catscratch

I have to side with Deepak on this. I think the SR-404 is crap in most systems. Heck, I've lived with one for over a year. I don't think that it's crap universally, and it did sound pretty good off the McAlister amp (much more punchy and focused), but that midrange coloration simply destroys their tone, and the somewhat diffuse and unfocused imaging doesn't help either. It has some very strong points (detail, nice deep bass and a very airy, articulate treble, wide-open soundstage with a great sense of air, and of course electrostatic speed), but they don't offset the whole sonic picture. Ultimately, the K340 off a cheap old tube amp sounded better, very similar in most respects but much more focused with a much better midrange, and that's a $400 in total system. Compared to an SR-404 off a SRM-007t or a McAlister... you draw your own conclusions. I miss the planar sound quite a bit, and I'm hoping the SR-007 will be one heck of a lot better (or whatever 'stat I decide to go with). I never had any comfort issues though. I think it's one of the most comfortable headphones I've ever worn. The only comfort issues are that it gets hot after a long listening session, and that the inner foam tends to make your ears itch. Still, it's better than the vice-like grip of the HD650, which somehow still doesn't prevent the headphones from sliding around and needing adjustment every few minutes. I'm tempted to get an SR-Lambda to play around with. I already have the Dareds to drive it.

Bad Brains - S/T Where the fuck has this band been my whole life. I always knew on hearsay that they were good, but I didn't expect THIS good. Punk has always seemed anti-intellectual and anti-technical but these guys blow the doors off everything that punk supposedly stands for, and are absolute virtuoso musicians in their own right. It's just flat-out awesome music, no matter what genre it belongs to. The production, of course, is some of the worst I've ever heard, but go figure. It kinda adds to the whole thing actually, instead of detracting from it.

Makes me glad I came to my senses just in time. I'm sure these are just growing pains, and it is more or less inevitable in a one-man-show company trying to create a SOTA product. You don't have time to debug every possible scenario, so your customers end up doing a lot of the debugging for you. But, it sure isn't fun to be one of the first few customers to have to shell out a serious batch for a beta-testing product (*cough*H2*cough*). I hope they stick with it though, and get all the issues worked out. We really do need more 'stats on the market, and we do need something to get Stax off their "if it sells don't fix it" perch and motivate them to do something about that outdated Lambda housing, or about their new line of overpriced shitty amps. I think I'll mess around with the O2 as soon as it's financially viable, but who knows... team 'stats in 08 here we come.

Seeing how you have a balanced HD650... I think the SR-404 would be a definite step down. Yes, it's better in some respects just by virtue of being an electrostat (faster impulse response, better resolution in the bass) but at least in my rig, the HD650 kills it. Fuller, richer, more natural tone, much more impact and dynamic range, very focused and holographic imaging (the SR-404 tends to be a bit diffuse), and a very nice midrange, which is IMO the SR-404's biggest fault. I'd be willing to forgive the SR-404 nearly all of its faults if it didn't have an enormous spike in the upper mids that completely ruins its tone (everything sounds brittle and electric), but in the end, the mids are what killed it for me. Every headphone I've ever really liked - balanced HD650, K340, ES2, and on audition HE90, has shared one trait - a somewhat forward and generally excellent midrange. I liked the SR-001/003 too specifically because of the mids, though lately I've cooled somewhat on them, so to speak. I really don't know what the sweet spot in Stax is since there are so many problems with the current generation of Stax products (O2 excluded, which I have yet to experiment with). The SR-001/003 are great for the money but not that great overall, with some serious comfort issues. The 303/404 have great drivers but the housing was obsolete 20 years ago, and they share a midrange coloration that is very much not enjoyable. I also really miss the planar sound, but I don't see any cheap way of getting seriously good planar sound at all when it comes to what's currently available. No comments on anything vintage since I've got no experience with it. Maybe the Koss? Maybe the SR-202? It's the only new Stax, other than the O2, that I've never heard.

Disgusting Wawa sandwich, with disgusting potato chips, disgusting donut-like thing, and some somewhat less disgusting green tea (it's quite alright, actually). Late nights at the office suck.

I was thinking along similar lines, not in that I have any kind of DIY skill whatsoever or know my ass from a hole in the ground when it comes to amps, but what if I could find some DIYer to simply build an upgraded transformer box for the SR-007 the sole purpose of which would be to give it the juice it needs, and then use a speaker amp? I doubt that would be any more expensive that any of the other less-than-ideal options in my price range. If this setup is a bit less transparent than a BH or any seriously solid 'stat amp, then so be it; I'm more worried about waking up the SR-007 than maximizing its resolving power.

"Relaxed sound" is exactly why I didn't pick up the SR-007 yet. I really do need to hear it on a variety of amps, but since a) I can't stand solid state, I like an aggressive but full sound, and c) I don't have bottomless pockets, I don't think I can drive the O2 properly. Just about the only thing I can do for it is get a transformer box and use my 18WPC Dareds, and hope it will be enough. It's a bloody shame, since I do miss the planar sound, but I just don't see any options that can outperform my current rig - save maybe for the EH-1.2B, but I think I'll wait until the FOTM dies down on these. My rig trashes the SR-404 on so many fronts that whatever I get will have to be in a different universe sonically, and it's one hell of a leap of faith to shell out on an unknown quantity which may not be better... or a known quantity which I probably can't drive to the proper level.

2 years later the ES2 is still going strong, though my weight hasn't really changed. The fit in my left ear is a bit harder to get, but it was never perfect to begin with. I expect in another 2 years I'd probably need another pair, but I doubt I'll keep them that long anyway. The headphones have been all around the world with me and were abused in pretty much any way I could think of (no, not like that you pervs), and are still fine.

An excessively mellow sound is not a characteristic of electrostatic headphones in general. The SR-404 is anything but mellow, and neither is the SR-001. There may be a lack of tactile slam and "bite," whatever that is, but the SR-404's main strength was to take extremely complex music and dissect it all into its constituent parts no matter how fast or hectic things got. I listen to a lot of death metal, some of it pretty insane (Nile, Cryptopsy, and the like) and the SR-404 was fantastic with it. Even with blast beats going at full speed you could still hear the texture of every drum thwack and every cymbal stroke on Nile's "Black Seeds of Vengeance" with the SR-404 and it was anything but mellow. In fact, this ability to resolve even very fast, dense, and complex music into its component sounds is the one 'stat quality that I miss the most.

My only experience so far was with the ubiquitous MF X10 V3 tube buffer, and for even the lower mid-fi sources I've got lying around it does nothing but degrade the signal. The midrange is brought out a bit, and there's more added tube bloom, but everything else suffers, especially the imaging. When I'm trying to run a semi-decent rig off an mp3 player shoving the X10 in there can act as a grain/noise/general nastiness filter but you have to be working with some really shitty sources in order for this to be an improvement. My advice is to stay away from this particular unit. I don't have any experience with other units though.

Just saw TMNT (the 2007 animated movie). I'm surprised. It didn't suck. I'm not a fan of the whole franchise but I did like it back in the day, and this one more than holds its own. The storyline is completely lame but it's really irrelevant to the movie; the drama between Leo and Raph takes center stage here, and "that scene on the rooftop," to not give away any spoilers here, was just epic. Overall, decent animation, great and very adult characterization, pretty good and memorable dialogue, lame and forgettable story, but one seriously awesome scene that I'll remember for a long time. **1/2 out of ****.

I've heard the SR-404 with many different amps (313, 007t, McAlister) and it always had its upper midrange coloration. It also always had a somewhat strident lower treble and a somewhat diffuse character to its sound, which hurts its layering abilities quite a bit. Off the McAlister it had very good bass impact that wasn't there with the 313 and 007, and it had a more forward, rather Grado-like quality to its sound, but it was also far too bright. I really liked it with about 25% of my music and thought it was ok with another 50% of my music, but when my K340 spanked it for $200, off a $200 amp, it was time for it to go. In terms of electrostatic vs. dynamic sound - 'stats are much much faster, so any kind of grain or minute distortion present with dynamic cans just isn't there, unless it's caused by the rest of your system. 'Stat detail extends throughout the frequency spectrum, and everything, be it treble, midrange, or bass is resolved into its component parts, as opposed to dynamics, which tend to be detailed up top but get progressively less resolving as you go down the frequency range. Electrostatic bass is especially much more detailed than dynamic bass. At the same time, 'stats don't have the tactile impact of good dynamics, though they can have some impact, and this is evident not just in the bass but everywhere else as well. They just don't displace as much air as dynamics period. In most applications, dynamics do sound more lively. I've left stats but I'm going to be coming back to them, despite having a dynamic rig that has many of the virtues of the electrostatic sound. I doubt I'll be giving up this rig any time soon, but we'll see how it gets on in the face of quality electrostatic rivals (O2, EH1.2B, 4070). Dynamics just sound like a system playing back the music, while with 'stats, the system is often left behind and you have nothing but the music. In a dynamic, you can feel the drivers moving, you can visualize the thrum of the voice coils and almost feel the signal moving through the wires (ok cat, put down the pipe...) but in a 'stat music just seems to appear ethereally out of thin air with no sound signature or evidence of a system to hold it back, and it takes you a while to lock on to what the system is doing, sonically speaking. But at the same time, listening to a 'stat seems to be more of a cerebral exercise, while dynamics do tend to get you more emotionally involved - though I'd wager that a properly set up electrostatic system that can put out some actual impact will reverse that trend somewhat.

Welcome to two years ago. Head-fi has become commercial. The price for that is attracting the mainstream public. So we have discussions like this, while anything technical, philosophical, abstract, or remotely interesting gets pushed to page 3 in the span of 12 hours and dies unnoticed. It's still one heck of a marketplace though, and is pretty invaluable for putting people in touch with vendors, and finding out about new gear. That's mainly why I hang around (and the few interesting threads every once in a while). That and helping out newbies every once in a while. The search function is still broken

Going from memory... About as different as headphones get. Now, K340s are also different from each other, esp. in tonal balance, but some things about them are universal. The A250 is tilted up in the upper mids and is recessed in the lower mids, giving the midrange a thin and distant quality. The K340 is bumped up in the lower midrange, with some pairs also being recessed in the upper midrange (though not my pair). That gives its midrange a very full and lush sound. Instrument tone is warmer than it should be but it is still a bit more realistic than the A250 and a lot more pleasing. The A250's highs have a peak in the lower treble that makes them sound metallic and steely with certain instruments. The K340's treble is either very recessed with bass-heavy pairs, or very upfront and very good with bass-light pairs - and it can be anything in between. In any case, it's a lot more linear, and thanks to the electret tweeter, it's much faster as well. Cymbal texture tends to be better portrayed on the K340. I should note that electrets, and to a lesser degree electrostats, have a certain glassy quality to their highs, and the K340 definitely suffers from this. Throw in its echoey resonance, and you get highs that aren't quite realistic, but still manage to dig up a lot of detail from the recording. The 250's bass is very linear and reaches very deep. It's easily the best feature of the headphone. It is a bit recessed and needs a bassy amp to bring it out, but when you do so, it shines. The K340 on the other hand is very lacking in deep bass. Bass-heavy pairs can have a bit of a midbass bloom, while my bass-light pair has a very good, tight and snappy bass, very linear through the mid and upper bass, but rolled-off in the deep bass. A250 tends to have a very wide soundstage, but so does the K340. It's up to the system really as to which one wins. Imaging is a bit crisper on the K340, but the A250 is no slouch. Both headphones are very dynamic. Bass-light K340s tend to appear even more dynamic due to the more present highs. The K340 needs a lot of volume in order to shine, though, while the A250 is more comfortable at lower volumes (and can get pretty nasty at high volumes with some recordings due to the lower treble peak). I prefer the K340 by miles. The A250's steely treble and midrange coloration are two of my biggest sonic turn-offs. I do like its bass though. I've got an A250 a K340 lying around though, so I can do some real listening and give more detailed comparisons. The above, as I said, is purely from memory so it may not be valid.

Ditto. That, together with the expense of driving the O2 properly, is what has so far prevented me from taking the plunge. I prefer an upfront sound and I don't like a dark sound signature (though I mind it less than an overly bright sound signature). I also like larger-than-life soundstages, inaccurate though they may be, for a very simple reason: 50% of my music listening is electronica, and there, it's the size of the headstage rather than the size of the soundstage that matters. O2 sounds like it will be too compressed for that. On the upside, the midrange of the O2 sounds like exactly what I want. I've heard "bumped-up upper mids" tossed around in conjunction with the EH1.2, and that's one of my biggest sonic turn-offs. So, I may end up with the O2 eventually, but I'll probably end up trying everything else first. Everything else meaning just the EH1.2B (and maybe 4070).

The K340 isn't really all that closed, it's more of a semi-open design. It isolates a little bit but it leaks sound everywhere. I also have never been able to get a pair to fit properly without having to hold the damn thing in place, making it useless for anything other than sitting and listening. Sonically, K340s tend to vary a lot from pair to pair. I prefer bass-light pairs, matched up with warm(er) tube amps. What about the Stax 4070? Never heard one but heard good things about it. Seems to be a candidate for future FOTM on That Other Forum.

That review should be mandatory reading for anyone with an interest in reviewing or discussing audio components. It's a terrific example of clear and organized articulation of a very abstract and difficult topic. But, it's going to go way over the heads of the average public, especially because of the length. It's a case of the review being much better than the audience. People don't want an organized discussion filled with novel concepts - they want a short largely monosyllabic blurb with simple numerical ratings and lots of "lawlz" and "roflcopter" thrown in.

Well, I'll still buy it, whatever they do. Considering that it's the dollar vote that counts, I'm still voting for the series. Though to be honest, if SC4 ends up going in the same direction that SC3 was going, I doubt I'll be holding my breath for SC5. There's only so much I can take before I admit that the series is flawed, and move onto greener pastures. Yeah, Setsuka's combos can be a bitch, as well as her just frames. I can't count how much time I spent trying to get her 1A:A:A down and I still can't get it right every time. Still, the playstyle reminds me a lot of my favorite character from Samurai Showdown (Ukyo Tachibana) - speed, range, damage, and punishment. It puts a lot of psychological pressure on your opponent and forces them to turtle, which lets you really control the match. Though I'm still a Mitsurugi player first and foremost and will probably always be. He's just so versatile and has so much potential for mind games, whereas Setsuka is more mechanical and is more about control and punishment.

I've had something similar with the H2. Granted I was really smashed at the time and could have hallucinated things (I certainly was hallucinating other things) but it was sharp and painful enough to make me rip off the cans faster than I thought was possible at the time. It definitely wasn't pleasant, and my hairdo might have come out of Dragonball Z when I looked in the mirror. But, that's just the thing, I do have long hair and it tends to get into headphones, and exposed wires and charged diaphragms really don't like bodily protuberances intruding into their personal space. **** Man, ever since I've left team planar so to speak, I've been getting planar craves, and the H2 definitely doesn't satisfy enough. The HD650/Dared rig is wonderful, except in that it can't stop being a dynamic headphone, even driven by a massively overpowered push-pull speaker amp. There is still this slight grain to the sound, and it still isn't fast enough to keep up with the more insane selections among my music. I may be the only one that prefers electrostats for death metal, but when you've grown up in the audio world listening to Nile's Black Seeds of Vengeance on 'stats, dynamics just won't do. They just can't take layers of distorted guitars on top of 20 blast beats per second and resolve it all into finely detailed and perfectly separated instruments. To make matters worse, my friend has an SRD-7 Pro that he's willing to let me borrow. I'm so tempted by the Omega II right now I could burst. I get the O2 urge every 3 months like clockwork. I've been able to resist so far, but who knows what will happen this time. Though to be honest, I am a bit hesitant to just get the SR-007 Mk II due to the several supposedly broken pairs that head-fiers have bought in the last few months. I'm slowly starting to come around to the idea that what I want is not so much a dynamic that has the virtues of planars, but a planar that has the virtues of a dynamic. Something that sounds very close to a seriously good balanced 650 rig especially in the weight and heft of the sound, but with the speed and microdetail of a 'stat.

Vader? Yoda? What the fuck are they thinking? How about actually balancing the fucking game for once and making sure that shit like variable cancel doesn't make it into the fourth installment. I loved SC3 but it was one of the most broken high-profile fighting games I've ever seen. And most of the new content was a joke (Setsuka's fun though). First, fix what's there, don't just introduce new bullshit that nobody wants. Or maybe people really do want Yoda and Vader? How about Kirk and Picard in SC5? I bet that would answer another age-old question.

I think that the biggest part of the magic that I'm hearing is that it's a push-pull amp, so I'm getting most of the benefits of balanced drive without basically paying $$$ for a nice balanced headphone amp. I don't think that being a speaker amp per se has anything to do with it. Still, if we do have a way to run headphones reliably from speaker amps, just think of the system matching possibilities! Also, sonically speaking, the VP-20 is one hell of a little amp for the money. It really does sound good.

Volodos performing Rach 3 in Carnegie Hall (don't remember what orchestra was backing in up but it was rubbish). I have the recording with the Berlin Philharmonic, and it's the best Rach 3 recording I've heard in years, but it is a positively restrained and cautious exercise compared to the frenzy and fireworks Volodos put on that night. I've never heard a better performance from anyone, anywhere, ever.

I don't have the cable at the moment, but I will have one on Wednesday and I will try them again. It will be interesting to hear how it all stacks up now that I know what to expect and don't have new toy syndrome playing with my brain. Going from memory... I did use the HD600 initially and it didn't even occur to me to use the HD650 given how much I preferred the HD600 single-ended. Off the speaker amp, the grain was gone, the bass tightened up a lot, and the sound was even more forward and aggressive. It really was a very punchy, impactful headphone with a lot of heft to its sound, and on some of my jazz/fusion recordings it kept impressing me with how very present and right there the instruments were. It still didn't wow me with its detail, the soundstage was smallish, and imaging wasn't very good. All in all, it was a fairly different animal from the HD650, more natural and more impactful but nowhere near as detailed and technically refined. I will listen more when I have the cable and report what I find.

Thought I'd append a very special album that I left out: Amethystium is Vangelis, Tangerine Dream, and Enigma all rolled into one. It may be 100% ear candy 100% of the time, but it's very good ear candy that has real depth, feeling, and thought behind every track. It's also one of the few albums that manages to incorporate the sound of old-school electronica while managing to sound thoroughly contemporary. It's also extremely well produced. One of the quietest albums I have, pretty no compression used at all. The clarity and dynamic range are terrific.

Not much metal added to my collection this year so I can't really say. But the surprise of the year in any genre so far happened to be a metal album: Outworld - s/t Well, no, I lie. I wasn't surprised at all at how good this was. I've been following this band and album for a while and heard a good bunch of it before release. I also am a fan of Rusty Cooley's work in general. This sounds a bit like a thoroughly pissed-off Symphony-X, though just to leave it at that would be an injustice. There's Pantera in here, and Nevermore, and a bit of Meshuggah for good measure. Still, this isn't just a sum of its influences but a new sound. Oh, and it's also better than anything SyX ever did, except possibly V. That's a very high recommendation if there ever was one. And Rusty Cooley absolutely shreds. If you don't know of this guitarist, then brace yourself. P.S. I've yet to check out the new Alchemist, but if the whole disk is as good as the two tracks I've heard, it will be my pick for 2007 out of what I've heard thus far. Alchemist is my favorite current metal band (used to be Nile but after Darkened Shrines they really didn't do anything original... or good).