Jon L

Why does Devore O/96 sell for $16K when it's a copy of the Audio Note copy (some say pirated without paying license) of Snell type E/III?

I sure hope this Topping EHA5 transformer box turns out to be reliable and good-sounding, not causing harm to 'stats, etc. The masses need a 'stat transformer box that is readily available from a "big" company. BTW. Why the heck did Stax stop making tranformer boxes anyway?

ZMF has many fanboys, but take a look at this (for measurements): "Heavily boosted upper bass lack of energy in lower treble" https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/zmf-atticus-review-headphone.24191/

He said in an interview he has the driver manufactured to his specs from China. Then again, where else?

I love these types of speaker designs. 1.4" compression driver is a nice touch. I assume Reflector Audio and this top module can be used without subwoofers, in which case what are their useful low frequency response?

Which "PC" are you powering? I've tried quite a few different power supplies for my PC/server, and the largest difference in SQ seems to occur when better power is given to the very end of the PC signal chain. For example, if using USB out, giving decent power to the USB card. Giving good power to an outboard usb-to-spdif converter makes a large difference also.

I noticed both Nahre Sol and Jimindorothy are Korean musicians. K-Pop is not all there is...

At least there is light at the end of the tunnel with the T2!

Controversy stemming from ASR and Reddit...always a fun read 😄 Another fun read: https://www.superbestaudiofriends.org/index.php?threads/audio-science-review-review.9827/

I had a similar quandary in the past in a tube amp trying to bypass the "evil(?)" Alps Blue velvet. Used the amp with the pot just bypassed completely. Later, Alps was changed to better-reputed TKD for sources that needed volume control. These days, I mostly use the TKD with volume open all the way to "effectively" bypass it. To be honest, I wouldn't want to bet any amount of money I could consistently identify sound quality differences in blind testing, in any mode above. 😥

The well-heeled Phi TC owners seem to eventually declare the Woo WA33 (10 watts at 32 ohms) their favorite, but this is probably not because of the power output but the flavor.

Cavalli Liquid Platinum on "50% off" sale at $399.99. Is this a legit sale or is this always on 50% sale?? https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=33305

I have been listening more and more to Raal SR1a, and it really is a beautiful thing. I do have to wonder about how this little Jotunheim R's balanced, differential "Nexus" gain stage is claimed to deliver "up to 13 amps" into Raal's low impedance, and how this cheap raal direct-drive amp will compare.

What are you using for amp?

At the other side, LTA rep posted this info: "Frequency response (8-ohm load): 6Hz to 60kHz, +0, -.5dB Input impedance: 47k Electrostatic Headphone Output: 5 pin Stax interface, 580V bias One additional bit of info that's not on the page is the output voltage, which is limited to 410Vrms on the Z10e. STAX themselves recommends that "maximum output with 470 Vr.m.s. or below for any amplifier driving STAX headphone in order to avoid damages to sound elements." "there are no transformers. The electrostatic signal comes straight off the tube, and due to ZOTL's unique topology, the tubes run natively at 750V, for a 1500V peak to peak (each channel has two tubes, one is for the bottom half of the signal and one for the top half, so the full voltage swing is both added together). The ectrostatic headphone output is live all the time, because we didn't want to degrade the audio signal with a switch."