Iron_Dreamer

I first listened to the Ultrasone 2500, which I could not wait to stop listening to, as it had basically no midrange. And the soundstage had absolutely no depth, and was a flat, vertical-horizontal plane. After that, listening to the E9 was a joy by comparison, as it actually had a noticeable midrange. Though the sounstage was not as wide or tall, it had some depth, so it didn't sound quite as odd, if a bit claustrophobic. Having only heard them at a meet, I only listened long enough that I was still sucked in by the powerful bass. And listening to them directly after the 2500 probably made them sound better than they really do. I was close to buying a pair before I got the L3000, but between the build quality and back-order, I could never convince myself to pull the trigger.

I never got what's so great about these movies. Seen the first two and was not impressed by either. For me, it's not the Bourne Ultimatium, but the Boring Ultimatium (or so I'd think based on the previous two).

I don't think so, at least not exactly. When I heard the E7, it had a serious, Ety-like lack of bass. Whereas the E9 had monster bass. I'd be really surprised if they were the same headphones.

That's my reaction. Not quite sure they're the kind of interesting I'd buy.

The inside of the L3000 is very similarly sized to the W11JPN, the W5000 always seemed a little more spacious than either, to me. They also have a very similar sized soundstage, though the L3000 has more precise imaging, so I get more mileage out of its' soundstage. The overall impression is about the same, i.e. intimate and forward, but with good depth and sense of space, the L3000 just paints a more coherent and less hazy picture.

It's pretty good, but you can do better for the price, even the used price. I prefer the Apogee Mni-DAC, Channel Islands VDA2, Lavry DA10, and Stello DA100 in that immediate price bracket. They aren't monumentally better, but better nonethless.

Still the best I've heard. Incredibly engineered circuit. Just read the manual on their website. Sure it's list price is $8500, but if ol' pops already blew $10K, what's another $3.5, eh?

Just gotta say, after a week or so of no time for the L3000, listening to them tonight, DAMN THESE THINGS ROCK!

Yeah, I certainly did. I can understand folks not liking them considering how much fit effects the sound, and how they don't fit quite a variety of people. Among closed headphones, only the R10 does better for air and soundstage (haven't heard the 4070).

I agree with Mulveling about the bass. The L3000's goes lower, hits harder, and eeks out a bit more detail to boot. I never found the W11JPN fatiguing as he did though. It did sound midrange-centric, whereas the L3000 has a bit more emphasis on both bass an treble comparatively speaking.

So it's the Eyris DC3 on steroids, eh? Where do I sign up?

I got my mini-DAC (USB version) on the 'gon, for about $700 (was posted as $850 obo). The headphone amp is pretty good. Unlike some built-in headphone amps on DAC's, it will almost certainly not be too quiet (8.7Vrms max output). There is no noise, hiss, or the like, even with E500's, and there is enough flexibility with the volume knob for just about any headphone. It doesn't alter the sound signature of the DAC in any significant way that I can tell (unlike the DAC1's thin amp, the Aqvox MkII's laid-back amp, etc). The main issue I have with it, and what's currently itching me to get a different amp, is that it collapses the soundstage depth (at least for my AT headphones) knocking the sound down to a 2-layer, front/back setup like I recall my old DAC1 to have sounded. Hardly a capital offense, but moving from the airy W5000 to the L3000, I'll take all the soundstage I can get. I've never used it to drive balanced headphones, so no info there.

Those adapters are for the headphone and microphone jacks, as it was originally designed to be a computer audio add-on or convenience, so I think they assumed a lot of people would have gear with 1/8" plugs, but they wanted to use 1/4" jacks to maintain the studio-ness of the unit.

Looks great, enjoy. FWIW it's an even better deal than I initially thought, since they charge extra for the black w/silver knobs version (for some odd reason).

Just look at it as W5000 + W11JPN + (a little extra cash) = L3000, at least if you can find a reasonable deal. That's about how it ended up going for me.

Don't give Mr. impulse buy any ideas, now Reks

Nice to hear you scored it! You'd be better off using a LONG usb cable and shorter interconnects.

I love the fact that Justin's got nothing to hide (except the units from those of us that want to hear them )

The R10 is definitely pretty picky about upstream gear. I've never heard the supposedly more bassy newer versions. The ones I've heard strike me as only being fitting for orchestral or acoustic music due to the lack of bass. I though the bass extensions was actually quite good, as I could pick up some very low frequencies, there just wasn't enough bass below say, 100Hz. It is definitely the soundstage king of closed headphones, and very detailed. All that said, for the kind of music I found the R10 to excel at, I'd prefer an OmegaII+KGSS system, for the larger soundstage and "airy" sound, without lacking in bass. And even including the amp, it'd still be a lot cheaper than any R10 you could find these days. I'm not sure the R10 is the "best" in any regard of headphone performance. It does have a particular charm, and I think those who appreciate that charm would tend to be sucked into these headphones. And those who hate bass-light systems wouldn't be able to see past it. If you could get one for <$2000 as was possible years ago, it would make more sense, but at the current prices, I think one would have to be quite sure that they really love them before taking the plunge. Given the sample variation, that might be an even more difficult task than usual.

Well, FWIW, I don't think they ever made the MkI in black. So that in and of itself should mean that it's a MkII. But there will also be a difference in the markings on both the front and back (I believe, I sent my loaner in a while ago, so I don't remember clearly). The MkII on the front mentions a Class-A headphone amp, which the MkI didn't have. Also, I believe the serial number starts with the model number. Based on the pics, and that guy's feedback, I think it shouldn't be a problem.

That's definitely a great deal. It would run you ~$1400 new from Europe. It's a very nice DAC, very versatile, great looking, and the headphone jack is quite decent (just doesn't go very loud, only 1.4V peak maximum). As far as how it compares to the Mini-DAC, the Aqvox has a slightly more laid-back, and as a consequence, "softer" sound than the Mini-DAC. I'd say it is less analytical and tends to make things sound a bit more pleasant. The Mini-DAC is stronger in the lowest octave of bass, but so it is compared to every other DAC I've owned. The headphone jack keeps the soundstage depth better than the Mini-DAC's does.

I wasn't able to access the site until just now. odd

Really? You mean they don't like to eat amorphous grey, green, and tan blobs of semi-congealed gunk rolled into tortillas in Mexico? I haven't eaten at Taco Bell in 10 years, thank god!

LOL Here's the place I was talking about: http://losangeles.citysearch.com/profile/78312/ Hope you like thin crust and sparse parking!

I take it from this reaction that they all suck? FWIW I've never had what I'd consider great pizza in any restaurant that looked that overly polished. The absolute best is from a pure hole-in-the-wall, albeit in a pricey part of LA.