Leaderboard

Although the Suez canal has been deepened and widened several times since it opened in 1869, it clearly isn't deep and wide enough to cope withe that behemoth container ship jammed across the canal. My dad was in the merchant navy shortly after WW2, on oil tankers that were pre WW2 vessels. He went through the Suez canal frequently. although those ships were toys by comparison to the monsters that sail nowadays. He told a story about losing power half way across the Atlantic - the old tub had developed perforated boiler tubes and was losing steam pressure. To keep it going he found sacks of sawdust, and fed those into the boiler to plug the leaks. When he ran out of sawdust he got the ship's supply of porridge and progressively fed that into the boiler. That limped them to port in the West Indies. Without those stunts they would have been dead in the water mid Atlantic.

I don't think it's a question of 'proper' sound stage, of course no headphones can do that. It's fair however within the context of headphones to critique the Utopia's (really any Focal for that matter) for having a smallish sound stage. It's just not a focus of the sound they are going for and that's perfectly fine. They excel in detail and dynamics and are fantastic headphones in those regards.

Just completed the work with another board (right in picture below) and it is now up and playing. Yesterday I milled board similar to one just done. But unfortunately I forgot to correct the resistor string mentioned here... ...so it died in thunder and lightning. Made a new corrected board today and moved the good parts from the faulty board. Also had to fix the PSU. Due to all earlier disasters I know which parts that need to be replaced…

Your L3 & DSHA-4 are really the two amps that brought out better "headstage" out of my HD800 & R10 and really make them to compete with the 007/009 for me. I agree with Steve that the K1000 has widest soundstage, but the Qualia is the best at depth cues and second at the width so it really enhance the illusion of being "there" despite its rather odd tonal balanced. Plus the K1000 is more of a stationary listening device....you really can't move around the house with those. I really enjoyed the Utopia when I had mine, but treble was a little much for me and I preferred just a little more headstage out of them. I really can't fault the Utopia on anything else...maybe on how heavy it is. The HD800 SDR mod is actually the headphone that I use the most. It fits my lifestyle better for fraction of the price. It is my all around beater headphones. I toss it in my backpack and take it to work on a daily basis. It sounds great out of my mod Sony NW-ZX507 and glorious out of Doug ECP L3/DSHA-4.

Maybe you are using the wrong amplifier ...

Glue Ups for the cabinet sides are coming along nicely. The Dominos really make it much easier.

I’m working all week around. Today I milled left channel board similar to the right side done yesterday. Here it is. For some reason the holes of big pads aren’t centered. Grrrrr. Three round tanned pads close to offset trimmer are test points. Measure voltage cross 100R resistors R25 and R31 and you get an idea of current through output stages. I got 1.014V and 1.007V so approximately 10mA.

I’ve been playing two online D&D games a week all March, and I’m having a phenomenal time. Not quite the same as my usual fare, but very fun nevertheless.

Starting the remnant search for the tops.

A new entry to the iconic four-chord-song catalog:

Just finished: Up Next:

That is a particularly tasty piece of Walnut.

The volt result may vary depending of your local supply (Congo explained it over there) but I don't think you have many differences. Order the one that makes you feel the most comfortable. Be very careful with capacitors. I recommend that you remove the metal washers.

The R10 and Qualia are still two cups on either side of your head. The soundstge is still inside your head. It might be wider, but you can't close your eyes and locate the instruments on a stage. They'll never be in front of you, but instead they're inside of you.

This can end very badly! You are dealing with very high, unforgiving voltage here, a small misstep can easily turn into a catastrophic disaster. I advise you to consider if you are willing and prepared to deal with such consequence before you continue to proceed down this path.

i don't understand the staging critique of Utopia. since when does any headphone ever do a proper sound stage?

They’re designed to sit flat on 75mm or taller heat sinks, so 2U will work just fine.

For the first time in forever taking a couple days off and decided to load up the Kindle. How horrible am I? https://castro.fm/episode/1RFtKi

St. Vincent – These Days