neilvg

No Estat amp at the studio or at all anymore I'm afraid.

That's interesting... the atmos headphone mixing that is. I'm interested in how that translates... I've done a little bit of it. Seems like the guys who have full Atmos speaker systems poo-poo the headphone mixers... but the fact is - most people don't have 'atmos certified' rooms and many of the remixes happening are being done through virtual rooms using headphones...

I've seen but haven't heard their studio lineup yet. Curious to compare the MM-500 to the LCD-5 and see what the differences are with regards to sound engineering...

Thanks Birgir! I'll look into those 207's. Thanks for the tip. Seems like the old Stax are still the way to go. I'd love to try those out Al. Also an excuse to meet up and maybe grab some coffee or something? I can come out your way...

Grahame! Al! Everybody! I miss you guys! Amazing to see everyone on here...

Hi Spritzer - I'm in the market for a good mixing can - I've used all the usual suspects. I mainly use my ATC SCM150asl speakers, but I haven't been able to dig on any cans in a while for mixing / mastering duties. It's gotten so bad I mainly check my mixes on Etymotic ER4S if I am going to listen to headphones at all.. times have changed. Should I give those L500Mk2's a shot? Oh and pardon the thread revival. This is my first post in... years.... Best, Neil

Pwned.

Hmm.. got room for a newbie?

Steve has agreed to pick my amp when he drops yours off in the next few days. The awesomeness that is Ironbut cannot be stated enough. Hopefully some sort of secondary deal with the devil can be had... electrostatic style... Neil

Unless your into some particularly obscene electro-porn (and not the good kind), you really don't want to see the pics. Neil

Hmm... sounds like a walk in the park. A park in HELL. I have no idea how to do this. But... for someone who does and has the proper 30-40hrs to burn, it seems like this could work. When my tech saw the orange drops he laughed, shook his head, and refused to comment further less he sully his perfectly cordial and mild-mannered English nature. Neil

If this all works out I'm going to fly you out to my place so you can stay with me for a few days, get a vacation out of it.... oh, and fix my amp :beerchug: Trust me, I live in a vacation spot for sure. Neil

From what I understand, aside from that useless "bias pot"/voltmeter crap on my amps front panel, fixing the inside to 'generally work' can be done by my tech. The issue with the power supply is more problematic as it is essentially built to fail ("go boom" as Kevin likes to repeat to all of us). If I can get Justin or someone to build me a Blue Hawaii supply that is compatible, and inside my current casing (don't worry we'll slash off the "SP ES-2" and write "Justin Rules" or something like that , I would have a working amp again. An alternative solution is getting someone to build, from scratch, Kevin's "fix", but into my casing. Hmmm... maybe Kevin could do that? Neil

Damn... I just caught on to this thread. Sigh. My repair guy thinks its largely out of scope to work on my amp and doesn't really agree with the design philosophy and so would rather just build a new amp not repair this one. Not a good option. We need a solution. If I can get a replacement PSU that works, I can get the Amp section going again I am sure. Neil

First of all, sonically, the NWO doesn't have a tubey sound at all. The tubes are used to ward off the tendency towards an overly clinical sound.. you'd have to hear it... the D70 is nowhere near the NWO IMHO. I mean thr D70'd need some modification for sure, but beyond that the NWO is a transport/DAC combo with no external cabling required for the connection. Additionally there are a whole host of features in the NWO regardless of it being tubed. The original NWO didn't have tubes and was later added for the benefit of the end aesthetic sonic result. As you likely know, even the tubes used have changed over time via the revisions of this player. So to answer your question - this player doesn't appeal to tube or SS lovers, but rather, I'd say it is not overly categorized by either. Neil

if you come by, maybe I'll hook up your headphone system to my NWO 3.0GO (its a modified esoteric), and you'll get to see how different (if at all perceptible to you) a real top flight system sounds in comparison to the D70 Neil

I'm NOT a fanboy - This shit should be public including those pictures. It is outrageous, and to NOT do so is in my opinion, practically being part of the fraud. People need to know this so they don't spend their money on something like this, thinking they are getting 1) a quality product and 2) something that will arrive relatively quickly. Fortunately I can sort of afford to have made this mistake with my ES-2. But with many others -- this is a very bad situation. Very bad -- on more than just an annoyance level. Neil

I have the MS-4's. I love them, very nice. You can get very close to new pairs for used prices around $6k or so. Neil

Very few people have these players. I went over to the home of the designer, Alex Paychev of APL. We sat down and listened on his system as well as compared it to various others. Then I bought it and waited for its completion. This isn't a modded player more as a total rebuild. All that is basically left is the VRDS mechanism and the chassis. Neil

Just buckle down and get an APL. The SA10 mod or whatever is supposed to be awesome and 'close' to that of the 3.0. Neil

I have an NWO 3.0 and it is amazing. And cheaper (by FAR) than 50K and it is a one box player which can be custom built to your specs (input/output) and it can even have an output designed for balanced headphones so out goes your headphone amp (if desired). Also it can be connected directly to your amps, so no need for a separate preamp either. Which is good since I quite like its built in volume attenuator. Also, it can be made with analog and digital inputs, both which will route the incoming data through the very fine DAC circuitry (best sounding DAC I have ever heard by far and easily noticeable to those who have had the chance to hear it). To continue my shameless advertisement for APL, the player is also a Universal, playing RBCD, DVD-A, SACD, & DVD-Video. Probably others too. The Video is still intact so you can use up the laser life on your favorite flicks. All for the bargain basement price of 30K! Neil

Sigs are cool. This is a headphone forum no? That's why I list my sig in both this and that other place. So people know who I am. See: Neil

Camel... what a band! David Gilmour-like guitar solos but with such better music and sans that annoying fucker..what's his name? Ahh, yes, roger waters. Anyway, Amon Duul II owns as well, love 'em. Additionally, italian prog such as Banco del Mutuo Secorso has all the musical virtuosity, but WITH songwriting and intent (aka NOT Wankfest). Check out Darwin or IO Sono Nato Libro. Prog is odd like that - it is one of the most schizophrenic types of music. Like many Canterburry acts with their bizzare humor (Gong, Caravan) or the German Shit which is just plain awkward and weird (Kraan). But musically, wow. The 70's had it. The new stuff rarely excites or intrigues or moves me. AND while I'm at it, what the FUCK is up with High Gain Distortion? Fuck high gain distortion (which btw epitmoizes Jon Petrucci's sound). I remember the good old days when they made amps right (well I was dead, or undead, or unborn or in a past life or whatever, but if it was a past live I would have been very old and probably not listening to music like this, classical maybe? anyway), and anyway, we had beautiful tube amps with great sounding tube saturation (David Gilmour, Gentle Giant's tone's, Steve Hillage (except for his overly electronic and effected stuff, Andy Latimer (Camel)). Those were tones man. Neil

For bands in the vein of coldplay, the Doves, especially their album The Last Broadcast is SO much better. Also, Keane is a much better band than Coldplay with some similarities. Neil

Yeah I love Phish as well. Bands like that though are like psychedelic drugs. If you've tried it and had the experience and been hooked, they can provide (or you know that they have provided) positive and life changing experiences. However, I would never recommend that anybody get 'into' these bands since there is really no clear cut way to turn anybody on to this sort of music, it just has to come to you (or you to it). But once you 'get it', like you say, it can be all consuming, at least for a portion of your life. Ryan Adams is like that in a sense as well - you have to 'get it'. Cold Roses gets the closest to that country-deadhead vibe and hence its one of my faves. Neil