TMoney

I agree 100% with your assessment, Birgir. The amps are totally different flavors. While the HV is far and away the clearer and harder hitting of the two, the KGSS still sounds really nice and is much more forgiving. I listened to about 5 tracks on the pair and I did prefer the regular KGSS on one of them. Its kind of a fun comparison to do. The more powerful stat amps just kill when it comes to punch and clarity, but they do that at the expense of warmth and forgiveness.

I didn't, but others did. I own the 009s. As for the 007s, I only get to listen to them at meets. Naturally I'm totally incompetent in judging gear through an unfamiliar headphone, so most of the time I don't even listen to it. Nevertheless, the difference is so massive with the 009s that I'm sure you'll hear it right away with the 007s as well. I actually think we only live about a few miles away from each other. If you'd like to do the comparison yourself just let me know and we might be able to arrange something. I could let you borrow the HV for a week or two.

Great job with the meet, Tom. I gotta say, I was blown away by the difference between the KGSSHV and a Headamp KGSS. I had heard that the KGSS isn't in the same league as the HV, but until I heard it for myself I wouldn't have believed the difference could be that big. We had the KGSSs stacked on top of each other and running off the same source with dual 009s so the comparison doesn't get any better than that. I'm usually not one to put a ton of stock into meet impressions, but in this case it was like you were listening to totally different music. The comparison with the Headamp BHSE to the KGSSHV on the other hand is the kind of comparison I'd much rather do in a quiet enviornment. I heard the BHSE as sounding slightly better, but the difference there was no where near the chasm that separated the KGSS and the HV. I also gotta say I was pretty impressed with the LCD-3s. If I still owned a dynamic rig, I'd think about grabbing a pair of them to compliment the 009s. The two headphones sound very different, but in a good way. We had them running next to the HV using the HV's loop outs into Kerry's $69-challenge amp and I was impressed with the sound.

Yes. I'm on there too. My acct is TMoney58. Right now I'm working on three different lines. I'm doing US Mediums and German Heavies and TDs. I tried arty, but its just way too frustrating.

Happy b-day!

+1 to this thread. Classic Albums is a great series and I've enjoyed watching most of the episodes. That being said, there are some episodes that are a cut above the rest as far as quality goes. I thought the Bob Marley, Paul Simon, and Nirvana episodes were all excellent and standouts of the 15 or so episodes I've seen. IMO some artists are just more articulate when it comes to talking about their music than others. An intelligent guy like Paul Simon is able to tell a compelling story about his singing, songwriting and composition and it makes for very entertaining and educational viewing.

Hey Monkey, Do you think you are going to make it? If you can are you going to bring your KGSS? I'm dying to hear one and I think I remember you posting pictures of one a while back.

Just bought the game today. Should be a fun weekend. If anyone wants to team up, my tag is TMoney58#1360

I really wish I hadn't just watched that.

Yup I figured it would make sense to wait a week to give Blizzard time to even out the kinks from their end. I'm thinking of doing a Witch Doctor. I used a Demon Hunter in the beta and they are pretty cool as well.

Any HC'ers want to meet up to crawl through D3 together? Lets use this thread to coordinate. I plan on getting the game sometime next week and I should be good to go if others are interested.

Oh no. So sorry to hear this. I used to carpool to school with Booker T.'s Daughter and I've always been a huge fan of the band.

^ This

Wow, John. Thats one sexy amp you have there.

Wow. I'm surprised they announced so far ahead of when they were actually ready to launch. I would guess they have lost a substantial amount of the buzz they had generated at CES by waiting this long.

So... how quiet is quiet? Sub 70dB?

Happy birthday, Ari! Have a great one, and hopefully I'll see you in a few weeks at the big meet.

Happy Birthday, Kevin. This site (and the headphone community at large) wouldn't be the same without you.

Wes Montgomery and the Wynton Kelly Trio at the Half Note

Very cool. I'll check it out. Thanks for the link.

Aspergers going once. Aspergers going twice...

A "memorial" viewing of the Last Waltz on bluray is in order for this weekend. In the meantime, there is this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceRg_rxXQ_E

It was a friend's rip so I'm not totally sure. I'll have to check on that. Next time we will have to buy a few more albums on HDTracks to compare. You can get around this problem by using the computer to down-convert the 24-bit track into a 16-bit version. That should take the "different mastering jobs" problem out of the equation. Thats what we tried doing for this test. Agreed with the better hi-rez files usually having a better mastering job. That being said, a few of the SACDs I own have much less dynamic range in their mastering jobs than the original CD pressings. For some reason many of the best sounding CDs I have are older pressings from the mid/late 80s. Maybe its because mastering engineers didn't screw around as much with the mastering back in the old days? Based on how close our "hi" and "low" rez tracks sounded during our test I'm incline to agree with you that the differences are mostly psychological as well.