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Sorry about that...

Posted by EdAInWestOC (A) on October 17, 2019 at 06:59:37

In Reply to: RE: The KOSS ESP/950 posted by John Elison on October 16, 2019 at 08:48:01:

I have not tried the Fiio FH5s. The only IEMs I own are a set of HiFi Man RE-400s. Those are very good for a cheap IEM but the FH5 is in another league. Let me know how the FH7s sound.

To tell the truth I don't really care for IEMs. It is a thing I have about sticking something in my ears. The IEMs have an advantage to sealing out ambient noise and a surprising good low end. That plus they are compatible with most players makes for a nice product.

I tried the HiFi Man RE-400 because they were very cheap and I wanted to try something for a portable player I have. It is an old classic IPod w/160MB storage. I bought it long ago and never used it. The headphones available at the time were not that great or you had to drop thousands for a custom set of IEMs which I was not about to do. The fact that the iPod is a low res player only is also a checkbox against it.

I don't have any real driving needs for a portable player so IEMs have taken a back seat to other types of headphones. The good news is there are so many quality headphones to choose from now. Not only is it a time of resurgent vinyl but we have so many headphones to choose from it is difficult to keep up with everything. I am sure there are some headphones out there that I would really love but how do you keep up with all of them?

There are few to no brick and mortar stores where we can try out many of these new headphone models (at least in my immediate area) and thats a shame. I miss the heyday of stereo stores where we could go try out things before we buy. That was nice.

Anyhow, the Stax SR-009S goes for $4500 MSRP (available for around $4400) but requires a very good driver to get them to sing like they should so $10k is a pretty accurate number. That is a crazy number but I keep on thinking about the SR-009S and the Headamp Blue Hawaii driver. I might do it one day but I also have a bug to get back into RTR after all of these years.

Sorry to wander off topic but all of these things keep on finding their way into my mind. I believe I mentioned that I just got done with alimony payments, plus I am still working, collecting Social Security and have few bills. I find myself with more disposable money than I have known in my life.

I have just finished rebuilding my main stereo rig so it is a little hard to figure out what to do with my one and only hobby. A friend and owner of one of the local stereo stores suggests things from time to time but the suggestions are now wandering into higher levels...like ARC gear.

Their phono preamp is drop dead beautiful and based on the 6H30Pi super tube. I just upgraded to the Rogue Audio PH-9 line preamp and it is based on the same tubes. It it drop dead quiet. You simply cannot tell it is on no matter how high you turn up the volume...very nice. And its very neutral and has all of the nice stuff we audiophiles gab about.

OK...enough gabbing on my end. I hope you enjoy the PH7s. Let me know how they sound after they break in.

Take care,
Ed
Life is analog...digital is just samples thereof

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