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At this point our little audio journey hit a fork in the road. After reading the previous page, Sasa Cokic emailed in. Apparently our observations overlapped nearly perfectly. Whew. But not Fred Crane's. So he contacted Takei-San. "I was curious if it's possible that Srajan's H2+ is different than the one you just sent me? He's hearing things I'm not. Were there any design changes that would have meant different HF or LF response?" The surprise answer to which was, "yes, Srajan's H2+ is different. What he has is what you had before. We now mainly changed the LF, then adjusted the HF which became too strong. So we removed the piezo film of the tweeter/super-tweeter from the main vibration board like a portrait. This board is composed as a 3-way, with mass/midbass, mid/treble and the external super-tweeter. Clearly this became a bit of a major change. Of course we also want to change the design for more comfort and better looks but that will need a longer period of development and a big investment. For now we thought to improve the sonics even a little whilst still using the same mould."

Meanwhile Roland Krammer of Crayon Audio alerted me that he'd dispatched his H2+ to me on Fred's request. Why did I need two? Fred again: "I take responsibility for not knowing as much as I should have. It was my misunderstanding that the work being done in Japan was a slight strengthening of the frame with no real aural consequences. So the one from Roland—which I wanted you to have in case something was amiss with the first one—is from the very same first batch. It appears I have the only sample of the retooled model at present. I'm relieved in a sense. In the past our ears have been fairly close in general terms. I'm also relieved because all H2 thus far have been to trades people so the public wasn't given a miss-can.  Of course this H2 still may or may not hang the moon for you. Even so I imagine your description of its signature will shift a tad. The new unit will ship in a few days when I return from the Montreal show."

Seeing how my T4+ assignment hinged on the combination of amp and can, I wondered. How would Takei-San's revoicing in absentia shift the target Sasa had been aiming for using the original? Weren't we now playing a remastered recording? Fred: "That would have been my very first concern had I known. As is, I listened for a few days prior to getting the news that this was a different can. And it was the first I'd heard with Sasa's creation. I like the sound enough not to hesitate sending it your way." When Sasa learnt that Takei-San had eliminated the piezo at the bottom of the enclosure, he thought it a very good idea. In fact he'd tried to do it himself but encountered super glue that prevented it. And he added that having to deliver 200V at 7kΩ, even just one nano farad on the H2's cable would make a difference to suggest that a very specialized leash custom-designed for this load might be another good idea.

Clearly things TakeT were somewhat of a moving target still. That's usually not when reviewers get involved. But it's a standard part of the R&D protocol and its expanded beta testing. Here we were simply participating in it publicly whilst it usually occurs behind closed doors. It certainly made for an interesting learning opportunity. Incidentally the T2+ amp has a deliberately low 1.5Vpp input sensitivity to move its pot to about 1:00 - 3:00 for normal listening. Sasa Cokic: "I wanted the pot to run more open for a lower resistance because of the Miller effect on the high frequencies atop the problem that these cans have very high capacitance and very low impedance at HF. There were very many problems to solve and inside the T2+ nothing was done by accident. My advice is to use a source with higher voltage output if someone runs out of steam."
Obviously this flower pot too had felt protectors. Only a barbarian would risk marring that perfect paint finish. AURALiC Vega source with Audirvana set to 352.8kHz upsampling.
Whilst awaiting the new version, I watched Jude Mansila's Youtube video review of the original. He clearly stated that to work properly for him, he EQ'd them in software. Given what I'd learnt in the meantime, that made perfect sense. At this stage I still viewed the H2+ as a 2-seater Corvette. For most it could never be their only car. It's too impractical for daily use. But hit the twisties for some trick manoeuvres or the track as a weekend racer... you'd not want anything else. If you could afford to, you'd have one reasonable car for everyday use; and an extreme souped-up unreasonable sports car for those special occasions. On the sane level that's what my retired dad does with his soft-top Mazda Miata and matching Mazda 3. Likewise for the first TakeT. Particularly for headfi collectors it felt like an utter ownership necessity due to its difference and extreme abilities in the described areas. A standard 'civilian' headphone user who owns just one model to suit all occasions and music styles would not be the ideal customer. But I had a free Corvette in my driveway. I did the only possible thing. I moved T4+ into the big rig and hit 'play', speed limits be damned. Where the car freak would hit his roads late at night to avoid the police, I simply avoided my show-off bass tracks. Must I really say how easy it is to get used to a Corvette?

The evening before I'd listened to my Aëdle VK1 off the RWA-modified Astell&Kern AK100 whilst on the exercise bike. It sounded like an echo chamber by comparison. T4+ stripped out all the fuzz, cobwebs and resonant blur for a view on the same scenery that was far clearer, cleaner and 'down to the bone'. This reminded me of trade show demos of Roger Sanders electrostatic speakers set up in the nearfield toed in extremely. Many show goers opined that those sounded like giant headphones. For T4+ that type of setup is a perfect pointer. The nearfield takes the room out of the equation, a tall quasi line-source panel speaker with a cylindrical wave launch plays it ultra transparent and quick and with few floor and ceiling reflections. There's no standard box resonance, no ringing port, no multi-way crossover intrusion. If the Sanders Sound System mention paints the picture for you... nothing else needs saying.


Now Fred checked in with another surprise. "The headphone you have should be the 'correct' or newest model though as you pointed out, not the headphone the amp was voiced on. The issue was of Takei-san confusing you with Sasa. So he thought you had or were the man with the old can. Roger Sheker at Audience will be in possession of a T2+ amplifier by Friday. We'll see what else can be done to squeeze out more from this design. As Sasa pointed out, at the impedances and voltages involved a cable will make even more of a difference than usual." The obvious question was, how much had the redesign altered the impedance curve versus Sasa's response correction for the original? Until someone actually heard both headphones on the Trafomatic, there was no way of knowing. I'd certainly not know. Sasa: "I made the amp for the worst possible scenario so I suppose the revised version will be driven much easier than the old version with the tweeter. Taking out that capacitance means a much easier job for the amp. Morten from Norway got the amp a few days ago and has the new version H2+. He said it's the first time he heard the H2+ sound this good. So I think you should go on with the review exactly as you are and not worry about it." Okay!