tkam

A hammer usually works pretty well

Congrats the W11JPN's are the only AT's I like other than my L3K's. They share a fairly similar tonality and richness through the mid-range.

Yes lose Norton it's probably done more harm than good. For Anti-Virus get something like NOD32 or Kaspersky. Also download Spybot it's a free spyware/adware remover.

It cost enough . I've been doing quite a bit of tube rolling today just to try and get a handle on some of these tubes I've never heard before. A few combos have stood out so far: Raytheon 6414 -> Chalmer CV181/ECC32 -> Raytheon 6528 - This combination just might be the perfect combination for the K1000. I've never heard the K1000 sound this good before. GE5965 -> Sylvania 6bx7gt (2nd gain stage disabled) -> Tung-Sol 2399 - If your someone that puts a lot of focus and importance on soundstage then this might be the combo for you. Just a huge soundstage that stays amazingly cohesive.

I wonder if the head-fier is just confusing the KGST as a "special edition" BH?

Haha thanks, the Opus 21 is a fantastic player. In stock form I think it's the best player available under $5k. In it's current modded form (reference level mods from GNSC) it's fair to say it competes with players in the 5 figure price range.

Here you go:

While I've only had it for a day so far I can tell pretty easily that this is a special amp. It throws one of the largest soundstages I've ever heard (including many balanced amps). The great thing about it though, is that even with the large soundstage there is never any loss of cohesion or false sense of space. I'm also amazed at the dynamics this amp has, it can handle anything from the most delicate of female vocals to the loudest of rock and metal with ease. I think one of the hardest things for an amp to get right is both the leading and trailing edges of a note. Many amps are great at one or the other and a few are very good at both. But this amp is phenomenal at both, I've never heard an amp nail the splash of an initial cymbal hit and the trailing shimmer as well as this amp does. Again it's still quite early, but this amp does bass so well, I've never heard better.

You have enough amps Earl

Pics: http://www.head-case.org/index.php?topic=1144.0

Those enable or disable the 2nd gain stage (one knob per tube).

Well my new SinglePower amp arrived today. It has two gain stages and uses some nice powerful tubes as the output tubes. Here's a bunch of pics:

My amp arrived today . I'll start a new thread with pics later tonight, back to listening for now.

They should at least be cutting off his fingers so he can't be a doctor anywhere in the world ever again.

Should be getting my amp tomorrow finally . I'll be sure to post a bunch of pics.

It's not necessarily that portable amps don't make a difference, it's more a question of whether said difference is worth the large amount of money some portable amps cost. I think if your portable rig is going to be your main rig then sure an amp makes sense but as others have said get better headphones first and then get an amp.

Received a USPS delivery confirmation number from SP, so it looks like my long awaited amp has shipped

I'm still not a big fan of portable amps, it's one more thing to carry around and don't even get me started on all the stupidly overpriced mini-mini cables people get suckered in to buying. If someone is just starting in this hobby and needs something thats portable I'd recommend they get an ipod of their choosing and some headphones in their budget. I'd rather let them save up money for a future home amp then have them waste money portable amps which for the most part are pretty crappy.

Yes they don't have any limits regarding number of times they can be written to but it would be much slower than an HD as USB (even USB2) just doesn't have the same bandwidth capabilities of SATA or even PATA.

I imagine it will be pretty pricey. Wouldn't surprise me if they are $1k.

No this has no connection to Alessandro other than the fact the MS-2i's are the base headphones for these mods.

Yeah I'd heard about these last summer. Guy on head-fi is getting some special effects company or something to mod MS-2i's. They were supposed to be available awhile ago so I wouldn't hold my breath.

Except when you factor in all the labor cost is there really any savings to pass on??

Nice catch, I'm loving my Sony 55A2000.

I kinda doubt the Cary would be any better than your ZD. Of course the Cary can also drive speakers so that might make it a more valuable piece to you depending on your situation.