HiWire

I'm watching Roswell, Second Season and hopefully Layer Cake. Never Been Kissed sucked so very, very badly. I know...

They have a 3-way that is a little better looking. Absolute Sound reviewed them this month. I think Stereophile reviewed the Guarneri recently, too.

I'll probably go for the Saint-Saens and Schumann, at least. I'm building up a large collection of Living Stereo SACDs.

It has to sound high end. The rest is audiophile jewelry.

Cheap. Mine stuck and hasn't returned yet from warranty repair... it's been 7 months. Fit and finish were sub-par to begin with... the bezel was never straight and the second hand was also off by half a movement. Their mechanisms are bottom-of-the-bin, no better than any knock-off on the street corner. Get a real watch.

Sophie Milman

To respond to the OP - it's possible someday, but I'd rather be listening now. Also, I probably can't afford any more high-end cans.

Happy Birthday!

I think it's just logic or deep pockets... the person who is going to pay $2000 or more for an R10 is probably going to considering high-end amplification. There just isn't much reason to hook a KSC-75 up to some uber Singlepower, for example, other than curiosity... the headphone's limitations are far lower than the amp's. Also, the Stereophile article I was skimming, New Media Metrics, indicates that a large reserve of power is required to meet most speakers' requirements for sound. To quote: blah blah blah techie talk... "The power output per channel required to achieve this is 57W. To achieve 16dB above this?about the largest 2ms dynamic power requirement identified by my measurements?means the amplifier must be able to deliver 2.27kW, albeit only over this short time span, in order to prevent clipping." You can check out the rest on their website http://www.stereophile.com/features/404metrics/index.html. That's a lot of power... just scale that idea down for headphones: although there are differences in impedance and sensitivity, the same demand for instantaneous power is there.

Value for $$$... a lot of people have tin ears anyway

Rhydon and Kontai have experience with the MS-Pro... give them a shout

Sennheisers make my ears ring too, even at a low volume... I'm glad I crossed over to the other side.

Nope... I go to the symphony every couple of weeks (3 times in the next 2 weeks) and I don't obsess much about my equipment any more. Having a limited budget helps, too.

Koss - KSC75, Sportapro, PortaPro, etc. Alessandro MS-1 Grado (lower-end as it is priced in the USA) Sennheiser PX-100

The sins of the K701 are mainly of omission.

I mostly listen to classical or jazz on the HP-2's. Pop music and rock sound good on them, but deficiencies in their recording are often revealed, or they don't sound significantly better than on my Alessandro MS-1's. I prefer to listen to stuff with actual dynamics and nuance when I'm strengthening my neck muscles

It would be cool if Joe Grado or his nephew started buying up these "loose" HP-series headphones and fixed them for resale. Share the love, so to speak

Train the guard cats to Kill

Sounds like analog sound is really working for you, Aerius. Enjoy the LPs

Aerius, the HP-2 sounded pretty good on Rhydon's Singlepower. We'll have to hook it up to your custom bomb next time.

Welcome to the club. Don't forget to listen to them

Koss KSC-75 or v-moda Vibes?

I thought the CD3000 was fuzzimified... it certainly doesn't have an audiophile sound. It's very warm and diffuse... sadly, it reminded me of my best friend's Bose QuietComfort 2's.

It's a subtle sound distinction between the two amps - I think both are chip-based. Unfortunately, Norm isn't really making the Classic any more, but he must have some of the parts and circuit boards lying around... with the improvements he's made in the Go-Vibe series, one can only imagine what he could do with a home-based amp design I doubt the Classic would completely change the character of your K701s, though... I did try GlendaleViper's set on my Classic and portable source, and couldn't get it to rock out on the guitars and drums like the HP2s (on Matthew Sweet's Girlfriend). It was actually kind of surprising - I turned the volume up, but it just made things louder, not more distinct. I really did want to like the K701s, but I've been listening to Grados for more than 3 years now. Before that, I spent 9 years listening to my Sennheisers. Best of luck on your new setup - don't let my listening preferences get you down. I think that the K701s have a lot of potential, but they haven't met their match yet. A really fast, slightly forward source or amp might complement the AKG's strengths. They don't seem to be the kind of cans that like to get down and dirty, however. Wes Phillips of Stereophile seems to be a big fan of the K701s.

My HP-2s sounded OK on Rhydon's GCHA... even and well-controlled, but I thought it was missing the richness, depth, and dynamics of my Headsave Classic. Give it some more time to burn in, and test it on other sources. I found that the burned-in K701 wasn't a particularly lively or impactful set of cans... neutral overall, but missing exactly the kind of kick you're describing. I didn't test the K701's on the GCHA, but they couldn't rock out on other amps either, in my opinion. It just wasn't happening, kind of like my experience with my old Sennheisers. You keep reaching out, but you never touch it (Aerius, stop thinking it). I'm curious about how a set of PS-1s would sound on the GCHA or my amp. \