It's just amazing, like stepping into a new sound world, as different as that.  The previous harshness I'd noted in some of the higher violin tones in the quartets has completely gone, the cello has gained enormous warmth and depth, there's tremendous clarity for example in the inner parts both of the chamber music and the more complex orchestral writing.   And the soundstage is really wide, wide enough for me anyway.

I'll try it with direct playing of CD's and a few videos of operas.  Tomorrow a run-through of some jazz CD's and more songs at various low-voice/high-voice samples.   And I also want to see if it makes a difference to the streamed music from Naxos Music Library (one of the glories of the web, along with the Petrucci Music Library and The Lieder Net Archive -- they don't pay me for these plugs, I just want everyone to know about them if they don't!)

So I'm raving about this Bitzie-Solo combo.   More later in the week.

Brian 

The HD650 is still a great headphone (for me) but the 700 with the Solo/Bitzie combo does give a fuller sound -- the sound takes a little getting used to because with the above combo, it's much more 'forward'.

What do you, and most people here, (if this is a reasonable question!) use for playback from PC or Mac?  I am finding that foobar2000 seems to give the sound straight as it is (although I have sometimes tried adding the Dolby headphone wrapper, not that it makes much difference -- I used to combine it with something else which had to be in the correct order, but I've forgotten what it was and the particular file got lost in a pc crash I had last year and I stupidly hadn't backed it up).

I have used VLC (Videolan) but unless you keep everything absolutely flat it does seem to mess with the sound.  (I realise this part of the post really belongs somewhere else.)

I wondered if the DAC actually in theory or in practice should prevent any effect coming from the VLC or foobar, but experimenting around with it indicates that mucking about with the former (eg compressor / spatialiser etc) does certainly change the sound.

Best

Brian

http://www.foobar2000.org/components" rel="nofollow - https://www.foobar2000.org/components

So I spent hours last evening trying CD after CD, classical, jazz, opera, DVD's of a few movies ...  Switching rapidly between Bitzie on its own and Solo + Bitzie, really, really wanting it to be objectively true that the improvement I was hearing wasn't just subjective wishful thinking.   I mean, there shouldn't be any doubt, should there?  If something is that good?

I need to give it a break, apart from its being 1 a.m. as I type!  (Nagging thought from the never-resting subconscious, should I spend the money instead on a different kind of headphone?  OMG.  Or even a new digital piano, trading in the old Clavinova?  I think this is called dithering ...)

But I wanted to ask a practical question.   From the day I got the Bitzie, I've left it plugged into the desktop whenever the desktop is on.  I've listened to everything through it, music, news, youtubery, rubbish(!).   My question is, I don't suppose it's advisable to leave the PSU1 plugged in 24/365?

All best

Brian

I've been reading more about the problems with tube-amps, not the least being that 4 of them on a machine must get so darn' hot!  Maybe OK in a (British) winter, not so good even in the (British) summer.

all best

Brian

The Bitzie remains fantastic and I couldn't now do without it.  I'm still testing it with the Solo.  Just got some Leonard Bernstein CD's which should give them a run for their money!   http://tinyurl.com/y8hfz66h" rel="nofollow - https://tinyurl.com/y8hfz66h

all best

Brian

Thanks tg.  I had misunderstood the whole thing about continuous powering, thinking it only applied to new equipment (as with brand new headphones, lots of new musical instruments, "playing them in").  But you're emphasising (and I've now read this elsewhere too) that these amps should be "warm" all the time, however well played in they've become.

This doesn't work with the Bitzie of course, unless you keep the computer on all night (as it is I set it to "sleep" when I'm not using it, but it's off and night, and re reconnects the Bitzie next morning.   Unless there's some other way of doing it?  Perhaps that split power cable of Graham's that someone mentioned the other day?  Maybe that's worth thinking about if it keeps the Bitzie warm and up to the mark?  Any views on that?

Your suggestion about listening to the Solo for several days and then switching back sounds good to me.   If there's a real good difference, it should be immediately obvious.

All best

Brian

 

Yes, I did see it, thanks.  By the way, I've been reading up more stuff around the web, this business of tube amps producing even harmonics, and solid states producing odd harmonics, the former sounding better to most people, the latter, the reverse.   However other people say that's only important when producing music, as from a guitar, and has no relevance to reproducing the music as from a computer (because on CDs etc, all the sound and propensity to distortion and the rest is taken care of by the original engineer).

I'm wondering how Graham deals with this issue, because I also read that it's possible in the construction of solid state amps to deal with this issue of harmonics to minimise any unpleasant effects and enhance the good.

I must say, I've never noticed any unwanted sort of distortion at all from the Bitzie -- it's such an excellent amp that always sounds great to me.

Oh, in further response to your reply, Jon, I guess I could try the Powerfire on appro and see if it makes a difference, but I'll get back to  you as and when I'm ready with that -- one thing at a time and I'm still in back-and-forth dialogue with the Solo DLE!

all best

Brian 

Well, Graham, I'm glad you've cleared that up!   A colleague of mine (before I'd retired) kept a large mug prominently placed on her desk with words of wisdom for her patients painted on it, "Please don't confuse your google research with my medical degree".

All best

Brian

That the longrunning, neverending back-&-forth between tubes-or-solidstate is ... what?  A waste of time, based on a misunderstanding, ultimately, as beauty is in the eye of the beholder, sound is in the ear of the auditor?

I'm not the hypothetical salesman but I am the (generalised) hypothetical purchaser, and an honest salesman doesn't say to me, 'Valves are definitely the way to go', he says ... what?   Try 'em all and see or what's the size of your budget?

All best

Brian

When I earned my living practising psychiatry I used to do a lot of hypnosis, so I'm well aware of the power of human suggestibility, including the tricks self-suggestion can play.

Not sure if I'm being politely asked to shut up   Or maybe I should feel guilty and apologise if inadvertently I've hit some sensitive spot.  I certainly didn't intend to and I'm sorry if I have.

All best

Brian

Best

Brian

But I've also taken the HD650 away from its semi-permanent connection to the Yamaha Clavinova (so useful for not inflicting my amateur keyboard efforts on anyone within earshot, especially during unsocial hours) and given it another go with the Bitzie.   (By the way all my pc music is stored as flac files, which is how I play it, using mostly foobar or occasionally VLC audio at flat EQ.)

The HD650 does extremely well with the Bitzie and seems to me to avoid the worst of the peak (Edit: of the 700) so often described around the web as "notorious" — see e.g.  http://https://www.head-fi.org/threads/sennheiser-hd700-review.614011/" rel="nofollow - http://https://www.head-fi.org/threads/sennheiser-hd700-review.614011/  — but again, to my now old ears, the difference is fairly small.

I'm just coming up to halfway through the fortnight's trial and it's been a fascinating learning experience, if a somewhat bumpy one!   In the years since I've been using the Bitzie on a daily basis, and for hours at a time, I never had any reason to complain or to want more out of the system — until I recently got sets of Beethoven and Schubert string quartets, all on brightly-recorded CDs.  And there was something very unenjoyable about the higher frequencies — neurophysiological changes in my auditory apparatus?  something to do with CD recording techniques?  a sudden awakening to what had always been deficiencies in the HD700?

I now had the same response to the same frequencies / timbres in the recently released Marin-Alsop-Bernstein recordings: most of them fine, but some moments far too shrill (with the HD700, I've not played these on the 650).

By the way, I'm wondering if experimenting with lowering the EQ level (as can be done more easily with the VLC software) would help?  I'm about to try it -- although worry about whether it would alter the quality of the sound.  (Years before I read anything about hifi and the audiophile world, mucking about with EQ was the only thing I did apart from twiddling the volume knob.)

All best

Brian

http://www.head-fi.org/ " rel="nofollow - www.head-fi.org/  ; threads/sennheiser-hd700  -review.   614011/   (without the gaps of course)

I gather pretty much everything goes well with the Bitzie, but any recommendations?  And I know it's well nigh impossible to recommend one's own personal favourite to anyone else (one person's meat another's poison, etc ...)   I gather Grado are very popular amongst audiophiles.   I found a place that does a 30-day return, full refunds.  I'm tempted.

Cheers

Brian

I'll spend time checking that out, Ash.  Thanks.  I've had only open-backed h'phones in the past and prefer the idea to closed back.

All best

Brian