Torpedo

Grawk, I was referring to the 2805 which from their introduction, were made in China. Maybe the late production 988 kept the build standards set in UK. My friend who sold the Apogees, ordered a pair of 2805. They sounded OK for a couple of days, then one speaker died. He talked to the distributor, and sent another pair right away, so that the first pair was still at my friend's. The second pair arrived and this one from the very beginning, didn't sound right in one channel. He talked to the distributor, and both agreed to let my friend open both pairs and see what was going on. He found that the first pair died because of a bad soldering. The second pair didn't sound right because a resistor was of the wrong value. Looks like they not even listened to that pair when just built. He was able to see the very poor soldering and internal wiring quality. He managed to rebuild a working pair using parts of both and redoing all the solderings and wiring. This was about two years ago, perhaps a bit more, a few months after the 2805 was released. Maybe things have changed and after this (and I bet others) fail they've improved their building quality and control. Another friend had the 988, not sure if they came from UK or China, but those sounded great and had no issues. The only "problem" with those is the frame not being stiff enough to keep the panel steady, so at high SPLs they tend to comb and make sound a bit undefined and diffuse. This is improved on the newer series using a more rigid frame. I hope this puts in clear the basis for my previous comments about the newer Quads

I'd say the second. Funnily enough a couple of friends came to my place two days ago and we were comparing the PS1 to the HF2, using the B22 and the Gilmore Reference. The HF2 with bowls on the Gilmore sounded with way less bass and impact than the PS1. Not bad, but not great either. Then using flats both came much similar. OTOH when moved on to the B22, the HF2 with flats to my ears became plainly unlistenable. Too much bass for my taste, and what's worse, muddy and tending to distorting. Moving to bowls, things fell into place and the things sounded damn good again, not PS1, they just lack the last bit of resolution, midrange warmth and treble delicacy, but to my ears, much more enjoyable than any other John Grado I've tried before. They even can sound a bit more open, I mean for stage width, than the PS1. Both are rather flat sounding though, at least compared to HD800, O2 and R10. To each one his own

Funnily enough he tried as many things as his imagination and availability allowed, but with little success. At least not as much as needed as to live safely with the Duettas

Hahaha, then wait until I tell you the beginning of the story This friend has one of the finest pairs of ears I've met in this hobby, not just for the hobby alone, but also for his professional practice. He suffered a heart attack about ten years ago, which left about 60% of his myocardial muscle in use, and a severe arrhythmia which spontaneously went into ventricular fibrillation. That's why he was implanted the pacemaker with the defibrillator. At that time he already had a pair of Duettas and they produced on his pm the same effect, though at larger distance, so he sold them. Years passed and he needed a new device for the old one being dated and also running out of batteries. So as soon as he had the new pm working, he decided he should try again the Duettas so perhaps this time he could enjoy them. Unfortunately the new device is still too sensitive to strong magnetic fields. It's a true story of impossible love

Pitiful, my condolences

Have a great one!

Cool, never listened any Soundlabs. Look very interesting. Let us know the outcome

Hehehehe, no worries, he can use Quads -2805 IIRC-, which aren't the same but get close and are more amp friendly, and some other dynamic speakers. The problem isn't the pacemaker as such, it's more for the built-in defibrillator which kicks in when he was too close to the ribbons magnets. Close as in holding the speakers to position them in the room. An awful experience being defibrillated when there's no need of it. He needed that to happen twice before deciding to sell them. That good they sound

Happy Bday

It all depends on the "bass needs" your dad may have. If he's going to listen mostly to chamber music, vocals and such, then the ESL63 are a great option. Otherwise, newer Quads would deliver more bass which makes them more suitable for other music styles. You may think that a subwoofer may solve the bass issue with the ESL63, but IME, the midrange of the ESL63 is so special, clean, natural, etc that matching a sub to that sound and getting a good blend, is a really tough task. No <1000 euros sub would qualify. The 988 doing some rework on the frame to make it stiffer are very good speakers. The even newer series are crap. They're made in China and the guys mounting them not even know how to put the right component into the right place , so forget about soldering in a proper manner. Once reworked sound really good, but as with all planars, you need a lot of room (6ft or more) behind them to the front wall. Another great option IMO are the Apogee Duetta, which can be found used from time to time. Their only problem is they need beefy amps, but I'm quite sure you may find in the UK a used Audio Synthesis Desire Decade for well under 1000 GBP, which drives them gorgeously. A friend of mine had the Duettas and I loaned him my AS. It was an excellent system, but he had to sell the Duettas for his using a pacemaker. The huge magnetic field from the Duettas interfered his device, which wasn't a great idea

Thanks for the heads up. Looks like they're visiting Madrid in November, I'll try to attend

Yum yum, that sounds like a very interesting meet. I kind of hate you, but just a little bit

Hahahaha you replied faster than I managed to edit my silly question Saw the price in the Woo website Thanks Al.

Woah! Impressions as soon as possible please

That'd be fantastic Dreadhead

Me too, why not? Looks interesting in the least

They'll be very welcome. It's a pity you haven't lived with the 717 too for some time, it's my only decent reference so far.

I found [ame=http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conector_DIN]this[/ame] on the Spanish Wiki for the 5 pins DIN, which meets my previous experience with those connectors. Many moons ago I also had a microphone using a 3 pins connector into a recording machine. I'll translate the numbers assignation: 3 Left channel "out" (I suppose it means -) / Mono 5 Right channel "out" (stereo use only) 2 Ground 4 Right channel "in" (I suppose it means +) (just used in stereo) 1 Left channel "in" / Mono My wild guess is that the 4 pins connection in stereo just skips the ground pole. I didn't found information about it. I suppose that Quad sticks to the normal DIN configuration. Maybe contacting them to confirm the point is your best bet. Good luck.

These are the first current production John Grado design (PS1 and HP2 won't qualify) that I really like with bowls since the first minute. Haven't tried them with flats yet, but for how the sound changes by applying pressure on the cups, I think I'll like them better with bowls. Flats would keep the tonal rightness, but would make the bass too much for me. I'll see later. I like their timbre, they sound nothing like the 225 (even the aluminum cups version Picaudio made) or RS1. For my ears the sound of acoustic instruments is more natural and believable than in any other current JG headphone. Maybe the vintage RS1 are different, and I haven't tried the SR325. Though they keep that fun factor and immediate presence of the family sound, while being refined and smooth in the treble. I wish they hadn't used those plastic yokes of the SR series, it's a shame

I think you'll love the HD800 with the B22, it has the "brutally revealing" character of the O2. I could live just with that. What amp are you using with the O2 now? It will be very interesting for me knowing how fares the KGSS against it and other amps you may have tried.

Yes, you can choose the pad orientation and cable input position to suit you best.

FF 3 used to crash when closing for the Spanish spellchecker. No such problem with 3.5, it works very well here.

A while ago: Pat Martino - Live at Yoshi's Then: Stan Kenton - Conducts the jazz compositions of Dee Barton And now waiting: Corinne Bailey Rae - Corinne Bailey Rae These HD800 are starting to sound damn good, really good instruments separation and spot on timbre on the big band recording

Blackwoods 40% or 60%? Never tried any of them, nor the Hendricks. I rarely drink gin, always with tonic, but I can appreciate the good ones having a taste more refined than mostly alcohol.

I'd never guessed that I'd say this, but listening to symphonic music with large dynamic swings, I'd say the the O2 fed by the 717 have an edge over the HD800/B22 portraying the "brute" impact of the orchestra when going full throttle. Overall the O2 seem more refined and subtle, but the HD800 are still on low burn-in status, even for non believers less than 30 hours isn't enough to loose mechanically the drivers suspensions. Or not, who knows