jp11801

single I don't speak tech, the amp is a balanced amp it uses two small transformers they are the 2 silver colored round parts on the rear of the amp. Initially the amp had not much in common with the Zana as it used 6c41c tubes for power. This config was good but was slightly dry. Craig re-worked the amp and used 6c33bs. There just on the top of the amp there are some fairly different design implementaions , 2 tango transformers, 5 soy bean oil caps (Zana uses 2), transformer balanced, 12ax7 input stage and the outputs tunes are run much harder. The 6c33b in the almorro amp is run balls out and produces 18watts, this amp runs at 11 watts and the Zana significantly less. While each amp uses they same tube they are going to sound very different. The Zana is an OTL design while the HD2 is tansformer design. They have a different sound based on the above mentioned factors. The HD2 hits harderis more linear and is more dynamic while the Zana breaths more life into the music and has a softer but still very detailed sound. WHile going back and forth during the meet I could have been extremely happy with either amp. jinp6301, if you are speaking about my amp yes it should have cost 5k based on a standard parts mark up but actually cost me much less. If you are referring to Al's amp if you bought new it is very north of 5k.

check out the NorCal meet impressions

it is a 4 pin balanced output, originally it was for k1000s but damn grados sound great though it

Billy happy birthday, glad to hear that you pulled off Chiunifi

cool to see you guys pulled it off, looks like you had a great time.

Mike, Al has cleanly vaulted over both our rigs with the SDS XLR Emm Labs combo really killer stuff and needs to be heard to be believed. I did a bit of a comparison between Min's RS1 and my brown leathers, I almost can't believe these are the same headphones. The newer RS1s exhibit a congestion in the mids that is immediately noticeable if I were buying an RS1 today I would hunt down an older pair. I am not sure if the early black headbands are similar to the old brown ones but it would be worth checking out to avoid the collector upcharge. I compared the GS1s to the hp2s, ps1s and rs1s and I just could not get into these. To me it seemed like Grado tried something new that just did not work out. I owned these for about a month and wanted to like them but between the tizzy highs and recessed mids it was a no go. I know some folks love them but they are not for me. The PS1s, hearing them again made me miss the pair I sold. They have such great mids and treble and the BASS is outstanding if not overwhelming but it never clouds the other frequencies like you see with other cans. These are great headphones to have it you want to Rock out hard and slam the bass but still have a great listening experience. Now they in no way give you a balanced picture of the music but if you are always reaching for the bass knob on your car stereo these are the Grados for you. I regret not taking the time to listen to Mins Zanden 300b k100 set up as it world class. This combo breaths like into the music and gives the k1000s the body they can lack with other set ups. It gives up just a bit in the area of dynamics and extension at the extremes of both frequencies but you'd be hard pressed to do hear better. I had the chance to spend a couple of hours with Min in San Francisco comparing the HD2 to the Zanden but I should have taken another listen. Although his meet was really social and it was hard to block out the yapping even with regular headphones. The star of the meet was Neil's Singlepower E2 NWO combo driving the HE90s. This combo is so refined, smooth but has great detail, sense of space but my one and only quibble is the lack of attack at the leading edge. This is more a thing about my tastes than the E2 rig as you could probably dial in that sound with all the settings on that amp or with some well thought out tube rolling. I think I was the only one to feel this way though and if we voted it would have received best at meet. I would welcome the opportunity to hear the rig in a noise free setting as we probably only got a glimpse of it's potential. Neil probably has one of the better balanced amps for headphones built into the xlr outs of the NWO and will have a great time experimenting with balanced dynamic headphones with the NWO. The NWO out of the rear xlrs sounded better than the behemoth SS1. Although that amp could probably be tweaked a bit.

yes check out apl's site http://www.aplhifi.com/esoteric-product-page.htm

First off I'd like to thank all the people that showed it was a meeting of many of the Cali headphone faithful. Some random thoughts APL NWO this may be the most serious piece of gear I have ever heard. To me it was at it's best straight out of the pre outs to the grado rs1s, refined dynamic, lifelike tone and rhythmic like I have not heard before. This was digital with out any of the high end frequency hash and glare we have come to except out of even good digital. Ok you say well maybe you have not heard really good digital well? Ok well I've owned the wadia 302, transporter, apogee mini, exemplar , ayre cx7e... but non have been as good as this player ok the Emm labs is great but this cleanly tops it. If you are anywhere near one of these get rat shack female ended convertors and run your balanced cans direct from these. Yes it is obscenely priced at 30k which is actually not bad when you consider the price of the esoteric player, 200 hours to rebuild plus parts and the fact that as a digital source and headphone amp/pre it is at the top of the heap. ok 30k is alot of cash so be on the look out for Alex's dac of esoteric dv60 or 10 player rebuilds while not a Mt Olympus heights it should be better than most. Al's emm labs/SP Satan's Delicious Sound WOW I walked up to this amp with a bit of a chip on my shoulder about it. It took longer to make this amp then Al could have made a baby. With that said it was worth every minute of frustrating wait and blown deadline and BS excuse. It sounds fucking great, I don't even like the 701s but with Al's silver dragoned version of these it sounded great, balanced rs1s awesome. The amp had great tone and sense of space with dynamic pacing PRAT in spades. stax007/]ES1/marantz cdp killer combo, I am in the minority probably but the 007 is better to me than the HE90, I know it's probably sacrilege but to me it's true. This rig sounded killer on DSOTM sacd version. If I was going to go electro this is the way I would go. more to come later...

I sent a PM BART is a 5 minute car ride, call me when you get in

yeah basically they and a few others started what was know as the teres project a DIY group seeing how far they could take DIY build TTs. Chris took teres to a commercial venture and Thom went and started Galibier and had am=nother guy we worked with start redpoint. Teres and Galibier are direct to the public and redpoint is dealer network. The teres stuff is stunning but the word is it is warm sounding. I want nuetral and articulate but with body no fuzzy fuzz

too rich for my blood ATM plus I beleive the Galibier is as good

well she ain't gonna win first prize in the beauty contest but sonically she's a beauty

here's the thing a used linn/scout/sota are all in the same ballpark price, other than the linn and sota requiring a bit of patience to set up there would be no reason to go scout. PS I just got off the phone with Thom from Galibier and I'm in line for either the serac or gavia deck. Mike look at the avid diva it's a nice tt and not a bad price.

if you want to hear the transporter stop by, I'll have it another week or so and then it's off to a-gon to finance the new turntable. I'd go SB and a better dac over the transporter but that's just me. The tp sounds a little thin to me although it's got great detail it lacks body

the scout sounded like a blanket had been thrown over the speakers compared to the linn or the sota. this is the next turntable for me

RS1s balanced are really sweet take everything you like and add a star then expand the soundstage. Pretty amazed by the decay, air, detail, tonally rich and deep bass at the same time. RS1s are headphones that are vastly underrated because no one thinks to run them balanced, get a great amp with them or recable them because they sound good as is. The upside on RS1s from amps, balanced and recable is bigger than 650s or 701s

a really ugly LP12, essentially I owned the thing for about 15 years in stock form with a basik arm. 4 years ago when I got sucked back into audio I embarked on pretty massive upgrades. Now the only stock part is the wood frame, steel top plate, armboard and suspension replaced/upgraded: origin live motor/power supply, baseboard removed and replaced with wood blocks tha have mapleshade brass feet screwed in, a VTAF brass vertical tracking adjuster (best bang for buck) and an origin live encounter tone arm. It sounds really great but I can't get over the feeling that a high mass table would have less noise. I owned a vpi scout and was underwhelmed and though a sota saffire I had for a week at the house was a dead heat with the linn. If I had it all to do over again I would have sold the linn and taken the upgrade money I sank into it and put the combined cash in a better table. Not the the linn sounds bad, it soundly has defeated all digital comers in my rig to me and most that have heard it.

correct it uses a pair of cinamags to balance the signal, so I'll take the cosecant over the esoterics at least to my ear they sound thin to me. Now a reworked output stage on a 50 or 60 could be sweet. I guess I'd take a well thought out single ended source over a not so great opamped balanced signal.

since I lost the page with the recent issue I do not have a complete list of people coming here is a partial from memory Me cosecant>HD2>balanced rs1s and hp2s granodemostasa ZD don't recall the rest If figured we'd source share with either my or your source at some point to do an ZD and HD2 comp Voltron Emm labs>singlepower custom SDS> herd of headphones Neilvg APL NWO >es2> HE90s (?) guzziguy exemplar>sp extreme plat> darths and akg340s Ori custom made 300b>Ori dac> K1K Icarium esoteric>SP SS1>qualias and R10 Iron Dreamer don't recall the rig there are others that this early with no coffee that I can not remember. Personally I would drive quite a distance to hear the NWO player. The meet should provide a good idea of potential options for folks at the mid to top end of the headphone world with amps and sources. plus you get free coffee

maybe I stayed at a holiday inn???

I watch a lot of law and order

Juan these guys are cool the Ray thing is probably more on than off, I like Ray but his amps are another story.. even the good ones are overpriced. Great to see you here now go get a Beligian Triple

I am going to hold out for the Gabilier table it's 3-5K but worth it, heck since there is no dealer network he'll give you credit if you fly to Colorado to listen to it

ok for starters roasting coffee is basically an advanced form of air popcorn popping I have roasted coffee in a gas grill, gas stove, popcorn popper and home roasting machine, it's not rocket science get the beans above 400f and listen for the cracks, there are basically two. for more info I would go to sweetmarias.com

crack is a basically cocaine and baking soda and crank is crystal meths street name not that I would know I watch alot of movies and pbs