spritzer

The SC1 and the 4070 are both a bit too "monitor" like. They are in many ways better headphones then say the older lambdas and the He60 but they lack that spark of life to make them great. While I don't find the SR-007 colored in any way they have that X-factor, musicality if you must, that makes them stand out. This is also why I prefer the He60 to the He90.

They are very elitist and the tiered upgrade system doesn't really work. The simple truth is that they are cutting corners by building on cheap PCB's and using fast drawn wires instead of P-P and age annealed wires. The name thin is just silly. They also have an Ongaku and it is more expensive then the Kondo one with inferior components...

That was a bit much for it. The cable needed to be changed as well as it had a nick in it and sourcing a real brown PC-OCC cable would be very tough.

There was one on Y!JP this week, not NOS but the condition was above average. I'm a little crazy as I prefer the original SR-Sigma with a ribbon cable over the Pro's as it is far more believable. The 1um drivers just don't cut it. Fair enough. You bought the 404 so he could compare it to the SC1 so I think he should repay the favor.

AN UK was the international distributor and owned the name worldwide except in Japan. The distribution deal was canceled after some disagreements over the sales so Audio Note JP had to change its name and AN UK started to manufacture its own gear based on the original designs. Their gear is ok but they just don''t get the Japanese attention to detail and the design talent Kondo had.

Sigma Pro's are few and far between. I was like this when I found a NOS set.

If the speakers were just called Audio Note and not Kondo then they were the UK clone company and it is far from comparable to the real thing.

Criminal is more like it but you've got the general idea... Collecting electrostatic headphones is a serious business and the more you have the greater the need for more...

Huh... there are not only electrostatic headphones in that picture? My brain must be blocking them out...

Go for it. He has enough headphones to go around...

The 404 and SC1 are identical except for the label on the plug. The newer Lambda arc design is much worse then the original Sigma design that the Lambda borrowed. The clamp is too tight and it doesn't extend enough.

The 212 is actually quite a good amp if fitted with a better PSU. I like it a bit more then the old 313.

They cost about YJP70000 so it's a hefty premium over the 404 but the difference isn't subtle. It's amazing that the same driver can sound so different in the 404, SC1 and the 4070.

The 404 is much rougher around the edges with a bit of bass boom, upper midrange coloration and a soundstage that is too large for it's own good. The SC1 is much smoother and civilized and the midrange coloration is reduced by quite a bit. It's basically what the SR-404 should have been to begin with. Btw. Congrats on the HE90 Michael.

More often then not it is very badly done (Single Power...) with no care take to damp the wire and the components and even less thought about the layout. The connecting wire is much better then a trace and the connections as well since they are mostly mechanical with the solder just to hold it together. Still I've yet to try out a solid silver/teflon PCB as they could be the best of both worlds. I wanted to get one for an Aristaeus that Carl and I were planing to build but Justin was reluctant to order them for me...

No debate here. P-P is much better if it is done well while PCB's are cheaper and it is easier to get the same result time and time again with no skill. There are some things that have no place on a PCB such as signal and the filament wiring while I'm seeing this integrated more and more. Btw. Post count is the only true measure of everything in this world...

The Luna is based on a design by K&K Audio. It's easy to spot with the transformers and the design. Lundahl makes great stuff but installing them on a PCB is such a waste... :'(

There is also the excelent Lundahl and Sowter. It's hell to pick one to use but I'll most likely use Lundahl and Tamura in future projects.

Tango did go out of business and it is called Iso-Tango now. I've heard reports that the new transformers are inferior to the older stuff but the transformers used in the Kondo designs are not off the shelf units but each one designed by the, now sadly departed, company founder. The other great transformer manufacturer is Tamura and the audio side is bout 0.1% of their business but they are equal to Tango and the lineup is much easier to get a handle on.

Kondo is at the very fringe of the high-end and one of the few companies that does it right. They make all of the components in house, wiring, resistors, capacitors or has some of the best specially make it for them i.e. Tango transformers/chokes. Kondo was called Audio Note but the English company that once distributed them worldwide owned the name so they had to change it. The English company is a bad joke in comparison but they charge much more for their products.

It's true that at the very high end there is the ultimate musicality. If you want the truth listen to a Kondo setup and be prepared to manually force your jaw off the floor. most users aren't searching for an analyzing tool in their setup so they settle for something that sounds nice and are stuck on the endless upgrade train.

The fact that the HE90 is easy to listen to is basically why people love it. None of the most avid He90 supporters have a system that is close to being neutral and that makes them sound all that much better. I can afford to keep them and they are a good investment since they have more then doubled in price since i bought them but thats not the reason why I hang onto them. I'm still hoping for an amp or system that will make them sound good to my ears. It might never happen but until then they rest in their box.

They haven't, they are only revealing more of the signal. I design my cables for absolute neutrality, not to be tone controls, and they have proved to be much better then any others I've tried including Valhalla, Prana, Silversmith, PAD and Kimber Select. The only cables that were too close to call were the Stealth and Kondo TOTL models. I didn't get to spend too much time with them but they were up there.

I'm not going to sell either one of them but I might start to sell some of my stuff, some of lambdas and SR-# units. Also at least some of the amps and adapters. This will be tough but I need the space for some extra gear... That would be like him. I'm fire off an email when I have the time. I got mine used.

It was both. The worst comments were often from people that had heard them at a meet for 3 minutes and some because it was headfi and you don't have to hear something to know how it sounds. The fynny thing is that there are more HE90's sold on the other site then O2's. Those that own them all keep the Stax phones and sell the Sennheisers. Ooohhh spill the beans. I haven't spoken to him in a while so... ehhh... spill it! Is it something I don't own?