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I also really like my HD800 with my balanced KG CFA 🙂

I really like using the HD800 with the Dynalo Bal ... I think it's a good combination

I bit. Let's see what all this Sennheiser-hype is all about. All your Senns are belong to me.

As soon as I return from Truckee lake I will let you know.

You might want to look at the NAS options from Qnap & Synology that have space for using SSD's as cache drives. That's becoming more common and can be a nice little performance boost.

I might when the drives get larger and more affordable. In this moment I would consider a cheapo approach with 4 mechanical HDD which I'd be upgrading when SATA SSD ones get larger and cheaper. BTW, that M.2 thingie is very handsome.

Would you consider M.2 SSDs instead of SATA? This QNAP thing seems over the top with a Thunderbolt 3/10Gb Ethernet adapter: https://www.qnap.com/en/product/tbs-453dx

https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/TB3QMLR00GB/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=shoppingengine&utm_campaign=googlebase&gclid=Cj0KCQiA4L2BBhCvARIsAO0SBdb5BSgSmBEGm-IPYygyH-m1jXLpxyERLVJwj0SEISfypAVvIa1m61EaAlVKEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

Nice...

ECP amps are awesome with them. The HD800S sounds good out of my modified Sony NW-ZX507.

Those geekrias are probably the same as a set I ordered on ebay a year or two ago. There are dozens of postings for the same product. The center protrusion flattens out pretty smoothly once you've used them a while. These are comfier than I remember flats ever being. I haven't purchased flats in a very long time, so I can't do a sound comparison. I want to say that these have a similar distance to the ear. Total thickness seems to be 20mm, with the pad thickness above the driver being 10mm. Anyone out there with a set of calipers able to measure out the thickness of TTVJ flatpads? edit: Thickness measurements are of a used set while on the headphones. If I find my spare set, I'll give them a slap on the arse with my calipers.

Or speaker-amp taps.

Drop makes it pretty clear that you can cancel and get a refund at anytime before shipment. No real risk to end-users here. Here's their page for this: https://drop.com/buy/drop-sennheiser-hd-8xx-headphones The FR graphs are interesting - clearly more bass output and a much less of a roll-off in exchange for the dip at 1.5 khz being more pronounced.

There is risk no doubt, but for all the failed dreams/scamminess of Kickstarter/Indiegogo, has Massdrop/Drop ever had a failed "campaign"? They may, but I hadn't heard. They often put a spin on models for sale elsewhere, so yes you get in cheap now or wait for reviews (mostly suffering only time to receive). And I'd be surprised if there's much doubt this will become something always available in the future instead of just campaigns (when they switched from Massdrop to Drop). Depending on health of Sennheiser of course and as you mentioned. For what it's worth I'm not sure there's been any critical response to any modified Senns sounding worse than the normal versions. I haven't found my 2 HD6XXs or HD58X to be so (and still have 2 HD580s to compare). How many Senns do I have again?

I get mine from https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Stax-socket-5-pin-Pro-Bias-WHITE-Teflon-custom-made/184601921523?hash=item2afb21c7f3:g:CHcAAOSw2ENf7Jyy

Thanks everyone! 60 came in with a vengeance today. Unfortunately not in a fun way. As Al posted elsewhere, it turns out that I got Vertigo for my 60th Birthday! Today was the roughest of the last few days, but I'm very happy to have a diagnosis. I have meds and an appointment for lab work to follow up, so feeling good about that. All of that said, the best thing you can ever hope to get on your Birthday is the best friends a guy could ever hope for! Once again Al has completely taken care of me in a scary medical situation. I really did win the friendship lottery when I met all of you! I can't state enough how much of a blessing you all are to have in my life! My Mother is constantly amazed at what you folks have done for me, and how loving and caring you have been. She has met some of you in person, Marc, Shelly and Al, and has commented to me how lucky I am. She seems to think that something in me draws friends like you fine folks, but I know that I just got very lucky finding so many true friends in one place! So even with the latest circumstances, it really has been a fantastic Birthday!

I have my doubts .... think that the HD600 / 650 were already very old models and were amortized by Senn. Drop has given them a second youth. They have been in the catalog since the origin of MassDrop and have never disappeared. In fact, Drop continue to sell hundreds. If I´m not mistaken 59.3K for HD58X and 122.3K for HD6XX... that's a lot of headphones for such a minority market. Although perhaps, the issue of trade margins might be debatable, they still have factories in Ireland or Germany ... while other manufacturers have migrated their production to China. I already have a lot of headphones, but my favorite after the SR007 is still the "modest" hd600 over other most expensive models.

They did one better:

I'd be ok if Sennheiser streamlined down to pro/audiophile-centric models (HD25/280/600/650/800S/820), selling them accordingly, & offloaded consumer models (read: HD59x, cheaper earbuds, wireless, etc.)

Speaking of [Mass]Drop and Sennheiser, looks like they might do a version of the HD800S: https://drop.com/buy/our-most-requested-headphone-launching-2-18-21/talk?

Like I'm sure all of you, my favorite memories of this hobby are all people-oriented, with headphone-related gear just excuse to get together, but my favorite headphone memories, sometimes with people whose names I no longer remember, are almost all early and Sennheiser-related. Those first Grado v. Sennheiser online debates, showing up to a meet with a pair of CD3000s when everyone else had HD580/600s, blind-testing after-market cables I couldn't then really afford over drinks, starting to understand just how much Senns could grow with a... Singlepower amp, the first time time I was in a room with two Orpheuses, etc. Due to a couple reasons, I've ended up with three new pairs of [Mass]Drop Sennheisers over the last year. Sometimes during work I end up with one on my head and another around my neck. They're so cheap now they can be applied almost everywhere. They get more use than my HD800s. And I will probably pick up a replacement HD-25 II when I return to the office. Which is all to say I hope they stick around in some form. If not, I'd miss them much more than nearly any other brand. Just went back and read... https://www.stereophile.com/headphones/1294senn/

Got back out for a longer ride today, on packed snow it's a total blast. On loose stuff, not so much (as expected). Really looking forward to riding these trails in the spring on this thing.

A little early but...

ready for some good vibes. (pun intended)

Susvara is slightly behind of Stax Lambda Signature in terms of detail & resolution. That means, 007 is clearly more resolving than Susvara. 009 is significantly better resolving than Susvaras. I haven't listened to any of those Shangri La models. I don't know how to compare subjective mumbo jumbo like liveliness, musicality etc. That's something for you to decide after hearing both. That said, anyone who says Susvaras are better at imaging than 007 shouldn't be taken too seriously.

power supply is version 1.8 copyright 2015 however it shows both boards the same, and that is definitely not the case. although you can do it that way, but then you need a grlv power supply in addition one board has the bias voltage, the other board has the low voltage regulators amp is version .6 copyright 2015 I think this is the latest I released. There is a .61 version which I may or may not have released, don't know the differences

Yeah, I'd go for that as well, hell even the Massdrop ESP950 at 500$ is better than this shit. Also bonus bit, there were holes in one of the dust covers. Yeah...pure quality. I just quickly patched them up with some tape until I have time to replace it. Also there was a small port on the cable entry which I plugged. There are also holes next to the swivel axis so I plugged those too. A small improvement to the bass or it was due to the cable... not sure. Need to do more testing

Thin and a bit lifeless with reasonably good soundstage. Not bad but not great either and it really depends on what you are listening to. On some music it is unbearably thin while on some it works just fine. The cable is the biggest issue one these though, it's too short and just unsafe garbage. I'm also detecting some noise in the left earpiece so squealing might be an issue with these. Some notes on the amp, the XLR input is completely fake and the - leg of the input just goes through a 630 ohm resistor to ground. Pure class there... The soldering on this thing is world class in the wrong direction, a lot of parts are loose when I try to move them so I wonder if this thing passed through quality control at all. I never turned it on so I can't know if it ever worked. I will go through it and make something usable from this mess though... I was looking up the caps I had never come across and yup, they will be out of there. I'm also going to redo the input section completely as the stepped attenuator feels like garbage. Some 10M90's instead of the load resistors too... we'll see what I can fit in there.

"Sennheiser announced on Tuesday it’s looking for a new partner to buy its consumer audio business, which consists of headphones and soundbars. It’s going to shift its focus entirely to professional audio, including its Neumann microphone division and what Sennheiser calls business communications." Source: https://www.theverge.com/2021/2/16/22285497/sennheiser-investors-selling-consumer-headphones-soundbars-business This is pretty sad. Makes sense why Axel Grell left now. We haven't seen any really new high-end product from them since the HD-820, and it sounds like we shouldn't expect anything else to be forthcoming. The HD600/650 and HD800/S are my two favorite headphones. I don't think they are going away any time soon, but I doubt Senn is investing heavily in any successor models.

Bruce Blackburn, designer of NASA’s best logo, dies. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/18/us/bruce-blackburn-dead.html https://512pixels.net/2021/02/bruce-blackburn-designer-of-nasas-worm-logo-and-the-american-revolution-bicentennial-star-dies-at-82/

Half the fun is to take this stuff apart but the sheer lack of quality here is astounding. So the large blue caps in the PSU, I wanted to check out the bottom to see if they had any further markings and cut off the zip ties and bent it upwards. Well...one of the legs just popped off which shows the soldering quality here. It was barely hanging on as they clearly trimmed the legs before soldering and nobody spent enough time on each joint for the solder to flow through to the other side of the holes. So I guess as full rebuild of the PSU is on order...on the brand new 1100$ amp.