GPH

The one Ray is using doesn't look too bad, it seems more flexible than some of the other ALO "designs". I've never used an ALO dock or cable though, so I could be wrong. I just thought Ray was referring to ALO in particular because there are not many companies that I know of that make extravagant docks like them.

Looks like Justin isn't the only one to have a problem with ALO cables: Posted here by Ray Samuels:

Seriously man, you have balls to write something like that on the internet.

Thanks for the link grawk. No real need for it since I already have Windows XP on a separate partition, but you can't refuse freebies like that.

Hydro-electric power = cleaner power = better sound Simple equation (at least for Patrick82 it would be)

Canadian sound sucks, Quebec sound is superior.

Nate, if we forget about the hiss, are these a big improvement over your Etys?

Splitzer, is that spritzer said with a Japanese accent?

Head-case is to Head-fi what these guys are to Al Capone:

Happy birthday!

Portable rigs suck compared to home equipment, but they can be pretty good as long as you don't invest a fortune. Something like iPod > Mini^3 > Etymotic ER4S costs around 500$ and sounds excellent. Which leads me to the question: why do you use a 300$ Nordost interconnect in your portable rig?

50 000$... Meh, a good amp must be at least the price of a house, like these 350 000$ Wavac SH-833 monoblocks: What's even funnier if you read the Stereophile article is that the amp was damaged during shipping and the designer of the amp had to come to the guy's house to repair it.

Happy birthday guys!

Hey, I just realized there will be 4 different headphones meets today - two in California, one in Ohio and one in Montreal. The headphone community is going strong!

Happy birthday Nenso!

Seriously, pompon is a nice guy, I met him at the last Montreal meet. Probably just a language barrier here, and the fact that he believes in power cords and we don't.

Good point. I remember reading somewhere that rolling tubes doesn't make a big difference in Stax amps, but I didn't try it myself. I only changed the tubes once, and it was to replace the stock ones that were dying by the GE that you got, so I couldn't really tell if there was an improvement or not.

The more I read your impressions on headphones, the more I think you have an audition problem as Deepak suggested. The ESP950 are nice headphones and their bass is quite good, particularly out of a good amp, but they certainly don't have earth shattering bass, and even less out of the stock Koss amp.

Happy birthday!

I've been listening to the Cambridge 840A / SRD-7 Mk2 combo on the last two days and I have to say it does a very fine job driving the SR-007. There are no obvious faults in this setup, the only shortcomings appear if I compare it to the KGSS that I used to own. This is all based on memory so it might not be perfectly accurate though. I remember that when I had my SRM-T1S, I was not entirely satisfied by the bass presentation, it was too syrupy, not punchy enough and in too small quantity. The KGSS corrected that and then some. With the transformer, I'd say the bass is closer to the KGSS, very punchy and well defined, though there is slightly less in quantity than on the KGSS. Also, I think the bass on the SRD-7 doesn't extend as deep, but I'd have to do a direct comparison to be totally sure about that. For the midrange and vocals presentation, the SRD-7/Cambridge seems more lively and upfront than the KGSS which was slighly more laid back and perhaps more "neutral". This is good for some genres like rock and metal, but the KGSS is still king on classical and jazz. With that said, the SRD-7 did well with all the genres that I've tried and is certainly better than the T1S amp I had which was too smooth and gentle for testosterone-driven music like Iron Maiden and Metallica. For the treble extension, I have to concur with some reports that I've read saying it's slightly rolled off on the very top. This is apparent if you've heard better amps, but it's not something that really bothers me in this case. The percussions are rendered nicely with good punch and attack. The biggest difference between this setup and the KGSS would be the retrieval of small details and the instruments placement. The KGSS put weight on every instrument and everything was focused and well defined. The separation between the different melodies and musicians was great and something that I haven't heard from any other headphone/amp combo. With the SRD-7, everything is slightly more diffuse and "light", and it doesn't retrieve micro-details like the KGSS used to. It was apparent when I listened to a familiar track and expected to hear some crackling at the beginning due to bad recording. It was there, but much less audible and annoying than on the KGSS. It makes for a very fun listen, but it's not the last word in terms of resolution. Overall, I'm really enjoying this setup and I like the convenience (and $ saving) of using the Cambridge both as a speaker and headphone amp.

The question is, did I even send the 950 for repair yet?

D'oh, that was stupid of me. And I own the headphones. It's just that I never used the bag and forgot about it.

Good luck about that, the thing is pretty big and probably eats batteries very fast too. You'd need a man-purse.

Happy birthday!