mulveling

Absolutely outrageous. Said company should be exposed and have their name dragged through the mud, several times - but, not by Alex. His good name doesn't deserve to appear in the same thread as these over-shaved gorillas I must also say that the awful Jena labs cables on the R10 is one of the worst aesthetic tragedies I've ever witnessed. Anyone willing to do that to an R10 doesn't deserve to touch one. Alex's cable, on the other hand, looks very nice - clean & sleek Besides all the bad stuff, I'm really glad to see this R10 was brought back up to spec! There are few of these truly wonderful headphones, and they all should be enjoyed thoroughly.

People who like the RS1 as their favorite, or near it, hear very differently than me. I think it's a given we'll also have different tastes in amps. Plus, I don't think I've heard an amp really change the fundamental signature of a headphone, so I doubt my RS1 ranking would rise much even on the consensus uber-amp for John Grados. After subjective analysis of my experiences, I'd rate the R10 and HP1000 as the hardest to drive headphones; both are way harder than the RS1.

I know, and I plan to take advantage of that Especially nice that they ship a brand new cart for a Glider "re-tip". However, it seems the trade-in/re-tip prices have also gone up around $200 with the switch to the new S-versions I've been 100% satisfied with the sound of the L2 Glider...hope the signature hasn't changed a bit on the new ones!

Duuude, that is soooo tempting me right now!!!

Another good justification for my putting off the homeownership thing One more obstacle has been removed from my moving into a sweet bachelor-pad style apt. on the town square (with NO residential neighbors)...now I just have to *see* the inside of the thing

Cherry, by far. I normally prefer even darker finishes, but I've really grown to love the cherry finish on my Tannoys.

Yeah, that's how I expect everyone to address me from now on. So in case there's ever another mulveling, it will be very clear that I'm THE one! I must admit The HD2 holds great appeal for The Mulveling.

Damn, I must have gotten lucky that my first foray into vinyl was jackpot and a total win over CD/SACD. I contribute a lot of that to the TT expert at Audio Atlanta that set up my table. That and the previous owner of this table/arm was obviously very serious about sound & taking care of gear (the vintage FR arm is a splendid match). That and I did drop a big brick of money on it all Phono stage is a Benz just like my cart, so no matching issues there. I did choose the nude Glider model over the cheaper acrylic body Ace and more expensive wood body L2 because its lower mass seemed a better match for my heavy-ish tonearm. After 1 year of use there's been no need for maintenance, no degradation in sound quality on the cart or my records Though, the Benz Glider cart I use just went up in price by another $200 that I'll get hit with when it's time to replace

I picked up my McIntosh MC2100 from the local repair guy. He measured it at 150 Watts/ch with low distortion (in his words a "righteous" amp). That was good! While in the shop I saw a Marantz 8b, Mc2300 (rated 300 Watts/ch, but probably hits nearly 500), and an Mc40 among others. Helped move the behemoth mc2300. That was cool! I put 4 hockey pucks in place of the missing rear spikes for my Tannoys. Feels more solid, works good! I replaced the crooked-bottle Electro Harmonix EL34 tubes in my Eico HF87 with some new Teslovak EL34ls (same as the Groove Tubes version, and made in the JJ factory I hear). The new tubes look great (much better built) and sound very clean, very powerful! Replaced the 6sn7's and 12ax7 with some better ones (Sylvania 6sn7WGT and Brimar cv4004). Sat down to listen to just a couple test tracks on the Zana/Eico/Tannoys, ended up sitting through all of Dire Straits Communique...TWICE in a row....on a mere redbook CD on a mere stock Denon 3910! This was very good! Hooked up the MC2100 with non-HGA ICs and yep, it works great! Will have to wit 'till day to really push it Finally tried my new 6BX7gt tubes in the Supra SE. They sound fantastic! Been listening to records w/ HD650 & Zu tonight...very good! Today was an excellent day for audio! Tomorrow will be a sucky day for taxes and bills...

That seems a very reasonable repair bill, especially for a statement product. Sony could learn a thing or two from AT there

Now that you mention it this seems likely, though probably from the previous owner. The pins are 2-piece and they're pressed together pretty close. I guess, enough to have issue with about 1 in every 20 RCA jacks. Ah, now I see the beauty of XLR connectors. I've not yet had a complaint with Audioquest cables and they look/sound nice; maybe I'll pick up a pair that's not too expensive.

So last week my vintage Mc2100 amp was shipped back from a recap, and when I hook it up the left channel doesn't play anything but some low-level hum noise. Subbing the Eico or Heathkit amps into the EXACT SAME setup works perfectly, so it must be the 2100, right? Wrong! Not 1 hour after dropping off the amp at the highly recommended local McAmp guy (that I found out about after the recap), I come to the striking realization: wait, didn't I have a bizarre channel-out problem with some interconnects and the AT-HA2002 a few years back? The center pin on the old-style HGA silver lace RCA Lok connectors was a bit too skinny, and for some reason wouldn't make internal contact on ONE of the HA2002's jacks. Worked fine with my other gear, though. Wait...aren't those the SAME ICs I'm using on my amps these days?? So inevitably I get a call a few hours later and the amp measures totally-super-kickass-like up to 150 Watts both channels (they sure don't make 105 Watt/ch amps like they used to). So after a 3-year hiatus the wonky ICs strike again, on the 2100's left RCA. I swear I need to throw those damned ICs away. On a related note, I need to be more thorough dammit. Normally I troubleshoot this crap before I solicit outside help. I'm just in a situation now where I've got far more gear than interconnects. Normally I am way more thorough, dammit. I wouldn't have my job if I wasn't WAY more thorough than this. HGA connectors still suck, dammit (the locking mechanism is a joke too - you have to tighten them way past "10" to get any grip on some jacks). Oh well, at least my amp is OK. I'll probably pick her up this weekend.

It's a tricky qualitative assessment, and I can't explain why really, but overall I feel the HD650 and hp1000 are more similar to each other than to the L3000. So in that sense, the L3000 is the better complement. On the other hand if you're only looking at tone & mids in isolation, then the hp1000 would create the greater triangulation of variety along with the HD650 and vintage RS1 endpoints.

Well, you know me - I preferred the L3000 for day-to-day listening enjoyment, but I still respect the HP1000. The HP1000 is better at simulating the pure tone of a live sound, but the L3000 is much better at simulating the energy. Both the hp1000 & L3000 did great with my Meridian in the past...haven't heard the hp1000 with the Zana, but the L3000 is an excellent match there, for sure. Remember the good days when you could get an L3000 AND hp1000 for not much more than the price of an hp1000 today?

There may be more money in ATL, but here you will have to fight over good local deals with Purk and me

Do you prefer your unicorns pink or blue? I really wanted a small blue unicorn, but could only find a medium-sized pink one

Last few times I gave the Qualia a good listen, the Steely Dan Aja vinyl was particularly fantastic on them. Amazing, actually. It helps listening to the Qualias if you start the day out on them. It's particularly a no-no to start out on something with warm, thick mids (HD650, L3000, R10) and then move to the Qualia. In this way, I've found the ear can somewhat adapt to the "unique" tone, and then you're just left with the fantastic impact/resolution/speed/imaging to enjoy

Also highly skeptical here. There may well be people who prefer the modded D5000 to the R10, but I doubt I'd be one of them (though that is purely speculation), and I don't think there is ANY way they can reproduce the air and sound stage of the R10. It just can't be acoustically possible in closed cups of that size. I figure the comparisons to R10 are purely a marketing gimmick.

If any of you bastards are using my special bubble-wrap Qualia fit-enhancement mod, you owe me $350.

Thanks again Tom, I'll check it out. Man, it is good knowing Tom & Purk

That was back when I still owned them. Wish I could've heard how they do with vinyl. Might have been an even happier person today It is completely retarded that coarse foam pucks cost $40; they should come free with new Grado headphones. Compare to the beautiful soft leather L3000 ear pads that can be IMPORTED for about $80...some things really highlight some of the big discrepancies out there in quality/dollar ratio, and current Grado products are a great example of the bad kind

Floor-standing $3k speakers for surrounds? A bit confused as to whether you mean a 5.1/7.1 setup, a pair of rears, or a front 2ch setup? If the latter, then this: http://cls.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?spkrfull&1210946909 Truly fuzzy speakers, in every good sense of the word. Yes, that is black velvet. I have 'em, love 'em, next stop for me is Prestige line. They sit on agon for ages because hardly anyone in the US has heard the good Tannoy lines.

He fixed the gain dial, but for my big birthday surprise - the left channel is dead :'( Hooked it up, heard a soft pop, then low-level motorboat hum noise. When playing music the left channel is at a very low-level, and completely garbled. At least there was no violent event. Right channel plays fine. Fuse looks fine. I guess something may have gotten whacked out of place in shipment (though the packaging all looked fine)? Enjoyed the Heathkits last night, but their bass is extremely soft compared to the Mc. When I went to pick up the Eico today ( ), the seller gave me the name of a good local alternative to Terry. I think I'll drop it off there next week...not taking the risk of shipping that thing again. This Eico should be twice as powerful as the Heathkits

The vwap pads kinda fall in the middle there, more towards the side of flats though. I think I remember liking HF-1 best with vwaps. Bowls are for cereal. I'm not a Grado man either...except for the HP1000 - those are awesome, but flats only. The vintage RS1 have their moments (with flats of course), but I still far prefer the HD650.

Gotta admit, I love the hell out of 70s music. 80s is pretty good to me too.