saint.panda

x2

I've been a long advocate for the Apogee on headfi. Imo it's really its convenience aspects that makes it stand out from the rest: - pretty good and strong headphone out - according to the manula: "ultra low impedance output" meaning you can connect your balanced HD650s to it without much of a quality loss. As I've stated elsewhere, I prefer the Apogee's XLR line out to the HD 650 fed by a single-ended Opera. - if you wish, you can power on the headphone out only, without giving power to the line outs - you can set jumper settings whether to have the line out affected by the volume control at all - lots of inputs and accepted data streams - small, lightweight, durable (very important for me) It's really ugly though. I mean, the design elements are PINK

If you can't decide, get the Bluejeans XLR cable first. No-nonsense cables and certainly the best value. I have a Bluejeans Belden XLR for my active ADAM studio monitors. You can still buy more fancy cables later on.

What's the going price for a L3000 these days and how much were they originally? By the way, you know you want this pen: Waterman Serenite. If I didn't lose my pens all the time, I would really get this one. More pics here: http://www.fountainpen.de/andere-waterman-serenite.htm

Absolutely agree. I'd love to see Sennheiser come out with a new $8'000 headphone but I suppose it's simply more lucrative to develop consumer headphones. After all, headphones are still considered toys by "serious" audiophiles even though that might be changing.

I think the Orpheus was made on a cost no object basis but that's been how many years already? Disregarding personal preferences, current and less expensive electrostats have already caught up to it.

If you live in the states, try to fly to one of the meets and hear for yourself. There's just too much good stuff out there.

Agree with both KenW and aerius.

As for virus scanners, Kaspersky was the best I've tried. When my pc nearly failed me it was because I had Antivir Personal installed, which missed 2 trojans and a worm on my pc. According the virus scan website, Kaspersky Nod32 and one or two others were the best. Can't find the link at the moment. Kaspersky is also pretty easy on the CPU and is very fast on a full scan. I can't recommend highly enough. I even have it now running on Parallels for Windows on Mac. If you do decide to delete Norton Antivirus, be sure to download the replacement uninstaller, SymNRT, from the Symantec support site. The regular Norton Antivirus uninstaller leaves a bunch of junk on your system. This might be a good time to switch to Apple or Linux though.

I'm not expert by all means but here goes anyways: Dvorak cello concerto. I like the one by Fournier with Szell but Rostropovich/Karajan is the one usually recommend. Both are great versions imo. Melancholic and uplifiting. Rachmaninov piano concerto #2 (Ashkenazy, Zimerman are both really good on this one imo). Deep, stirring and certainly melacholic. Brahms clarinet quintet (Emerson Quartet with Shiffrin). Very autumnal feeling. One of Brahm's final pieces in his life. Dvorak symphony #8. Not really sad but it has that Eastern European melancholy thing. Best to get the DG Classics Kubelik with BPO that has both #8 and #9. Elgar cello concerto (Jacqueline du Pre, EMI Classics). This one has "longing" written all over it. Schoenberg's Transfigured Night. More dark than sad. Mahler 5, 4th movement (famous from the movie Death in Venice I think). Just sad. For lieder: Schubert Winterreise (one of the many Dieskau recordings, dunno which is the best) - sad sad sad Second the Mahler Lieder recommendation, great stuff.

What amp did you use with the PS-1? I found that some amps have more control over the bass than others. The tightest I heard the PS-1 was with a Headcode Triad, but the Ear++ with a GE 5751 was really good, too. Unfortunately, I've only heard the L3000 briefly but for what you're looking for, I'd strongly second the suggestions to look into the PS-1 as well. Difficult to find one though.

Probably depends on the rest of the system as well. With the Apogee Mini-Dac XLR I preferred the Equinox over the balanced Zu. Single-ended the Equinox is my favourite as well because it sounds like the stock cable just better. If you're trying to change the sound a bit, especially liven it up more, the Zu might be your cup of tea. I've heard the Silver Dragon, Zu, Headphile V1 & V2 and Oehlbach rather extensively.

GS1000 were amazing on first listen, very pratty and involving like all Grados and with more soundstage, but with time, they just couldn't hold up, and certainly not for the price asked. More like a rollercoaster ride and nice for a secondary phone if somebody can afford it.

HD 580 AKG K81 is pretty good value, too KSC-35 obviously

When a guy from Zurich returned a now discontinued amp, which sounded rather bad (I can see why it's discontinued) Rudi refused give him the refund in cash but gave him Rudistor vouchers instead. Useless obviously because he never wanted to buy another Rudistor amp again. Rudi was also very difficult to deal with as he told me. But since he was a nice guy, he waited for half a year or more, and I think eventually got his money back after a lot more bitching. Never went public on headfi although he should have.

Don't know about sound but his customer service, return policies in particular, used to be rather shady. Maybe that's cleared up by now.

If I was in the market for an external Dac, I'd seriously look into the Weiss Dac1. There must be a reason why most studio engineers consider it the best DAC in existence alongside the Meitner and overpriced dcs units. Plus, it's made in Switzerland and not too expensive, under $10k. Looks pretty ugly and industrial though. Too bad, there's never one on the used market.

Thanks for posting that. I already thought I was the only one who doesn't think too much of it. It's not even as good as the XLR line out from my Apogee Minidac. I've been saying that on headfi as well, but people only want to read the positive opinions. And I'm a big fan of the Aria in its price range. But the Opera just doesn't cut it. Everytime I listen to it (and that's quite often since we have mini meets rather regularly) I don't get any emotional connection to the amp. Sounds boring. The DAC is really good though.

plainsong is always angry about something.

It's also a matter of respect for your previous customers whether or not to release a product that replaces a previous one that's just a little bit better, if at all, especially if you consider the long lead times for certain amps.

I'm a big fan of Larry's work and he's a great chap but some of the stuff he makes simply eludes me. Closed HD 650 with wood cover? DT770 selling for over $400? Seriously.

spoiler Is Kara the 5th Cylon? Otherwise I don't know how she could have survived the crash. I thought the trial was amazing, really great stuff. The relevation of the 4 Cylons was a bit lackluster and Kara's return was cheesy. I want more space fights for the next season! spoiler

By the way, has anybody ever listened to a base model ES-1 for $4000?

Taking past and present exchange rates into account, I paid $500 more than the Meier group buy price with a Stax adapter thrown in, so it sounded fair enough for me. Thank goodness the dollar is so weak right now. I just read that mikeg will have his Woo GES for display at the national meet, so if somebody with HE90 experience could take a listen at that amp, I'd be very grateful.

You mean have to give HD 650 + $330 for a pair of RS-1? I wouldn't do it. Bought and sold my pair for $450 back then on headfi and if you don't like the RS-1 you'll have no HD 650 left...