[Mariusz]

Hi Mariusz,

This may be a little late, but I went to a mini headphone meet this weekend. I had a lot of time with stock 701s and a fair amount of time on HD 650s with Moon Silver Dragon. Unfortunately there wasn't a set of stock 650s.

I did extensive listing on my gear with my source (RWA / Apple laptop).

Both were very good considering their price point. 701s biggest benefit was an overall balanced presentation with no glaring flaws (again remember this was on an Isabella with built in DAC / headamp). So not your typical solid state or modest priced tube amp.

In this case the 650s came out on top. To be fair, the aftermarket cable approx doubles the price, so it was not an apple to apple comparison.

I also tried both sets of phones on two moderate priced tube amps from a well known vendor. These tube amps did not achieve the same level of performance with either can. Of significant note, RWA has much better defined bass and IMO overall a more refined sound.

Both sounded good. Unfortunately if you are going stock cables, my recent audition doesn?t really help much.

Take care, Kent

Hi Kent

Thanks for your feedback. It's really appreciated.
Sorry to say that but I have made my purchase last week.
Could not resist the price (auctioned on Agon) and bought AKG 701.
They are not here yet tho.

My two Isabellinas HPA just came in and I am listening to it right now via my older Grado SR-60 cans and am pretty impressed to say the least. They never sounded this good and to be quite frank, I did not think they could do what they do with RWA HPA.
Yes, they are cheap cans but my feet are moving.

I have also purchased Empirical Audio Offramp Turbo  USB S/PDIF converter.
Having some problems loading drivers to my Mac from CD-R that came with it tho.
But hope to get that fixed soon.

Will post some more ones 701s arrive.

Best
Mariusz

[Alwayswantmore]

Hi Mariusz,

This may be a little late, but I went to a mini headphone meet this weekend. I had a lot of time with stock 701s and a fair amount of time on HD 650s with Moon Silver Dragon. Unfortunately there wasn't a set of stock 650s.

I did extensive listing on my gear with my source (RWA / Apple laptop).

Both were very good considering their price point. 701s biggest benefit was an overall balanced presentation with no glaring flaws (again remember this was on an Isabella with built in DAC / headamp). So not your typical solid state or modest priced tube amp.

In this case the 650s came out on top. To be fair, the aftermarket cable approx doubles the price, so it was not an apple to apple comparison.

I also tried both sets of phones on two moderate priced tube amps from a well known vendor. These tube amps did not achieve the same level of performance with either can. Of significant note, RWA has much better defined bass and IMO overall a more refined sound.

Both sounded good. Unfortunately if you are going stock cables, my recent audition doesn?t really help much.

Take care, Kent

Hi Kent

Thanks for your feedback. It's really appreciated.
Sorry to say that but I have made my purchase last week.
Could not resist the price (auctioned on Agon) and bought AKG 701.
They are not here yet tho.

My two Isabellinas HPA just came in and I am listening to it right now via my older Grado SR-60 cans and am pretty impressed to say the least. They never sounded this good and to be quite frank, I did not think they could do what they do with RWA HPA.
Yes, they are cheap cans but my feet are moving.

I have also purchased Empirical Audio Offramp Turbo  USB S/PDIF converter.
Having some problems loading drivers to my Mac from CD-R that came with it tho.
But hope to get that fixed soon.

Will post some more ones 701s arrive.

Best
Mariusz

Good luck and do let us know what you think. The meet I was at had a lot of Grado lovers, including some very special limited edition and vintage models. Also a number of current top-end models from other vendors.

It may take awhile to get used to 701s compared to the Grado sound. My personal opinion is that almost all the Grado's I've tried tend to exadurate certain aspects of the musical spectrum. And the bass is not as tuneful as what I consider neutral. I equate them to seeing a flat-screen TV where the grass is greener than real grass. It can be impressive, but it's not lifelike (I don't mean to offend, this is my opinion, etc.).

The 701s and recabled 650s both sounded great on RWA. Unfortunately the Moon cable would cost more than street price for either can, so comparing recabled 650s was not really a true or fair comparison.

It was also really unfortunate that no one showed up with a  set of HD-800s, a can I?d love to hear.

Speaking of cable compares, we also compared a set of stock K1000s and Moon Black Dragon hardwired K1000s running from my Sig 30.2. I was amazed at how much the cable changed the sound. My K1000s had Moon Silver Dragon, but with delay to get them recabled, the difference was not as easy to detect.

One more thing, short of a very expensive set of Electrostats, IMO both the recabled 650s and 701s did very well against all commers, even cans costing considerably more. There were definitely cans that had an area or two where they bettered the more moderate priced cans, but they also had flaws like overblown bass, overly bright highs or in one case, a more constricted soundstage.

Again all this is based on my opinion and my musical preference. I consider my reference system in a dedicated listening room to be about as neutral as any system I've heard, so my taste may vary from others. Some like sweet wines, others look for complexity and a dryer finish. My preference leans toward the latter.

You should also know, if your 701s are new, many people believe they need multiple hundreds of hours to fully break in. But the Vcaps on the HPA need time to reach their best too.

Again, good luck.

[Vinnie R.]

Hi Mariusz,

My two Isabellinas HPA just came in and I am listening to it right now via my older Grado SR-60 cans and am pretty impressed to say the least. They never sounded this good and to be quite frank, I did not think they could do what they do with RWA HPA.
Yes, they are cheap cans but my feet are moving.

Awesome, and keep us posted! 

Here is a new Isabellina HPA idea that is brewing as well:
http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f70/adding-power-output-option-isabellina-hpa-444269/

More HPA love, too:

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f70/isabellina-hpa-owners-thread-impressions-437559/index6.html

Have fun and looking forward to hearing your impressions once you try the K701s and put the burn-in time on your HPAs. 

Also, I know you'll be using those RCA outputs to feed your home audio system 

Enjoy!

Vinnie

[Mariusz]

My GOD!!!!
Now you're telling me this.
I got Empirical Audio Offramp Turbo which I believe runs on 12VDC.

And yes, I will post some impressions of both HPAs as dedicated head-system and the other in my stereo rig as a digital pre/dac.

Thanks again Vinnie for everything you did to make this happened.

Best
Mariusz

[Vinnie R.]

My GOD!!!!
Now you're telling me this.
I got Empirical Audio Offramp Turbo which I believe runs on 12VDC.

And yes, I will post some impressions of both HPAs as dedicated head-system and the other in my stereo rig as a digital pre/dac.

Thanks again Vinnie for everything you did to make this happened.

Best
Mariusz

Hi Mariusz,

Well, how else am I going to motivate you to come over to visit me? 

This thread now has more pictures and info of the Isabellina HPA - Wadia combo:
http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f70/adding-power-output-option-isabellina-hpa-444269/

Here is the eye-candy:








Best regards,

Vinnie

[Mariusz]

Hi Mariusz,

Well, how else am I going to motivate you to come over to visit me? 

If I only had one of those battery powered cars......
I would outfit my ride in all RWA gear and could use the power output option on Isabellina in case of emergency.

At the moment, I am running my MacBook Air to Empirical Audio Offramp Turbo USB decoder and then to Isabellina's digital in. Volume control via HPA remote and iTunes via iPod/iTouch (free remote plug-in).

So yes, I would like to have that option on both HPAs.
One for Offramp and the other for either: new upcoming Squeezebox Touch (if possible) or  ........ maybe a new phonostage.

P.S

Cool pics 

Mariusz

[Vinnie R.]

Will do!