A long read about my long journey and long search to find long term audio happiness…
In most hobbies there is a mythical state all hobbyists yearn to reach called “end game”. Even from one’s humble beginnings we yearn for a state where everything is maxed out, best of the best, no stone unturned, and nothing more to want. A very envious place to be, indeed.
But this “end game” always seems to be a distant target as the ever moving goal posts are constantly driven by a push of must buy hype products, development of “better” tech, and promises of the next best thing. This seems to hit the audio hobby HARD, and all before touching things like digital vs. analogue debates, hunting down specific printings or swearing by mythically rare vintage pieces.
At some point you may come to realize that this “end game” everyone is trying to reach really isn’t an objectively defined thing. Well, if you ask me it isn’t. To me it is not a specific tier of equipment, or money spent, or air of prestige. It really is not anything like that. To me it is about the culmination of experience. Experience harnessed from time spent listening, testing, analyzing, swapping, reading, chatting, chasing, trading, and sharing not only audio equipment but musical tastes and life events. Experience put to work to build myself a final system that caters only to me, myself, and I.
For anyone reading this article, I ask you to keep the above ideas in mind. The following is not the usual impressions or review of a product. Instead it is a bit longer form. Consider it a long read about my long journey and long search to find long term audio happiness…
Outlining Objectives
One of the hardest parts of this process has been nailing down what the final objective is. And fittingly, the hardest part of creating this article has been writing about the process of defining the final goal. It is something that only took shape over a lot of time, listening to a lot of gear, speaking to a lot of audio enthusiasts, and investing a lot of inner thought. To be honest, it takes a lot. For me, it is easiest to break this down into the following…
Function
What do I want my system to do? What tasks do I want to perform? What features do I need? What would be nice to have? Even the biggest budgets need to these things in mind. Honing my scopes let me concentrate on what I really wanted. While others may like to have a few DACs, amps, and headphones interconnected by switchers creating a myriad of sonic soundscapes. That is just not what I want. I know that the more switches and options, the more I will spend my time playing and not listening. So instead of breadth I want something super concentrated and deep. One DAC, connected to one amp, powering one headphone type. (I say “type” as a singular headphone is boring even for me) Now take this to as high of a tier as my wallet will allow.
Form
So now that I have a basis of what I am chasing, how does it physically happen and how does it lay out and fit in my space. I would love to have a huge room with a big rack and plenty of space to lay everything out in a neatly organized manner. My reality at this time is far from this dream. Space is my biggest limiter being restrained to my self built shelves and having to fit on top of and under a desk. This also goes as far as affecting cable management as some front/back panel layouts would cause issues with crossing or reaching where they need to go. For me, at this price, I feel some custom aesthetic flairs should be part of the equation too.
Sound
This is almost the easiest one. We all know pieces that we like the sound of so just follow that. Easy! But when pen hits paper you suddenly realize describing what you like is not really easy. Translating my tastes into words and an objective quantity took a lot of time and a lot of listening. Good, Bad, and anything in between. DACs, amps, integrated units, DAPs, headphones, cables, and ICs of all types. These all helped me understand what I wanted sonically and what I naturally gravitated to. This took a while and I was lucky enough to have plenty of extremely high performing pieces where I could have decided to go one way or another. But it came down to the soundscape I thought about all day at work and couldn’t wait to unwind with and the pieces that I yearned to listen to day after day. You learn that the most expensive, most technical, or most loved-by-the-wider-crowd pieces may not be your perfect. The pieces that did this for me were those that gave a very “live” feeling, not necessarily realism but “live”. It portrays the emotion of that person-to-person experience, the power of the performance, the effects of the room, and an ever present thumping bass that acts as the heartbeat to the music. Add some over romancing, an engaging stage, and a drop of intimacy and you have me hooked.
Finding The Goods
So once you have an outline of what you want, it is time to actually go and look for things that suit your needs. The outline should act as a filter of sorts, narrowing down what options fit your needs and giving you things to concentrate your ears on. If you’re lucky something that is current production or abundantly found used will be just the ticket. Maybe your ideal loadout needs a little patience for your number to be called on a wait list or just a little secondary market searching. Or, if you’re like me with amps, extensive auditioning followed by trials and tribulation followed by flipping it all back to the research phase followed by a year wait.
I am lucky that my beloved Eddie Current Studio B served me well and has been the longest lasting pieced of source gear in my main chain. It outlasted many steamers, DACs, headphones, cables, and power changes. It is an underrated piece that hits way above it’s price point, while also scaling very, very well. It helped me audition tons of high end pieces and ultimately settle on the 2020 OG Focal Utopia, Antipodes K50, and Mojo Mystique X SE-ZNC. But everything hits a limit, the Studio B was maxed and the itch to hear more was increasing.
It Begins…
Hitting the books (IE: forums, reviews, talking to trusted enthusiasts) and narrowing down all the wonderful offerings out there, it became evident that finding a true upgrade to the B would not be a quick (or inexpensive) task. A clear upgrade wouldn’t be found just a tier or two higher as all of Craig’s amps overperform, especially his Eddie Current amps. This also pushed any purchase above the $5k mark and into a realm where dedicated headphone amps become sparse and many decide to grab specially configured speaker amps instead. Knowing I love the Studio B very much, I decided why not look for a higher tier Eddie, namely a Studio T or Studio M. Feelers went out but as I expected not much came back, these amps are in the “unobtanium” class as few were made and those who have them tend to not let them go. While waiting on that once per decade sale post, a listing for a Woo Audio WA23 Luna was brought to my attention. I spoke to some people that had experience with the amp and pulled the trigger. Time to hear what some have classified as the best tube amp they have ever heard. I was excited!
A Bumpy Road
That excitement didn’t last… The amp arrived and and one of the power tubes was bad. Talking to the seller was not easy and he insisted “oh it’s fine just buy a replacement and I will reimburse you.” Since I was eager to hear the Woo and I already spent a few hours swapping amps and cleaning up wiring, I just gave in and bought a new tube. A week later they’re delivered and I plug them in. The broken sound is gone but I hear a low level buzzing. No matter what I do it is there. All amp settings, different outlets, different rooms, different times of day, everything else in the room is unplugged. It gets to a point where I tell the seller I want to return it and get my money back, if not for the broken tube but for the amp not being what it should. It gets to a point where Woo Audio themselves are involved and the amp is transferred to their hands. They hear the noise but say it is within limits. Though them saying there definitively was a noise had the upside of getting the seller to back down and accept the amp back. He did try to pull a shady trade in with Woo without telling me but the good people at Woo filled me in before he could. Experience was gained but quite a few bucks and a good chunk of time was lost. A shame as outside of the noise you can hear how great the amp was. I will also note at this year’s CanJam their WA24 Anniversary amp was extremely impressive.
Finding A Path
Going back to the drawing board I leaned more on past amps that I owned and loved. My RNHP and Bottlehead Crack do not have higher end equivalents and any other OTL tube amp will most likely mean tons of tubes, space, and heat. Eddie Current’s offerings are those super rare T’s and M’s which to date have not had a single listing. So how about the Radu amp I had? Maybe he could make me something like the End-game 300B amp but more to my personal tastes, maybe a little smaller too.
I sent the Magnificent Radu Tarta an e-mail and a long phone call proceeded. Talks about needs, wants, restrictions, and hard limits ensued. Ideas were tossed around about how to do this, how to do that, and describing possible forms it could take. It really showed off his deep knowledge. We hung up and a week or so after the call he sent me a few options and layouts that would get the job done. At this point it was obvious, a Radu amp would definitively….. not be my next amp. It was simply a fact that the amp would not fit my space. We thanked each other for our time, but Radu’s ability to sweat the details left an impression on me. One that would solidify my choice on a custom build.
Light at the End of the Tunnel
Now my free time and research was poured down the rabbit hole which is custom amp builders, specifically those who specialize in DHT amps. The small amount of options suddenly widened but info on each was a bit more scarce and word of mouth. While most forums have a post or two on a builder, places like Glow in the Dark Audio were troves of info. So many “small” builders all with reputations and wait lists that proceed them. It all came across as a situation where if you need to know, you’ll know, and when you do know, you reeaaaaally know. Diving in is a bit of a trip in history. So many of these amps are built to heritage designs, and many of the builders are of an old guard. I was delighted to see many of the top amps were built in NYC or Brooklyn, but sad to learn that many of the builders (and even owners) have passed on.
I made a shortlist of builders, sent out emails and made phone calls. Most were met with no response, some wouldn’t build unless you already owned an amp of theirs, and others were very strict on what they offer and the fit was not there. During this time, a good friend suggested a builder I’ve seen here and there but had barely paid much attention to. I figured why not and sent out my usual email “Hi, are you currently building headphone amplifiers? If so, I would be interested in a custom build. If not, thank you for your time.” A few days pass and nothing, I email again and still nothing! Before writing this off something tells me to check my spam. Bingo, there are the responses! “Hi, yes I do currently build custom headphone amps. Give me a call. – Matt”…
To Be Continued in Part 2
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Inching across the audio landscape in search of the coveted “Endless Groove”.