aerius

It's just you. Serious answer? I won't speak for other head-case members, but I for one, having seen all kinds of "this new thing's the best shit ever!!!" threads on more pieces of gear than I can remember, will treat any new claims of "miracle gear" with a healthy degree of skepticism. To me it's nothing to get excited about until either myself or someone whose opinions I trust hears it and gives it the thumbs up.

I expect them to perform at their pricepoint, whatever the hell that is. I remember a craze way back when over the Sony CD780 (I think), which was an under $100 headphone said to be better than the Senn 580/600 and the best damn thing around. I eventually heard one after the buzz died and it turned out to be crap. Then the Audio Technica A900 craze hit and it was said to best 'phones costing twice as much, it was of course a bust and philodox and I had a big part in popping the bubble, I think I also got a ban out of that one. Based on my past experiences with trends like this, I'd stay the hell away for now, then pick up the phones for cheap when the bubble bursts and people start dumping them.

It might be because people are using amps as a tuning device to make up for the flaws in their headphones, and at one time I was one of these people. With my Senn 580's for instance I needed a bit more fullness in the midrange and some added sparkle up top to bust through the "Senn veil", with my Grado 225 that sparkle becomes "crap, that's too bright". I eventually realized it was better to have a more neutral amp and tune the headphones instead. Or it could be that people are just parrots and sheep and just follow along and repeat what everyone else is saying. On head-fi, I think the latter explanation is more likely.

This is something I've been thinking about for quite some time now, why is it that some headphones are automatically assumed to require super-expensive over the top amps while others aren't? The examples I'm specifically thinking of are the Senn 580/6x0 and AKG K701 along with Grados like the RS-1. As most of you have likely heard by now, everyone "knows" that the Senns & AKG "need" the best amp money can buy, and if the sound isn't quite right it's always the fault of the amp because it's not good enough. I've also noticed that scores if not hundreds of people own $1000+ amps for the above headphones. On the other side of the coin we have (John) Grados, everyone "knows" that they sound good even without an amp, and thus they don't really need an amp. I very rarely see someone with a full-out Grado amp, most people seem to stop somewhere around the MAD Ear+ Gilmore Lite or PPX3 level and that's the end of the line for them. As far as I've seen, there's maybe a dozen people or so who've actually spent more than $1000 on amps for their Grados. I find this really strange for several reasons. I own a Grado 225 and Senn 580, and I've recently been using them a lot more. I've found that when fed from a good amp, the 225 scales every bit as well as a 580, and I think the two of them are pretty closely matched in terms detail & resolution. If I add the RS-1 to the mix, it'll handily pull away from any Senn when given a good amp. Which finally leads to the question, just how important are amps to various headphones, and who the hell started these silly myths?

Currently I'm not working on anything, the weather's too nice outside and I'm too lazy to plug in my soldering iron. Recent projects have included the following: 1) Continued tweaking of my Objective-Interim tube amp, mostly playing around with new input tubes 2) A proof of concept parafeed amp using a 12SN7 and 12W6 in triode mode 3) A cRaptor based on KG's schematics just to see how bad it sounds (even powered it with a switchmode filament supply) 4) Various DC filament supplies, trying to make a super-simple super-quiet one As for what's next, these are all still in the thinking stages 1) A tube phono amp of some sort 2) A 2A3 headphone amp of some sort 3) A glowy nightlight using an 872 mercury vapour rectifier

It's a new high in co-ordination, a ghetto looking stand for a ghetto looking headphone.

That's cheapskate ingenuity at its best. Get some pipe, screw it to a board, and then put pipe insulation on it.

Regarding Stereophile. The Stereophile of the last 10 years or so writes better ad copy than the advertisers themselves. The Toronto Reference Library has Stereophile issues going back several decades, I've read through many of them while killing time between classes back when I was in university. The best issues, bar none, were the ones where J. Gordon Holt was the owner and chief editor, since the mid 80's when John Atkinson took over as the editor things have gone downhill, with the worst damage taking place in the last 10 years or so. Let's put it this way, in the Recommended Components list they have more components in Class A+ (so good they had to invent a category above Class A) than they do in Class D (entry level). I flipped through literally pages of Class A gear before coming across maybe 3 or so Class D components. That should tell you something about the honesty & integrity of the magazine. If you honestly believe that dozens of components of each type (speakers, amps, sources) can be rated as Class A, ie. state of the art, best that there is, then you're on crack. What Stereophile does is analogous to handing out 100 gold medals in every event in the Olympics. That's just fucking bullshit.

A couple blowjobs from a Vietnamese hooker. Remember, "sucky sucky five dolla!!"

I think this is true of most high-end headphones, whether they're dynamic, electrostatics, or some other technology. The owner eventually ends up building a system which is specific to that headphone to get as much out of it as he can.

Ha-ha! Postjack's getting sloppy thirds.

Except Billy & Tyrion. Billy we haven't quite figured out yet, but Tyrion is a certified grade A shitbag & apologist for RSA.

Would this be a good time to point him towards KG's and Roam's comments regarding the Raptor?

EnABL works. No, it did not make my piece of shit computer speakers sound better than my headphones, but it did make them noticeably better. There's not as much of the papery honky sound as before so they sound clearer, but I'll be honest here, they still sound like crap. They basically went from mega-crap to crap. I don't have anything else to try it out on so this is as far as I can go. If you want to try it for yourself, the patent info and instructions can be found here.

Nope. Knowledge is power. Ignorance ain't bliss.

To me cables are the final step in tuning the system, once you have the rest of the gear, listen for a while to see which way the sound needs to be adjusted, then get the cables.

Personally I feel there's nothing wrong with the responsible use of alcohol & other drugs. If you want to drink, smoke, or shoot up, I have no objections to it as long as you don't ruin your life or run over little kids while driving drunk or something stupid like that.

Audio Aero Capitole CD player, a headphone whose sound you really like, and a custom built amp to drive the darn thing. Go out to meets & stores, arrange to borrow other people's gear, and listen to as many headphones as you possibly can. Eventually you'll come up with a shortlist, then narrow it down to one or two, then get someone to custom build and amp for the chosen headphone(s).

I just pulled out my old computer speakers, I'm going to listen to them for a bit and then do the EnABL thing and see if it does anything. I'll know in a week or 2 if it really works as claimed.

NFL stars can practically get away with murder, I'm not going to hold my breath for a conviction since I very much doubt the asshole will get anything more than a token slap on the wrist.

My friend contacted Mr. Purvine who holds the patents to the EnABL process and got the specifics on how to apply the pattern to the RS-1 driver and housing. Then she got her sister to apply the pattern on the RS-1 drivers & housing after practicing on a cheap walkman headphone. The cable build and recable job was done by one of her university classmates. No idea of cost, but she said it was a pretty delicate procedure and there's no way in hell they're doing it with other people's headphones. According to Mr. Purvine's posts on DIY audio, the best bet is to get a kid to do it since they have the best eyesight and hand-eye co-ordination.

This just in! I'm told you just got put on double secret probation.

This is a very important point, to me at least, there's no point in having a "100% super duper perfect system" if it makes 99.9% of my music unlistenable. I have a lot of albums in my collection which aren't all that well recorded, I still want them to sound good and enjoyable and if "upgrading" my system makes the music suck then it's not worthwhile for me. I have amazingly well recorded albums as well as ones that might as well have been made in a garage, I want as many of them as possible to sound as good as possible. Back to the torture test. Tori Amos - In the Springtime of his Voodoo (Boys for Pele). This one's been in my test rotation for a long time. Most systems have a hard time keeping the low piano notes from blending into mush, and some systems even end up blending the electric bass into the piano notes. Keeping the piano & bass groove going is a nice test of bass control. The bass drum hits are pretty cool too, it's pretty hard to get the impact right without having it get boomy. Getting the balance right between tightness, impact & dynamics, and keeping the bloat & boom under control is surprisingly hard, especially with speakers. There's also the cool hi-hat cymbals in the 1st minute or so where they go "ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch" really fast, I think the first sequence of that is around the 30 second mark, give or take 10 seconds. The Tea Party - Psychopomp (Transmission). This one's another nice test for what happens when things get busy and loud. On the quieter simpler parts, it shouldn't be too hard to hear all the details & texture of the instruments, and when it gets loud all those details & textures should still be there. Also good for checking to see if the system can keep the cymbals and other highs under control when the song gets loud, or if they start getting distorted & harsh.

I can't say I know the answer to any of these, but I'd bet the guys on the Steve Hoffman forum could probably list a dozen examples.