Tyll Hertsens

You guys will get a kick out of this:

Thank you all so much. What a long, strange trip it's been. It always makes me smile to see your names here.

C-Ya, Wink! Always loved that avatar.

I guess you never know.

Ha! I looked for a Z1R thread here to link to at the bottom of my review....um, yeah, don't think this one is very informative. Fucking funny, in a Head-Case sort of way, but no. Love you guys!

Yup. They had to squeeze everything they could out of that thing to make it work...and they just couldn't squeeze hard enough to get it to work above a certain level. I wonder if they're going to be satisfied or go back to the drawing board, put in a front screen, and drive it like a normal electrostat. Actually I think the best move that could be made is that the Sonoma digital dudes start building a regular headphone amp with DSP and start making a library of headphones to compensate. If they didn't have such a bitch of driver they had to work with I think their digital chops would shine through. PLease don't quote this elsewhere.

Well, the problem is when I heard the 009 I hadn't heard the Utopia, so I can only go on what I've heard to date. And sure, they may be a honeymoon effect, but I've got a pretty thick skin and don't have any money invested in these things. I reckon I can be pretty objective. None the less, I am excited about what I'm hearing with these cans. That can be a factor in my tone.

Well, I didn't do a direct comparison, so I couldn't do more than a passing comment. Basically, I find e-stats have too much "air". I find there's often an added indistinct haziness around the treble sounds. The Utopia was astonishingly precise and markedly different from pretty much anything I've heard before. It's pretty rough doing a headphone review a week, doubly so when they're so new and unusual sounding. Really, all I can do is take a good first pass on the sound in general and then just wait and see what the collective community has to say over time. It's only then we'll really be able to get a handle on how well these cans perform for people.

The PR people cry when I tell them I have to keep them....and then they laugh and giggle.

So stoked to be seeing you guys next week! Really, looking forward to this. http://www.innerfidelity.com/content/come-join-me-canlanta-2016-may-21st

Egg-fucking-zactly! Love to see you there!

Looking forward to it!

Hm. I'll think about it, Stretch. It's a looooooong time ago now. But I've still got a lot of photos from the early days.

Seems like it to me. Yes, looking forward to it, see you there!

Aw geez, thanks Wayne. Though I don't post here much anymore (posting just seems like work anymore) you guys have a very special place in my heart. We knew the glory days of this hobby.