Torpedo

The main quality issue with the D5000 is the piece holding the yoke to the headband which tends to break and letting the cup-yoke unit to fall. Fortunately I haven't had this problem. Also the units out the first production runs had the lettering easily erased, but that seems to be improved. The stock cable is quite good, a bit stiff and hard to route, but looks solid. The plug, besides it's a 1/8" with a 1/4" threaded adapter, is well built and holds firmly into the jacks. Soundwise, as everything, it's arguable. I don't think you can get much improvement by recabling them whatever the wire you use, but YMMV. Regarding Mark and his business venture... I think that the guy honestly noticed the D5000's potential and did his best to improve the flaws he noticed, which I concur exist. I got a "basic" modded pair from him for three reasons - I listened the stock D5000 and found their bass kind of "overexcited", with too much decay, energy and poor tone. If the mods could improve that, why not? - So I wanted the mods done by the person who has more experience and had tweaked them to death. This sounded more sensible than wasting my time to find the correct amount of everything to get the sound right. - The D5000 in Spain/Europe were very expensive (still are) so ordering the D5000 to Amazon USA, having them sent to Mark to make the mods and then shipped to me, was more or less the same price than buying them stock here, specially considering the USA/euro ratio was very favorable to me. I think that many people started to show interest asking him to mod their pairs, so he clearly saw a business potential he's now getting some profit from. You may dislike the guy, his taste in sound or whatever, but I wouldn't say he's a scammer or that he's getting a huge profit from his mods. Those Jena wires are very expensive. I don't care much about their performance, and I dislike their looks, however if he and other people find it a worth improvement, I don't see why the recabling service shouldn't be offered. Also I'm sure some balanced nuts believe that balancing the cans would do some good. I don't think so, but who knows. Anyway, I don't get the whole of the criticism to Mark, but maybe this comes from the old times when I didn't use to frequent HF.

Really? which ones?

Happy Bday amigo

Sound like you had a lot of fun after all. However I wouldn't get into such adventures not even paid

To really have a serious problem from the interaction of an external magnet and an implantable pacemaker or defibrillator you need the magnet power of the ones in the Apogee speakers, which are well above most dynamic speakers, so let alone tiny earphones I know it well, a friend of mine has one of those defib implanted and the only speakers which gave problems were his Apogees Duetta when he was holding them to change placement into the room. He finally sold the speakers, but he's a regular user of others and cans. Never a problem. One thing is "can be affected" and a very different one is having interaction to cause failure or malfunction, which should be the point instead of causing all this stupid public alarm. Cell phones can interact, MW ovens can interact... almost anything producing a EM or magnetic field can interact with a PM or DF. Fortunately not enough to cause malfunction, otherwise PM users should live in the countryside very away from any electrical or magnetic device

LOL Ok, it's clear I won't own a

I was expecting that reply, as a matter of fact, almost wishing it hehe. Not that I really need another SS headphone amp, but you know, curiosity for sound and such nice looks I call dibs for that one were you selling it, I suppose it wouldn't cause much hassle making it to work at 230V

Very nice Nate, elegant, austere and neat. Would you make a balanced one of those for me?

Kind of agree. It's all up to the trannies quality, which in most cases aren't good enough.

Probably you shouldn't have sold the Pico While I have to recognize I haven't tried it, I'm sure it's well built and technically well conceived. Skip the Little Dot by all means. I tried a LD III here and it's probably the worst amp I've ever listened to, with many problems, starting with a quite loud background noise (despite using not high sensitivity phones and the "premium" tubes the owner said he fitted) and following with transients smearing, bright treble, texture-less bass, soul-less voices... too many things. Maybe the I+ or later models are any better, but were it my dough and had I to purchase blindly, I wouldn't like to risk it to learn it's not any better than the III. I suspect that no amp is needed to get good results from the ESW10. We'll see, I should receive it soon.

I was thinking of the Crusades, and all the wars caused for religious masked reasons. If you want a war for gold, diamonds or oil, call it for its name, but leave religion apart. Why can't all behave like Buddhists or Taoists. Still many things to learn from Orient

X2 This World would be a much better place if all the religion fanatics around it kept it for themselves.

I'm glad to see this thread open again. For a moment I was thinking I had joined the wrong forum. Not that I'm interested in politics and politicians, paraphrasing the Bible IMO it's easier to make a camel go throughout the needle's eye than finding a honest politician, but I'm glad of being part of a community where people are respectful with others' opinions and any topic making some sense can be discussed.

In an attack of flavor-of-the-monthity I've just paid an order of a pair of ATH ESW10 from KuboTen. I hope they're as good as Vicki said With them, some spare earpads for R10 and CD3000 before they get discontinued, and the carry bag for the woodies.

No worries Yashicaman, I still have to write something intelligent in this site and they haven't banned me so far Maybe because they appreciate my efforts for not being a douche bag, which is my nature Freedom here is not about the kind of language you use, but about the content of your posts. They may be inane, but should have a minimum of sarcasm, cynicism or double meaning to pass as smart Just kidding. Relax, read and think a bit before writing

I have serious doubts to try the highest Staxes at their second hand prices, how this guy thinks people can get interested for DIYer level electrostats at that price? I'm sure he'll get many orders anyway. It just will show how a well fueled audio machinery works :palm::palm:

LOL. I've just learned the difference between pass out and pass away. Forums are good to learn English

Oh, I'll try it on my next insomnia night, thanks for the heads up

I didn't care to read a single post of that thread at HF, so go figure

Thanks for all the comments Vicki, I think I get the picture quite well. I could live with the ESW10 for the purpose I'd want them. Now the big question, wouldn't I be better served with other portable cans at that price? Still the price thing hanging around

Are they really that good, Vicki? Somewhat we seem to share some taste, judgment and gear, so I take your opinions with interest nonetheless. I could use some portable "big" cans which provide some isolation, but not as much as IEMs, to use them on my on-call duties. I need to be able to hear the pager when it beeps, and also that the DAP can drive them without an amp. Of course good sound quality is important, otherwise I would be looking at some mid-range Grados or eventually the Portapros or PX-100. Are the ESW10 what I'm looking for? These things aren't cheap

Take care, have a nice trip back home.

Nothing to really show off

LOL don't you like how it feels a silk smooth scrotum?

I wish I were able to shave using my nails like Hancock, but in just one minute. I find shaving a waste of time. Every morning the same ritual taking me time from sleeping