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I've been very happy with my K81DJs after I swapped in the Senn HD25 velour pads and foam inserts. Bass went from muddy and overpowering to tighter and controlled. Overall presentation is much more balanced and enjoyable. They've stretched out enough so that they're comfortable for 3-4 hours at a time. And they sound pretty good un-amped. I use mine primarily when travelling, so I don't do any real critical listening with them. But I did do quite a bit with my Millett when I swapped the pads, and they held up pretty well. The velour pads were $13 IIRC, and with them the K81DJs are decent headphones for the money.

Neither did I, but it was a pleasant surprise.

I'm not familiar with most of your gear, so I'm not sure how much of a help I can be. But my suggestion would be to look into tracking down the DAC I just picked up, which is a Denon DA-500. I'm very sensitive to things that are overly-bright or harsh, so I've always loved the Denon CD/DVD/Universal players with their ALPHA processor. I've always found them to have plenty of detail and resolution while maintaining a very "analog" sound and a warmth I find lacking in most sources. Even my PPA v2 never seemed too bright or harsh, and that is generally regarded as one of the more sterile amps out there. Unfortunately for me, they only put their current ALPHA 24 Plus processor in their gear that's well out of my price range. With my luck with Denon transports being quite bad, I was thrilled to come across the DAC they released back in the '90s. I loved my Denon DCM-560 CD player with the 20 bit ALPHA and the DVM-3700 and DVD-4800 with the 24 bit ALPHA, so I figured it was worth a shot. While they retailed for > $800, they're available from time to time on Audiogon from $100-300, and at that price there's not a whole lot of risk. I liked it so much I picked up 2... One for home when my current Denon gives up the ghost and one for use with my computer at work.

I've read that teaching is very important to her and that she didn't want to tour to finish school, but this is crazy coming weeks after the release of Illumination. The album has the band poised for some success considering it's their most accessible album IMO. I'll be curious to see what becomes of the band without her and Morten, and if she'll go on to do something on her own or with others. I figured it was worth mentioning here with how many spins Illumination has gotten recently. [edit] News from here [/edit]

I jumped around a bit right after work and listened to 5 or 6 tracks. I'll agree that it's a good mix of material from older albums and With Teeth. As always, visuals are pretty impressive throughout the show with some impressive effects and lighting. SQ sounded good through my modest HT rig at low to medium volume levels. The mix sounds nice with minimal crowd noise, and they did some interesting things with different arrangements of some of the songs. I'm definitely looking forward to spending more time with it, and I'm hoping to pull the audio off soon. For those that are interested:

I picked up Halo 22 today at lunch.

And while I don't have anything to add about the L3K, I can say that the Boston meets I've been to have been fairly conducive to getting a good feel for gear if you get there early. Things usually take an hour or more to get too loud to do any listening. As people filter in and get set up, one can usually make the rounds with the other early-arrivals' gear. So I don't think it's fair to discount someone's impressions because they happened at a meet... Not all meets are created equal, and there are definitely opportunities to do some quality listening. Headphones are especially easy to check in these situations because you can use them with your own setup in a fairly quiet environment. IMO, of course On topic... Best of luck finding what you're looking for!

Well, I had a surprise waiting for me when I got home... My pre-order of Maria Taylor's Lynn Teeter Flower arrived today, even though it's not due in stores until March 6th. And just like when I pre-ordered her debut, 11:11, it came with a personalized hand-written thanks from her on Saddle Creek letterhead. Too cool. I'll be giving it a listen later tonight. Oh yeah, Memoirs of a Pain Junkie from Betty X arrived today as well. I definitely won't be listening to this right before bed! Female-fronted industrial/metal/noise. Nothing ground-breaking but fun none the less.

I fear by posting in this thread, I will learn the true nature of my music-buying problem... That said, the last 3 weeks... Atrox - Orgasm Atrox - Terrestrials (on the way) Atrox - Contentum (on the way) Atrox - Mesmerised (on the way) The Golden Paliminos - Dead Inside Patty Griffin - Children Running Through Norah Jones - Not Too Late Stolen Babies - There Be Squabbles Ahead Trauma Pet - You Cannot Feel This Tristania - Illumination UneXpect - In A Flesh Aquarium

Radiator covers like that have been used for hundreds of years, so I doubt that there is any increased risk of fire. It looks like every part of that cover is further away from the radiator than the baseboard and window trim. I definitely prefer the look of covered radiators, and when properly built they don't adversely affect the efficiency of the radiator.

For lack of a better word, yes, I'd say that. It won't smooth over bad recordings, but it does wonders in finding that balance of warmth and smoothness while maintaining a level of detail that just works, at least for me. Even -vbr .mp3 files sound great with this. The only source I've heard so far that I prefer to the ALPHA Denons was the Electrocompaniet ECD-1 DAC, which is incredible. But comparing its price to the Denon's, it should sound better. Most other "high-end" sources I've heard don't it for me. So I guess I'm lucky that short of a huge step up, I'm very happy with modest sources.

Well, they only made them for a short time, and never offered anything like it again unless you count the inclusion of the ALPHA processor into their flagship receivers. The DA-500 hit the market in '95 IIRC, with an MSRP around $850 and a street price around $600. If you like any of their players with the ALPHA, this definitely does a great job of recreating that with any digital source.

Well, impressions continue to be positive. It's so nice to have some pretty lofty expectations about something, receive it and still be pleasantly surprised. This is the presentation I've known and loved, and to get it for pennies on the dollar... Well, I couldn't be happier. Here it is pulling office duty:

So the 2nd DA-500 arrived today. I had company last night & wasn't able to set up the first one with my home rig, but I wasn't going to be denied today at work! I got it set up with the digital out on the computer, which is outputting 44.1kHz through ASIO4ALL. There seems to be a pretty noticable improvement across the boards from the AlienDAC, though A/Bing is tough because of the number of drivers/settings that need to be changed. But first impressions are pretty positive. Soundstage has opened up, bass impact has increased and separation between instruments also seems to have improved. And I get the added benefit of using it to raise my monitor a few inches, which has been long overdue!

Well, I'll be getting it set up this evening and giving it a good listen. I'll be sure to post some impressions later. I have another one the way as well I had already bought this one and was doing some more research on it and came across another for sale. I couldn't pass it up, though I don't really have any definite plans for it. I'll have to see how much I like it to figure out if there's any way I can justify keeping two of them. If not, one might be coming available in a week or two. Well, Nate's upgraded his soldering iron, and I've already inquired about borrowing the old one! More research needs to be done!

A couple of my favorites: And quite possibly the best of them all!

Well, the package arrived! Wuhoo! Unpacking... Hmmmm... What is it? The Denon DA-500 With its most important feature, to me at least... The ALPHA processor! I've long loved the Denon pieces as mid-fi sources. I like the smooth presentation and warmth that their DAC and ALPHA processors provide, and it's something I've kind of built my headphone and speaker rigs around. Unfortunately my luck with Denons as transports has been, well, horrible. And now they only offer the ALPHA processor in pieces well out of my price range. So I started looking for other options. I came across this, which I hadn't seen before and figured it was worth a shot. I was very happy with my DCM-560 CD changer. It, like the DA-500, has the 20 bit ALPHA processor. I'll be curious to A/B it with the 24 bit ALPHA in my DVD-4800. If it compares favorably, then I'll be all set to use almost anything as a transport if/when the 4800 gives up the ghost, and with 3 optical and 2 coax inputs, and a optical and coax out, I should be all set to use this with my computer and the potential use of a Squeezebox or other digital transport in the future.

I love her live, seeing her do the sampling of percussion, vocals and guitar. She is a special performer. Unfortunately, to my ears, everything that makes her special was lost on the album, where she seems quite bland. Maybe it's because I saw her live (via KCRW) before I ever heard the album, but that was probably my most disappointing album of the year. I was looking forward to it after the performance and I don't think I've listened to it more than a few times since picking it up.

Well, since it's been in heavy rotation lately, and I have fallen completely in love with it, I have to add Trauma Pet's You Cannot Feel This to my list. The emotion, atmostphere and textures are great, with lots of synth and guitar, and Elie's vocals are sublime. A review here probably sums things up better than I could, especially considering my Synth/Darkwave/Electro experience is very limited. But I know I like this! "Yearning" is probably the stand-out track for me, though all 10 are very good.

The And All That Could Have Been concert DVD kicked all sorts of ass, so I'm definitely looking forward to this.

$13. The HD25 velour pads and a 650 cable were under $30 shipped.

Well, more like $75, and I'd say so. I was looking for something to replace my E4c. At first I was a little disappointed because the bass and mid-bass was so boomy. But since switching pads they seem to have tighter and more controlled bass and nothing seems to be lost in the mids and highs. They don't do anything glaringly wrong, which is pretty decent for a sub-$100 closed can. And considering they're 1/3 of the price of the Shures, I couldn't be happier. Isolation seems to be the only thing the Shures do better. But the tips (soft flex or foamies) on the E4c were irritating the hell out of my ears, so I was looking to get away from IEMs because what good is isolation when I never want to use them? I use them primarily when travelling for coaching, and I just need something to drown out the drone on the bus or cut back a little on the crown noise at meets. The K81 seem like they'll do just fine for that, and actually sound good enough that I don't see any need to bring my 580s with me when I go to my cabin or go to visit my folks.

Well, I've had my K81DJs for a couple of weeks now and have some limited listening on them. They're definitely a decent little headphone, and for $60 it's hard to argue with their performance. They're hardly perfect, but they seem like a great portable, sounding quite good directly out of the iPod and with my MINT. They scaled pretty well with my Millett as well. They vinyl pads were a little obnoxious with respect to heat and comfort so I did order the HD-25 velour pads. After some back-and-forth, there's definitely a audible difference between the two pads. I ended up settling on the velour pads with the Senn foam. There's definitely a more balanced presentation with the bass and mid-bass bloat gone. They also seem to have a bit quicker attack. I'm currently contemplating a recable...

Well, you're definitely one I take note of as well. It started when I began with the 1st Darkest Desires thread "over there" and worked through the first 4. You seemed to have posts in the threads I was interested in over there, and continued here. I really value the opportunity to see what people are listening to whose tastes I know I share. That's why I love the "What Are You Listening To?" thread and where Last.fm has been nice as well. I'm lucky (or not so lucky) that I work @ a computer, so it's very conenient to log it all through Foobar with Last.fm. And then being able to log all of my listening with the iPod has been the icing on the cake. WHOOP indeed!!!

I do... if you peruse the "What are you listening to now?" thread, there's a lot of the same stuff up. I've found the thread incredibly valuable finding new music. There are definitely a number of people on this forum whose taste in music I share and whose recommendations are trusted and welcome. So I think this will be a great extention of the "What are you listening to now?" thread.