sound signatures (neutral anyone) it’s a loaded word in that it has positive connotations, say sterile which is used for the same thing and it sounds a lot less positive.

I measure the amps I build, they are all “transparent” from the flat FR response standpoint, and they don’t sound the same.
You do get varying bandwidth (bass extension is quickly noticeable, extended treble less so), the way phase shifts across the frequency range changes a lot it’s hard to even guess how that “sounds”.

A flat FR line or even an inaudibly low THD isn’t a sound signature. Though it is true that most of the low Sinad high feedback solid state amps sound similar, I think that has more to do with the implementation required to get to -100+dB noise floors than what the measurements show.

Most likely if the Bass drops off earlier, you probably listen louder, which leads to more fatigue.
I also tend to find amps with excessive feedback fatiguing, and I don’t really have an explanation for that that’s FR response based, it’s probably a psychoacoustic effect.

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