Tari

Thanks for telling me. I will now discount what I heard when I actually listened to the unit and promptly get on the group-think haven't-listened-to-it-but-saw-a-picture-one-time-yet-still-feel-comfortable-with-making-unqualified-condemnations train. Yeah, its expensive. Its also expensive to make, and more importantly it sounds amazing with a wide variety of headphones.

From what I understand orthoheads are excited with what JPS's innovation on the Abyss but the price and marketing (and their early brusque dismissal of actual hobbyists) are big turnoffs. I may be biased because I always wanted a commercial Stacker with a wide variety of tube rollability, but the LG is amazing with the right tubes, especially with orthos. Last I checked specs and measurements were done by an impartial third party company precisely so that they wouldn't be accused of lying by people with personal grudges (the fact that this even has to happen in something as niche and obscure as the headphone market is pretty sad. Drama is warranted when you're a cancer-ridden chemist who makes meth to support the family after you're gone. When it comes to amplifiers for headphones, its almost tragi-comedy.) I don't know where the transition is from A to AB, but I can say it does so like my Pass XA60.5 does - it is so seamless I would never be able to pick it out. I do agree that the LG is not the best showcase for the Abyss though. It performed much better with the LAu.

From what I can tell these things are marketed more at the "my yacht has its own yacht" robb-report lifestyle crowd. They just need all the cash registers at the beginning of Pink Floyd's Money to sound realistic and they're good to go.

The one nice thing I can say about this headphone is it has sounded better every time I've heard it. It is definitely more open sounding and seems faster than the Audeze, but that's not necessarily saying much. It's missing some layering and texture in the vocal range as well and the tone of some string instruments just sound wrong to me. Not coupling to the head feels weird at first, but I've gotten used to it by now and its kind of like a K1000 in that sense. Not worth the price in my estimation and Joe and co initially completely mishandled hobbyists with this one though it seems they're coming around.

A UK member posted this on the ECP thread, so I guess Doug can do it: Doug made a 220-240VAC DHSA-1 for me last year and jumped thru hoops to comply with the strict European Union regulations - use of lead free solder being one such requirement. He's a genuinely lovely guy to deal with and the DHSA-1 combines the best of solid state to sound 'tube' like but without the euphonics associated with thermionic gear.

If all of Doug's are taken for the nearish future, any potential loanees are welcome to borrow mine.

He just posted "Make me an offer," which means this will likely go for even less than that. I sold mine a year ago for $1150 and the buyer told me even that was a great price.

I usually sign off "sincerely" or "all the best," but "rescuing an art form" is much more self important apt. Doctors should start signing off "saving lives" and astronauts should write "going to space, what have you done today."

Yes, I suppose its much less odd to people in Japan. It was kind of doubly shocking - one that the insurance business was such a big part of what they do and the other that Loeb (of the Yahoo restructuring) suggested just dropping electronics from their lineup even though its what makes them Sony in many American consumers' minds. On the Playback Designs IBS IPS-3 topic, they'll be exhibiting it with their MMmicroone speakers at The Show. They do punch past their price point but I'm not sure they'll be the best exhibit for what the PD can do. Then again, a lot of bigger speakers sound terrible at shows due to being too big for their room.

That's some very interesting history Charles brings up, I'd seen bits and pieces but this connects a lot of dots. That's actually the second thing I've seen on involving Sony today that's kind of blown my mind, the first being this.

With the current state of the yen, the DA-06 is only ~$2495 on PJ. The IPS-3 was at CES. There was no official announcement beforehand as Jonathan wasn't sure it would be ready by then. With the new generation of Devialet products (including the first two models at more reasonable prices) and the new Wadia Intuition it will have some competition in the swiss-army-knife category that seems to be emerging.

With the ECP amps, we're just talking about the switch on the front.

This trailer is making me thirsty... Also, Family Tree on HBO has a lot of potential. A little dry as a lot of British humour tends to be, but Christopher O'Dowd is great and Christopher Guest definitely knows a thing or two about Mockumentaries.

This handy spreadsheet has head-to-head features of many of the current DSD capable DACs, as well as content type and sourcing comparison of the major DSD download sites. If not comprehensive, it is a good overview of the current scene.

All three companies have users who would defend the products and their designers, sometimes passionately, when they are attacked. The only difference I can see is that Cavalli has been the subject of more vitriol hence more defense. Lots of owners of owners from all three companies can be annoying. EC and Cavalli don't give "preferential treatment or discounts" save for first run specials available to all who sign up for the run. It can be hard to get Craig to give your amp proper attention if you bought it used, so I suppose Craig gives preferential treatment to those who are actually his customers.