Asr

Ok well good luck on a completely blind purchase then, since the HD800's sound quality is still a giant unknown even with the early impressions from Jude and Tyll. I think it'd be an unnecessary risk unless you like experimenting with headphones, since you said you already like the HD600 (and if Tyll's impressions are anything to go off of, and they usually are, the HD800 apparently sounds quite different).

You based your impressions of all those headphones at a meet? I think you fail, meet noise is hard to overcome and hence your impressions are invalid. The treble region is particularly hard to hear against meet noise so I call bunk on your opinion, let alone that it doesn't look like you controlled the variables in the system setup as morphsci mentioned.

I have the Qualia 010 in front of me right now and the HD800 really does look awfully similar, including the cable connectors and jacks. I wonder if the cables between the two headphones will be interchangeable...

This is just a guess but I bet if you ran the HD600 in balanced mode you'd get what you want.

I haven't compared the HD600 among various amps so I can't say for sure how to get more bass out of it, but if there are any amps to add bass, a tube amp might be a good starting point - not all tube amps have a stereotypically tubey sound though, so look around.

I live near Boulder, which as you know is considerably out away from Denver, almost an hour. AFAIK, Luminette and you are the closest to Mikhail distance-wise. If I was a lot closer that'd be one less thing in my way to try to confront Mikhail for anyone if I was so inclined (personally I don't want to deal further with him on anything anymore) but the distance and traffic are an obstacle.

If you thought the K701 was dull-sounding after 1000 hours, I think you might want to look into other headphones, or at least a tubey-sounding tube amp (like the Zana Deux). Audio-Technica and Grado headphones typically rock out better than AKG, or Sennheiser models. Running a K701/K702 in balanced mode improves bass response though in my experience, which kinda does help it rock out more.

IMO, the Gilmore Lite does a lot of things right that few amps at its price level beat. It's not perfect though and I wouldn't necessarily call it a formidable opponent to an amp of a different type - solid-state has its place as do tubes. Also I don't view amps as "tone controls" (well unless you're switching amp types, or rolling tubes in a tube amp) so if you want more coloration to the HD600, I'd sooner recommend a headphone change or a source change. The HD650 has a warmer mid-range and fuller mid-bass than the HD600 for example, if you like the HD600's type of sonic signature. I set the switch to 0-99 Ohms for the two Audio-Technica headphones and 100-600 Ohms for the K701.

Internal Pics (click any for a larger version) I don't know where you've gotten the impression that I like any attention from posting reviews, because I don't. The only reason I've posted the reviews I have is to share my experience for whatever it's been worth or because other people told me that I had a reading audience, because I've long assumed I didn't have one, or at least not a large audience anyway. In any case I got tired of writing reviews back in '07 which led me to quit a writing gig with StereoMojo and the "independent" reviews I did on HF. Somehow I get the impression that you haven't actually read most of my HF reviews either, if you think I did them to seek attention, but if I'm wrong then feel free to correct me. Yeah I know most of my past reviews have been overly long, I've done them like that historically for two primary reasons: (1) catering to the lowest-common denominator of the reading audience (as in, not everyone might get my point immediately so I stretch it out), and (2) writing in general (at least when it comes to non-technical subjects) isn't something I'm used to shortening. In any case, I'm open to criticism and will take this into mind for my last review here on HC of the BHSE.

I already know no one cares whether I post there or not, but no one apart from me knows knows why I stopped posting there, and the idea that it was from "moderating at HF" is incomplete and I just wanted to correct that, for informational purposes only. And it was a personal stance I took btw - not for "grandstanding" or to gain importance or anything like that. Anyone who saw more than that saw more than what I was taking my personal stance for. I wrote "a few sniveling moderators" - not "all", and you weren't included, I didn't say you specifically were part of it. If you want me to specify the ones I think that are, they'd be elrod-tom, Zanth, and vcoheda. I don't have saved proof but I've seen enough to convince me that those moderators do Jude's bidding exactly, and elrod-tom and vcoheda fall under the "sniveling" group based on what I've seen from them. Some of their posts are still in the thread that we all know I'm referencing. I don't believe for a second the thread was accidentally deleted as Zanth and later Jude stated. It's a poor excuse, and even if it was, an accidental deletion is something that's noticed immediately especially with VBulletin - Zanth or another moderator could have restored the thread within minutes to a few hours, instead that thread stayed off the Amps forum overnight. As for a so-called "conspiracy," one would have to be practically blind to not see that there are moderators on HF who protect the RSA brand by moderating posts that question the brand. There's no conspiracy, it happens pretty frequently and anyone can see it, and there's no logical reason for it other than brand loyalty (or further "conspiracies").

Keep at it Dan, at least you seem to be making some progress with Mikhail. I'm sure you'll get things sorted out. And when you have your stuff, I agree you should just wash your hands of the situation. It's not worth dealing with Mikhail (I have some personal experience I could add to this thread that came from co-organizing the Colorado July meet, but won't, since it's not really related to the purpose of this thread). I might as well set the record straight on why I'm not posting at HF anymore, since the last post I made there really wasn't in-depth at all as to my motivations. I saw 3 posts in a certain thread get deleted that were perfectly legitimate and had no other reason to be deleted than from overzealousness by a moderator (I don't know which moderator but it's not relevant) for the probable reason of protecting the RSA brand from hard questions. I was also one of the people who saw the thread disappear from the Amps forums and then later re-emerge. Those moderating and admin decisions (because Jude later admitted himself that the thread was moved) showed me without a doubt the corrupt system on HF - I'd had suspicions before but this time I saw them actually happen. I did not want to continue contributing posts to a site that I saw was corrupt. There is absolutely no reason to delete posts like the ones I saw and no reason to move a thread to a hidden area for pruning on any forum - I understand HF is a private forum but that doesn't make it any less of a cloak & dagger attempt of hiding what's going on. There's no other way to put it, HF is a corrupt system run by the whims of Jude and a few sniveling moderators that do his bidding, and the way he PMs people who commit offenses against him or the site (as far as he's concerned) is also despicable - as if he has the right to control the opinions of others and what they can and cannot post. I'm not going to mince my words here, and I don't care if he reads this either, or whoever else reads it. There's no way I'm ever again supporting anything that has to do with HF.... ...which actually has an extended implication I just realized yesterday, which is too bad but I guess that's how it'll have to be. Not really into gear much anymore anyway, so not much of a loss.

Sausage fest? In SoCal it should be easy to get blonde bimbos for cheap or even free if you know where to look.

I saw the date over at the other site and have only one question: how much is the per-day parking cost at the Hilton LAX? Cya guys there! Asr, I'm adding the head-casers attending to this first post -- boomana

I submit these lolcat versions:

Heh, the PT similarity is actually what I was banking on. Oh and these two CDs were on my shortlist too, you may want to check them out for yourself (if you haven't already): Satellite - Into The Night and Abigail's Ghost - Selling Insincerity.

Enjoy the disc deepak, I figured you didn't own that one yet - I traversed your post history both here and at the other site to learn your music preferences and to find out what you already had. I was initially going to get an LP actually but got sticker shocked on Music Direct and Acoustic Sounds... (not so sure now I'll be dipping into vinyl myself later on)

Jewel - Joy: A Holiday Collection, the only Christmas-themed CD I own

No, you send me that SA5000 so I can compare for myself. I can send back the loser if that'd be ok with you.

Any number of other objects could be used too of course actually - a sock, a thick wad of cash, crinkled-up newspaper, etc. It all depends on what you're willing to put on top of your head... I made sure to adjust the earcups to the fully up position when I first got the headphones, thx tho.

I've heard both but not at the same time and the times were too far apart, hence my own experience fails. Anyone else heard these and compared them? Normally I'd just go ahead and buy an SA5000 to find out but funds are running pretty low for me right now, was wondering how much percentage of the Qualia the SA5000 offers. I love the Qualia but it's an awful lot of money to keep to one headphone.

SpongeBob needed to die anyway.

So as most people know, the Qualia 010 Medium-sized headband is actually too big for most people. I have the M-sized headband myself and have been struggling to get a nice fit with it. At first I was using a folded-up linen to close up the space between the headband and the top of my head but it always felt ridiculous (and looked ridiculous too) so the other day I began looking for a better solution and one day while doing some routine cleaning, I realized I could use a sponge! Yes, a sponge, and it ended up being perfect - just the right amount of leverage and comfortable too. There was only one last issue, how to attach the sponge to the headband without causing any damage and could be reversed if needed. After thinking about it for 5 seconds, I realized I could probably tie the sponge to the headband, and so I did, using a sewing needle and string. And now for the pic of my effort. Who needs a Small headband now?

The dCS P8i made a promising initial impression but after I spent two weeks with it, it ended up not impressing me at all. It had the widest soundstage I'd heard until that point with some outstanding instrument placement as well but it wasn't very fast-sounding and its treble extension seemed lacking. It also didn't sound that much better from the balanced output than from single-ended. As far as the change in opinion, I usually don't trust my initial impressions of anything and try to form and reaffirm on-going impressions with extended listening and lots of CDs from my collection, rather than listening for only a few days and using only a handful of CDs at best.

Death...by the dCS P8i - Head-Fi: Covering Headphones, Earphones and Portable Audio Worst "high-end" equipment you've heard - Head-Fi: Covering Headphones, Earphones and Portable Audio

There's really only one thing I'd like to confess here. I enjoyed selling a Singlepower amp to get it off my hands and will freely admit to no longer being a supporter of that business, as I was in 2006-07. I was also seriously hoping to buy fewer and cheaper components this year but ended up doing quite the opposite with some major purchases on the CDP, interconnect, headphone, and amp fronts. I neglected to note my BHSE pre-order in my earlier post in the other related thread - by far the next most I've ever spent on a single component yet (the single most expensive was the dCS P8i CDP). Oh and some time after I paid in full for my BHSE, I almost thought about selling my place in line. Later changed my mind, I think I would've incurred the wrath of the Stax Mafia if maybe I hadn't... Er actually I might as well also add that I sold Pico #11 that I bought - with no regrets. I don't like every single HeadAmp product, the Pico was actually the first one I didn't like, sorry Justin.