hirsch

The O-rings hold the driver in place. They are under some tension as soon as they are installed. Wearing out is likely to be a simple function of time, and not depend on use. So yes, I'd say that any HE60 is likely to have broken O-rings. The replacement O-rings cost around $20 from Sennheiser. The skill set needed to perform the replacement is ability to use a philips screwdriver.

Thanks for the birthday wishes! I've been traveling, and just got back home last night. I'm still to exhausted to be very coherent, although that's my normal state anyway

Hmm..my SHA-1 is excellent with the RS-1. However, that amp was modded by Carlo before he vanished. I use Telefunken PCC88's, and haven't felt a need to roll tubes in that amp since I put them in years ago.

Bobby is a sweetheart. He was doing his chainsaw purr when I met him. You've got a great little kitty (just add cat food and wait, and he might not be so little in a bit...) Ghost does the same leap into the lap thing at times. The problem is that Ghost weighs about 20 lbs. If you don't see it coming, a 20 lb. cat landing in your lap can do some serious damage.

I listened to the GS1/HD800 and KGSS/HE90 combo a fair amount. Differences were minimal at best, which was surprising to me. The sound of both seemed dry and uninspiring to me. I had to strain to hear fine detail on either. During the comparison, I was reasonably happy that I didn't keep the HD800, and I gave some consideration to putting the HE90 on the market if that's the best it could do. Then I listened on the Blue Hawaii, and the HE90 woke out of it's stupor. Phew! I haven't heard an amp yet that could do that with an HD800, but there may be one out there. Note: there were also source/cable/equalizer in signal path (on passthrough) differences, so it's not entirely clear what's responsible for the difference in the HE90 between KGSS and BH rigs. This is the biggest difference I've heard between KGSS and BH rigs so far, but with different everything, I'm not reading a lot into this. Neither amp is tempting me to move from my ES1 (I should have brought that as a baseline, but I was feeling lazy and running late...two of my natural states of being). 4070 was probably my favorite out of KGSS. However, the extremely heavy earcups are a big drawback for me. It didn't feel like a headphone I could use for long sessions. Even so, it might be my favorite sounding headphone of the current Stax lineup. The new version of the Omega 2 sounds like a broken mk.1 to me. I thoroughly dislike the SR-404, but the 4070 delivered a good balanced sound, and sounded to me like a much better implementation of the 404 driver. Maybe dropping the metal cups for some nice wooden ones would help make it usable in the long term... Sorry about the absence of technical drivel on the Lambda's My technical drivel mainly restricted to: It sucks or it doesn't suck.

There is a coloration in the HP4 that I believe is from the transformers. I was never able to get rid of it by tube rolling. It's pleasant when you listen to it, but always there. When I went OTL, the absence of the coloration was refreshing to the point that my HP4 went almost unused except for meets, until I finally sold it.

The incorrect assumption that you've been making is that there is such a thing as a "stock form".

Early in the listening (bowls only). Big images in a small space. Musicians intrude on each other's space. Tonally much nicer than all of the John Grado lineup except PS-1. PS-1 is the only other John Grado headphone that I've heard that sounds good with bowls. Not a fine detail monster. Pretty much what the SR-325 should have sounded like. Good headphone that might be more with burn-in. Belongs in the "fun" rather than "reference" category so far. Having gone through a lot of experiments with Grado pads on various headphones (OK, most of the high-end Grado's), I tend to prefer the spaciousness and detail of the bowl pads. However, on most of the John Grado headphones, the tradeoff is the midrange and highs. If the midrange is recessed, and the highs are piercing, the flats are the cure. I can't use an RS1 with bowls (single-ended, anyway...it can get complicated balanced). When you switch to flats, t normally you lose a bit of detail and space to bring the mids back into perspective. If the midrange is right with the bowls, then going to the flats can kill the highs and fine details. Then there are the HD-414 pads (let's not forget the vwap pad), comfies, comfies with holes, rubber cement on bowls...ugh. Not going there again if I can help it.

I blame this whole thing on the educational system today. In order to prep kids to get into a good pre-school (absolutely necessary first step to get into a top college, where a liberal arts degree will grant them access to management positions at fast food establishments), parents are starting kids on computers before they're even out of diapers.

Just redid the HT system with Oppo BDP-83. I initially started with a digital output going to Outlaw 990, and used it that way for a couple of days. However, I got a shock when switching to the analog multi-channel outputs of the BDP-83. The Oppo is clearly a better audio processor than the Outlaw on just about any video sound format I tried, down to Dolby 2.0. The hi-rez lossless formats are something else again. I was considering upgrading the Outlaw when their new hi-end processor come out, but am not so sure anymore. 7.1 analog passthrough may well be good enough with this player, in which case the 990 is fine.

I'm minimal at last! One R10 single-ended. One R10 balanced. Obviously these belong in different categories.

No contest. Head is always better than no-head. And now back to headphones. HD800 was incredibly frustrating for me. Easy to drive? You've got to be kidding. Maybe the SDS-XLR would have done the trick, but I didn't have a balanced cable, nor the desire for another headphone for that amp. With the amps I wanted to use, the headphone just didn't sound right. Not definable why, nor really worth the effort to track it down. I've got some nice headphones and didn't really want to enter another long effort to find exactly the right amp and tubes (or transistors, or op amps, or whatever). I wanted something better than the Denon D-5000 for my work rig, but the HD800 isn't it. Oh well, at least it's superior to the production GS-1000 (this is not my idea of a ringing endorsement). Weird thing is, I'm almost certain that in the right rig both of those headphones could be made to shine.

Just got an email from Oppo. The BDP-83 has now been released to the public at the same price as the preorders. There's also some beta firmware on their site, but I may wait for the release version.

Used to own an EAD Ultradisc 2000 player. It sounded a bit like it was underwater (I was NOT impressed by the high end). OK as a speaker source, as long as I didn't use good speakers, but not anything I would bother to listen to with headphones.

Simichrome is a staple for pen restoration. Great polish. If you don't have a local place that carries it, you can get it at Pendemonium - Fountain Pens, Pencils, Inkwells, Stationery, and other Writing Equipment for Fountain Pen Enthusiasts (look under "repair supplies") and other places that might carry pen or jewelry repair supplies.

I do have known tubes that I use only for checking my testers periodically. If results are stable over time, I'm happy. There's no real point in going through a resistor by resistor test in the absence of drift over time, unless you like doing that sort of thing. Even then, the fairly easy calibration procedure of the 747 means that all you've got to do is recalibrate if you do see long-term drift. Fifteen minutes to calibrate vs. resistor by resistor checking...no contest. Even then, it's probably faster to simply replace all of the resistors than to test them. It was definitely both cheaper and faster to replace all of the electrolytics in the 747 than it would have been to test them, so I didn't bother to test them. I bought new caps and put them in. Tester is stable. Done. Cost was less than $40. Took a couple of hours, but I work slowly. A simple user calibration procedure means that it's OK if the calibration is only good for a certain period of time. Test your known tubes, and if the value is off, then recalibrate. If the values drift quickly, go to the next step and replace the resistors.

The 747 doesn't really need much by way of gear to calibrate beyond a multimeter, an insulated screwdriver, a capacitor, and a few resistors. A third hand is also helpful, but with care two is enough. Calibration instructions are in the manual, including the capacitor and resistor values. Just follow the steps, and don't touch the chassis when the unit is open and the unit is turned on for calibration. I also replaced all of the electrolytic caps in mine while I was in restoration mode, and it seems to do very well.

My latest baby is a tiny little black and white four year old with a lot of Maine Coon in him: Ghost is a tiny little thing, weighing a bit over 21 pounds. The other cats here weren't happy about another one coming in, but he's too big for them to do anything about it. Things have calmed down, and the other cats have more or less accepted him (probably better than they accept each other). The big guy is a dedicated lap cat, and likes to help me at the computer. He's a big friendly cat, and he's finally found a permanent home.

Uh oh. Another noob using foul language. Where have our fucking standards gone? Welcome Wayne! Good to see you here!

So far (a couple of hours) I can't make mine create any sounds other than music. As far as sonics, the sound is changing quickly as the headphone starts to burn-in. A sonic impression at this point would not be worth the time it took to write it, as I'd be hearing something different by the end of the post.

"If you think that your interconnects don't influence the sound of your system, try listening to your system without them". ---Rotareneg

Denon AH-D2000. Nice punchy headphone that doesn't have the wood earpieces of its more expensive brothers. Imaging is not as good as some other brands, but it's a fun headphone to listen to. All of the inexpensive (read <$1000) closed dynamic headphones I've heard are flawed in some way, but the Denons' flaws are less intrusive to me. If the Sony CD3000 were still in production, it would provide the Denons with serious competition. Probably the closest competition right now is Audio-Technica but I have yet to hear an Audio-Technica headphone, up to and including the L3000, that didn't have an odd midrange suckout.

One bad owner will do it. Most headphones can survive a parade of careful owners. Generally, most manufacturing problems will turn up early in ownership. Most of the later failures can usually be traced to user errors except for parts with finite lifespans: O-rings on HE60, foam on vintage Stax (and just about anything else that uses it), earpads, etc. Keep a spare set of earpads around, and you're probably covered for many, many years with most headphones.

OK, that will silence about six people, but only if we count both forums.

Let's see, we're up to 14 pages bashing an amp that nobody posting (with the possible exception of Billy) has ever seen in person, much less heard. I forget what site I'm on. I thought my sig was making fun of a different site.