Ok, so I've had my E/L 70s for 2 weeks now, so it's about time I contributed my impressions even though I really haven't wanted to, due to embarrasment.
I'm a recovering audiophile. I used to want expensive cables, $50k amps, $100k speakers etc. Over the last decade I've researched acoustics, joined forums like this one and hydrogen audio (they're cut-throat over there!) and it's help me recover from some silly beliefs. Well, I feel silly again. I think.
My stack is: Gentoo Linux computer mpv -> pipewire -> usb -> E70 -> L70 -> Sony MDR-7506
So, yeah my headphones are meh (I'll upgrade to DCA Stealth next), but the Topping units replaced a Focusrite Scarlet Solo which will be doing mic input duty now if needed.
What am I hearing and experiancing? I'm a fan of 菅野よう子 (Yoko Kanno). I have 866 of her tracks, a lot of favorites. "Favorites" not as in I really like them, but that I feel in love with the music. They feel like my own mind written out as musical notation. Even though I've listened to some of them hundreds of times, they make me weep every time. The first thing I played over them was her track
"Medley" from Toko Sora. I didn't weep. I bawled. It felt like I was really hearing into it for the first time. It wasn't the usual "I've never heard that there was x instument there" this was actually hard to describe. I didn't hear a string section, I heard each string instrument as a separate entity all it's own.
This experiance is repeated with every track I've played since. Not the bawling, but the presense of individual instruments and voices. This combo takes things apart. The beach boys sound like separate people singing. It's still harmony, but it's not as ... melded? I don't hear "chiors" through these, I hear individual people. I hear the tremlo and of a sax solo that I've never noticed, and I swear I can hear the player's mouth movements. Kick drums don't go *thump* anymore, they have an envelope now and they produce notes.
One of my reference tracks is
"Smile that Explodes" by Joseph Arthur. In the chorus a female singer appears to sing in both of your ears at once, while Joseph is in the middle. I'd wondered how they did that, and now I can hear that there's a delay in her voice in one ear.
All of these things I'm hearing are just there. I'm not listening for them. There so damned obvious now, as though someone changed the color of my walls from gold to bright yellow. These are definately awesome at the end of my studio chain.
So, different DACs should sound the same, amps of a type should sound the same. I haven't changed my software settings or anything and my hearing hasn't become better. What the hell am I hearing?
Addendum: There are some tracks that sound so different, that I'd swear they're not the same mixes. They are, but they don't sound like it.
