catscratch

Very interesting tech since it looks like it can easily trickle down. However I don't know how well it works, whether or not it has any detrimental effects on sound, or whether it's a more effective method than digital EQ and DSP. But very interesting nevertheless.

Oh, I think you could make the argument that the electrostatic market has gone backwards. Meanwhile, absolutely, there's a ton of movement and hype everywhere else. So if someone hasn't heard a top 'stat system, and has been keeping up with developments in planars and dynamics, then it's clear where the perception comes from. But then you hear a good 'stat system and you understand. This is why I'm moderately hyped about this - the 'stat market needs a good shakeup - but we'll see how it pans out. Looking forward to Spritzer's teardown! And if it's good, who knows... (looks at wallet) (wallet: why are you looking at me like that)

And I'm being a pedantic prick so ignore me 😀 Regarding "progress..." If electrostats were really old these days, maybe some of these new planars and dynamics that came around as a result of this progress would actually sound better than the old electrostats. But that hasn't been the case in my experience. IMO this progress malarkey is just another FOTM, with the big revelation being - drumroll please - that "neutral" doesn't mean "bright as fuck!" Wow, we've come so far! But, seeing more electrostatics, or cool new things like RAAL - and they've got a new circumaural headphone announced too - is actually interesting, and the more good headphones out there, the better. Besides somebody needs to light a fire under Stax's ass and what better way than actual competition. Maybe this way they'll stop making headphones with headbands that crack, ergonomics not designed for human heads, amps that are defective by design, or tuning that's best served as an advertisement for EQ plugins. And if not, well other people will make stats too.

HD650 has a slight resonance around 5k together with a very small peak. But we're talking a few db at most. Definitely interested, but don't know if $4500 interested.

Happy happy unbirthday, To you To you!

Definitely check out Dusk then, if you haven't. It's heavily inspired by the first Quake, but takes it a step further, borrowing a lot of level design tricks and atmosphere from games ranging from Portal and Half-life to immersive sims like Thief and System Shock. It seems like a simple retro throwback shooter for the first few levels... but it's not. There's a lot more to it. Edit on the topic of soundtrack: I think id/Bethesda parted ways with Mick Gordon, but they still have Andy Hulshult, who did the music for Dusk, Prodeus, Amid Evil, and a whole bunch of other recent boomer shooters besides, and I expect if they really are remaking Quake and want a metal soundtrack they'll have him do it. So it should be good, he's very talented.

Yeah. No. On the plus side, Roboquest is a very nice roguelite FPS (though still in early access) and definitely recommended if you like that sort of thing. Also, rumors are flying about a Quake reboot, which means I should probably get back into Quake at some point so I'm not completely useless when it comes out.

For the Clear, drop 1.2khz by 2db and 11khz by 5db with Q-factor 2. That goes a LONG way towards mellowing them out. Also you can drop the 6khz peak, but it is nowhere near as problematic as it is on the Utopia and I generally don't bother. Of course, YMMV and when it comes to treble peaks, everyone will hear them in different locations and with various degrees of severity. I hear peaks at 6khz, 8.5khz, and 11khz, but it's the last one that's the major issue. Clear reacts better to EQ than Utopia does IMO.

It could be. Focal drivers use lightweight metal diaphragms with a very thin and flexible surround, and they have a very high degree of excursion so they're able to displace a lot of air despite being quite small. They do operate near the limits of excursion though and have less maximum SPL capability. But I'm non engineer and have no clue how that relates to listening fatigue. In terms of tuning, they're rather Sennheiser HD6X0 like, though they trade off less linear highs for better extension in the bass. This tuning and overall character is why I like them in the first place.

I finally sold my Utopia. I just wasn't using it enough. Yes it was very impressive, but it was far too fatiguing, and a $4k headphone that you could only use 30 minutes at a time wasn't worth keeping. Sadly, I think the Clear falls under the same category too, I can listen to it for longer than the Utopia (1-2 hours) but still it's not an all-day headphone. I don't know what it is about Focals, but they seem to irritate my ears in ways that other headphones don't. Regarding the DSHA-3F, it is a very transparent and resolving amp, and if you want to max out the Utopia's resolution, go with that. But it doesn't really change what the Utopia is. And you find the Utopia borderline, the Clear with the DSHA-3F is nearly as resolving (the highs are worse, but the mids and bass are similar) and definitely less abrasive. You could also try a bit of EQ, the Utopia does have a narrow 6khz peak and exaggerates treble past 13-14khz by about 6db or so. But to me that only mellowed it out a little bit. So, I think I'm leaving team Focal, since my ears refuse to cooperate.

Happy belated birthday (missed the thread) and welcome to the 40+ club. (del Toro voice) As your attorney, I advise you to start drinking heavily.

Speaking of not procedural generation, Prodeus is pretty great. Imagine if id went on making more Doom games instead of going 3d with Quake, or what a more modern sprite/3d hybrid would look like. There's some really stellar sprite work and general art work in Prodeus, and in terms of gameplay I like it quite a bit more than Doom 2016 (never played Eternal) - it's faster and more old school. My #1 pick for lo-fi indie shooters still goes to Dusk, but Prodeus is a firm #2 at at this point. Highly recommended. The boomer shooter market seems to be... booming. (i'll see myself out)

I thought it might have been something like that. Thanks for doing the work to get the site back, I was checking every day for it.

Happy birthday Senor Stax!

Ok brain, riddle me this. When you grab a stainless steel pan straight out of the oven with a bare hand, what happens? What's that? You don't know? Ok, go right ahead. Now that I won't be playing games for a few days, I can reveal that I've been playing Deep Rock Galactic quite a bit with friends (and solo) and for the coop shooter crew it is definitely a game to check out. I haven't really played Killing Floor or Left for Dead or anything like this so I can't compare it to other coop shooters, but the mechanics are solid and definitely feel inspired by some of the old arcady shooters I used to play, and the fully destructible terrain and very impressive procgen keeps the levels varied and interesting. I have a few hundred hours in it already and am looking forward to more, as soon as I can grab a mouse again. And no, I'm not playing Valheim. Maybe later sometime. Much prefer first person over third person games.

Think HD600 but with better detail, much better dynamics, more linear and extended bass, and elctrostat-like imaging, but at the same time slightly artificial tembre and peaky, somewhat piercing highs. I so badly want to like them but they're too fatiguing for me. But for someone less treble sensitive they should be perfect.

Bloody shame. The HD650 is what I use 90% of the time. Would suck for that to go out of production. Did their earphones sell well? I never thought much of their earphone lineup and I wonder if that's more important right now than full size headphones. Were their noise cancelling headphones good? There was little innovation coming out of them over the last 10 years and the only models I was interested it were the older ones. I think a smaller, slimmer headphone division focused on the enthusiast and pro market would make sense, because competing with Apple and Beats in the consumer market is gonna be a long shot. Play to your core strengths, and be realistic about the size of your market. Their core strengths are full size headphones, tuning, driver design, and offering value, and those things scream pro/enthusiast to me and not consumer or even luxury. Focal beat them to the luxury market anyway.

The Socas yokes angle inwards too. I'm not sure how much. The clamp is substantial and a little bit uncomfortable with glasses on, but more comfortable than the stock yokes. They still limit front to back rotation, as the tab that limits it is on the headband and you would have to redesign the headband to remove that. However the tab on the earcups that limits top to bottom rotation fits under the yokes, and the only thing that limits top to bottom rotation is the physical size of the earcup, which is wider than the yokes at its widest point. So you'd have to make much wider yokes to allow for completely free top to bottom rotation. I don't have any issues with fit with these, but there are some occasional issues with excessive clamp.

Best of luck to everybody. The wind wasn't as strong as advertised so fingers crossed it won't be destructive. My snowblower died two winters ago and I never bothered fixing it so... lots of digging today. But at least we had the sense to park one car closer to the end of the drive, so I didn't have to dig as much. Cheating ftw.

About a foot and a half here in jersey. Not the worst since the power stayed on this time. Knock on wood...

Happy Birthday!

No. It's a standard mod sold by Socas3d, I'd email them about it if you want to print it yourself.

No, or at least not yet. Hesitant to try more invasive mods. Haven't even port modded my 007 mk2 yet, though I probably will do that soon.

Happy new year's. 2020 wasn't as rough for me as 2019 was, but not through lack of trying. Here's to hoping 2021 will be better. When in doubt, remember this drunken wisdom: the glass is neither half empty nor half full, it just needs to be topped up!

So I went ahead and modded my L700 mk1. I'm generally pretty skeptical of Lambda mods, but my yoke broke on the left side and I fixed it with duck tape and a coat hanger, and mysteriously my coat hanger solution ended up being far more comfortable than the stock setup. So I got to wondering if there was a way to custom-make a better yoke, and lo and behold, someone else has already done it. These are 3d printed by Socas and they work pretty well. They allow for a wider range of motion for the earcup and they fix the problem of having too much pressure at the top of the earpad and not enough at the bottom. So if you're one of the people who, like me, can't wear the current generation Lambdas properly, this is a solution. You will need a Torx 6 screwdriver to get the screw out that holds the yoke in place, and after that it's an easy swap. This does affect the sonics a bit. In the past I always read accounts of people hearing the L700 as overly warm and a bit congested and wondered what on earth they were hearing, but how... that's kinda how it sounds. The frequency response gets rotated clockwise, the highs are much smoother and more palatable, but the midrange shout and upper mid dip gets even more noticeable. The solution of course is EQ. I'm not gonna post all of my settings since you really need to personalize your own EQ but -5db at 1150hz q1.41 and +2db 3khz q0.5 evens out the mids, then you also need to drop the peaks in the highs - which we all hear in different places - and adjust the lows to taste. I have a MiniDSP ears now and will probably be able to EQ more accurately, but I thought I'd give a heads up to @yaluen and others who are in the same boat that there is a fix, and you don't need to write the current-gen Lambdas off (though I don't know if this works for the L300/500). This thing sounds very smooth and natural now, with great imaging and clarity but a bit lackluster impact in the lows, which I'm sure a more powerful amp than my 717 will fix. Oh, and the Mk2? My opinion of it has turned pretty sharply downwards. I prefer my modded mk1 by a good margin.