Leaderboard

Hi! Thanks so much for the birthday wishes. it was a weird day, mostly due to spending time at a memorial service for a good friend who passed last week from a heart attack while paddle boarding. He was a wonderful man, and one of the few people in life who made me happy every time I saw him, even if just walking down a hallway at work. There were more than 300 people at the service, many of whom I known for years but had lost track of a long time ago. It ended up being a beautiful day, and made me remember how important it is to stop and tell people you love that you love them from time to time. Love you guys

After almost 4 months of learning and building, an exciting spark from one of the amp boards, and lots and lots of advice from Spritzer, I finally finished up my KGSSHV last night. I've posted photos of my build below. I know the electrical build can't compare with those by other members here, but I'm rather proud of the case work. I purchased a generic aluminum case from an eBay seller in China and spent the last couple of months learning to use CAD CAM software along with some machine shop equipment to customize the case for my build. The red and black anodizing was done by a local shop (in Bangkok). I did all the customized mill work. I etched all the text on the front and back panels using a laser that burned the text directly onto the anodized aluminum. (I put the "BuiAudio" logo on the front just to impress my little sons. :-) The amp sounds wonderful -- no noise at all and dramatically better (and louder) than my STAX SRM-1/MK-2 with my stax SR-303 and SR-407. Now for the next phase... To build a pair of DIY electrostatic headphones like the ones inspired by chinsettawong on head-fi.org...

I have CWB syndrome- Compulsive wine buyer?

If I were forced to pick a favorite band Dire Straits would be it. My favorite albums are Making Movies and Communique. IMO they never made a bad album. Love Mark's solo/duet stuff too. Have you heard Neck and Neck with Mark and Chet Atkins? Phenomenal, even if you don't care for Country music.

Double Shackburger and cheese fries at Shake Shack.

Attending the DDG1000 Comissioning.

Put up some backing strips for the new CD shelves. Working on getting the actual shelves mounted.

87 of Robin Williams' bikes on auction (for charity): https://paddle8.com/auction/robin-williams/

I have that on CD (well, now ripped to the NAS too). Great album.

Just put it on my favourites list on Tidal HiFi - will listen to later. Useless factoid number 37a: Mark Knopfler bought his first guitar from the shop I worked in on a Saturday aged 16 http://www.jgwindows.com/about-us .

Love you too, Queen V! Happy birthday!

My newish system is an HD580, Torpedo amp and Pico DAC (most provided by Shelly), and I really love this system. It still shocks me at how good it sounds for what is a relatively low cost system. I have no plans to creep upward.

The problem is always that you have to be expensive to be taken seriously. That applies to everything we humans do as we always associate a higher price with better performance when we have no actual point of reference. I also think that we've reached the point where manufacturers don't really have to make the call whether they want to sell a few expensive units or a lot more cheaper ones. They can just charge what ever they want and the sheep follow blindly.

Theodore Millon et. al. - Personality Disorders in Modern Life 2nd Edition While reading the "Narcissistic Personality Disorder" chapter, most of the and defense mechanisms and rationalization ways of some hi-fi firms (Sennheiser with He-1, MSB, Hifiman) acually point that disorder. They want to be respected, loved for what they have done. And actually some of the buyers of mentioned products, most probably, can be diagnosed with this disorder either.

a well-timed article written for me (It cracks me up that they use Aubrey Plaza as the poster child...

Here's a mini version of the attenuator controller board without a motorized pot. The board is 1" x 1.65".

x3, I have it on my NAS too....!

Be careful, that can lead to CWD syndrome......or are we too late for that?

I thought I had a basic grasp of the tourbillon, until I chanced on a 3-axis version. Just a pity the cages look so roughly finished.

It's far and away their most under-rated. Everyone knows Brothers in Arms and Sultans of Swing, but this is just superb.

George, This is the link for the case I purchased from eBay; the seller is located in China: http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-aluminum-amp-chassis-home-audio-amplifier-case-size-340-430-92MM-/322291438722?hash=item4b0a111482:g:zQ0AAOSwyLlXo3Qc The seller charged me a reasonable price for 3-day DHL shipping from China. I didn't like the plastic feet that came with the case, so I purchased these aluminum feet: http://www.ebay.com/itm/321374671507 And the handles on the front plate came from this seller on aliexpress (also located in China or Hong Kong): https://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/Breeze-audio-handle-for-chassis-82type/331129_32718799987.html For the etching, I simply used a laser engraver and etched directly on the anodized aluminum. I just used a low power (100mW) laser engraver; normal anodized aluminum (not the hard-anodized version) engraves really well with a laser. Any spot that's hit by the laser turns a white color.

Thanks, Chinsettawong. It was your DIY electrostatic headphones that got me rolling down this path. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

On SHM SACD. ? I think this is my favorite album of theirs. The first three tracks are just dynamite. I really like Mark's guitar lines here. His lyrics aren't bad either.

I think it's pretty safe to say we all love you too! Happy birthday!

Nice work Bui501. Really like you case work. About the DIY headphones, I'm always around if you should need any help. Wachara C.

Oh, if only your neurosis were so easy to label.

Well, as you can tell color matching is hard - as is photographing color differences. Trying to choose between the four swatches here for some grills and having a hard time because the wood looks different in various lighting.. I am leaning towards the far left (towards the window). None really match anyways, so could do black. Oh also, a bunch of these. Pretty amateur but they should look nice enough. I have a mounting scheme I am hatching.

I understand what you're saying Justin, but as an old dude I remember when improved technology escalated in price by regular increments. Jumping from a $600 HD650 to a $1,400 HD800 is quite a leap. I don't think that leap had as much to do with the cost of research as it did with what Sennheiser thought the market would bare. The market did bare that price, so now every new headphone introduced is at a profit margin way above what was once the norm.

I thought I was understanding where you were going, but maybe not. Now that the Sennheiser HE1 and Hifiman exist, does not all of a sudden make other headphones more expensive or less valuable. You can buy a HD650 (which you said you liked), same as you always could have. The prices of houses in Monaco don't alter your house's valuation. Manufacturers in any industry make new products and charge as much as they can, but that doesn't mean consumers have to buy. A lot of other markets are normalized in that the outrageously priced stuff simply won't be bought and will eventually stop being sold. This is not the case in audio, where people seem to have more money than sense or hearing ability, and smaller attention spans than that of small fish. There always has and always will be the Ray Samuels and Hifimans of the world; it just so happens that in audio people like these have no problem succeeding in the industry. Also, there is no denying the R&D work that is being done on *some* recent headphones in an attempt to actually improve upon the existing aggregate, for example the HD800 and MDR-Z1R. In fact, one could argue that before the HD800 and the explosion of expensive headphones that followed suit (and continue to do so), there was a slump in the high-end market and headphone R&D because manufacturers decided there was not enough demand.

First: I mocked you, and you came back with a humorous and self deprecating response. Point for you, which I pointed out by stating you may fit in well here. Then the very next post you made a gay joke. I'm perfectly OK with gay jokes when I recognize that no malice is involved. Hell I tell the best gay jokes! Problem is I don't know you, and I have no way to judge if that remark was a gay smear or a lighthearted quip, so I questioned whether or not I judged you correctly. You then decide to take it up several notches and respond in a manner that made me feel like a beauty pageant queen trapped in a room with Donald Trump. Again, perfectly acceptable and even humorous if I knew you and knew your personality, but very fucking weird when I do not. So I play it off with more humor. I have no idea when you think I lost my cool, but I can assure you that there'd be no mistaking it if I did. So here's the rub as I see it... You come into our space as an unknown, and you proceed to banter with us as though you've known us for years. That doesn't work. You obviously do not understand this group at all. But for the record, I was not the least bit offended by you until this post of yours that I've just quoted. Maybe there's something lost in translation or maybe you've just read me wrong. Either way I don't understand your indignation. You do seem to have a sense of humor, so I'll just mark this down as a misunderstanding. Your future here is completely in your own hands.

Congrat Robert Allen Zimmerman!

RIP King. HS

I'm Thai and I appreciate your condolence very very much. He was truly a great king...someone who I greatly revered. I'm now even more worried about what to come next as most Thais don't share the same level of respect toward the crown Prince.

Yep...had it running for a few weeks in a Carbon before blessing it with some plates ;o)