granodemostasa

thanks... let me do some research on it...

ah, i wish.

they sell on A'gon for 780 on average. also, the monarchy 24 just a Dac-60 with modding. having seen how one modded dac-60 did in my system, i'm not all that encouraged to try another one.

I've been keeping my eye on this thing... http://cls.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?dgtlplay&1179517974 i would need a step up transformer... and i'm wondering if i'm looking at "audiophile" grade type of stuff, or should i get any regular transformer. any opinions? has anyone heard it?

headroom desktop... add all the options you want.

That cary 300sei on the Head-fi FS forum is a real steal... even if it's a bit too much right, i think it would be worth it to go for it.

Sorry dude, it wasn't a real write up. I'll give you an example. On Sarah Blasko's "Overture and the Underscore" album each snare and cymbol hit seemed to have a longer decay on the VDA-2, however, there was more to hear. for example, a snare might hit and details like the vibrations on the chains on the insturment would come out more, as oppose to sounding muted on the stello. On Esa Pekka Salonen's "Wing on Wing" CD, the "attack" from bells and triangles appeared to be sharper/faster with less extended decay than the Stello. this is what i mean by "faster," the attack, not the decay. (why the decay was faster in the treble, i don't know) On that same Salonen CD, the VDA-2 had a longer decay and almost an HD650 style "reverberation" affect when it came to the orchestra itself, which had the effect of clouding the soundstage. While the Stello cleary took apart each section of the orchestra and one could easily hear where each sound was comming from. I know the observations sound contradictory... the conclusions were inconclusive since they "traded" some characteristics back and forth as I continued to throw more Music at them. (btw, it was straight A/B style)

AIM Conversation about the Stello and VDA2 CODEMIKEKENOBI : so, any conclusions? dejemibarca: alot. dejemibarca (10:04:33 PM): the first day: stello blew out the VDA dejemibarca (10:04:40 PM): second day, VDA blew out the stello dejemibarca (10:05:18 PM): the VDA has twin faults that make it somewhat dull for pop and rock, dejemibarca (10:06:02 PM): it's center voice isn't airy and it is somewhat distant sounding. dejemibarca (10:06:54 PM): the Stello has two faults that are glaring on classical music: it doesn't have has good treble extension and it isn't nearly as detailed. CODEMIKEKENOBI (10:07:18 PM): okay dejemibarca (10:07:56 PM): it went back and forth... i think the vda is a little faster, but not as clear... so it can get more "messy" sounding in complicated sections dejemibarca (10:08:48 PM): the stello is warmer, and not as bright. it has a bigger, deeper and more impacting bass... but not as textured. dejemibarca (10:09:29 PM): the stello does imaging far far better... but not "night and day" like it was with the benchmark v. lavry. dejemibarca (10:10:00 PM): the soundstage is a little bigger side to side on stello but not as deep. dejemibarca (10:11:11 PM): there was some resolution and "crunchiness" lost in the stello on guitar pieces, while warmth and euphonic qualities were lacking on the vda2 dejemibarca (10:12:48 PM): overall: i think the vda-2 sounds like a very good version of what the benchmark is trying to do. the stello sounds like a good version of what tube dacs wish they sounded like.

i'll pay for all the 6sl7 tubes.. and any 6c33 ones as well....

http://www.angela.com/ http://www.thetubestore.com I'm looking to try out more tubes for my amp and the first thing i want to know is who should i buy them from.

do all the live performances of campus bands count? or does it have to be professional performers..

Hey, for some odd reason there is a capenter who has his workshop inbetween two apartment buildings. i'ts just one small wall from my building's courtyard... that can get very annoying! good thing headphones were invented!

yes,the ppx slam is in a high level of performance for tube amps, the first amp to change my perception was the PPX Slam. i think most of the stereotypes come from the cheaper or older amps out there. i tried the mapletree HD150 and i would have thought that tube amps lacked impact/slam/speed,clarity if i hadn't put the same headphone in the zana deux a few minutes later.

eh... true. but i did hate the K701 before i tried it and having it in my rig for a month resulted in a great respect for that can, i change my mind often about these things. you want me to learn how to write like a stereophile reviewer? i can do that, but i dont' want to fill the forums up with fluff.

sorry, i just happen to hate the RS-1 with a passion... and soundstage is just about my biggest priority when it comes to headphones. that better be like an original RS-1 with wooden box and upgrade cable to justify that cost. nevermind, go ahead and buy it.. i need to give the RS-1 a good review on the equipment i have now.

three things 1. the RS-1 isn't a better headphone than the HD650 2. It's actually a bad deal 3. the GS1000 would run the RS1 out of town

Wot! i got them. but i'm waiting for the dac so right now i'm just listening with my ipod.. and nice sound. right now i like them better than anything else i've heard the ipod with. the bass might be a little over doing it but but it sure doesn't bother me right now.

I used my HF1 at work... it kept starting conversations. i actually think the HD555 wouldn't turn many heads.. depends where you work though.

Hey, update! the lavry's issues: it sounded like the K701, somewhat dry and uninvolving, with a similar soundstage. good, accurate and very "imagy" in the center but not as big R and L as the benchmark or the Stello. Further, it just didnt' have very good dynamics and sounded very grainy with voices/voicing. so i went for a VDA2, and i'll update my impressions.. this thing has only played for a few hours.... soundstage- sounds like a GS1000, with compact and upfront center voice but goes very wide on the outlaying soundstage. this isn't the K1000 speaker, but the GS1000 style. reach- nothing jumps out, it sounds flat.. only that the bass doesn't go as deep as i'd like.. and it's not impactful. the voicing is right on! i love it..

I tried it out on the ZD before, when i was using the modded zhaolu as my dac. now i have a rather mid-range centric dac, so i'll see how it turns out. the first time it gave me a headache

Hello It's a very interesting headphone, to say the least. Now, i never thought i would actually do it, but it was tempting. any idea what i could expect form this headphone?

really? so nothing in the design changed?

completely agree

Hi, for you Stello MKII owners, what type of detail does it get? i've actually heard this a bit from 220 impressions, that it has problems with getting the same detail as lavry/benchmark. is this the case for MKII? thankyou

i forgot to put some impressions up: Ultimately the Benchmark Dac-1 didn't have the same weight and imaging capacity as the Lavry (that and the bass was severely lacking). nevertheless, the treble clarity, speed, image clarity, details, and echos were all better than the lavry, as was the benchmark's natural soundstage. The Lavry carried with it greater warmth, and simply felt like a new level of realism in compareison to the foggy but detailed Dac-1. The Stello DP200 was warmer, more euphonic, had a wider soundstage, but didn't layer strings as good as the lavry. the lavry was somewhat dull/ and heavily griany in comparison. the dynamics of the DP200 are the best i've ever heard from a dac (considering the output, it should be), and so is the treble. If there were problems with the DP200 there were only two: that it didn't have as much detail as the lavry, and that it didn't seem neutral but "sweet" in the midrange. other than that, it sounded simply amazing and when using upsampling, far surpassed the level of the lavry... when bypassing upsampling, it was difficult to find differences outside of dynamics.