shellylh

I have heard of people balancing their W5000's and AD2000's. I wonder if this would have much effect. Of course, I like the convenience of having the 1/8" termination on my AD2000's because I can walk around the house using them and an ipod when I want to be portable. If I end up keeping the A2000X's, I may try reterminating them to 4 pin XLR so that I could use them SE and balanced. They seem quite difficult to drive so running them balanced may be beneficial (like in the bass). They seem to improve running them out of the WA5 over the GS-1.

First, I tried the DPS with the BUDA this morning with the correct setting, and it was working perfectly. Also, I talked to the Headroom tech-ey Mike. He talked to the engineer there and they concluded that there is very little chance that anything went wrong with having it set on the 230V setting. In fact, he said that they did that once there and the amp worked fine after switching it back to 115V. This made me feel better. He also said that if something were to go wrong, it would be sooner rather than later and that I would notice it (that it wouldn't be subtle). So I am going to just enjoy it (but also be listening to see if there is anything that sounds off... distortion, etc.).

My first Snow Leopard hiccup: I just got the Logitech Performance MX mouse and when I tried to install the Logitech software, it told me "This software does not support the version of Mac OS X that is installed on your system. Please check for an updated version, or go to www...." Then if forced me to quit. Edit: Got it working with this workaround: http://www.tuaw.com/2009/09/01/snow-leopard-get-your-logitech-mouse-and-keyboard-working-again/

Thanks Nate, I will ask about this. I assume I should ask to get the DPS replaced as well since I am guessing that it is more likely to have problems than the BUDA but I am could very much be wrong.

Yeah, I will probably do this for peace of mind but I am not going to like waiting for an even longer period of time . However, just wanted to say that I just tried the HD650's balanced out of the BUDA with my Blue Dragon cable (with the Astrodyne PS) and they sound really good, much better than on the BUDA SE with the Atrodyne PS and stock cable.

Hmm, you seem to know me. Haha.

So I tried the amp SE with the Astrodyne power supply and it sounds much much better. It doesn't sound quite as smooth as I would like at points but that may just be me overanalyzing it. Is there a chance that something happened to the amp and it doesn't sound 100% (I would never know)? If it doesn't sound horrible, should I just assume that nothing got messed up? I haven't tried it with the DPS yet though. I guess I will call Headroom tomorrow and find out if I should send it in to get it looked at.

Will do. I haven't had any problems with Mail *yet* but it has only been one day.

Ok, that is what I thought but didn't want to have a mess on my hands.

Ok, someone on the "other" site mentioned that Headroom sent them the incorrect DPS so I checked mine and indeed they sent me the 230V! I hadn't thought of checking this since I just assumed they would send the correct one. I guess I can change the voltage by switching around the fuse according the the online manual (thanks Nate for mentioning this on the other site). My question is whether I have done any harm to the amp or DPS by running it (for about an hour or so) with the wrong voltage. Should I send them back to Headroom to get checked out or should I try to switch the fuse and plug it back in?

Nate: If they somehow wired the preamp switch incorrectly or some other switch, would this make it sound like this. I could try having the switches on the front set incorrectly to see if that helped.

Yep. rear output=off, input=single-ended, crossfeed=off, gain=high (I tried low or medium gain as well). I tried them with my HD650's (SE) and they also sound really bad/harsh. Also, it sound really bad out of both jacks (with SE phone). I could try it with the Astrodyne PS but I don't see what that would help. Anybody have any ideas besides calling up headroom and sending it back?

So I got the BUDA + DPS in the mail today. I excitedly came home and hooked everything up. I hooked up some balanced and RCA connections to it and listened through a A2000X - and later through the K701. (Didn't want to use the HD800 until I knew the amp was sound). Well, it sounded horrible (very harsh) and there was *very little* sound in the right channel. I think I switched to SE input as well and it was the same. Well, I thought something might not be plugged in correctly so I turned it off, unplugged everything and just plugged in RCA inputs and nothing else (using the DPS). I am using the K701 since it is relatively cheap in case something goes wrong (also I won't be heartbroken if something happens to it). It now has sound coming out of the right channel but still sounds horribly harsh. At times, it sound like speakers that are going bad.... if you know what I mean, really horrible. Should I send it back, let it run for a few hours? As it sound right now, it is unlistenable. Of course, both the A2000X and K701 are pretty bright so I may try the HD650's to see if it sounds better with them. Sigh..... after 4 weeks of wait.....

Here is the email I got from amazon if anyone happens to be interested (although this is not really new news). ----- Hello from Amazon.com, Our records indicate you purchased a Beatles Mono Box Set, and we wanted to update you on its availability. This new information will not affect your pre-order--if you pre-ordered a mono box set, you will receive it. The manufacturer has informed us that they will be producing additional mono box sets due to high demand. While the box set remains a limited-production item, it will not be capped at 10,000 copies for the U.S. market, as originally reported. We will be getting more of the box sets in stock and will continue to update availability information on our FAQ page: Beatles Box Sets: Special Availability Message

The only time I have appreciated big noggin people is when I loaned my HD650's out. Now they fit me perfectly. They should start selling headphones in different sizes or at least female versions... I am only half kidding.... and no not pink.

My family pack of Snow Leopard showed up in the mail today* and I just installed it on my Macbook Pro. Yippee! It seems to be a little faster and I was very happy to get back 14GB of hard drive space. I have been having a lot of problems with Mail not starting properly (i.e. spinning ball of death) when I have a network connection and I am really hoping this will solve that problem. Seems like the added "keyboard viewer" at the top is some indication that a tablet is in the near future. *Actually it seems that I accidentally bought 2 family packs. Now I need to buy 8 more used Macs to install it on.

Dangit, I have spent a fair amount of money on amazon in the last month and a half. Too bad I just saw this sticky! It's bookmarked now though.

I better not accidentally delete my mono pre-order!

Just got the new PS3 "slim" in from the UPS dude. Don't think I'll have time to set it up until the weekend though.

You can stream Netflix, hulu and some other things on PS3 using PlayOn from Media Mall (since the PS3 is a DLNA-compliant device). I have been using PlayOn with PopCorn Hour A-110 network media device for the last 7 months and it is a little buggy (you have to learn some tricks) but works most of the time. It seems to be working better with the recent software updates. PlayOn Digital Media Server | MediaMall Technologies

For some reason I was thinking that Oppo BDP-83 was DLNA-compatible but now I see that it is not. Too bad, that would have bee a nice feature.

Yeah, I know but I don't have that many games. Hmm, I'll have to think about this. The Oppo 980 is a good upconverter. Maybe I'll have to keep both the PS3 and the Oppo HD980.

That is good to know, thanks Nate.

I wonder how the new "slim" PS3 will compare to the Oppo. It is supposed to be much quieter than the the old PS3. Also, it is now only $299 which seems like a deal. I have liked both upconverting Oppo's that I have bought in the past (980 and 970). However, they both started making some noise after owning them for some time (6 months?) which is annoying. I am thinking of getting the PS3 since then I can replace my Popcorn Hour network media tank, PS2 and Oppo 980 with 1 piece of equipment (and have a lot fewer cords). Since I only have a 40" tv, I doubt it will make much difference on the Blu-ray disks.

I just wanted to point out what is probably the obvious: that the B22 from Glass Jar Audio is a kit with no case included. From what I hear, the B22 can end up costing a lot more than $800 after finished, but I may be mistaken. Also, it will take a lot of time to complete even if you have a lot of experience with DIY (from what I have heard).