Leaderboard

Well the big brother of the mini KGSSHV I posted above is up and running. Huge sinks on this one so I could play with the current a bit. Running at almost 12mA now @+/-400V... Not happy with the quality of these boxes though so this one will be a one off. Managed to wash some of the anodizing off the heatsinks...

It sure feels like I'm being talked about behind my back!

Even if all Neil manages to do with Pono is to get Apple off their ass, he's won. What with the uptrend in smartphones and headphones in general, iTunes to hi-rez, and a little poke from Neil, I think the balance is beginning to shift. Strong headphone use and quieter cars reduce the need for so much dynamic compression. Increasing awareness of audio quality as a subject in the popular consciousness (regardless of how ill informed it is) will lead to companies bringing focus to, and market on the benefits of better fidelity. And, believe it or not, the strong and now decade deep body of information and experience on Head-Fi is indexed highly, and the consuming public at large is only a Google search away from better information than they've ever had before. Pono itself may or may not be great, but it's already having a lot of catalytic power for better audio.

I enjoyed the LCD-X more at RMAF for their larger soundstage and improved efficiency. Of course we all talk about how no "one" headphone does everything perfectly, but many top tier phones have an area where they excel over others. I couldn't say the LCD-X were #1 in any area, but they did a lot of things right, which averages out to a high score in my book. But not high enough to ditch my LCD-2 rev2 for a bigger dent in the wallet.