Mastergill
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Posts posted by Mastergill
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Yeah, concrete makes excellent speakers stands. I suggest that you screw on top a thick aluminium plate to have a perfect plane surface for your speakers and like i've done you can insert spikes into that plate (point up).
You need a good paint over the concrete, because it may leave dust.
I call that my best and cheapest tweak ever! The improvement on the soundstage was spooky with deep controled bass. There's no energy loss into the ground, the stand can't vibrate.
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Used Manley Stingray? Latest version, around $1700.
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The prob with dudes like markl is that these guys get hired for their writing skills, deep knowledge and real experience are secondary.
It's like with some journalists, when you know your stuff, you can laugh at the crap and approximation these guys can put on the paper.
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That is a very impressive amp and I like the stab at the SP gold plated nonsense...
Ah yes, my wicked mind only got the "built by semi-skilled labor"
Seriously, this could be an interesting piece, i would like to hear it. At these price the Manley "phantom" 300B preamp could be a nice competitor!
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Still better looking than the "standard" black box with the ugly pillars IMO. But for the price they pay for this stuff i would expect to see some 845 or other DHT tubes...
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It seems this burn in crap propaganda has been mostly spread by newbies based forum like Head-Fi. There's very little talk about burn in on forum like Audio Asylum. I guess it helps newbs to feel part of a community, people who know their stuff...etc.
The reality is when you buy a new piece, if it's a good upgrade from what you previously had, you should be thrilled right from the start and not have to wait 300 hours to enjoy your stuff. Putting a new phone in a drawer playing music for one week before listening to it is absolutely nuts IMO.
In fact the most dramatic change i've heard with burn in it's with big power tubes. Some tubes can sound lean, dry and sterile the first hours of use and then after 20 to 50 hours they are really blooming into something very nice.
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Never liked this review, too much intellectual masturbation bullshit from a dude who seems to have a very inflated opinion of himself.
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I try to buy most of my CDs from Japan, they are the best IMO, not because of different mastering but 'cuz they have the best pressing plants. Technically (most of) their CDs are flawless, which can explain the slightly better sound they may have but i've never done serious comparisons.
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So, question is, is this wiring scheme for a XLR->RCA converter valid? Is this the source of this problem, or is it related to the switch itself?
The ground should be wired to pin 1. Sometimes you can see pin 3 shorted to pin 1 like with the Cardas XLR->RCA adapters but it's better to leave pin 3 alone (floating), less chance of hum...
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Is the problem that production of headphone amplifiers to a major extent is an outgrowth of DIY and that not always the most suitable choose to start a business? Is headphone amplifiers a profitable market or are there simply too many enthusiasts?
Yes and yes.
Problem is most headphone enthusiasts are new to the audio hobby and make easy prey for unscrupulous amateur amp builder.
It's much easier to start with speakers as there's a lot of good established company with decades of experience and feedback from experienced users too.
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It appears from your post that you should be the last calling anyone a baby. I enjoy this site, it's not a secret and it's my choice to participate here. I've never been told or pressured to do otherwise by anyone. However, as much I would miss the dual members over there (I mean that), Mastergill, you don't really believe that a boycott by members here would do anything to change the things you don't like about HF? I don't have this personal direct line to Jude and even if I did, I would not share what he was thinking with you. However, if permitting mention of HC on HF was important (I don't believe tkam or Reks care, which I understand) do you think calling Jude a baby and calling for a boycott is going to accomplish that? If you do, I can tell you in no uncertain terms you would be wrong.
You can choose to talk about things of which you have no knowledge. I would suggest however, that if you believe a boycott, will accomplish something, then you should go right ahead.
Of course i may be wrong and i don't know the man personally, but IMO it seems very childish to forbid the talk about other headphone or audio related sites just because you don't like some dudes or the atmosphere of the place.
If i have something against Jude, it's just that don't like the way HF has turned, with ads and sponsors everywhere, when i was one of the first to contribute in the hope to keep the site away from this crap.
According to some guys who know much better than me about internet stuff, he must make at least $10K per month now, so i think this has turned into something commercial no?
The "boycott", i've already made it personnally, and it was not so difficult seeing the amount of crap that is posted and the invasion of Trolls that YOU mods over there have done nothing against. Also technically HF is a nightmare, the site is constantly half broken LOL.
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When i discovered that baby Jude does not allow reference to this site, this really, really pissed me off.
It just shows that HF has definitively turned into a business site where traffic is much more important than intelligent and knowledgable contributions.
I think you guys and gals should boycott HF. Jude doesn't deserve the relative success he has with HF. He should not forget that is membership that make a forum successful and interesting.
And i just fucking hate when the administrator doesn't contribute to his forum...guess he's too much busy counting his dollars.
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Holy crap, i can't believe some dudes are going through so many gears in a so short time. Fucking neurotics, it's about the music, don't forget.
Okay, in 2007 i bought the last piece of my puzzle, a pair of Harbeth Monitors 30 and i'm finally back to speakers with a sound that is beyond the usual hifi stuff, absolute "Laboratory Grade Reference Sound" if that make sense. You need to wear brown trousers, like the old David Manley said once.
In 2008, i won't spend a lot in audio, just tweaking with a few Hifi-tuning fuses, trying KR 300B in the preamp, stuff like that...
Oh, and i forget, Happy New Fucking Year you fucking newbies.
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And now the great markl wants someone who lend him two (!) D5000 to try some mods that cannot be undone...I'm speechless...
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Dude, you sound like Nik.
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The $50,000 question is: can this be done in a less expensive way in a single box?
Yeah maybe. I would check the pro dCS 955 at 3,800 GBP.
Dropping $50k for a source is just nut IMO. Beware of the overpriced audiophool source market. The $50k question is: Do you need the fancy boxes to impress your friends?
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I've owned an Earmax, Earmax Pro, MicroZOTL, Melos Maestro, and was sent a RS Stealth and Raptor for review. I was also recently sent some Singlepower amp in the old-school case that totally crapped out when trying to drive the R10 and the JVC DX1000. Maybe he's beefed up the power on those amps, but from what I can see even his most expensive two-box amp uses the same puny tubes as the unit I was sent. I would sure hate to spend $10K or whatever only to find it could only drive my headphones to about 70db before clipping like crazy.
These are just toyz. Try some serious tube amps one of these days, preferably with speakers.
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...With home audio it was easy there where 10 major brands of amps, 10 of speakers, etc. none of them where junk and you just swapped and traded until you found your idea of perfection. Im starting to feel headphone equipment is more like snake oil...
what do you guys think about this it has a headphone jack ??
http://www.vtl.com/pages/integrated.html
It's not really snake oil, but lot of amateurism, gears that are in constant evolution, etc...
I would take the VTL stuff over the SP or RSA shit any day.
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I found this forum last year after a Google search about an amp discussed at Head-Fi. It was funny to find lot of familiar names over here. A sort of uncensored Head-Fi, that's a very good idea. I've thought about starting my own BS-free audio forum many times, but i'm kinda lazy bastard and, like Jude, i don't know shit about computers, so if someone else can do that...Great.
Good luck!
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What a fucking fiasco! Hopefully i was mostly a lurker this last year, so very little of the crap i've posted should disappear, but man what a bunch of amateurs! I've always felt the Jude man was not really what i would call a computer wizard LOL.
Head-Fi as a "marketplace" being so important they should hire a pro webmaster.
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There's so many things wrong with this proposed amp of yours that I can't even list them all. For one thing, if a 6SN7 has trouble driving a 300B, what the fuck makes you think a 6SL7 will work? Have you even looked up the specs of these tubes or are you just name-dropping because you think it makes you sound smart?
I have a 6SL7 who drives 300B with outstanding performance...in a line stage.
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I disagree, I like that the forums are used for marketting. It gets the word out. It's not like there are other places for people who are buying headphone gear to find out what's what. They should just clearly label people as being part of the business, and not allow slander, and everythingn would be dandy.
I'm not against manufacturer's contribution or post in a public forum, it's the fact that some exist only thanks to the Head-Fi forum that cause problems IMO. This is pretty unique in the audio hobby in general as far as i know, and it's not good for real, independent opinions.
I guess it's inevitable since it's still a very very small market. But that sucks IMO.
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I know Tyll has always said 5% of his sales come from Head-Fi. But for the "Head-Fi manufacturers" like myself and many others, most of our sales come from Head-Fi.
This i found really annoying since first day i joined Head-Fi. This is why independent discussions are impossible in the Amp forum. This is why you will never see pics of some innards' amp...and so on.
A public forum should not be used as marketing platform. It kills everything and ultimately the forum itself will die. Add to that the strong friendship between some moderators and some "manufacturers" and you can say bye-bye to any 'honest' opinion, or at least opinion that goes against 'mainstream'.
Imagine that kind of stuff on Audio-Asylum!
I don't know how, but this headamp market really need to mature...in fact it's the consumer who need to mature and knows where to put his hard earned money, but how can it be if the information is biased to begin with? With this forum (head-case) maybe? Or with a headphone subforum in AA?
PS: I have nothing against you Justin, amongst the "DIY-ers" who sell through Head-Fi your stuff look the more 'pro' and meticulously finished.
Concrete/Cement Speaker Stands?
in Speakers
Posted
I meant, like with some commercial stands i wanted to have the speakers decoupled from the top with spikes. There's spikes under the speakers with the point up, it will leave some marks under the speakers but that's not a problem for me.
I don't think you can beat concrete or granit as a resonance-free material. Polished granit would be very nice but i don't want to know the price. Concrete is very easy to work with, you can mold it in any shape you want and it's dirt-cheap.