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catscratch

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Posts posted by catscratch

  1. 15 hours ago, Zoide said:

    Nice! Have you tried the blu-tak mod? It gives the L700 MK1 much better bass impact.

    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.

  2. 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!

    • Like 1
  3. 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.

    L700_work.jpg

    • Like 4
  4. On 12/14/2020 at 9:08 PM, swt61 said:

    Is there a way to view this game, without actually playing it?

    There are tons of let's plays all over youtube. CohhCarnage is generally a pretty good bet for long-form let's plays, and he tends to be more positive and mature than most streamers.

    The state of affairs was pretty predictable given the constant delays and all symptoms of development hell, but I don't really have a horse in this race as I've never been a huge fan of CDPR to begin with. But this game is definitely something I would be interested in, so I'll give it a shot... eventually. And I wouldn't write CDPR off just yet, a rocky launch followed by months or years of patches to eventually become something good seems to be the new normal for ambitious launches, so I think in the long term they'll be fine.

  5. Looks like head tracking and active DSP correction with a mic to measure internal reflections. Plus a bunch of other tech stuff. The standout part to me is that Tyll was right in predicting the direction in which these sorts of headphones were going to go years ago.

    • Like 1
  6. First impressions of linear power supply for the GL MkII:

    Compared to the stock switcher the LPS removes any edge or sibilance from the highs and makes the sound smoother, less grainy, and more effortless. The stock Glite was terrific with the HD650 but was a bit edgy with the Utopia, but with the LPS the Utopia now sounds much smoother.

    I think the Glite w/LPS and HD650 pairing is a stellar deal. The amp opens up the HD650's soundstage and improves its imaging, getting rid of the 3-blob effect. It also clears up congestion in the lower midrange and tightens up the bass. Just a very synergistic pairing if you like a more solid state presentation.

    With the Utopia, it's still a reasonably good pairing, but only if you have the LPS. Stock power supply sounds edgy and harsh, but with the LPS and a little bit of EQ to reign in the highs the Utopia sounds very nice. Open, clear, highly resolving, reasonably punchy, and with a good midrange tone. But with my chronic allergy to highs I still need EQ to make it sound natural.

    Overall I think the Glite with the LPS is worth $800 more than the stock amp is worth $500. The stock amp is great with the HD650 and other warmer cans while the upgraded amp is great period.

    • Like 3
  7. Yes, that is still the case. In fact, it's worse in a way, because in the old model the y-forks were made of plastic and you could muscle the earcup past them (though they had a tendency to snap if you did), but becase this one is metal, you can't. However the new design allows for a wider range of motion, and the fit is definitely better than in the old one.

    I'm guessing someone with a 3d printer can probably make a y-fork that bypasses the tab and allows for full outward articulation. I know SoCas makes Stax mods, maybe they can do it, but I haven't contacted them about it. It'll have to be both taller and wider, since the earcup itself is wider at the inner side than the fork.

    Edit: Look like they already make something similar. No comments on style...

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  8. L700 Mk2 impressions based on less than an hour of ownership:

    First of all, the fit is very much improved. The Mk1 had an idiotic design where the top of the earcup couldn't swivel outwards far enough, and it ended up putting too much pressure on the top of the earpad while the bottom wouldn't even seal properly on some people. The Mk2 has a different y-fork, yoke, whatever you want to call it, which is bent inwards and lets the earcups swivel more, and as suspected it creates a better fit. There's still  a bit too much pressure on the temples but it's tolerable and at least it seals. And hopefully we'll have no more flimsy plastic pieces breaking. So, it's a step in the right direction.

    Those same words can apply to the sound too. The overall tuning seems warmer, tighter, and more focused. I had to EQ the treble down on the Mk1 to make it tolerable, but the Mk2 so far doesn't need it. It's also less diffuse and overly ethereal, more focused and defined, and the bass doesn't have the big midbass bump anymore and is tighter. About the only complaint I have is that the midrange weirdness from the old version is still there, and vocal tonality just sounds off. But a small dip in the EQ around 1.2khz seems to reduce this, so whatever problem is going on seems to be somewhere around 1-1.5khz. The presence region also sounds a bit recessed, kinda like the SR-007 but not to the same extent.

    Overall, it's definitely better. Sounds a bit more normal, more like vintage Stax and less like bright, alien modern day Stax - but not totally fixed yet.

    • Like 3
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  9. Diabotical is out on the Epic game store. I'm surprised, I would have thought they'd take longer to get it finished, but it's out. If you've ever wanted to get into a Quake-style game, now's the chance, before everybody spends another 20 years practicing. It's also free, though with cosmetic microtransactions (boo!).

    Game seems very well made. A little derivative, but aside from Quake Champions there really hasn't been much innovation in the genre, and Quake Champions is cheaply made and kinda crap imo, no matter how interesting the core design is. I guess outsourcing the game to a third-rate studio instead of developing in-house at id didn't really work out.

    Diabotical is most definitely not crap, it's very well made and seems full of smart little touches everywhere. Will it work? Are people gonna play it? Is it the last silent hurrah of an already dead genre? Who knows, but you can't argue with free, so try it out. I think if Epic pushes it, and puts some money into advertising, it might have a chance, the core gameplay is basically Quake and there's little else like it.

    ... aside from Warsow, and Reflex, and Xonotic, and Doombringer, and all those other very well made, mostly free Quake-style games that NOBODY freaking plays

  10. Bummer. No problems on mine so far (I've had it over half a year now), and no problems on my Clear either which I had since 2017 and which has been used daily. But I did have an Elex with a failure at the cable connector on the right earcup. I can't blame the headphones too much since there was a lot of strain being put on that connector and eventually it let go. I've gathered that it's a common weak point with them, so if you've got an Elex, don't yank on the cables!

  11. Honestly I just use the HD650 something like 95% of the time. It's like mom's chicken noodle soup, or a pair of old fuzzy slippers, headphone comfort food that won't knock your socks off but is just pleasant and relaxing and nice, without doing much of anything wrong. These days, with so much crap going on in my life and outside of it, that's pretty much all I'm looking for most of the time. And the FR is damn near perfect.

    Other headphones are the Stax L700, which has some faults but is just so damn musical, the Utopia, which sounds great but is a bit fatiguing so I might ditch it, and the SR-007. The latter won't fit my head properly, I more or less have to hold the earcups in place so it gets next to no use, but damn it sounds great when everything works out. If only Stax updated the ergonomics...

    On the move I use the Westone UM Pro 50, for similar reasons to the HD650, though I do EQ it a bit. But then again I EQ everything.

    Might get some RAALs at some point, but have concerns over brightness/fatigue.

    I'm not very bright, and neither should be my headphones!

    • Like 4
  12. Didn't realize they were SonarWorks and you were with them - nice! Would have looked up myself otherwise. Thanks for linking.

    I sanity check measurements too, by using a test tone generator to listen to the FR by ear. However that method is a bit flawed in that the brain adjusts incredibly quickly to gradual changes in volume, so it's mainly useful for hearing sudden peaks and dips, the rest you have to train yourself to hear. But it's better than nothing and faster too.

  13. RudeWolf - where are these measurements from? Do you know what system they were done on? And is there an HD650 measurement from that system? Thanks.

    Regarding pricing, I'd look for an open box special, which will often be well under $3k. These are still covered by the factory warranty. There are also lots of them floating around on the used market sometimes for under $2k but of course buying used is always a risk.

  14. I had an ESP950 and it had issues right from the start. I should probably send it back to get fixed but haven't gotten around to it. In either case, they don't have dust covers and I have a German Shepherd, and I really don't think that's gonna work out. But I do use the L700 fairly frequently.

  15. I also made the jump from the Clear to the Utopia.

    The Utopia is a little leaner and colder, has a few db less bass and a bit more treble but is still roughly within the boundaries of neutral. It is noticeably more resolving than the Clear, has a bigger stage especially when it comes to height and depth, and in the treble there is more 6khz peak but less 11khz peak. The microdynamics are also better on the Utopia, the Clear felt like it compressed things a little bit (though it had terrific slam) while the Utopia is more nuanced. I do think the Clear is better balanced and a bit better in terms of tone, but the Utopia is noticeably more resolving. At the end of the day, a fair price for the Utopia would have been around $2k and for the Clear around 1k, at least in terms of sound quality, so they're both quite overpriced to my ears but the Utopia does perform technically better overall.

    I will probably get rid of mine soon, though. It's fatiguing (the Clear was too) and I tend not to listen to it very much because of that. Granted, I haven't done any serious component swapping to try and find the perfect synergy, but I'd rather find a headphone I enjoy with no caveats and build on that. Well, I have one, it's called the HD650, but I want to find something that resolves at the flagship levels while having similar qualities. The Focals are close... but no cigar.

    I'm not sure what to replace it with though. The Audezes have the wrong FR and unit to unit variation, and I don't really feel like playing roulette with $4k headphones. The Raals are intriguing, but I've heard fatigue is an issue too. The Stax SR-007 just doesn't fit my head properly. The SR-009 very much has the wrong tuning. Hifimans... yeah... no. So I'm kinda stuck.

     

    students of history know, Utopia never really works out!

  16. I hope they change the freaking headband. The 007 Mk2 is one of the few headphones I straight up cannot wear. The self-adjusting headband strap is too tight and keeps pulling them out of place, and there is absolutely no articulation on the earcups at all, so they're never exactly right. Since the 007 is so fit dependent, I have to pretty much hold the earcups in place. Yeah, the 007 still sounds very good (modded, tweaked, etc) but if you can't use it, what use is it?

    Stax have a LOT of work ahead of them, and so far all we've seen is lackluster amps at twice the price they should be.

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  17. As well you should be.

    There's a bit of a retro indie shooter kick going on right now. Dusk, Amid Evil, Ion Fury, Wrath: Aeon of Ruin, probably a few more than I can't remember, all getting a decent amount of attention. I guess the success of Doom and Doom Eternal gave people hope that the old school shooter isn't completely dead. I hope Diabotical does the same thing for multiplayer, but not holding my breath for that one... Quake Champs failed, though that had more to do with it being a mess of a game rather than the genre being dead imo. But, you know... Bethesda. Sigh.

    On the note of Bethesda and Doom, I was having a pretty good time in the original Doom, playing on Nightmare. But a few days after I came back to it, I noticed that the game had reverted my save to the easiest difficulty for some reason and there was no way to set it back. It also marked my game as being in devmode and disabled achievements. Ok, I said, cool, let me reinstall the game and see what happens - same thing. Apparently there's some sort of anticheat for people who enable certain variables in console, and the game occasionally glitches out and thinks you're doing that when you're not. And they never bothered fixing it even though it was known about for 4 years.

    Fine, so be it Bethesda. I would have liked giving you 60 dollars for Doom Eternal, but, you know... I'll pass.

  18. Dusk is pretty great. I don't know why I never played through it when it came out, but I finally played it now.

    It starts off a bit like a Quake clone - a very slick and polished Quake clone but a clone nevertheless - but it doesn't stay that way. The feel of the game really changes as you get further into it, and it feels more inspired by the atmosphere of immersive sims like Thief and System Shock, and occasionally horror games like Amnesia. The level design has clearly learned some tricks from Half Life and Portal, and plays with verticality and sense of scale quite a lot. Above it all, the game feels almost like an exercise in narration that uses old-school FPS mechanics but is much more about what it makes you feel. Considering that the developer has a history of making atmospheric horror games, I'm not surprised.

    Don't let the low-fi primitive graphics fool you, there is nothing primitive about this game.

    Oh, and of course it has a movement system. Simplified, not quite full-on Quakeworld/CPM but at least it's there.

    Highly recommended.

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