nmculbreth

Judging by the most popular threads on this message board most people do want to read Head-Fi / RSA related topics. Personally I don't really see the virtue of spending time on message board which is seemingly dedicated to whining about / commenting on a different message board but as always different strokes or different folks. I check in periodically to see if anything new is happening but it always just seems like more of the same old thing...

Mikey, is the production version of the Zana Duex identical to your Zana Duex? How difficult are the Zana Duex's tubes to source?

I don't think I'm going to be able to attend this meet. I'm trying to re-arrange my work schedule to get off on Saturday but as of right now it isn't looking too promising.

I had the exact opposite experience, I found my VTG rather quickly but the JPN took awhile to track down.

Nothing which AT is currently producing has a similar sound signature to the leatherhead. The W10VTG and W11JPN have a similar sound signature but neither have the same technical ability of the L3000. Since both were only released in Japan and were discontinued/sold out a long time ago they're kind of hard to find, if you keep your eyes open on Head-Fi and Rinkya you should be able to eventually come across a VTG, the JPN is much more difficult to track down.

Great, more gear to lust after.... This is definately outside of my budget for the forseeable future but I'm really curious to see how it sounds. I love my APL DV-563a and Todd's APL SACD 1000 sounds outstanding as well so I would assume the new DAC has the same APL magic.

This thread is incomplete without a picture of Jessica Alba.

In a nutshell.... natural sounding treble with excellent extension, slightly forward midrange with a little bit of warmth, deep textured bass. The soundstage isn't quite as large as the HD-650 but it's instrument placement is far more precise, it definately doesn't suffer from the three blob effect. The sound signature is on the bright side of neutral but is never harsh or bright. The PRaT is outstanding.

I agree completely. I've owned a number of different AT headphones at one point in time and they all had different sound signatures and aesthetics which made them unique. I'm definately looking forward to what AT has come up with for the 45th anniversary addition.

I don't know but I hope it has the Echizen laquer and sounds like an updated JPN.

Those poor ML speakers, I'm sure they're going to be mated with a boomy sub and driven by some Sony HT receiver...

I figured that RS-whatever's introduction wouldn't cause a decrease in the price of the rest of the lineup, but I was still curious. It's kind of interesting that the pricepoint(s) of Grado headphones remain is fixed while other companies decrease their prices over time. Regardless this looks interesting since it seems that it addresses my two biggest complaints about the RS-1: the lack of soundstage and the supra-aural design. I'm volunteering Rex to purchase a pair so I can give them a listen.

Interesting. From what I've read it probably isn't my cup of tea but I'd certainly like to be able to listen to one at some point in time. What is the deal on the new pads, do they make the headpone circumaural or are they superaural like the rest of the Grado lineup? The $1000 pricepoint seems a little high, though I suppose this is pretty relative. Any word on how this will affect the MSRP on the rest of the Grado lineup?

Red wine vinaigrette.

There are many fiscal conservatives weren't happy with Bush winning the nomination in 2000 because of his neo-Con agenda, that said they still voted Republican and most likely will continue to do so. Who else would they vote for? They're certainly not going to vote Democrat so unless they decide to vote Libertarian I don't see this base being a problem for the Republicans. The Congressional Democrats don't have a collective backbone but behind the scenes I think Dean is doing a pretty good job as head of the DNC. Right now the party is doing well with it's fund raising and setting up a grassroots infrastructure, I'll be interested to see how much their effort pays off this fall.

Interesting question, the Republicans are still very strong with their core base but they could have a lot of problems with moderates and undecided voters. The key for the Democrats is to get this undecided group motivated to vote, if they're unable to mobilize this group I don't think they'll make the gains they need to in order to take back control of Congress. As an interesting side-note historically the President's approval ratings tend to drop in the second year of his term and often the opposing party ends up picking up more seats in Congress as a result. President Bush did not experience this phenomenon due to his huge spike in popularity following 9/11 but it's safe to say he's feeling the full force this time around. Should make for an interesting midterm.

I'll agree with the recommendation of using 6BL7s / 5687s for the output, both are more impactful than 6SN7s. For the driver I'd try the EH 6SN7 or if maybe another analytical tube like the Tung-Sol 6SN7GT.

Thanks for the response Earl, I figured from your previous description that the Philco branded tubes were actually NU 7n7s but I wanted to make sure. The Sylvanias that I received are all the short bottle version but internally only one of them matches the triangular plate 7n7 tube you gave me. One of the short Sylvanias gray glass as well so I can't really tell what it looks like internally but the third has a plate structure which looks similar to the Sylvania VT-231. I haven't had a chance to do much critical listening but so far it seems the Sylvania with the same internal structure as the VT-231 does sound better then the triangular plate version. At this point though the NU 7n7 is definately the star of the group, it sounds better then the triangular plate Sylvania in pretty much every regard. I'm going to have to spend some more time with the tube but so far it sounds very good. I think I'm going call my guy to see if he has any more of them sitting around.

Earl, is there any chance you could give me a better physical description of the NU 7n7. Among the tubes I recieved are two strange Philco labelled tubes which don't look anything like the Sylvanias. They're taller, gray glass and round plates.

Earl - Thanks for the heads up on cleaning the tips, if any of mine turn up noisy I'll give it a shot.

They're a bunch of shills for their advertisers, I take everything Stereophile says with a huge grain of salt.

Actually politics free from religion is very interesting. Then again I am a poli sci major.

So I take it you're not one of these guys.

Well I was able to find a seller with some of the tall bottle 7n7s and I placed an order this afternoon. Hopefully I'll be able to get atleast a few nice sounding tubes out of the lot.

Earl, that's exactly what I needed to know. I'm assuming that the 7n7 you loaned me would be short bottle version, right? I've spent the past couple days listening doing some critical listening with the 7n7 in my system and I don't think the short-bottle is my cup of tea. I was about ready to write off the entire family but it looks like I should try to find one of the long bottle 7n7s before passing any judgement. The Sylvania VT-231 is my reference gain tube so if I could find a 7n7 with a similar sound I'd be very happy.