Voltron

That is the album I just bought yesterday, so July 21 came a little early this year. I know the 45 RPM vinyl is still coming out at some point, and I think there is an SACD, but the CD was in the store yesterday.

Bob Mould -- Life and Times Christian McBride & Inside Straight -- Kind of Brown

I guess I am curious about all these graphs and things, but I am listening to mine right now and they are really kicking ass. I am actually using the Moth 300B speaker amp with banana plus to XLR adapter. I was trying the AKG K340s that came with the adapter and they sound like pathetic hollow images in comparison. The HD800s are not a dead-bang sure thing best cans in the world, but they can sound simply fantastic. This aint a bad way to power them, I must say. Listening to Bob Mould and Christian McBride's new albums and I gotta say it is good shit. Sitting on my porch in Mayberry with a beer by my side doesn't hurt, either, of course.

Same guy, Laine. He is very cool and has some gorgeous guitars. You gotta get this new album. The impressions above are all on the P-1

Hey Tao, good to hear from you. The mids are where a lot of the PS1 magic resides and the weight, roundness of tone and real presence to the music is what I like so much with them. I need more HF2 time in general but the mids and the overall presentation are at least similar. They lack some of the body but I agree with morphsci that they have a similar feel, especially compared to other Grado options. I have a track I like on Dave Alvin's Black Jack David album that has a lot of deep vocals and instruments and real weight, and I was definitely impressed how well the HF2 did with that song. I also agree they are not like HP1s to my ears.

I was putting the HF-2s up against the PS-1 last night and the HF-2 held their own up to a point. No PS-1 killers, these cans, but they still sound great especially for the money. The PS-1 has more of what I like and the instruments sound more true. The music was Anthony Wilson Trio, a jazz group of guitar, Hammond B3 organ, and drums. The hollow-body guitar sounded really nice from the HF-2 but putting on the PS-1 gave the body more body. I could hear better the tone of the guitar and weight of the notes was greater. The bass is good on HF-2 but the bass on these PS-1s with Equinox recable has always been my favorite presentation so the HF-2 did not knock them off that pedestal. I will listen some more from the Luxman P1 and then later maybe from the TTVJ FET-A.

Guitar Centers are everywhere and they have a fair selection of headphones and IEMs but they are hard to audition there. In SF, there are good hi-fi shops with headphones and amps to try. Audio Visions on Pine Street is the best, and it has multiple cans and headamps on display. Harmony Audio Video on West Portal Avenue has the Grado lineup including the RA1 amp and several preamps that you can probably listen from. Music Lovers on Bush Street has great gear but I cannot recall headphones being there. Cheers.

Anthony Wilson Trio -- Jack of Hearts This is a really cool album that Joe Harley produced and played during his talk at CJ09. Two track analog FTW!

It was super fast today and would have been faster if the yellow jersey hadn't made it back into the leaders group.

These is a really great TDF so far! Not sure Lance is speaking to Contador at the moment, but tomorrow is going to be killer on Tourmalet. I wish it was ending at the top but oh well.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o76WQzVJ434]YouTube - HELP HELP I'M BEING REPRESSED[/ame]

Just to get from your bed down the hall to your home office?

Dennis Wilson -- Pacific Ocean Blue (remastered vinyl at 24/176.4 while I needledrop it )

Used Vinyl: Serge Chaloff -- Blue Serge (Japanese Mono) Shirley Scott & Clark Terry -- Soul Duo Gabor Szabo -- The Best of Gabor Szabo Jaco Pastorius -- Word of Mouth New Vinyl: Red Rodney Quintet -- Modern Music from Chicago (Vintage Sealed OJC) Sonny Rollins Quintet with Kenny Dorham and Max Roach -- Rollins Plays for Bird (Vintage Sealed OJC) New CDs: Elvis Costello -- Secret, Profane and Sugarcane Regina Spektor -- Far Christian McBride -- Kind of Brown Wilco -- Wilco (The Album) Depeche Mode -- Sounds of the Universe Bob Mould -- Life and Times The Anthony Wilson Trio -- Jack of Hearts

Me too on all counts. I was listening today on the Amarra setup and I thought my speakers were dying but confirmed on headphones that there are some weird distortions on the low notes in Ugly Face and Little Angel especially. Interesting that those had not stood out before.

Nina Nastasia -- The Blackened Air

= Humor

While I was sitting in the Castro Theater watching The Gaucho on the opening night of the SF Silent Film Festival, my iPhone buzzed with a call from my nephew. I didn't answer because the film is silent after all, and it was at the climax. He then texted me to say that Jonathan Sanchez, who was pitching for the Giants in place of the injured Randy Johnson, had a perfect game into the 8th inning. He texted again that an error later in the 8th blew the perfect game, but the no-walks/no-hitter was intact. The movie ended and I turned on the game as soon as we got to the car. The first out was recorded in the 9th, and the first play we heard was Aaron Rowand leaping onto the center field fence to make a spectacular catch to save a hit. Sanchez then struck out the last man looking to complete the no-no. First time in 33 years that a Giants pitcher achieved that feat, and if it weren't for a misplayed grounder (apparently a tough play) at third he would have been perfect. Cool stuff made all the more poignant by the fact that Sanchez has had a tough year in which he lost his 5th starter spot due to being erratic, and because his father, a former pitcher in Puerto Rico had decided to come to SF from PR the day before to his son start in the big leagues for the very first time. Hollywood couldn't write it any better.

Not yet. No decisions made.

Interesting, Shelley. Looking forward to your ongoing impressions.

I read it quickly and then the blurry, Grado-like photo almost seems to say "headphone output" on the back. Loop makes the most sense.

Regina Spektor - Far

I like my P1 better from a looks perspective. I also don't understand the headphone output from RCA jacks on the back.

Call Todd and ask him. He is very easy to deal with and would probably be able to hold your delivery for a week.