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Clarkmc2

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Everything posted by Clarkmc2

  1. I haven't heard any that I like better than what I have already.
  2. My old Marantz gear had a stereo/mono control for headphones. Mono would cut the separation to 10dB. It wasn't adjustable but it dealt with those bad old 100% separation mixes OK.
  3. If this will get the people at Head-Fi to shut up about the Smyth Realiser, I'm all for it. Personally, the normal presentation of headphones only bothers me when a lead instrument is on only one channel. If you don't think about soundstage, your brain fills in the gaps anyway. All that said, would I like one of these? Hell yes, if I could afford it. The Smyth, never. If I want the exact presentation of my speakers, I'll listen to them. I LIKE the way my Stax OIIs sound.
  4. Just waiting for the Photoshop mavens here to post shots of "Potent Cans."
  5. The 6P14P-EV is also dirt cheap, plentiful and ultra quiet. -EB is the same tube, in cyrllic. (6 Pi 14 Pi EB more or less) But why am I preaching to the choir? Typing practice, I guess. For NOS fans, they are all NOS.
  6. I find it encouraging that SemiSouth is actually interested in the "high-end audio" market for their devices. I had previously thought that the volume was much too low to put any effort into it. Perhaps Nelson might be doing us a favor in the end after all. SemiSouth might make more devices available on their own at some point. http://semisouth.com/archives/610 And yeah, those SITs were frighteningly expensive. I am no engineer, and I am still trying to wrap my head around how and why an SIT works. I read that the original Japanese manufacturers could not understand them either; they just made them to spec.
  7. As usual, I must have everything backwards. Next Summer I'll get a case of Fuller's ESB. Nectar of the gods as far as I am concerned. I could drink it all year round. Always willing to learn! Or at least have a good time trying. But I have to admit that wheat beer really hits the spot for me in the Summer. Our climate here is similar to the DE.
  8. Well, a friend likes Beyers as a preference to any Senns, whos house sound he finds sterile and uninvolving. Give him credit, he likes Stax better than either. I do thank him for selling me his old DT 311s cheap so I can listen to shit on my computer. German Hefeweitzen and strong hop character do not compute to me. Haven't had them all by any means, but when I want a warm weather thirst quencher hoppy is not what I am hoping for. If I want a meal in a glass I reach for Lion Stout. Rather have a Dupont Saison Vieille Provision over either, given the choice. Not that anyone could ever give a shit what I like. I'm surprised I care about what I think.
  9. I'm about to test the small DIY waters by building a Gainclone. I need it for 8k HZ up in a biamp arrangement, and it is possible that T-amps do not do well with high frequencies. http://www.stereophi...er-measurements Peter Daniel was kind enough to advise me on how to massage it for the role. Still, for about $21 US at Parts Express the Lepai Tripath even has a volume control.
  10. "There are Web forums, like www.Head-Fi.org, devoted solely to discussing high-end personal audio and headphones,..." News to me. The times I pointed out that it might be embarassing having the "headphone vs speakers" threads almost unanimously favoring speakers on the World's largest headphone site, on the high end forum no less, the answer was always "Head-Fi is not a headphone site and the high end forum is not a headphone forum." Has anyone else ever noticed that Head-Fi plays host to a lot of World class assholes? I especially enjoyed being berated ad hominem (for liking headphones at least as much as speakers) by a loud mouthed, rude neanderthal who was ranting on about how in the World a "one inch subwoofer" could ever deliver satisfying bass reproduction. With such knowledgable posters dominating the forums, what is not to love about Head-Fi?
  11. As a matter of fact, there is a saying among long time vegetarians that chicken must be a vegetable. Whenever you tell someone you are one, they usually say, "You eat chicken, don't you?" I guess if corporations are people, ducks could well be vegetables.
  12. cetoole, those are great looking plates. I would admire the food, but I have been vegetarian for forty years.
  13. Perhaps something like the evergreen..."My legs are frozen. It's 20 below." "Thank goodness it's still 38 above."
  14. Not my favorite rendition of "As Time Goes By," but fairly strong trumpet and sax statements I thought. A little corny by some standards, but "squaweky crap"? Reminds me of a friend hearing Robert Johnson's "Come On In My Kitchen" on the radio and asking me to turn "that country music off." To each his own. Like with amps. As someone said, it is immature to rip on someone elses choices.
  15. I don't know if this will help, but SemiSouth has added a 1700v SiC JFET to its 1200v offerings. Maybe good things are ahead. Nelson Pass has been fiddling around with static induction transistors from the same company, designed to his specs. I have no idea when they might be generally available at an affordable cost.
  16. So many dealers have dropped them. Galen Carol, the dealer I purchased my latest Stax gear from, had to tell me that Yama's had taken his money, promised delivery, and then stiffed him for months. They kept his money and wouldn't respond to inquiries. The product finally arrived and Galen promptly alerted me. I paid him and he shipped it immediately. Next time I checked, he had dropped Stax from his offerings.
  17. Google Translation: To all concerned, love STAX open letter to friends Dear friends, Hello, everyone! First of all thank you for the future high-end headphone brands STAX concern about the fate, which fully demonstrate the company's many years of painstaking research STAX electrostatic unique sound technology has been recognized by the depth of the majority of enthusiasts. Recently, fans around the world are in the hot EDIFIER purchase STAX company news, fear will destroy the STAX EDIFIER acquired the brand. Therefore, I would like to take this platform to the majority of fans to be a short note to you to dispel the doubts. In fact, I myself STAX enthusiasts and users, many years ago was her way of creating a unique sound that captured the hearts of the pure tone, he has to buy two sets. When I first heard her dream to see her when the creator of the dream can introduce her to more people who love good sound. Over the years EDIFIER are constantly improving their quality and ability to present, we can already have a disdain for industrial design standards, with the level of advanced manufacturing industry, also has a strong global marketing and service network, which everything is approved we can get STAX key, I had a dream finally realized long ago. EDIFIER as chairman, I know STAX of brand, know the meaning contained in the brand; I also understand that each brand has its own limited field covered, why the brand in the minds of consumers a broad and would become more it will narrow the stronger; I know very well what STAX give EDIFIER, EDIFIER can provide any thing for the STAX; I understand why the majority of fans worried, why should such a violent reaction. After all, we have examples of brands around more spoil was countless. Here I briefly EDIFIER plan. First STAX will continue to operate independently of the way down and is always operating, STAX current operations team, including Mr. Meguro Yang made himself, will complete preserved; all STAX brand products in Japan continue to maintain 100% of the R & D, manufacturing; all classic product lines will continue, and EDIFIER will increase funding for research and development, making the STAX in the current design based on the combination EDIFIER good industrial design, to research and development to create a more attractive electrostatic headphones products. Secondly, EDIFIER will use its global marketing and service network of comparative advantage, in the current marketing channels, based on STAX to provide users with faster, more efficient, more detailed service. Again, STAX excellent electrostatic technology will be used for the EDIFIER, we will introduce in the STAX and EDIFIER between the new brand, new brand EDIFIER will rely on strong manufacturing capability, to ensure 100% STAX electrostatic monomer production, while the remaining part of the factory production EDIFIER to users to launch relatively cheap, easy to use electrostatic headphones products, of course, this new product guaranteed not called STAX. Please rest assured that the majority of enthusiasts, you are the love of brands and products will not disappear, and all will be renewed in accordance with STAX own, Everbright. STAX this small but signs will be in care for all of us to be left under a more glittering. STAX will continue to offer matching 009 power amplifier, STAX product design will be more beautiful, STAX will provide better consumer experience, STAX will provide more attentive service, but the key to everything - STAX is still the STAX. Once again, thank you! I wish you all good health, everything goes! EDIFIER chairman and general manager Zhang Wendong December 12,
  18. That explains why I prefer my SZ3s driven by a world class amp through a modified energizer. My alternative is the Stax SRM007tII, which is OK but not a top tier amp. I suspect my high frequency diminished geriatric hearing has something to do with my satisfaction with the rig.
  19. Probably why I am so pleased with my SZ3s. I'm a senior citizen, and an incident many years ago with a guitar amp - as a roadie - damaged my right ear HF capability as well.
  20. BIrgir, here is a painless Jazz intervention right on your desktop. Click the full screen icon and enjoy (hopefully). If you have any nice headphones (cough), it will sound pretty good. It is in an office in Washington, so there is a bit of background noise, like in a club. http://www.npr.org/2...ny-desk-concert And here is a Classical intervention, if you want. Hard to beat a private set from Hilary Hahn. http://www.npr.org/2...ny-desk-concert If these aren't anything you like, poke around the Tiny Desk Concert archives and you will find something you would die for. The informal setting seems to relax the artists, yielding unguarded, uninhibited performances.
  21. Well, since you asked. But to preface, I was not trying to turn this into a Stax thread or ruffle any feathers. Then again I wasn't trying not to. Like Tyll is very familiar with the voice, I am an acoustic bass junkie. I hear them live all the time, usually unamplified. For many years now. This gives me a great reference. If you want to try this, take a good version of Patricia Barber's Cafe Blue, like the Premonition Records 24K gold HDCD. (I would not recommend the Mobile Fidelity version.) It was recorded and mastered by Jim Anderson. Look him up. This recording is widely considered to have fully captured the acoustic bass experience, perhaps like never before or since. An alternative disc, almost there, is Super Double Bass, by Gary Carr ( LIM XR007, xrcd24). Don't use vinyl, by the way. It craps out at 35HZ, not good for acoustic bass. Now listen to it on as many systems as you can, headphone and speaker based. Do this for years, frequently comparing to live music, and get back to me. I'm not trying to be a smart ass, just saying what it takes get a handle on this. As well as many systems not my own that I have heard, I have a nice "lab" right here in this room. The JBL 4345 speakers are high efficiency biamped four ways anchored by 18" 2245Hs, one of the most high fidelity woofers ever designed*. Believe me, they wax most high end offerings in the bass reproduction department, at any price. Then I have a Hammer Dynamics Super 12 system powered by a FirstWatt F2 JFET. This amp renders these single driver speakers linear in tonal and dB response at least down to 30HZ. Lastly I have a pair of Stax Sr007mkII, with several amps to choose from. When I put this CD on someone else's system, I don't need a week to tell what I am hearing. Don't want to go through all this? Trust Tyll. He's earned it. This experience and the fact that I have been listening since the 1950s gives me a bit of background to at least put my thesis forward. I'll stand by it. The Omega series Staxen give you what is in the recording, no less and no more. Bassheads always have and always will prefer more bass than is on the recording; it follows naturally. So they almost always prefer good dynamic phones to top flight Stax. Also, while many are willing to settle for lower sound quality to get more bass impact, I am not. To each his own. Me, I don't care much about any of this. It's all about the music. Which I like to hear like the original source. No more and no less. *A little background. JBL, love them or not, has for many years devoted a lot of R & D and experience to reproducing bass full and true, on both studio monitors and high end home systems. The Everest II system used the latest of JBL's high fidelity engineering to make woofers and compression drivers that produce distortion at amplifier level specs. That would be a small fraction of the distortion in any other designs I am aware of. All this passed mostly unnoticed; JBL is sniffed at by high end buyers. If you have ever lived with the large blue face studio monitors of the 1980s, you know how loud, accurate, high impact, low distortion bass sounds. I have never heard anything to match the experience. It is like a carefully kept secret or something. I can talk about it all year and I still feel like I belong to a secret society.
  22. As an amateur, I'll add to the chorus - Nice post, Carl. I have only had conversations in person with four of you here, so an insider I am not. But I have, over the years (thirty-six) that I have used Stax, noticed a pattern about headphone comments and reviews. Everyone who likes some non stat phone better than whatever the current Stax flagship may be is after something Stax does not yield. More often than not (= between usually and always), it is a desire to hear more bass than there is on the recording. Nothing wrong with that, but the point to me is that they are after something Stax has gone to great lengths to avoid. I use this "knowledge" in two ways. In most cases I note that, not being a bass head to that extent and being a consistent seeker of realism and transparency, I simply conclude that the reviewer probably hears just fine but has a very different set of audio priorities than I do. Secondly, if said writer/poster is very high on a new offering, I wait for it. Sooner or later the initial impression wears off and is modified downward. If it is not about the new Stax flagship, that is. When someone who is seeking the same flavor of sonic bliss as I am continues to feel the Stax flagship inferior to something else, then I take notice. It is just that I haven't seen it happen yet. Then again I haven't read everything ever written... BTW, I am very high on Tyll's reviews and trust what he tells me with only the test of time to moderate my impression - and his.
  23. I think Iceland is one of the Northern nations that has hot Glogg in the Winter. That would redeem the country in my eyes. As for Brennivin, all schnapps is forbidden to enter my body. Don't ask.
  24. I think the SZ3 likes the dBs too. Any progress, oh busy one, on trying to modify SZ2s and SZ3s towards the 007? Might a thread be created once the quest is done? My 3s are still dead stock.
  25. I am a hopeless Jazz head. I do listen to other stuff, but the awesome talent and the (usually) brilliantly recorded nature of Jazz make it a feast for Stax. As for understanding it, lots of exposure can help. What was once avant-garde chaos now seems as accessible as Mary Had A Little Lamb. I plugged my SZ3s into the WES and I hated it too. Bland it wasn't in this case. It was tubey as hell and lush to the point of bad taste. It sounded like a clown version of hifi.
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