Leaderboard

Wow! What a roller coaster ride of a day... I woke up early this morning to test the amp boards. Plugged them into the PSU, turned on the power, and all LEDs lit up. I thought I was golden... For about 2 seconds before there was a bright spark accompanied by a loud "POP" from one of the IXTP01s on one of the amp boards. The first pop was quickly followed by a second pop before I could yank the power cord from the wall. I was initially too embarrassed to post this in this forum: The sparks resulted in scorch marks on the IXTPs on the one board. Spritzer confirmed to me that I should have used aluminum oxide isolators instead of just plain heatsink paste between those high-power mosfets and their heatsinks. Fortunately, the damage was on only one of the boards. I created some space between the IXTPs and heatsinks and cleaned off the heatsink paste on the second board and plugged it in. The LEDs came on and stayed on with no sparking from the board, and everything was stable enough for me to adjust the balance and offset pots on the board. By the end of the day, I was able to hook up a phone as a source and my beat up pair of Stax 303s. The result was loud, distortion-free music from the one board. I screamed so loudly with joy, my wife got pissed off at me... Back in the dog house again. Hopefully, the only damage on the first amp board is only in the scorched IXTP01s and nothing else... I have some replacement IXTPs along with proper aluminum oxide isolators on order from Mouser... Damn these long waiting spells for replacement parts. At least the first board is working. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I've had very few episodes with noisy babies at movie theaters, and the few that did happen usually were quickly ushered out by Mom or Dad. I'm constantly annoyed by folks old enough to know how to act, but lacking any concern for others. I'm not one to sit quietly however, and will call them on their shit.

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Schnitzel a la Holstein. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Well, I didn't do a direct comparison, so I couldn't do more than a passing comment. Basically, I find e-stats have too much "air". I find there's often an added indistinct haziness around the treble sounds. The Utopia was astonishingly precise and markedly different from pretty much anything I've heard before. It's pretty rough doing a headphone review a week, doubly so when they're so new and unusual sounding. Really, all I can do is take a good first pass on the sound in general and then just wait and see what the collective community has to say over time. It's only then we'll really be able to get a handle on how well these cans perform for people.

Mike Mercer disliked the Utopia (called them sterile sounding), judging by his tastes in audio equipment (Cavalli and +1k headphone cables), Utopia might be the best headphones ever. Really, I didn't care about them but now I want to hear them.

Not if he stops at "mildly"!

You may fit in after all.

Yes, I had my full rig at the meet. Purely sonically, I liked my 009/HV combo better than what I have now, but there is a lot more that goes in to it that just sound. After having to get a broken pair of 009s fixed by Yama's I'm done with electrostatics. EDIT: Just found a picture I took at the meet when I was listening to Elear.

I Bogart-ed Jude's pair at the SF meet for an extended listening session on my own rig and I agree with most of what Tyll had to say. It was noisy and I don't claim to have nearly as experienced a set of ears, but I could tell right away that they are an extremely technically competent headphone. I'm hoping to get a pair for an audition in the months to come. My only immediate issue was that the soundstage/imaging seemed lacking next to my HD800S, which is something Tyll noticed as well. As a former 009/KGSS-HV owner, I don't think the Utopia is going to convert anyone away from the Church of stats.

I want to know how they sound on a motorcycle

Well, the problem is when I heard the 009 I hadn't heard the Utopia, so I can only go on what I've heard to date. And sure, they may be a honeymoon effect, but I've got a pretty thick skin and don't have any money invested in these things. I reckon I can be pretty objective. None the less, I am excited about what I'm hearing with these cans. That can be a factor in my tone.

Poolside donuts. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Sold mine earlier today. Quite sought after by many people with 5 people wanting to purchase it. I'm just glad that I didn't loose any money and get to keep the GS-1 instead.

I should prolly make a real sign. Zucchini once this week was enough....

I was going to use "Tony" but that was taken, so DonkeyBalls was sure to be free. I was mildly drunk at the time. That shouldn't be a surprise.

I think you made a good choice In separate news my Bones is working great for me

In this case, Filipino.

It's for the China market.

Olympic divers on the toilet: http://imgur.com/gallery/wFfUv Accidental Censorship Of Olympic Divers Makes Them All Look Like Porn Stars https://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/porn-that-isnt-porn-that-is-actually-diving?bffbmain&ref=bffbmain&utm_term=.ij5rJWdyZ#.dgQd6jzy5

60 TB! Man, sounds like an "eggs in one basket" thing to me but like you guys say, the trickle down could be tremendous. Me, just waiting for a good sale for a handful of 1T evo 850 pro's.

that may be a good thing compared to the 800, if you take their soundstage to be somewhat artificial just my personal preference of course I think I'm interested in the elear simply because they look nice, which will definitely make them sound better to me haha

When I get really annoyed I can be an absolute asshole. Part of my charm.

The specs will tell me very little about their requirements. Goes to show how useless they are but I'd start with the PureBipolar and work from there

That's sad as can be. I damn near wore out my copy of 3 Feet HIgh and Rising... HS

Heh heh...craft beer hipster douches https://www.facebook.com/makerstudios/videos/1110344055697958/

They're so transparent.

I'd suggest trying them on a Cmoy to see if a superior amplifier might help.