spritzer

Thanks for the kind words guys. The damn thing woke me up from my midday nap and that is saying a lot as I live on the western most tip of Reykjavik (actually a separate town) and the house is built on a buffer of sand. Everybody is fine and no major damage has been reported though some bridges and houses have been closed for the time being. My father is going to go and check up on our summerhouse which is about 15km from the epicenter but it's built like a vault so it should be fine.

That would make for a great smiley here...

Arrr!!!

Just use the IMG tags and URL tags together such as this: [url=][img][/img][/url] or

I'm using it under pretty poor conditions for now but I like what I hear. I'm having some issues with the crap codec in the computer but a USB transport will fix that.

Throw in some ERS paper and you are just as bad as that "look at me" fucktard. ... These connection potions can make a difference but so does Brasso or just replacing the connectors with silver as silver oxide is highly conductive. I've always been a fan of the He60 but it's more enjoyable then truly excellent and the price they are going for is simply absurd. I do miss mine and I'm actively looking for a cheap one that I can justify keeping. I think Elpheas might just stick...

You know I'm always interested in your crazy ideas...

Almost every headphone ever made sounds dark and distant when compared to the HE60. I'm with Marc though that the source is very important and so are the interconnects used. If you only knew...

How that hell would we otherwise keep the glaciers looking so good?

A screw would be a good idea as the WPI sockets have exposed contacts so the middle should be elevated a bit. I've used plastic bits that I found around the house which are supposed to be used to cover up holes in cupboards for movable shelfs with good effect. Too bad they are white... \

They do. Now I've got to buy a RCA->BNC adapter so I can try the AudioZone DAC I just got. It's a well liked piece of kit and should be an interesting comparison to the APL and DAS-R1.

I was only violated by your words... The Stax connector is pretty crappy and breaks far too easily but I like it more then the WPI unit you have if only for the fact that no builder bothers to plug the 6th opening for Pro sockets which could end pretty badly...

Now that I've had some more time with the player it's clear that this is a very impressive beast. The first thing to stand out is the detail that it pulls out of every silver disk I throw at it as well as the bass control. The sound on the whole is a bit laid back but can be very aggressive if that is called for... like... wait for it.... the SR-007. I've been using my modded Stax SRM-T1 (all wiring replaced with soft silver and with WBT silver RCA sockets) with Toshiba tubes and all the wiring is DIY soft silver. The APL is running of an old step down transformer for now but I'll probably have a 100VA unit custom made and mount it on the back plate of the player. The fewer connectors, the better. Since I haven't hooked it up to a speaker rig yet I won't go into much detail on the imaging but it works very well with the slightly larger then life soundstage of the SR-?. It's wide for headphones but also quite tall. It stretches from ear to ear in a very natural way with no gaps at all. This is largely due to the excelent transducers but they can't reproduce something that isn't there in the first place. Each instrument or over dub has its own space even if they are layered one on top of the other. I will have to try the Sigma Pro 404's soon... Being a child of the digital age the harder sound of digital has never bothered me much and I've always accepted it as a side effect that would always be there. Most designer try to eliminate it by making the players warm but killing the HF response and making the whole sound spectrum muddy as hell. There are a few exceptions to this though such as some good NOS dac's and vintage, TOTL models like the Sony DAS-R1 I own. They all lack detail to some degree and the APL is the first player I've heard which combines the two with the most stunning HF response. There is no doubt in my mind that the transformer coupled tube output is the cause for this lovely natural sound so chalk up yet another win for ancient technology. I also did some mods to one of my computers so that it could output S/PDIF via the built in sound codec. I wanted to see how the player would handle the absolutely worst I could throw at it via crappy MP3's as well as FLAC's. Way too many high end devices only sound good with those select few audiophile recordings and like crap with everything else. All in all the APL 3910 didn't disappoint and dug out as much info as the crap source allowed while never sounding harsh or cold. More later in the week...

No way dude!!! SR-? gets all of my attention today. I'm listening to The Who's -Tommy on SACD and this is beyond good. I think I have to update the APL thread with some impressions...

You wouldn't be the first to go down that road. You could even add a HE90 connector in stead of the missing Stax plug. Ehhhhhh.... now I feel violated....

It's still here but I'm saving it for a later this week when I'm going to spend some quality time with the Blue Hawaii.

It's nice to the see the old warhorse get the respect that it deserves. I'm using the SR-? mostly now as I'm too scared to plug in the SR-007A... If that midrange "honk" wasn't due to the new tube in the APL then I might have to try and pull a MarkL on the new SR-007's...

Allied has stopped carrying them so your best bet is to find a SRD-4 and remove connector. Some of the Stax distributors might still sell them in small quantities...

Looking good!!! Smart move to leave the drivers and baffle in peace as it can be a pain to mount them.

Welcome to the mafia.

An update is in order. The player has been sitting here useless for about a month now as it had started to distort and had very little bass output. APL wasn't much help as Alex is in Europe but I suspected the tube to be the culprit as the player was fine on day one. The tubes I ordered just came in and the player is playing just fine now. I must now receive punishment for the epic fail of not having spare tubes but I just don't care as the sound is sublime and that from a SRM-T1 driving the SR-007A The detail retrieval is impressive and small overdubs can be picked up with ease while never being intrusive. Bass is tight and controlled though the amp and can combo makes it less precise then the BH/SR-007 mk1 would be. Everything else is good but I need a lot more time to get to grips with the sound but first impressions are just that... impressive.

Sign me up for a few cables. If you need any ashes from the many volcanoes here just ask. Jules Verne said Sn

MarcE cables are notably superior to everything else. Massive amounts of cryoed micro bearing damping material will do that

You might get more bass slam with a more powerful amp but the standard power ratings mean less then usual when it comes to the adapters so it's tough to tell. Very different to say the least. The 323 isn't as lush and rounded as the T1.