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From much-loved Bitzie to —? |
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Ash
Senior Member Joined: 18 Mar 2013 Location: Dorset Status: Offline Points: 4334 |
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Posted: 17 Feb 2018 at 9:47pm |
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I'm glad adding the Solo has improved the abilities of your headphones. At least you can hear the difference for yourself now rather than just reading the words of someone who hasn't tried your exact scenario. The difference must be highly headphone dependent then. For my HD540 Reference II, I couldn't easily discern Bitzie from Bitzie+Solo. I quite often used to plug the HD540II into just my laptop headphone socket and still enjoy a really good clear sound because it had a very neutral and transparent sound characteristic with no shrill/harsh treble. Although adding a Bitzie and Lautus USB cable improved all of its abilities dramatically. The first time I played Nujabes-Gone Are The Days into LautusUSB-Bitzie-HD540II, I remember being absolutely blown away at how incredible the sound was. The rhythm was liquid smooth and the bass was tight and powerful, especially after the Bitzie had been powered on for at least several hours. It is a bit "cold" sounding when you first plug it in but rapidly improves over time.
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We do not see things as they are. We see things as we are.
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gbr2004uk
Senior Member Joined: 23 Jul 2009 Location: UK Status: Offline Points: 105 |
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Thanks GW! Progress report:
Just playing through the new set of Bernstein recordings (the complete Naxos Recordings, with Marin Alsop) and I've found the first really clear and unambiguous difference in sound with Bitzie/Lautus alone, and with added Solo DLE. On the first disc, Symphony 1, just 4 minutes in to the end, there are very high pitch wind and then high strings, followed by a powerfully built up crescendo of the full orchestral forces, with lots of percussion including fortissimo bass drum. Without the Solo, the Bitzie does a great job but the high pitch on the Sennheiser HD700 sounds quite shrill. Plugging the Solo in quickly, reveals noticeable increase in detail and a moderation of the shrill sound (it no longer sounds shrill), together with an increase in soundstage width and depth, but above all, it's just that bit warmer. Maybe I should mention (have I already? not sure) that I do have a mild age-appropriate(!) hearing loss, and after a brief stint in a steel factory job in my younger days with very inadequate hearing protection, I get a mercifully-livable-with tinnitus, so any moderation of higher frequencies is a bonus. This Bernstein track certainly will put any headphone and amp configuration through their paces. Still testing ... All best Brian
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Voyager 2009, Bitzie+Lautus cable 2013, Sennheiser HD700 & 650, Yamaha Clavinova
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gwebster
Senior Member Joined: 04 Oct 2014 Location: Liss, UK Status: Offline Points: 175 |
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Try here on the Lautus interconnect page |
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gbr2004uk
Senior Member Joined: 23 Jul 2009 Location: UK Status: Offline Points: 105 |
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Hi Ash, I've looked in the Shop area of the forum and can't see anything that looks like the 'Powerwire' you describe. Where can I find out more about it, please? Thanks again for all the help! Best Brian
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Voyager 2009, Bitzie+Lautus cable 2013, Sennheiser HD700 & 650, Yamaha Clavinova
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gbr2004uk
Senior Member Joined: 23 Jul 2009 Location: UK Status: Offline Points: 105 |
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Thanks David. Actually it occurred to me (not sure if this is a good analogy) thinking about people or machines who or which get to the highest levels of creativity or performance ... There was a result from one of the current races in something or other where an athlete won by 0.11 of a second. Blink when they got to the finishing line and you missed it ...
That's only one reason why I hate competitions! Brian |
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Voyager 2009, Bitzie+Lautus cable 2013, Sennheiser HD700 & 650, Yamaha Clavinova
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Farmer
New Member Joined: 24 Dec 2010 Location: Soggy NW of UK Status: Offline Points: 12 |
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Probably in danger of violent agreement here!! I only bought my T1's (a big step) because the box (carrying case) was damaged and so they arrived new and perfect (apart from their case which I repaired) - at under £500. At the time when they were selling at £1400, I thought I'd done well.. I can't see me ever heading above £800-900 for anything to do with high fi, but then I'm not awash in cash... If I won the lottery - now that's a different question!! I think above a certain level these are (inverse?) logarithmic steps, meaning you are spending more and more for smaller and smaller improvements... My own ears are not THAT good! Cheers David
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gbr2004uk
Senior Member Joined: 23 Jul 2009 Location: UK Status: Offline Points: 105 |
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That reminds me of those stories one reads about experiments where concert violinists and others took part in "blind"-tests and failed to distinguish between Stradivarius and good modern instruments! One radio broadcast that I actually heard involved the great Isaac Stern, who maintained that about 90% of what they were hearing (in one test) was "the room". (Similar tests are on a less exalted, more homely level, involving coffee or the celebrated milk-first/tea-first controversy -- although some chemists have assured me there is a sound basis for one of them, only I can't remember which!)
But seriously yes, there's a huge difference between my Sennheiser phones and the 10GBP bits of plastic I use sometimes when out in the street. Maybe when you get to the "high end" stuff the differences are much more subjective, as you suggest. And then perhaps one is into the area of diminishing returns? (Or so I like to convince myself when ruefully contemplating the limits of my budget, hmm...) It links up with something that always irritates me (and not just in the field of aesthetics): when someone says "So-and-so is the greatest [X] in the world today ..." or "This was the worst crime against humanity ever perpetrated ..." Why not simply, "One of the worst", "One of the best" etc? But I'll shut up and stop rambling now. Back to the music. Cheers Brian
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Voyager 2009, Bitzie+Lautus cable 2013, Sennheiser HD700 & 650, Yamaha Clavinova
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