Cosmopragma

Feck. I have a few deals pending. I wonder if anybody will remember me when it is up and running again. This time I've learnt the lesson. My mantra of the week: "Ask for the email address.Ask for the email address.Ask for the email address.Ask for the email address.Ask for the email address.Ask for the email address.Ask for the email address.Ask for the email address.........."

I've just got the Edition 9 formerly owned by Postjack. First impression: Nice headstage and excellent imaging. No metallic aftertaste like the Prolines I've auditioned. I couldn't find the knob to reduce the bass though. Please enlighten me. Where is it? Unmodded and unequalized these are headphones for the car audio crowd. It's ridiculous. I've just fiddled around with the foobar equalizer for a first test. I'm talking about -6 dB here. I dunno. We all hear differently and blah, but 6dB? Someone is deaf, and it's not me. I don't know if I'll keep them. Equalized they are great cans for metal. And they are great as portable cans. Yes, maybe they will become my new portable cans. This way decadence becomes a new meaning. $2200 (european price) portable fun cans that have to be equalized. Nice headstage though.Did I mention it before?

Thank you. You are so cute.

Thanks. Next time I'll pretend not knowing the meaning of another term from the top 500 list of most used everyday words, lets say "fuck". Might be even more entertaining.

Fortunately this is a free market.You don't have to sell to me and, frankly, from now on a deal between us is extremely unlikely anyway. Nevertheless I do hope that your inability to comprehend a simple concept ("fraud") isn't a sign of brain cancer. Unfortunately I don't understand the term "wanker" since they didn't teach me slang in school and my dictionary doesn't contain it either but derived from the context I guess it's kind of a synonym for street smartness and if so : thank you for the compliment.

So what? It's not illegal for you to underdeclare the value.Period. Your Paypal is definitely another Paypal than my Paypal. At my Paypal the seller has to prove he has shipped the item.That's it. In the end it boils down to the question whether the participants in a deal are trustworthy or not, and the seller is in a far better position to defraud the buyer than vice versa anyway. Well, most people don't like lying, at least I hope so, but everyone has lied often during his lifetime when it was necessary.Might be a cultural gap, but for us who are living under the rule of the daylight robbery called european socialism circumventing the robbers is an unquestioned necessity and no crime at all.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't underinsuring the buyers risk especially when he asks for it? The seller does already have the money so where's the problem?

I also have the option to circumvent it whereever possible. Believe me, that's a very popular sport here, and you'd be hard pressed to find someone here that's considering tax circumventing a crime.Even the members of the government do circumvent their own rules, and our establishment is master of inventing loopholes mainly for themselves.

Did I say somewhere I like the damned government?

Not solely. Been there done that and it wasn't worth the hassles with the dad afterwards. He was way stronger than me.Damned gorilla.

Ah, and be careful. In my case it's not headphones but an amp. My spouse asked me what I want for christmas and I asked for an amp. Specifically for the Audio Technica HA5000 for my secondary rig. Well, her answer was : "Why not.You deserve it for your pleasure" Since then I wonder what kind of jewelry she does expect in return for her pleasure. Would have been cheaper to buy the amp myself, that's for sure.

That's overrated.

Yes, I forgot to mention that, two installments are mandatory. Unfortunately it seems to be hard to explain to american sellers why two payments are necessary.Sometimes they smell fraud and back out.Sucks ....... Overseas shops are also often not prepared for that trick.

Well, I had payed 1070 Euros including the costs of return shipment for the repair, and Rudi threw some very nice NOS tubes in for free in order to temper my anger after he had realized that threatening me wasn't the best idea. Compared to the prices of Stax amps in Germany I wouldn't exactly call it nuts especially when you take into account that I was able to sell it for 1140 Euros about half a year later via ebay.de.

It depends on the country and the regional customs office and in the end on the mood of the customs officer. Bad mood means there's no way at all. There are lots of european legislations. In theory gear has to be ROHS compliant and CE compliant and companies do have the right to totally block private imports of branded goods and whatnot. In practise they are not that picky in Germany, the greedy state justs want a share of the pie (Luxembourg for instance is more rigid AFAIK, but naturally I'm most familar with circumstances in my own country). Sometimes you can even get away without any fees at all (the old "private gift, value $20" trick) but I don't recommend it anymore.The customs officer might get angry about it and then you are in trouble. The best way nowadays IMO is to underdeclare the value and to ship it via USPS/DHL.The latter means low customs handling fees (UPS for instance is extremely expensive).Underdeclaring means to keep the declared value above the threshold where they might suspect fraud.When I import $1500 headphones I ask the seller to declare it to be worth $150.In the eyes of a customs officer $150 is already expensive and lazy as he is he won't research the real value. This way it slips through fast and without hassles.

I really don't want to defend Rudi.Regardless of having owned some Rudistor amps in the past I'm not exactly a fan.The main reasons for purchasing them was availability and, yes, a relatively reasonable price.I've bought them all used or as special offers from Rudi himself and in the end they did cost me nothing despite of opportunity costs. You are located in Asia and therefor you are probably not familar with the middle european market. Some price examples as a frame of reference, official retail with usable warranty, street prices: CEC HD53R V8: $1150 Lehmann BCL : $1050 Corda Opera analog : $1150 more relevant in our context here: Stax SRM 006T Mk II:$2600 Stax SRM 717 (discontinued but still available): $3000 Stax SRM 007 T Mk II :$4200 With a bit of haggling you might get better deals in some cases, but not much better. The Coriolan amp isn't targeted at informed audiophiles like us, it's targeted at rich europeans without time or desire for research.With time worth >$1000/hour they have another sense of bang/buck ratio than most of us.

C'mon, it's not that bad. I once did own a Rudistor amp with a very special self destruction circuit.At first glance it was admittedly horrible, but it's not true that Rudi doesn't understand it. He even tried to explain it to me, a layman.The slow blow fuse was extremely slow though if you ask me and therefor the only way to stop the amp emitting dark smoke like mount etna was to pull the plug out of the wall but what do I know. Besides of that I do rate the amps better than you here at this forum.Sonically they are certainly not that special as Nik, Markl et al hype them but the amps for dynamic cans I've owned are quite decent for low Z cans and I did like the Egmont better than the Stax amps for the Lambdas. I agree though they are too expensive for what they provide (basically decent mid-fi), but what is not? I've always found for instance the Meier amps, the Headroom amps, the Lehmann BCL, the CEC amps, the Vincent amps and last but not least the Stax amps overprized as well, at least in central Europe.

That was probably Reiner (RichterDi).He got tired of it and asked Jan (as aforementioned) to mod one of his Operas for high gain.

Maybe when they invade Iran and lose that war, too.

When they have to go back to 2006 you'd be still a respected member there instead of the banned arse from the U.K. Might be quite entertaining to watch all the "wrongdoers" running amok after a relaunch .........

Oh, I've misinterpreted the pics at my first quick glance. I've thought the imprint is at the sides but a closer look revealed it's really at the top and mine are the same. Originally I did like the modern SR-303 I also own better but during the last months the specific sound grew on me.The old Pros do provide more "body" and are therefor better suited for rock music IMO. In the end it doesn't matter though since the Omegas do get 90 % of my listening time at home anyway.

I'm glad he didn't lose his sense of humor .........

I guess your post is referred to the ebay.de auctions. If so : The Lambdas are probably no Lambda Pro since they do look different from my pair.Mine have no printed lettering at the sides.Ask one of the collectors which Lambda incarnation they actually are.The Pro has usually a higher market value than other vintage Lambdas. The protective foam is obviously deteriorated but that's quite normal for old pairs.Usually the old pads are hardened and must be replaced, and replacement pads/foam are often sold as bundles anyway. Spritzer might know which variety it exactly is (he's one of those crazy collectors), and he's the odd man out that detests the Pro so he might even value another variety higher.

Usually the lowest gain setting that does provide enough volume for your tastes is technically the best so stick with it.

Could you elaborate what you find fatiguing when you listen to the KSC75s? They are not what I'd call treble heavy so I'm a bit at a loss here. What kind of player are you utilizing?