mrarroyo

Wicked, just wicked!

Happy B-Day!

Good choice, several of my co-workers own Hyundai and they are very satisfied w/ them.

Will you be able to make it to CanJam10?

Living in an apartment I looked at them a few years back when Yamaha was the only game in town. I thought it sounded quite good, luckily for you there are far more options today and at a lower price. Have you listened to any of the offerings available?

I gave this concept a lot of thought, if it had been the Solo SRG the answer would have been yes. However the SRGII extends in both directions over the SRG and it has a wider soundstage so for now I will say no. I plan on loaning Carl the HE5 with both the EF5 and the Solo SRGII so he may be able to provide a different perspective/feedback.

The velour pads IMO add a comfort level that is needed for this cans. Being a bit heavy the pleather pads make listening with the K340 a bit fatiguing and hot. Some will state that some of the bass impact could be lost but IMO it is negligible and since they are so much more comfortable I would say to get the velour pads. BTW, the mods that Larry at Headphile performs improve the K340 significantly, how much is the BlackGold re-cable (what I had on mine) or the mods I can not say. Good luck.

Naples Mini Meet on January 7th, 2010: Ron (HiFlight) and I exchanged a couple of PMs and decided to get together to try each other’s new gear. I am on vacation and going on a trip so I decide to take a small detour to Florida’s west coast and meet with Ron in Naples. I thought that we would just take a small number of items and boy was I wrong! The list of gear (not all of which was photograph) follows. Full Size Headphones AKG K1000 w/ an APureSound V3 re-cable (not photographed) AKG K340 (stock) Denon D2000 w/ MarkL mods, Bubinga wood cups, and an XEV re-cable by Zynsonic Head Direct HiFiMAN HE5 Sony MDR F1 w/ an XEV re-cable by Zynsonic Ultrasone Ed.8 German Maestro GMP 8.300D Portable Headphones Yuin OK1 Etymotic ER4P Koss Portapro Anniversary Edition Head Direct HiFiMAN RE-252 Sources Aeolus magiDAC Shanling CD Player PCD300A 6th Gen 160 Gb iPod w/ lossless files w/ an ALO Bamboo Dock Philips DVD DVP5982 Full Size Amps K.I.C.A.S. SOHA built by MisterX Head Direct HiFiMAN EF5 Graham Slee’s Solo SRGII Bravo Audio Jaycar HeadAmp (highly modified Aussie kit) Portable Amps D4 by iBasso (not photographed) T3 by iBasso (not photographed) Reference by Zin w/ C5 board Reference by Zin w/ D5 board Here are some photos taken during the approximate four-hour mini meet. What did I come out from comparing the various items? 1. The AKG K340 continuous to be one of the best sounding cans I have ever listened too. Especially if the source and amp are of high quality. 2. The little Bravo Audio has to be heard to be believed, it just sounds right regardless of the can used. I could not believe it was driving the K1000 and K340 to such a high level and fantastic quality. It is so good I will be looking to buy one shortly. 3. I wish more people gave the Sony MDR F1 a chance. It is a very clear and open sounding, quite close to a K1000 since the driver is also away from the ear. 4. The Ultrasone Ed.8 is a very punchy and detailed/clear can with a high level of “fun” thrown in. Unfortunately for me I cannot at this moment sink $1,400 into purchasing one. 5. The KICAS and the Ed.8 make a very good pairing if you are looking for a combo that will have your foot tapping and a big smile in your face. It was a delight to listen and let the music take you away. In my opinion the Ed.8 sounded better out of the KICAS than my modded Denon. We then switched to the SOHA and funnily enough the roles were reversed, the modded Denon sounded better than the Ed. 8 out of the SOHA. BTW, the source being used was the magiDAC. 6. The Solo SRGII and the HE5 are a fantastic pairing, with a lot of the music even better than the EF5. I say this because the Solo SRGII is a very warm amp, more so than the EF5 so it was able to control the energetic top end of the HE5. I will start rolling 12AU7 tubes into HE5 to see if I can find a warmer sounding tube. Note, I am not saying that the EF5/HE5 combo is shrill or metallic sounding as I have read from some users. To my ears and w/ my music the EF5/HE5 has a bit too much treble energy that I hope to tame by rolling tubes. More to come on this matter. 7. The K1000 even w/ the limited amps and sources we had remains to me the king of dynamic headphones. As stated in another post of mine the Sony Qualias is the only headphone that comes close. It was a lot of fun to get together w/ Ron (HiFlight) and try each other’s new gear! The following (in blue) are Ron’s impressions. I also much enjoyed the day. As I had just gotten the KICAS, magiDAC and Bravo tube amp, I hadn't had a chance to try out everything, so it was an educational experience for me also. It was interesting to see how the synergy changed depending upon the combination of amp and phones that were paired together. The surprise of the day was how good the little Bravo amp sounded when driving the K340s and K1000s! I was using the stock 6N11 tube, but the amp sounded even better when we swapped the cheap switching power supply for Miguel’s Elpac 2 amp switcher PSU. This little Class A powerhouse was driving my K1000s to a normal volume level at the 9 0'clock position on the volume knob. It also effortlessly powered my K340s and sounded superb doing it! All of this for $59.00.... unbelievable! I should also note that the Bravo only had about 3 hours of use prior to our meet. My Ed.8s also have only about 30 hours use, and I was told that they need a couple of hundred hours to reach their full potential. I also can highly recommend the Shanling PCD3000A. Not only does it do a fine job of rendering CDs thru both Coax and Optical outputs, but it has a very nice-sounding headphone output as well. It is quite narrow and easily fits into very small spaces. The more I use this player, the better I like it. It is always fun and educations to be able to listen to other equipment in addition to ones own toys RLK.

I was able to listen to the GMP 435 S thanks to the ongoing loan program in Head Fi. I received the cans on January 8, 2010. This is not my first experience w/ a German Maestro headphone, having previously listened to the GMP 8.300 D. I do not know how many hours of burn-in this unit has; they should have plenty of burn-in since it has gone through several HF members before reaching my hands. Since I have no way of knowing and since I will be able to keep them for two weeks I will start by burning them in for 100 hours or so. For now straight out of the box my initial impressions are: Like: - Very lightweight - Extremely comfortable, plus it easily adjusts w/ the built in mechanism - Very easy to drive, only 35 ohms - Nice feature to provide extension relief w/ the built in coiled cable section - Nice wide soundstage - Nice thick and deep low bass Do not like: - Top end is way too energetic - The mids are a bit thin sounding, lacks depth Here are a couple of pictures: More to come

Wayne, glad you got back the cd's (which you did not know were missing ). BTW good luck to your daughter on her upcoming wedding, she is gorgeous btw.

I have continued to use the EF5/HE5 combo and they have over 400 hours of combined burn-in and on the head time. The sound has not changed for a while and I do not foresee them changing unless I swap tubes (still using the stock one). Over the last week I have started to notice the top end is too energetic to my liking. Why now and not earlier? Who knows, so on a whim I tried the HE5 out of the Solo SRGII and I found the sound much to my liking besting that out of the EF5 (same source). This surprised me because the Solo SRGII does not produce a lot of power, yet to me it sounds more refined and the frequencies are more balanced with each other. I still think the $900 price for the EF5/HE5 combo is a nice deal, hopefully Fang will improve upon the sound/cost ratio in the months to come.

Not enough! About 1,600 cd's.

Happy B-Day!

Earlier this week went on a short trip, which I combined it to meet w/ Ron (HiFlight) to test new gear. It was a lot of fun and shortly I will post the impressions in the appropriate forum of course.

I was in Naples and I saw frost on the ground! They are predicting snow for Tampa.

A couple of nights at a Naples Hotel to get a break.

I purchased an used Lite DAC-AH from Gene and modded it by replacing the output op-amps w/ a passive output using oil filled caps. I also added some heat sinks, drilled some vent holes, installed thicker rubber feet, and checked the right voltage. Overall I was very satisfied for the little money I had in it. Heck some days I still regret selling it.

The Best Of Dinah Washington.

Yes, although I am hopeful that Fitz can fix the damaged one. Then I will have a second which I may take to my office.

I do not know if this has been posted but ... AudiogoN ForSale: Grado Rs-1 Headphones with upgraded

A 2nd K1000.

Happy B-Day!

Went out for a morning walk, then listened to some tunes, and finally went to my in-laws for dinner. Overall a pretty good day.

In case anyone has one enclosed are pictures of the actual damaged driver. I am looking for one just like it and have it as an spare. Thanks again.