aerius

Made a couple more changes. Power supply transformer is now fixed at 240V, and the 820R cathode resistors on the output tubes are now switchable between 1k and 640R. 1k is for 6SN7 and 6BX7 tubes, and 640R is for 6BL7's. 6BL7's are happier and sound more open at this new operating point, and the other 2 sound the same as before as far as I can tell. This amp will cleanly drive any dynamic headphone I can think of, even the K1000. Tyll said it sounds good, so build my amp damnit!

On my admittedly substandard computer setup it sounds like someone turned on the megabass boost for that little stretch of drumming. Sounds like normal bass drums, but with the bass turned way up.

Might be because they sound better. I have 12D4 damper diodes on my amp and briefly tried out a 5X4G. Wasn't quite as quiet as the damper diodes and the sound wasn't as natural, the highs were a tad more sibilant. Damper diodes also have a nice delayed turn-on which Kevin Gilmore said is essential for the life of the output tubes. Now I can't confirm this but someone on the DIYaudioforums had an RCA catalogue from way back when with all the prices listed. A pair of 6AX4 or similar damper diodes actually costs more than a 5AR4 or other such large bottle full-wave rectifier. So they're cheaper now but not back then.

Millet to M3 is IMO only a small upgrade at best that's not really worth it, especially with RS-1. To me the META, PPA, and M3 series of amps work better with Senns and don't get along quite as well with Grados. I'm in agreement with en480c4, save up for a while longer and then splurge on a high-end tube amp.

I mentioned on Head-fi a couple months back that HiFi News & Reviews (the June issue I believe) had done an article on cable break-in. What they basically did was take a brand new cable and set it up as a loop between the output & input of a soundcard. Then they ran a piece of music through it a bunch of times and plotted the errors and the spread between the errors. After that broke-in the cable and ran the tests again, with the result that there was less spread in the errors. They concluded that there was a difference, but that it's still too early to make a definitive statement and that it'll take more tests to come to a conclusion.

Actually if you saw the MTV awards Samuel L Jackson said something like "the only thing better than 'Snakes on a Plane' is 'More Motherfucking Snakes on More Motherfucking Planes'". There's probably a clip of it somewhere on Youtube or google video.

Yeah, it's 2 kick drums, either that or he's got a killer double kick pedal. I've heard pretty much the same thing except a lot louder with a lot more pounding at a Slayer concert.

Haven't heard one from RAM, but I have heard a CD player (Biggie's) with transformer outputs, and it is the best CD player I've ever heard, and this includes Naim gear and the Class? Delta series. As I understand it the transformers get driven off the DAC chip(s), which filters out the ultrasonic noise and makes the sound smoother and more natural. Downside being the output voltage is a bit lower and it may have some difficulty driving long cable runs. Transformer quality is critical, don't let them cheap out on you, get the good stuff like Lundahls.

Beer and hookers for everyone!

Power supply updated to Mk2Mod2 status. Now using a bigger transformer from the surplus store along with a hybrid bridge rectifier. Uses UF4007 diodes and 12D4 vacuum tubes, all resistors are 5W. Quieter, with less hiss & hum. Dead silent with my Senn 580 and K340, just a bit of background hiss & hum with my Grado 225, but I suspect it would be a problem for Ety & Shure owners. Still have some grounding & wire routing issues to clean up which should kill any remaining noise, but I'm too damn lazy.

You're both totally right and you're both totally wrong. There, are you both fucking happy now?

It'll rain if you want it to rain. There's also a firehose hooked up for some odd reason... It's loosely based on a real life event I once witnessed.

The key to doing the tuning is to change only one thing at a time so you know which changes are doing what. It's a pretty obvious thing but many people (including myself at times) tend to forget that and/or lose patience and start changing more than one thing at once. Sometimes you get lucky, usually you don't, and in either case you have no idea which change made the improvement. Good luck, and I hope you find a tuning you're happy with.

I'm a unionized Federal government employee, which IS the definition of having too much time on my hands.

The chicks are doing something to him, and it doesn't look like he's having fun. What they're doing to him I leave to your imagination, it could be anything from being tickled senseless to being anally violated with a strap-on.

Ok, let's suppose that you're walking to the local bar/corner store/whatever and you have to cut through a small public park to get there. While walking through the park, you see some guy on the ground being molested by a group of attractive females. What do you do? Whip out your fancy cellphone and take pictures/movies of it? Offer to take the guy's place? Whip out your willy and masturbate? What do you do??!!

It's about the same as the difference between a Senn 580 and Senn 600.

Told ya not to get the rescreen. Ok, seriously, you are now in for a world of fun, because doing the fine tuning is a pain in the ass. You will need blue-tak, fibre stuffing stuff, electrical tape, and lots of free time. First step, seal the back and play with the stuffing. Get one of those polyester stuffing sheets they use for making quilts and cut rings out of it. Or use good old cotton balls. Experiment with using more or less until you come to the best balance of sound, it's unlikely that you'll find something perfect so just try to get as close as you can. Then figure out what you don't like about the sound. If there's too little bass, poke a couple small holes in the tape and see if that helps. If you have resonances, then it's time to blue-tack away. I put a dime-sized patch on the housing behind each of the passive radiators, then put some on both sides of the plate that holds the passive diaphragms. Listen and check, you may need to adjust the stuffing amount after blue-tacking. See how that works, and if you still can't get a good balance let me know.

More or less, think of a K701/HD650 mix and that's about what I'm thinking of. Something that manages to make everything sound kinda the same, crap recordings are made listenable and good to great recordings have the life sucked out of them and don't get to shine.

So a few days ago I was leafing through Guitar Player at the local library when I came across a short article on Wolfgang's Vault. It's a site which has a ton of cool memorabilia, but that's besides the point, it's the home of Vault Radio which has turned out to be the best internet radio station I've ever come across. The playlist has tons of songs from live concerts by Albert King, Hendrix, Jeff Beck, The Band, and many other rock artists from the 60's & 70's. Been listening to it ever since I found it.

I think you've hit upon something here. To me it seems like manufacturers are trying to make 'phones which won't offend people instead of trying to building something that'll make people go "holy crap that's awesome!" It's like they're playing it safe instead of making something like the PS-1 or K1000 which have a seriously polarizing love it or hate it effect. Instead of going for the homerun, they're hitting grounders for singles.

This is one of those cases where two wrongs makes a right.

On a related note, did you know that our K340's invert phase? That is, unless Larry reversed the phase on your pair when he did the mods, in which case it would now be in proper phase. Mine is reversed, which is great in theory since most of my recordings are also reversed according to this chart.

It's probably best that you don't remember...

It's just like the 650, but with a silver grill and slightly brighter sound.