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Some impression of X9000 I would like to share Mine is the first batch in Japan. Serial number is #6. I have it delivered to Australia immediately after launch and receive it today. As my system is incomplete at the moment. There are quite a few good cables coming (Odin 2, Stealth Dream etc). This is only a brief introduction of my first impression of X9000. My setting is: Source: Jeff Rowland Aeris Power conditioner: ISOTEK TITAN + NOVA GII Amp: BHSE (Mullard XF3, Philips Metal Base EL34 Disk Getter), SRM-T8000 (Stock Tube) Reference Headphones: Sennheiser HE90, SR-009S The build quality of SR-009S is worse than SR-009 which made me a bit worried about the X9000. But when I open the box, the SR-X9000 just look gorgeous, its build quality is to the state-of-the-art standard. The grey and brown color combination looks very good. Here are some details of the X9000. Please make sure you read manual when attach the cable to X9000. There are design to stop you attach in a wrong way, but you could still attach the wrong side. I attached the left cable to right unit at the first try and subsequently correct it after I read the manual. There might be some potential harm to the headphone if you attach the headphone cable to the opposite side. RELAXED The main impression of X9000 is RELAXED. Yes, no matter what kind of music you play, it give you a very relaxed sound signature. It is not forwarding sound at all. Even you play most intense Orchestra works like Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 6 by Teodor Currentzis. You will feel the brass and string instruments hoarse like you are getting fxxked by the Orchestra in climax part when you listen to HE90, but you will never feel that with X9000 even you switch to very high volume. Yes, you can switch to a incredible high volume without getting irritable. However, it is strongly recommended you to control the volume as you wouldn't feel any uncomfortable until you feel pain in your ears. It might cause permanent harm to your ear. It depends on your taste if this kind of relaxed feeling is good or not. For me, I have HE90 for Orchestra works so it is not a issue at all. But if you buy X9000 mainly for Orchestra, you might need to adjust your source and accessories to fit its style. To me, when playing Orchestra works, the HE90 is like BPO, or even BSO, the X9000 is like NHK. I am not saying NHK is not good, I just prefer BPO. SENCE OF TABLEAU The second impression of X9000 is sense of tableau. You sometimes feels that 009/009S is pouring music into your ears like water when there are lot of details, but you will never feel that with X9000. Everything is always well arranged in a good manner, in a relaxed way. It is really a pleasure to enjoy music with it. Unlike 009S, the X9000 focus on the whole picture rather than details. Each part of music combines together and you even feel the sound is tangible. To me, it lack of the ethereal and diffused sound signature of HE90. It feels more 'real'. After you listen to X9000, you will find it express music in a more superior and comprehensive way than other STAX headphones. (except SR-Omega, I've never listened to it before) SOUNDSTAGE The X9000 offer incredible soundstage compared with SR-009S and any other STAX earspeakers I have. To me it is even better than HE90 to some extent. It feels like the the sound is emission and diffused in a very neutral way. You will easily forget you are wearing a headphone. (And yes it is very comfortable to wear it) To compare, when you listen to piano live performance recordings, X9000 is like you seating at the audience seat, HE90 is like you seating on the stage and 009S is like you head is in the grand piano. I am not saying SR-009S is bad. Actually, there are some person prefer to listen to Piano in closest distance to feel the metallic touch of the sound. It's upon your taste. SOME OTHER FEATURES Compared with SR-009S and HE90, X9000 is a more neutral sound headphone, it is neither bright nor warmth, but it is still with very significant 'STAX' style. X9000 is not a bass monster like SR-007. But their base has sort of similarity. Compared with SR-009s, the bass of X9000 is not the rock-firm style. It is a more bouncy, soft yet surrounding style bass. It is more like HE90's bass performance. I personally like it very much. But if you really like lot of bass then the headphone probably is not for you. I have tried X9000 with all sorts of music, including Orchestra, piano solo, violin solo, chamber music, Japanese POP, Animation music, Chinese Pop, Acapella, electronic music. It fits almost all sorts of music in my opinion. I prefer to use HE90 to replay Orchestra and Violin works as it is more energetic, but it is after all personal taste. To me, X9000 is too relaxed for some music, it just lack of the spark that ignite my heard. But when I want to listen to music and take a rest, I will definitely prefer X9000. AMPS OPTION I compare my headphones on BHSE and I've also tried SRM-T8000. SRM-T8000 can drive X9000 pretty well just as SR-009S. But overall it is even more softer than BHSE. To me I think BHSE is a better option.

I'll start a new thread for this at some point but the Surface Laptop Studio (henceforth SLS) is here and is a pretty impressive device. Not sure I'd be happy to pay retail for it but yay work for ponying up. I've already played with the whiteboard app a bit and it's pretty neat. More follow but enough thread clogging for now.

Bought it all. Working now to line up local buyers for much of the non-Maple/Walnut. Have lined up enough to double the cost I paid and I still have about 90% of the sticks still left to sell. Most ridiculous pieces were two 16’x14” Oak Quartersawn 8/4 and the 14’x12” Walnut 12/4 behemoth. .

June 6, 1944, James M. Doohan of Vancouver, led D Company of Royal Winnipeg Rifles ashore at Juno beach. He would be shot 6 times, survive and go on to become Scotty on Star Trek.

The megafixed edition?

everything done as much as possible till the transformers get here.

Well that was a result. We pay for a landline phone from Virgin Media. We have been paying £27 a month for a long time. I decided to look at alternatives, and Direct Save Telecom came up with £19.50. So I phoned Virgin Media, quoted the alternative prices to them - and with zero negotiation the slashed the charges by £10 to £17 a month. And because of where we are in the billing cycle, they will refund £9.60 and only charge us £7.40 for this month. No idea why I haven't done this years ago!

The internet is a strange and magical place.

Furthermore, https://great-characters.fandom.com/wiki/President_Merkin_Muffley

i'm planning on a special modification with a label maker.

despite only doing pour over i manage to use 3 different manuals myself. OE Lido 3, OE Apex, and Comandante MK3. Comandante is the daily driver because it's the fastest and easiest clean up. Apex is for the super expensive bags or if i am feeling serious and trying to dial in. the grounds are absurdly clean out of this one. Lido is for adding a little more body to a brew if i've dialed in or i need excess capacity on a big brew. it produces less visual fines than Comandante and i go back and forth constantly on which produces a better cup. they are very comparable.

How many times its own weight can an ant lift again?

Stick on beavers! The Victorians were nothing if not entrepreneurial. Posted out of order!

I feel attacked (the first 7 tabs in my browser - just because I finished the other 12 video tabs I had open)

Oh you sweet summer child. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merkin https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/oscars-what-is-a-merkin-870991/

Nice jammies, and nice jams

The price is going to be...I hesitate to say, 'incalculable'...

Thanks @Pars. I had a great veteran builder PM with a few pieces. I think I'll be ok for now

actually that plaque was a structural element that held the 300v board in. You can see the extra mounting holes on the new circuit board. But its way more than stiff enough without the extra 4 holes, so it can be flipped and re-engraved if necessary, but the screws won't be countersunk unless its re-machined. sounds like too much work for what is going to be a joke. birgir probably knows what i'm gonna do, but he better not tell. notice that all the 9 pin tubes do not have countersunk mounting holes. Also way to hard to fix.

Binaries in Cycle Keshav Batish 2021 Good freshman effort. Keshav Batish - drum set Shay Salhov - alto saxophone Lucas Hahn - piano Aron Caceres - double bass Example:

Someone needs to tell Tim Apple that brostep hasn't been trendy since he got his current job.

Thanks everyone! I had a quiet day, capped off with supper at my parents' place. Might jump in the hot tub in a bit. I wrote this tune yesterday and the footage of me dancing in tights while it plays is my birthday gift to all of you.

@tumpux Thuan is alive, actively selling, and not in a medically-induced coma this time around, either; he just sold a supposed Dynahai under fls.audio, yesterday: REFERENCE DYNAHI Super Symmetry Dual-Mono Fully Differential Headphone Amplifier | eBay I feel awful for all the people ripped off by this guy since circa 2009; why anyone in their right mind would post pictures of themselves, their sales receipts, shipping labels with US and VT addresses to flickr and leave them up for 12 years is simply beyond me... tee8tee4388 | Flickr

Have my dad watching estate sales for woodworking stuff. Got a score tonight with a Supermax 25-50 sander for a whopping $400. Looks to be almost new from the pics. The auction house listed it as a Shopsmith as the guy had a ton of that stuff so no one was watching it.

This is a repost of my impressions on another forum I've been using the ES-1a almost daily for about 4 months now. I feel that these are underrated and the audiophile community deserves to know them. Before I start my review, I just wanna declare that I have no conflict of interest with anybody in the headphone industry. I bought the ES-1a at the price of 12800HKD (1650USD) which is listed as the default price on ES Lab's web store. The ES-1a maker does not have prior knowledge about this review. A little bit about myself I like to listen to music - from pop to classical, from jazz to rock, and I am conversant in both English and Mandarin. I chanced upon this pair of headphones while I was browsing the Chinese Headfi equivalent - erji.net, and decided to purchase based on reviews of some big time Chinese audiophiles claiming that the ES-1a sits somewhere between the Stax 007 and 009s. It was a risky blind purchase (which I believe isn't uncommon among head-fi'ers), and I was just hoping that those Chinese reviewers weren't shills. The amp came in a week after I placed my orders via EMS. It came in a nice looking wooden box. Definitely an A for the effort in making the unboxing experience ceremonial, but it's a painful space-occupying lesion in my room, yet I can't bear the pain of throwing the box away. So now I'm just wondering what to do with the box. If you have any ideas, just let me know. The Chinese forum reported that the ES-1a tuning could be altered between bright and balanced by swapping earpads. I only used it with the balanced earpads, which according to the maker, was the finalised tuning. He also mentioned that the ES-1a is best paired with a solid state amp. I didn't care about his recommendations one bit. If the headphones sound good on solid state amps, wouldn't they be wonderful if I pair them with a healthy dose of tubey goodness? The ES-1a got its looks from the legendary STAX Omega. I've not seen an Omega in real life, but from Google they look pretty similar apart from the anodization color. The ES-1a is made with black anodized aluminium housing and a has aluminium ring that seemed unnecessary if not to copy the looks of the Omega. The see-through metal mesh reveals a bronze driver under the housing, and the unit is accented with some golden screws. The wire is apparently adapted from a Stax sre-725H copper cable, with a little 3D printed Y-split that bears the brand name. Now let's talk about sound. Bass- authoritative. Mids - seductive. Treble - beautiful. Imaging - stellar. Tonality - natural. That's it. I don't see the point to elaborate more because 1) my impression is subjective, and reading this review does not give you a direct idea of how the ES-1a sounds like 2) I feel that Headfi has enough overwhelmingly positive reviews on audiophile products, and this humble review wants to stand apart from the rest 3) if you insist on seeing some reviews, I would like to suggest you Google with search terms "head", "case", "es1a". Read the reviews there with discretion. Amp pairing Amps do play a significant role on the sound. With the KGHVSS Carbon ES-1a sounds more monitor-like, more detailed and more extended in both bass and treble, while with my tube amps, ES-1a sounds more holographic and trades some bass extension for a life-like presentation. Even with the lesser amps like my SRM XH, the ES-1a retains a pleasant sound signature despite detail and treble extension being completely thrown out of the window. Comparison with Stax 007A Read this section with a pinch of salt, as I clearly prefer the ES-1a over the Stax flagships. I find them comparable in terms of details when driven with some of the amps I have. I wish I have some Stax branded amps or the BHSE for the purpose of this comparison, as I believe that they are the sound many readers here can relate to. The Stax 007A here does not have the blue tac mod, as I enjoy the fun mid-bass in the Stax 007 mkii. It just makes the headphone what they are. The most obvious difference is in the treble. ES-1a is definitely brighter, and details in music are more upfront compared to the Stax 007A's slightly laidback presentation. ES-1a feels more passionate and more aggressive compared to the 007A. If you are used to the 007A/mkii sound signature, you might find the ES-1a slightly bright. If you are used to the 007mkii with blue tac mod (which I find bland), you would either find the ES-1a very fun sounding or a tad too aggressive. Bass rumbles harder on the ES-1a than on the 007A while on KGHVSS Carbon. Extension is slightly deeper too. I don't miss my planar headphones on CFA3 while I listen to Zedd or Daft Punk on the ES-1a. But I would defer listening to such tracks altogether while on the 007A. Mids on the ES-1a is detailed, but somehow the 007A does it better. On jazz tracks, 007A does things nicely by giving a smooth and slightly dark rendition to vocals. The details of the ES-1a is cuts through the overall presentation a tad too strongly. The ES-1a has a little bit of bite or impact, which might work well for some music, and backfire on some others. Soundstage feels bigger and more spread-out on the ES-1a, and this concurs with some of the Chinese reviews. Tonality-wise, both ES1a and Stax 007A sounds very natural. ES1a has slightly more defined edges and the 007A sounds smoother. Regrettably, I didn't have the chance to compare the ES1a to either the 009 or 009s for a long enough period of time to yield a reliable comparison.

I bought a pair of these headphones because I really wanted to see how good they could be and to support this new comer. My experience is pretty much similar to Birgir's. I like the build quality. The clamping force on the head isn't that much, which is a good thing. However, it can be a bit too loose. The headphones almost fell out of my head a few times. About the sound, they sound very similar to my Omega clone. I might be a bit bias, but my Omega clone has just a bit better bass extension. Overall, I would say that the phones are very nicely built. The headband can use some improvement. The price, IMO, is a bit pricey putting it in a similar price range as the Stax SR007.

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