A tale of two ear/headphones and 3 disc spinners

Headphones: Monoprice 8320 IEM

Amp: Electric Avenus PA2V2

Sources:
Sony Playstation SCPH-1001 (PS1)
Pioneer Elite DV-38A             (38A)
Sony DVP-S7000                  (S7000)

The Hat, The Way I am/Girls and Boys/Ingrid Michaelson (IM)

Tracks 1, 2/The Best of Tchaikovsky/Point Classics (TY)

The PS1 blew away the other two on the IM CD. Yes, I heard other things with S7000 but the vocals were outstanding with the PS1. I expected the 38A to be better at classical music and S7000 to be better in Pop/Rock. What I found was different. Surprisingly, the S7000 was excellent with this TY CD. Nice details. The 38A was a distant third in this setup. I generally like its smoothness, with good detail.

I wonder how much of this is a synergy thing. Perhaps this is confirmation that you really have to listen to your choices, together, to discern differences.

My memory of previous listening experiences is not great. So I'll try a similar test again with the Grado SR60.

The plastic office carpet protector charged me up so much that every move I made zapped me in the ear (cable touching ear). I had also never noticed a hum with the PA2V2. It seemed to build up when I was on the plastic.

This hopefully bodes well for the coming mods to the S7000.

With the Grado SR60, things got more interesting. Everything was a lot closer. I still preferred the S7000 for the TY CD and the PS1 for the IM CD. However the 38A seemed to be flexing its muscles. Not a distant third, but a very close third now. The TY track 2 airy triangles were still best on the S7000. These headphones made the IM CD sound a tad loudly recorded. Still the PS1 had the most pleasing presentation of the IM CDs. Perhaps it is more forgiving.

What did I learn from this? It depends :)

A list

Yamaha CDC 705. 5 Disc. weak laser. Nice golden display

NAD 5220. No playback. Red Display

Pioneer DV 59 AVi . ilink sounds good. Does CD, SACD, DVDA. The problem strangely when connecting this to a Pioneer 74 TXVi was a firewire cable that was not good enough. A genuine Sony cable seemed to work better. That said, having an alternate, Sony DA7100ES helped too.
Yamaha S2500. Ebay. once around. returned. Didn't seem as impressive as the Pioneer.

Sony PlayStation. Impressive playback. Not really a flat frequency response. But who cares.

Pioneer DV 38A . Impressive internals. Now plays CDs well. No DVDA. Changed laser. VNP1713 is a good match. Actual Pioneer part number is VXX2653 for DVD Mech (Pickup and Spindle motor). Just watch 4 springs during reassembly. rods. springs on top. Not the other way. Otherwise you'll hear a once around - disc hitting the laser / tab on the laser.

Pioneer DV 434 . For parts for above. Ended up not using. 

Sony DVP S7000. To mod. Sounds good. Headphone amp inbuilt. Won't stay off.

Sony BX 59/BDP 590. Multi channel DSD via HDMI to Receiver. Sounds good.

2014/11/22

VNP1713 and the existing laser both work for DV 38A when installed correctly. Neither seems to work for DVDA. For DVD, it IDs as DVD but does not play tracks.