Phono stages

I just got hold of this ranking of low cost riaa MM phono stages/preamps, from the linn forum. So I thought I should publish it here as well, evaluated with Tune Method the list goes like this!

1. Lejonklou Slipsik 5
2. Lejonklou Kinki 3
3. Kairn
4. Linn LK1 preamp used as phono stage (easily the best)
5. Rega Fono MM (not as good as LK1 but noticeably ahead of all the rest)
6. Rega Fono Mini
7. Kolektor phono stage
8. Grado PH1 (warm and euphonic but not as tuneful as Rega at the same price)

And significant below these:
9. ProJect TubeBox
10. ProJect PhonoBox SE
11. Nad PP1 (Probably should be here some where)
12. NAD PP2
13. ProJect PhonoBox

More Headphones!

We've been testing a lot of headphones in diffrent price-range lately, mostly for fun, but ofcourse also to really find those performing well over their price tag! We've amied down our searching to really find headphones that are better than our reference akg k420.

Keep in mind that even those on the bottom of this list probably outperforms 95% of the headphones out there on the market!

1. Beyerdynamic dt990 2005 ed-500$
We haven't listened that much to this one, we just got recommended that it was ultra good, and we heard it and just agreed. It's kind of pricy though and quite big to have on your head. But we're quite convinced they own all the other ones.



2. Sony Ericsson hpm-61 - 15$
And now we come to this little bastard. 10$ is the price for this one, and yeap it sounds rather crappy and bass-weak when it comes to details and asking for a full bodied sound image. BUT, it's ability to playback music, the tune, and the tightness actually surprised us!. I'm quite sure there would be some linnists going for this one :)(only fits to Sony Ericsson phones.)

3. Sennheiser HD 60 TV
This is my friends dads old headphones that he bought some how back in the nineties. It's not that pretty and it doesn't have as high resolution as the akg k 420, but somehow, we got surprised by it's remarkable ability to playback music, great headphone!
Unfortunately we don't have any price on this one.

5. Sennheiser HD-595 - 200$
Looks closed but has an open construction, no 3.5mm plugg. Great sound awesome musicality, really looking forward to hear this one more!
Edit: Unfortunately we had to move this one down, after hearing it at home, it wasn't as extremely good as we thought. Still good though!


6. Denon AH-D1001 - 200$
Really great closed headphones, awesome crispness and great musicality, didn't expect to get this from Denon, good job!. Best closed headphone so far. All in all it's is a really great headphone for the price and a good step up from akg k420! Worth mentioning is that the plug on these has been resoldered, because of damage, so it might sound even better from factory. That's yet to be heard!

7. Pioneer se-m280 - 40$
I find it more musical but less overall hifi than akg k420. But since musicality is the most important, I would rather SACRIFICE some soundquaility(crispness, details etc) to get some more musicality(correct music-playback). These are rather cheap even cheaper than akg k420. The downside is their ugliness, quite bad buildquality, and a bit veiled sound.

8. Akg k420 - 60$ - Really nice sounding, musical,. Could hurt if worn to long. Our reference headphone in the 100$ below price span.



9. Grado sr-80 - 200$
Good headphone, but compared to the other ones in this top test, it aint worth it's price.



Beyerdynamic DT235 - 75$
Nice sounding musical, but my intention says they are slightly worse than AKG K420





Sony MDR-v150 - 40$
Hmm, really confused about this one. Sounds like it has the same driver as the sony mdr-v300. First time we tested sony mdr-v300, we kind of thought it to be better than akg k420, but then later changed our minds. But now we herd this one, and surprisingly we thought it to be quite good again, unexpected. For now I would place it close to hd595, will give it a closer look some time ahead. Smooth sound, got quite much loudness effect, and one would think it lacks some details, but still a little bit more resolution than Sennheiser hd 60 tv. I'm sure it's not as god as Sennheiser hd 60 tv, but I'm not convineced where to put it in the list yet.

Mp3-players

Hi! We just made a small comparison between three mp3/cellphone-players.
We tested Sony Ericsson K810, Sony Ericsson w890, Sandisk Sansa Fuze, and Nokia Xpress Musix 5800 with the hifi chip.
Me myself was surpised since i thought that the se k810 and the se w890 would have the same sound chip, I kind of thought the walkman thing was just a name!
Here's the outcome, (I reserve my self for small variations, in between the positions)

1. Se w890i
2. Sandisk sansa Fuze
3. K810
4. Nokia xpress music 5800 ( i was really disappointed with this one, calls it hifi-chip and it can't get the music out right. Sorry nokia-fans)

Stereo amplifiers

Here's my short list of stereo amplifiers. So far I've heard marantz pm4001 and marantz pm7001, and i've heard system fidelity sa-250 and system fidelity sa-300, and here's my list. (I've listened to these particular amps since i've heard from high end people that these ones are good).

(1. System Fidelity sa-300)
1. System Fidelity sa-d30(15watt digital small plastic thing, that can be driven by battery)
2. System Fidelity sa-250 (320$)
3. Marantz pm7001 800$
4. Marantz pm7001 KI 1100$

Since sa-300 is too expensive, it doesn't count.
I'm right now comparing Sa-250 with Sherwood rd-7500 and it's looks like the sa-250 is att better choice, but I'll will come back when the test is over.