I hope you can help me out guys:
Last 3 years or so all I have heard is grain/sand, harshness, distortion, noise, piercing highs, whatever you wanna call it, I have bought and sold a bunch of gear I am so tired of doing so, even if Amazon and/or other sources allow you to return the product for free (still, takes time and
it's a little bit stressful).
Even when I make my homework: reading lots of info, reviews, youtube videos, etc, I end up being just disappointed.
Just a recent example: a Youtuber Zeos (Z reviews) swore that the Phillips Fidelio were the "best" headphones ever and that we were the most stupid person in the world if we didn't buy them... long story short, they arrived from Amazon, I opened them, plugged them in, played 5 songs,
put them back in the box and returned them. To me they were the worst piece of sht ever made in mankind history. (Too bad, they were beautiful looking).
Now I don't return to his channel anymore...
Currently I have:
Duet (Apogee last gen) interface (it has balanced outputs, but they are 6.5 mm not XLR
)
Yamaha receiver R-S02 //apparently Class B (I bought it for some NS-244 speakers, that I swear sounded powerful and amazing when I bought them).
Modi 2 USB + Heresy
And recently bought a
iFi Silencer (which I swear does something, it has helped me clean, or so I believe, jitter from the Modi/Duet). Signal feels cleaner meaning more defined, helped with instrument separation.
Headphones:
Sennheiser HD650 (recently bought 2, they were a bargain, for me the best overall headphones so far), HD599, Beyerdynamic DT990.
And I am not happy at all. With the
iFi at least I feel some sort of improvement.
I like more the Duet than the Schiit combo, but it sounds to me it has exaggerated highs, and somehow it manages to "obscure" vocals a little bit.
(electric guitars sound as they should, great timbre, VS the Modi + Heresy combo, they sound like azz, timbre is not respected at all).
Line outputs sound different than the headphones output.
I
have run the Duet's line outputs into my Yamaha receiver and into the Heresy (separately) and the
Heresy is just
anemic. The Yamaha receiver sounds fuller/warmer not anemic (night and day of a difference vs the Heresy) but I still feel I hear a little bit of distortion/noise, no matter the volume. I call this noise like some sort of saturation (as I use lots of plugins for music mixing, this one I feel is the perfect example of a word/description, and saturation is distortion. Btw, I loathe saturators. Probably would like them if I felt I had first a clean/distortionless signal)
I mention the Heresy being anemic because I fear I would have the same issue with the THX AAA 789? Reading the output power/impedance
specs (which I don't understand at all but they seem similar between them).
But I am interested in the THX AAA 789 because it's basically
distortionless?
Hell, sometimes I grab my headphones, put them on, and even if I don't hear anything (meaning I don't play any music/sound), I feel sometimes something that makes me just remove them off my head.
Also the THX AAA 789 is supposed to be not only
distortionless but
clean and almost flat, meaning it will respect
TIMBRE ?
So, from what I read the THX AAA 789 has what I am looking for?
It has more power than the Magni?
It's pretty much distortionless?
It's very very clean?
It's FR is flat (meaning it will respect the timbre of my recordings)?
It's got balanced inputs which I can use with my Duet's balance outputs?
I want it loud,
powerful, clean, timbre respectful. I focus on Vocals, snares, kicks, bass (as in very well defined), cymbals (silk sounding, not metallic //more than they should, I mean, they are made of metal, I know // ) any brass instrument. I focus on instrument separation, not a messy/muddy presentation.
Or having the Heresy, it would be reduntant, maybe they are very near each other sound/specs wise?
Maybe I won't ever like anything for good? I swear I don't continue recording stuff because I just don't feel like turning on my gear since I don't hear nowhere a decent sound. Something's always off (specially with the aforementioned distortion/saturation I feel I hear, no matter the volume level).
Note: My Duet's sound is not that is bad //specially through headphones// , but either have to listen to it at low levels or I feel it gets nasty at medium/high volumes sometimes.
Has great bass projection (not exaggerated, to me sounds as it should, but from mid highs? to highs it kinda gets into harshness/saturation/distortion?)
P.S. Just running Bluetooth into my Yamaha's receiver, sending the output into the Heresy, it sounds with added distortion, whereas the Yamaha receiver's own headphone output sounds almost with no distortion in it. Night and day difference.
Using
Audioquest red RCA cables, if you must know (forgot about mentioning I am using those, which yes, sound "better" or at least different than
Amazon's Editors Choice RCA cables).
I have written this kind of Thesis in several places with no answer so far.