n_maher

Well the same guy who has the stock pair listed for $250 (he's dropped the price again) also has a modded pair that are sale pending for $400. Jebus, recabled with starquad and a mini plug doesn't add value to a headphone in my book.

Hammond 370HX. Best price I found online was through Angela Instruments, took about a week and a half to get it which isn't bad in my book. You've got email.

While this used to be true it certainly doesn't seem like it lately. I can't believe that there's currently someone asking $280 for a stock pair on Head-Fi, and that's after a couple price drops.

You're not alone. I'd put them up there as one of the few purchases I've made that left me wondering why the hell I'd bothered and what the heck the hype was all about. My list would only echo others: HD600 - occasionally can be found for under $200 and are worth every penny HD580 - modded they sound nearly as good as the 600s did PIMETA - I can't believe how trashed this amp gets considering it's the equal or better of any portable I've heard when properly built and can make a heck of a small office rig. Easily had for under $200.

Thanks man, Netflix it is!

All right, I give up, I'm going to start watching this show. I've got Season 1 ready to go and Season 2 should be, uh, arriving in a few hours so I've got a question - do I need to watch anything in preparation for the first episode? Was there a movie, pilot or otherwise? The reason I ask is that I watched just the first minute or two of '33', which is Season 1 Episode 1 and it very much has a "previously seen on..." vibe to it. Cripes, like I needed another show to watch.

Another Wheatfield update and this seemed like the place to post it. On Pete's advice I decided to mod the amp further, what the hell it's only money. So I ordered up a high-spec Hammond trafo (not cheap, $100+) and prepped for surgery. Replacing the trafo required not only drilling two new holes in the chassis since the new piece is even larger than the original but also enlarging two other existing holes to allow for the wires to be more easily fed down into the belly of the beast. The operation was a complete success and the new trafo is not only silent while it's running and runs much cooler but it looks like the tits with its matte black paint job. I also replaced the stock POS rca connectors with some bling Cardas rhodium bits from the parts box. Time to get back to some quality listening time!

x2

Amen to that, my older brother went to Cornell and my dad and I used to do one day hell runs there and back (from central NH) to pick him up.

I like this Roam.

Why would you want to change it? Dr. Shill says it has "the strongest bass of any HP amp."

It's in the head-fi thread, $250 for the mods, $125 for the cheapest cable. You can go up from there to evidently some piece of virgin baby seal unicorn hair for $225. Good god, as someone said a while back all of this is connecting to a 30ga pin at the dock.

$375 for the mod package (base ALO cable config)! Holy sweet Jesus.

Good to have you hear, Young. And don't worry, for the most part we're a gentle and loving bunch.

Don't know about the jitter specs but it shouldn't matter all that much since my DAC uses an asynchronous sample rate converter that is supposed to greatly reduce (if not eliminate) jitter.

Nah, all their DAC's are NOS-type stuff. The DAC is code named Voldemort, the DAC that shall not be named. Seriously, when I can post details about the DAC I will.

Thanks for all the kind compliments. It was a pretty brutal build as the instructions that came with the kit were pretty lacking. I would like to take a moment to thank Legos for teaching me to learn visually, without that ability this thing would just be a pile of parts and some pcbs. I hope to work with DIY Hifi to create a better set of instructions as right now I'd be hard pressed to recommend the kit to anyone. The technical aspect is simple as can be (well, mostly) just plug parts in where they go, but taking that stack of stuff and getting it all to fit together as intended was a doozy. She's small, but don't let it fool you, I'd be the thing weighs in the neighborhood of 20lbs. And yeah, it's redbook only as far as I know. You can find more information on the kit here. The chassis alone is probably worth half the cost of the kit, the remote is milled from a solid chunk of aluminum (no joke) and all of the buttons used are turned aluminum bits. It's roughly 91/2" wide, 3-1/2" tall and 14" deep. I really like the fact that it, plus my DAC should be able to share shelf. And Haj, given what your current source is you can hardly expect me to feel for you, right?

Well, I'm happy to report that one half of my source upgrade is now complete. What started life as this: Is now this! This all started when I discovered that I knew the owner of HifiDIY through my Millett Hybrid PCB connections. I ordered up a kit and after dealing with the pain that was customs losing a bunch of parts the transport was completed about an hour ago and is now confirmed as working. It's a bummer that for whatever reason it is not compatible with the Denon DAC that I have on loan from Ian but it works just dandy with my HT receiver so I don't think there's a problem with the transport. I'll take some pron shots later with the top cover off if I can stand the idea of taking it apart again. And I'll also be posting a build diary at some point in the DIY forum for anyone interested. Please excuse me, I really must get to work on my DAC!

I wonder if there are issues using it without the specified LOD? It would seem to me that if you used another dock, without the decoupling caps, that you could be feeding your amp a signal with large amounts of DC offset. That DC offset, then amplified could easily be headphone lethal. Hopefully when the mod is announced there will be more info about this. I can just see the newbs using their ALO Cryo Jumbo Blamo dock and cooking headphones right and left.

I didn't think it was all that bad, I'd rate it "entertaining" but certainly not great. I'd also say that based on what I'd heard going into it I had lowered my expectations.

I guess my point was, in a thread asking for a comparison between two amps it might be helpful if you said that you hadn't heard the ppa or that knowing that the two bass boost circuits are identical that your experience had been negative with the M3. You comment reads as if the M3 is the worse of the two. FWIW, I agree with your opinion of the bass boost, I didn't care for it in either amp. And I retract my statement saying that you speak about things that you don't know about, I have no idea what your knowledge level is.

You know, I'm trying to give you a second chance here outside of Head-Fi but comments like this aren't giving me much hope. Your appraisal of Dr. Wells is pretty close to mine of you. On Head-Fi you come across as judgmental, overly critical and like your opinion is the only one that matters. Take the following quote for example: What makes this comment odd is that it was in a thread asking about the M3 vs. the PPA and their bass boost, which just so happens is implemented in exactly the same way. Now luckily enough amb came into the thread and corrected you but this isn't the first (or even second) time that I've seen you post something in a way that makes it read as if you know what you're talking about when you don't. I guess what I'm trying to say (as I've said on Head-Fi) is that you should choose your words a little more carefully if you don't want to become the second Dr. Just my 2c, probably not worth that much. Nate

Congrats on the new source! With a little bit of luck I'll be able to post some details of one of my digital upgrades this week. I just finished the last bit of soldering now, all that's left is assembly and testing.

Just so you're aware, the good Dr. is ripping you a new asshole on Head-Fi.

Ok, for me the most disturbing part about that picture is the little african-american boy on the left hand side. Dude, even when he hangs out with Jesus he's still starving and has a distended belly. Come on! Wait, maybe it's the little girl on the right hand side lifting her skirt about to flash Jesus... Hmmm, that could be a tossup.