postjack

Tad Williams writes whiny farm boy becomes wizzzard characters. I can't stand whiny characters. Currently reading: Really great book so far. So to you Neil Stephenson fans. First, I have the Baroque Cycle Trilogy on my shelves, but I have never read them. I am sure I will love it, I just have yet to pick them up. Your positive comments are making me want to. Second, years ago I tried to read Snow Crash and just couldn't really get into it. However, I heard the sci-fi channel is making a mini series out of his book, Diamond Age, so I just got that from amazon and will probably read it soon. Any thoughts on Diamond Age or comparisons of it to Snow Crash?

Thanks all for your responses, that has cleared things up for me. I'll be adding another Senn to the stable then in the next few months.

So I got teased a bit in another thread when I mentioned I ordered some HD600 grills for my HD580, because I thought that would essentially make them HD600s. Is this not the case? Do the 580's and the 600's indeed have the same drivers? If so, what is it that makes the 600's different aside from the grills, are the enclosures different?

Looks very cool! I don't know the story behind this amp, but it doesn't look like any other models I've seen in pictures. Was this a custom job?

While we wait for pics... I got my HD595 in today. Pretty cool can so far, its got the Senn sound, only sparkley. After some time I'll do some comparisons with it and the SR225 strictly for rock, see which one I like more in that price range.

Looking forward to your initial impressions and pics!

This isn't conspiracy theory, its fact. Bush, Cheney, & Co. only started the war because of the slump in the headphone audio industrial complex. In the past few years happy go lucky music like Spears, Nsync, etc has made the demand for high end audio equipment plummet. War makes society react, and the artistic portion of society reacts with more meaningful and serious music, which demands critical listening and thus expensive audio equipment for those who become passionate about it. This whole "blood for oil" thing is just a smokescreen perpetuated by the communist secular progressive left, who are in cahoots with the fascist right to re-revive the Garcia and Elvis robots to pacify the masses and encourage massive "travellin' hippie" spending to stimulate various geographical areas of the economy. And all those brain dead, doped up upper middle class college freshman hippies with daddy's credit card will have their Tomahawks strapped to their iPods. You don't have to thank me for setting you free. All praise is due to the one true forum, Head Case.

But to be fair, this isn't totally just a Head-Fi knock. It also contains plenty of general silliness which does not satirize anything at all.

True, I've been laying it on too thick. I'm honestly still feeling a little hurt and foolish for not taking what I read on Head-Fi with a grain of salt. Just another lesson learned, really. In person my sarcasm is incredibly dry and nearly unreadable as well, which proves how selfish I am: because if nobody can pick up on my sarcasm except me, I must continue to do it purely for my own benefit.

909, any further comments on the Saturn after a month or so? One at audiogon for 1700: http://cls.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?dgtlplay&1174250904 I'm not sure if that is a good price or not, was just poking around and saw it.

Unless I bought the MKII, then it would be worth every penny. In fact, if I owned the MKII I would say it outperforms any DAC in the $8,000 and under price range. I could just buy an aftermarket balanced senn cable and attach the xlr's directly to the dac and cram the other ends of the chords directly in my temples. dynamic drivers are bullshit anyway they color the sound too much, same with amps. and true I might bleed a little bit but no pain no gain, I'm like Conan the barbarian adventurer searching for the perfect sound y'all respect.

You sound like a happy MKII owner. I am also curious about the transport, would be nice to know if someone has heard it. In addition to the transport, April Music also has this CDP under the name Aura Note: http://www.aprilmusic.com/products.htm Good looking CDP, imo, but again I haven't talked to anyone who has heard it.

No, I already have one of those in my bathroom for my shitter rig. I needed the multiple outputs because I have two Maestro ZR's on either side of my toilet, one with some Senn HD600's and the other with Senn HD650's. Others may spend their time while shitting reading US News and World Report: I'm out to find out what is truly the best Senn can on the market today. Hey Iron, the only online US seller for Stello products is Hi-Rez Photo Video, do you know of any others? I ordered my DA100 straight from the hifi page of april music, doesn't look like they offer the da220 or da220 mkii straight from the factory.

First, fastest response ever. Second, that was what I naturally thought, but in a thread at Head-Fi, Iron Dreamer told me he thought the DA100 and DA220 sounded identical. With the 220 I would be getting my multiple outputs (though one is XLR, but I think I can get some adapters for that), and I might still purchase it just for that purpose, but for the price increase I would hope for at least some upgrade in overall SQ, which is why I'm still fishing around for suggestions to research.

Was reading through this thread because I'm considering buying a DAC with multiple outputs, so I can at some point in the future have two amps running off one source. I currently have the Stello DA100 which I like, any suggestions for a DAC that is a side-grade or upgrade (in your opinion) with the mentioned multiple outputs would be appreciated. So far as the difference between hard drive and CDP transport: I have both my computer connected to my DA100 and my (admittedly cheap) SCD-CE595 connected to it, so I can switch between the two with a flick of the dial. Several times I have started the same song at the same time, or even better, one a few seconds behind the other, and switched back and forth between the CDP and hard drive (flac for the record). I remember one night in particular when I almost maniacally spent way to much time trying to compare the CDP and hard drive listening to Morrissey do "How Soon Is Now" on "Live At Earl's Court". My stunning conclusion was that they sounded different, but I could not pick one that was better then the other. I love the convenience of the foobar library, and EAC makes ripping super easy and fast once it gets setup correctly. But some nights I just don't feel like messing with software, so I throw a few CDs in the sony and listen that way.

To be fair: does the iPod truly sound "bad"? IMO, no, it doesn't sound "bad". I do own a 1g shuffle I bought for 35 bucks on the bay, it sounds nice. My beef with the iPod is really more of a beef with the mp3 culture. Maybe I just feel silly for spending so much money on mp3's and DRM protected music and iPods before I got into this hobby and found the mp3 sq lacking in my home rig.

I was responding to grawk's comments that the ipod sounds better then the dac1, to which iron dreamer responded "lol", so I thought grawk was making a joke about the DAC1. I'd always heard the DAC1 was a good sounding dac, just wanted to get some clarification on grawk's statement. Yeah I've owned lots and lots of ipods. I have owned a first generation, an ipod photo, and a 2g nano. The first two broke after a year, the 2g nano I sold after I got into non-portable audio. I don't think anybody needs to perpetuate a myth that the iPod sounds bad, it does that fine all by itself.

I honestly heard no difference between the two.

However, they also told me to get an HD650 cable on them, and I did, and it added an aura of sonic excellence unmatched since the grateful dead built their infamous "wall of sound". seriously, no matter what I listened to with the HD580's with the stock cable, it sounded like someone stuck a microphone up their ass and ran up and down a flight of stairs recording what came out. Once I hooked up the HD650 cable it was like "the veil" was lifted. all the sound was brighter, warmer, more detailed, darker, it really brought in the soundstage while simultaneously expanding it into new frontiers of sound and hope, and all around sonic aural excellence has since ensued. its like before the sound was constrained and like horse shit, and afterwards like a fine delicious pastry.

:'( :'( :'( Yeah, that sounds about right.

I can sense you might be using a bit of hyperbole, but do you really think the DAC1 is that bad? I've never heard one myself.

Your responses have made me rethink my position. First off, I never considered that it is not necessarily about the SQ, as it is about the "geeking", i.e. look at this cool amplifier I got on my iPod. Second off, I understand that a lot of newbies have an iPod before they ever come to Head-Fi, already think it is the end all be all of audio equipment, and come just looking for a new set of cans, then are told they need an amp, yadda yadda, the cycle begins. Third off, I would be remiss if I didn't say I was one of those kids. I came to Head-Fi "looking for the best headphones under $100 for my ipod and playing games lol". And before my journey into this hobby I was an iPod/Apple FANATIC. I was crazy about iPods. Heck, I bought a 2g nano back in september, but I ended up selling it a couple months later when I realized it just didn't suit my purposes, since I listened to the vast majority of my tunes at home, I had no need for portability. But I did use the search engine, and posted LOTS of questions, and engaged in lots of conversation via back channel PMs and e-mails, and in general have spent many many hours reading through years worth of posts on Head-Fi: I did all this and I managed NOT to buy a Tomahawk or a Hornet, or an Audio Line Out Cotton Platinum Diamond Coated Super Duper Dock of Fun Times and Sonic Excellence SQ, or any bullshit like that. Before I go anywhere in life, much less the internet, I'm always quick to put on my bullshit filter. Regardless, it wasn't until recently I talked to a friend of ours and took the proverbial blue pill, so to speak. I do agree that the type of shady marketing that apparently goes on over at Head-Fi will hurt this hobby in the long run. Heck, I'm all for making money, and I hold little sympathy for suckers, AND I am of the opinion that any given internet forum should be moderated with at least an aluminum fist, but if the type of things I'm told go on over at Head-Fi do indeed go on, thats pretty crappy.

Did anyone here get those cheap RS-1's at audiogon? http://cgi.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cl.pl?spkrmoni&1173925789 he never responded to my email, says "sale pending" now.

I don't understand portable audio. Excellent sound quality will never come out of a portable DAC no matter how much red wine you pour on it (or drink for that matter). I understand the greater public at large being obsessed with their iToys, but I don't understand why the audiophile community continues to rant and rave about their hornets and tomahawks and all that bullshit. I swear, every other fucking post at Head-Fi is "omg my fucking tomahawk arrived its so awesome out of my new nano lol sonic excellence yay". I'm definitely no expert on audio, but I think I know enough to know that you will not get great sound out of a portable player running mp3's with a subpar DAC. Could someone tell me what the obsession is, please? Even better, could someone tell me where I am wrong? And then I look at pics from any given meet and I see people testing out amps which run thousands of dollars running off a fucking ipod dock. shit fuck, i mean, come on. Sorry to unload, I'm just so fucking sick of all the stupid fucking tomahawk posts fucking up MY amplification forum at Head-Fi. Keep it in your portable audio forum, you fuckin' fucks.

Oh, you already have both! Fantastic! I remember now seeing the pictures over at the other forum. Looking forward to hearing your impressions.