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Ben Gramain

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Everything posted by Ben Gramain

  1. Just idly wondering if there's a sub-based high-res service.
  2. I don't really see much point for it to be honest, assuming this is a 'walking around' phone. I like the T1, but why would you want a sweatier pair of phones given that walking around with it, you will look like you have two coconut halves on your head, not to mention one of the heaviest 'portables' out there? The Ultrasones are much more 'socially acceptable'. I concur with swt61 for the T1's sound. Which is why it appears to be a keeper I guess. The fact that it might cost ~$400 or so more than it should (in which case e.g. an RS-1i should be $350 [mainly for the wood]) is neither there nor here with me - the fact that there is a quantifiable improvement over the HD650, certainly my reference 'sane' dynamic, made the choice quite easy.
  3. It does. However I'm aware of the source. That was a good curry though.
  4. Thanks. Hope your ass is happy if not your ears. Well, it's already on order from my side, but I don't have to open them I guess. *Worse* than the Triport AE's? Kinda tragic. True, the Triports sound way better than some of the alternative recommendations from Bose-bashers on HF, but... well, you'd expect better. I dunno. I think about giving up the search often. Seems fruitless. We'll see how the Beats get on... I'm supposed to be receiving them with the B&W's sometime next week. They haven't shipped yet AFAIK, perhaps I can cancel. Edit: Awesome forum feature for acronyms! Love it!
  5. Oh yeah, I was referring to the Made in Japan flagships. I don't know what the situation is for the bottom-feeder machines which gets Sony their poor rep.
  6. I can tell you something I've definitely bought the last of: Dell. Apple makes shit across their entire range, but it's shit supported by a smile. Sony's support is biblically shit, but their gear mostly isn't. Dell gear doesn't always suck for sure... but when Dell does shit flagships, it's just shit on shit. I am defo not darkening their doors for a loooooong time.
  7. Cheap stuff, yeah, hence the comment. And in fact a lot of expensive stuff too... but you'd be surprised sometimes.
  8. Not really. I wanted to know what element of adding weight to a regular DT (the MMX is, apart from it's boom, a regular DT) would cause issues. And interestingly it's not just the headband that's the cause of the problem on the T1, it's the pads as well. I've learned all sorts of interesting things about this phone today... so jury is well and truly out.
  9. Trying to figure out whether the T1 comfort issue is weight or something else by sticking 58g of additional weight on an MMX 300 to take it to the same weight.
  10. Laying down... Beer? Even the likely corked of my crappiest '80's Montrachet's are raising eyebrows.
  11. So I take it you're not doing a TOSLINK/USB Pico, justin? If not, I'm going for the iBasso.
  12. Mebbe I need to tie a couple of helium balloons to it or something.
  13. I would be so not surprised to see that posted for real somewhere.
  14. Hafta say, that one pushes my buttons, as it were. I don't wear a watch these days, although seeing a cool one sometimes makes me want to wear one again. How's the paint hold up?
  15. Read it once, thought 'eh?'. Read it again. It's defo there.
  16. Joined the throng for the computing equivalent of the Beats Solo's. 64Gb, 3G.
  17. Yeah. It's a standard part of marketing / brand protection, no surprise there. You know, for example like the company which makes the iPads that everyone's going nuts over behaves from time to time - but in a smarter, more insidious way because they have probably more direct board oversight over such legal action.
  18. I know what you mean, but I refer back to what I said about different bullshit. I'll rate them over any indie builder featured on Head-Fi et al any day of the week. With Monster at least you know what you're paying for - marketing, a decent warranty, consumer-standard quality control and more marketing. Self-delusion on the part of the manufacturer doesn't enter into the mix. Will do. Hopefully they'll arrive before I leave for a trip.
  19. Only partially It seems like I've been on the search for an inoffensive, practical, comfortable yet actually isolating set of travelling phones forever. I'm not one to presume how it'll sound since all an audiophile seems to mean, if the posts I read are correct, is that people just start believing in different bullshit. True, all Beats are worn by douches, the celeb-obsessed and those who dress like bryanboy. However since I am kind of a douche, it seems appropriate. I figured I'd give it a try... reading reviews ain't doing shit as usual so I'll have to take the hit. B&W's are next.
  20. Well, is it surprising re the Denons. The 'Denon done right' wasn't particularly a compliment, in case it seemed that way. To me, the genesis of their high-end range reeks to me of calculated opportunism. And I'm thankful that I didn't take too much of a hit on either of these when I sold them on. As for the T1, if I were being honest with myself no headphone over the HD650 has been worth it in a rational sense, so no I don't think strictly speaking they're worth the sale price if you're going by the yardstick of the DT's. The Qualias for example, although I'd posit that they were unsuccessful as headphones, were ironically kind of worth it to me in the sense of being functional industrial art. A similar, but to a much weaker level, feeling also extends to the HE/V90 in terms of a sense of theatre. The T1 isn't any of those, it's just a boring ol' headphone. Especially as contrary to my 'out of my arse' conjecture before about the parts on the T1 (which really did turn out to be totally arsy conjecture), in terms of product engineering this is a DTxxx - I really do expect them to put in more effort than is to be found on the T1. Yes it feels more premium than your garden DT, but it's a riced-up premium instead of a ground-up premium, which you would expect on something of this stature given the main competition... especially as Beyer biomechanics isn't exactly the pinnacle of achievability. So it has to deliver sonically since it doesn't have a 'novelty of the new' about it. And the T1's are far from perfect even at this level of early listen: Apart from various minor issues I can pick with it, the T1 has a major placement-related treble problem, and physically apart from the riced DT aspect, I also dislike the Quasi-bullshit-aftermarket-grade cable, which is partly responsible for pulling-down-on-head weight being in O2/Orpheus territory (or ~100g in excess of a typical DT), but without a redesign of the headband to account for the additional weight. But on balance, I think they're more deserving of a high-end moniker than AH-D5/7000... which are basically high-end Bose in terms of the flavour, and as such not surprising that some prefer the Denons over the T1. But I do like the overall flavour of the sound as an all-purpose phone. It could certainly pack less potential to be sibilant but I find the extension is excellent, as is soundstaging from a practical point of view. In terms of the lack of a sonic USP, what I said about the bottle over the head applies - It's not hugely impressive on first listen, but it does have legs IMO. However I'm not sure I'd actively recommend the T1 for all sorts of reasons, some of which are above. I believe it's somewhat flawed from a design & engineering perspective and that may result in the T1 not being a keeper for me. Y'know, it's funny but the Qualia comparison rings true again. Crappy cables with quasi-semiconductor effects from materials or construction, unintentional or otherwise, can 'enhance' phones which sounds like this by (among other things) changing the audible treble by rounding it out. But due to the abilities of the phone itself, you may not even notice there is anything wrong - especially if you don't know what to look out for. It was a torrent of excuses from a Head-Fi sponsor that caused me to buy test gear and very sharp knives to figure out what I was actually getting when I invested (since I was cutting them up, not so much of an investment) in these extravagantly techflexed articles.
  21. They sound like Denons done properly. Perhaps not overtly impressive. Not fond of the same placement sensitivity as with the K70x, O2 etc, although perhaps not to the crazy level of the Qualias. I would imagine they'd be no good for those who judge their phones by how much it can, metaphorically speaking, smash a glass bottle over their heads. Even averaging out the 6moons-style BS prose, everything I read about the HD800 strikes me as Qualia Mk II - so nein danke right now. I might hang onto these. It's a change over the HD650, which it seems I don't think will be retiring either. I do have a suspicion that the HD650 might outlast the T1, if only for biomechanical reasons, but I'll see after a few months.
  22. If they were made the same, maybe. I know the mere mention of wood gets some drooling but just because it hasn't got any doesn't necessarily mean there's some material refinements in there as a statement product, not just work in the drivers. They probably figured out that once it had to crack $1K, they could price it at a level they could get a recoupment-worthy profit - and that potential buyers wouldn't really care whether it was $1K or $1.3K. I'm just talking out of my arse for now. Should have it next week, where they will face the gimlet gaze of the long-time-resident HD650 which has so far seen off all dynamic comers.
  23. I quite like this: Untitled Document
  24. If you want a media server, get an HP MediaSmart EX495 and build/buy a separate PC for doing whatever. The MediaSmart is awesome - it's quiet, expandable and easily configurable / controllable - and for a lower-end NAS it's fast. And unlike a RAID1/5 array you can dynamically expand the array without having to repartition it by decommissioning one drive then plugging in a bigger one, and repeating that for the other drives. There is a new version of the WHS software out very soon and it's unlikely that the 495 will be upgradeable to the new version, but I don't think you need to wait for it.
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