HeadphoneAddict

:palm: Actually I still don't think my Jade are as bad as he says. They are better than Lambdas and at least as good as re-cabled ESP950, maybe better. Still have lots of listening to do yet. We'll see how burn-in goes.

You realize that if you report positive changes from your mods that I'll be bugging you to do mine next?

If you change your writing style to something understandable you'll get moar respect here. Right now it is too schizophrenic to understand. Sorry.

So, if I return the Jade and cancel the HD800 I can pay for half of one? Sob...

My Jade come from the mid January batch, not the older batch with the different coating. Were Elephas's from the Nov or Dec batch? So far my only complaint is shallow soundstage depth.

Personally, I would just use it as a headphone amp. I'm not sure what the advantage is to use it as a large and expensive volume control when there are not multiple inputs and RCA or XLR out? While it was on loan to me for the past month I liked it best with Denon D2000 (woodied re-cabled) and Edition 9, but wanted a little more warmth with RS-1 and more power with HD600. It's a very nice amp.

Spritzer, I have done the O2 Mk2 ear-pad spring mod with improvements. How important is the blu-tak to the bass-port portion of the mods?

I might have gotten in on the "good batch", as brief listening while it burns in has not been disappointing yet, but I've had very little ear-time with them so far. I have not spent near enough time getting to know these - but when I first put them on my head I liked them. I have a lot of listening to do, and a lot of comparing to do, so I will withhold impressions for a while so I can get that done.

I believe Justin did some math in his Pico thread a while back, that with the voltage swing of 7.5v and 300 ohm the Pico could deliver the 200mw max that the HD600 is rated to handle. Few portables have enough power for the HD600. (from memory and maybe an error or 2) In my testing the Pico and 3MOVE have the most volume with HD600, followed closely by the vividaudiotech V1 and TTVJ portable Millett, and then the XM5 and then iBasso D3, and then Predator/Meier Headsix, followed by the iBasso D2 Boa, with the Nuforce Icon Mobile below that. A desktop amp will still do them more justice, but the Pico will get the job done for portable. The Woo is a very good choice, but it's gonna cost you more than a Millett or EF1 or SOHA II etc.

Okay, I get it. The whole point was to have fun at someone else's expense for kicks. Sorry. I messed up. I try to do better next time. KTHXBAI!

Wow, that is expensive. It sucks that impressions are only $30 for me here, but $100 where you are. At the Beltone Hearing Center here in town the UM-56 cost me $70 with free impressions, because I had already spent $30 x2 on impressions for my 2 pairs of Livewires. I'm gonna see if the UM56 will fit my Phonak Audeo PFE, since I was able to force them onto the XM10 with good fit and sound. That means you could use them with Westone, Shure, Ety, Image X10 and maybe Phonak too. If you did decide to do UM56 and don't get along with Silicone, you could get them in Vinyl which will last at least 3 years before getting hard or shrinking. Or, stick to the original plan.

I got my first SR-Lambda with SRD-X from plaidplatypus for $230, and the second set for my son was about $340 ($240 Lambda from Fitz and $100 SRD-X from Spritzer). Neither one of us plans to sell these off anytime soon. Absolutely fantastic headphone - enough that I had normal bias jack installed on my Woo GES when I ordered it. [sorry so spammy - damn iphone - no copy/paste is proof Steve Jobs is ill]

The Jade are ready for your ears to taste them. You will no longer want ESP950... You must set your sights higher.

Yeah, you either got a steal of a deal, or it's in worse shape than you think. I'd expect to pay $600-700 for that rig.

Jason sez, "At $69, no other headphones will sound better at this price." Why are you teasing them about competing with HD800 when they are shooting for the budget under $100 phones?

You could still consider some Westone UM56 custom tips for the Westone 3.

I use my iPhone 3G all the time with ALAC and there is no skipping unless it is downloading email at the same time.

It can drive my 600 ohm AKG K240M.

OUCH!

That is similar to my findings with the Sigma 11.

I have an LLC that I registered in CO so that it could buy firearms suppressors, short barrel rifles or machine guns for me without all the finger prints, photos and sheriff signing off, so I had to register and then I file annual reports. In Colorado when you register a business or LLC, you can to do an online report once a year that basically shows you do have changes or do not have changes to the business address and contacts or articles of incorporation. I only pay like $10 to e-file online each year to keep the business registered and active. If you file a paper annual report by mail it costs more. Basically SP could NOT take the time to file reports on time, but I just think that means they are not a legal entity until they file and pay for the report, so SP has no legal rights without doing that. You may be able to sue the individuals during those times when they can't hide behind the corporate shield. Anyone know if that is true?

Blutarsky and I used an HP-1000 and APS cabled D2000 via headphone out, and HE60/HEV70 through the DAC for our testing and findings (and spent hours listening). Are you using an upgraded Duet breakout cable or something, because we were too. I love the Duet, but I can't say it is better than the Mini-DAC - equal possibly, better no, especially when you add the N_Maher built Sigma11 PSU on the mini-DAC. Theoretically some say the Sigma11 shouldn't make a difference because the Apogee cranks up the AC power to something like 750Mhz inside the unit to get all noise outside the audible range, and uses internal power regulators for the DC. Anybody have any thoughts on that? Regardless, there are times when the mini-DAC is the better option over Duet, like for feeding it from a CD or DVD or SACD player or other sources than a Mac, like a PC. When I get my new aluminum Macbook the Duet will not be an option at all, since Apple dropped firewire, but my Pico and Apogee mini-DAC will keep working with it (and HR Micro DAC, and others). I was going to buy Blutarsky's Duet until Apple dropped the ball, since he replaced it with a Stello DA100 for the extra inputs and USB.

I'm sure there are butt kissers keeping their mouths shut, hoping to get their money back.

No I haven't, but I would like to try a balanced Beta22. And the beta22 speaker outputs to drive my Stax SRD-7 Pro and O2 Mk2 would be nice to try too. One amp to rule them all. Yes, I heard Naamanf's M^3 with separate PSU out of the Mini-DAC and it was very nice, and was similar to the WA6, except with Edition 9 where it was much better because the PDPS mod and Sophia hadn't been done yet (was using an Amperex Bugle Boy GZ34 which is not as good as the Sophia). I've not heard an amp that is 100% better than the Apogee headphone out, but to me 30-40% better is a significant upgrade, especially when the old saying goes "spend 10x more for that last 10%". It also depends on the headphones, because while the WA6 maxed with blah blah blah mods is 30% better with most of my cans which are low impedance (grado, denon, ultrasone), it may be as much as 50% better with the HD600 and sounds close to a balanced single power with HD600 (which was better than a Headroom Balanced Desktop out of a Meridian CDP). That's basically what I'm saying, the EF1 and NOVO are fairly close but slightly better than the Apogee headphone out. The WA6 maxed with PDPS and Sophia, or Zana Deux, or Gilmore Reference, or Melos SHA Gold are all amps that I have heard that are a more noticable upgrade over the Apogee and worth getting. Based on what I heard at the Colorado head-fi meet in July, the Headroom Balanced Desktop is another nice amp that is a notch above and not too similar to the Apogee headphone out. Interestingly, my 2008 Square Wave XL is the ONLY Single Power amp I liked at the whole meet. The ES-1 was okay, but I liked the GES better, and the Transparency sounded like crap. As for the DAC, do you mean mini-DAC when you said micro? Blutarsky and I spent a bit of time comparing the Duet and mini-DAC HP out and line out, and with the stock Apogee PSU they were extremely similar which a slight nod to the mini-DAC for a miniscule bit of extra weight and presence (like 1-2% better). This mini-DAC seems a little smoother with the Sigma11 n_maher built for it (was Iron_Dreamers) and Iron_Dreamer swore by the Sigma11. I really like that I can connect my Macbook via USB, my DLO Homedock HD via optical and my CDP via Coax and switch between three sources, and use it on a PC if I need to, which the Duet can't do. The Duet is still probably the best bang for the buck for computer driven DAC, with the Stello DA100 being more expensive for a similar sound but more flexibility. I love finding great sound at good prices.

I'll have to have you come visit with Sherwood and Blutarsky to listen to mine when they get here. Should be fun.