Voltron

I really do believe that these are being assembled right now for the first time and that the numbers are going to be limited in the first wave. As I posted elsewhere, the pair that I opened for the first time and took the twisty off the cord was pair 348. The national marketing director said that pair was assembled on Monday of last week and flown over to Vegas from Germany because of the customs screw up that seemed to hold up the palette of 20 cans they expected to have. The other information I got from the technical guy (head of an R&D division) was that serial nos. 1-200 were being reserved for special purposes and my sense was those were not even assembled yet. The upshot is that as of last Monday we can assume they had built somewhere around 150 pairs for distribution. More will be built in the next month before the shipments hit Tyll and Todd in late Feb./early March. Todd has been assured that he is among the very first wave along with Tyll and perhaps Drew (I just don't have details from/about Drew's order). I cannot imagine that they will give a big chunk of cans to Amazon out of that first wave because they can see the orders amassing with the known quantities and will hopefully support them.

Derek Trucks Band -- Already Free

Or maybe it is.

Sad that things turned ugly after all the love he got in his introduction thread.

That's the spirit Min!

I don't think JP has ordered a pair . . . yet.

No, and I don't know what you are referring to but doubt that was what they were sued for.

I'm going to quote JP Nums from the CES 2009 thread in impressions: It was fun to check out the new offering from Ultrasone but it is understandable that it has not generated the same impact as the long-awaited HD800 from Senn. The cans at CES are effectively a prototype and the only existing pair with the The Ed. 8 is an interesting new can and it is not based on or related to the Ed. 7/9 models. It is lighter and yet larger and circumaural. They are very comfortable and use the same Ethiopian Hair Sheep leather for the ear pads. The cord is very short, maybe a meter and is terminated with a 1/8 plug and a 1/4 pop on adapter. It is meant for portable use, which I admit seems odd for a $1400 headphone, although I have to admit that I used my Ed.9s portably a few times before balancing them. :allteeth: The cans we heard sounded good and quite different from the Ed.9. I prefer my Ed. 9 from the limited audition I had on the setup they provided, the Grace M902 with a Philips CDP, as well as on my own portable rig with iMod and SR71. The sound is clear and pretty well balanced -- especially for a closed can -- but I didn't have a ton of time to listen. As JP said, it doesn't have the same odd presentation that bothers some in the Ed.9. It did not seem to have angled drivers and I am wondering if it does not incorporate the same kind of S-Logic system. Anyway, it will be interesting to hear these again but I am not likely to run out and buy them. Those seeking high quality closed cans may have a different reaction. I have to clarify the amp thing. It is a new solid state amp designed and made by Ultrasone, and this may also have been a prototype. It is solid state with balanced and single ended inputs, balanced 4-pin output, s/e output, and an "equalize" or "linear" button that seemed to be a bass boost. The amp sounded alright but only the s/e side was working when I was there. The balanced side had been working and then lost a channel so they were only playing s/e. It was being fed by a Samsung DVD player so that was limiting as well. Could be nice, don't know the price at all. Beyerdynamic also introduced an amp apparently so it is good to see the headphone companies recognizing the market. Here are the pics of the cans and amp at CES. The first is Drew's from the above link to Moon Audio, and he did a better job than my little Canon and this is exactly the rig I heard. The rest are my shots and the room was very dark and pics were difficult. Be gentle.

Can a kindly mod please delete post # 20, the epic double post? Thanks, my internet has been fucked all day. I guess you could delete this one too.

Yes, JP and I went to Las Vegas for 23.5 hours after getting caught up in the fervor for the HD800. Yes, it was worth it. The early reports, while glowing, were also accurate. These are top flight cans and do everything right for my limited exposure on a less than satisfactory rig. I think the balance, clarity, dynamics/speed, ergonomics, fit and comfort may be the best of any headphone you could put on that rig. The midrange, as JP and others have said, is gorgeous, musical and very involving. The top end clearly is good and may be great but the setup didn't let me really test it. Lastly, the bass is going to be great on a proper setup. It is tight and controlled and integrates into the sound extremely well. I went portable with my iMod/SR71 combo and there was plenty of bass, much moreso than out of the Benchmark. I also heard it with the Pico feeding the SR71 but I don't think I heard it direct from the Pico. I know my rig from years of use with IEMs and full sized cans and this was a very nice listening experience. The SR71 was almost maxed and it does not drive the HD800s properly, but I was happy to be able to compare it to the Benchmark and hear the cans with more familiar gear. The Sennheiser folks were great to talk to and very knowledgeable. The head of marketing was super helpful and even broke out another brand new pair of HD800s when Ed, JP and I were all trying to get a listen. They were so new, he said, that pair no. 348 had been completed on Monday in Germany! I got the first listen and did not notice a big difference between that brand new, never been used pair and the other pair no. 248 that had been played a total of three days during CES. It is very clear that they have worked very hard for years on this project. I have looked up the patents they have obtained on the ring transducer and related technology and it is impressive. They poured a lot of money into this R&D project, and the cost of the end product is reasonable for what it is and what investment it represents. As a teaser for those who have read this far, the head of R&D was at the Senn booth and we chatted with him for a few minutes about the project and other things. When I asked about the rumor of a companion amplifier, he said "no comment at this time . . . we have to keep some questions unanswered for now." He could have been teasing but I imagine it is something they are considering releasing and it would be another exciting development. Here are a few pics from our session in the greenhouse on Saturday. No, the other Left! These cans may be Crafted for Perfection, but they cannot avoid retardation. I posed JP under the sign as soon as we got into the room and snapped these pics of him supposedly deep into the music but with the headphones on backwards! Don't worry, he turned them around quickly (as did Ed Wood who did the same thing...:tongue:) Speaking of Ed, these are some action shots, including the Unholy Union of the Pico dac feeding the SR71. :wink: Here's my goony self-portrait (with the cans on the right way at least). Well, that is the rest of my HD800 photos and it seems like they are huge and if it is a problem then I will make up some smaller ones or something. Too tired at the moment. The case is a standard HD650 style but with some silky fabric over the standard foam insert. Here is my only other picture of Naaman. JP has some more. It was great meeting you, Naaman, and I look forward to more good times at CJ09.

Can't we all just get along?

CES in 8 hours is a nutty idea, it turns out. Good times with Naaman, Dave, Tyll, Jude and Drew and especially at the Senn booth. HD800 is the real deal. Plenty of pics tomorrow but no computer between us tonight. Good stuff abounded but we barely scratched the surface. Pretty cool that there were two flagship hi-end headphones debuted by Ultrasone and Senn and Ultrasone and Beyer also have new amps. Shure was huge and Monster Cable debuted a whole line of shit. Anyway, more tomorrow. AVN, what's that, a new audio company?

CES in 8 hours is a nutty idea, it turns out. Good times with Naaman, Dave, Tyll, Jude and Drew and especially at the Senn booth. HD800 is the real deal. Plenty of pics tomorrow but no computer between us tonight. Good stuff abounded but we barely scratched the surface. Pretty cool that there were two flagship hi-end headphones debuted by Ultrasone and Senn and Ultrasone and Beyer also have new amps. Shure was huge and Monster Cable debuted a whole line of shit. Anyway, more tomorrow. AVN, what's that, a new audio company?

Fleet Foxes -- Sun Giants

Congrats Mike! Enjoy this one for awhile, won't ya!?

Vesuviasonic -- Transfixed The Blue Note 7 -- Mosaic: A Celebration of Blue Note Records

Sorry about your loose screw, and the one in the preamp too! Buh dum bump! Good luck with that. I had that disappointment recently but it's better to find out now than to fry the thing.

Honestly, Dan, what are you going to accomplish by flying to Colorado if he does not ship this week or next? Are you going to carry your amp away in whatever shape it is in even if he does not agree to have you take it away? You asked him to do some amount of work on it and technically he has a right to be paid for the work you asked for but not the work you didn't. He probably has a type of mechanic's lien under Colorado law so taking it against his wishes could get you into more shit than you could get him into. Spending money on private investigators and accountants and all this stuff is not going to get you satisfaction and it is going to cost you money. This situation sucks but you are in the same boat plenty of us have been in before. Mikhail is likely to get the damn thing to you and then just don't ever deal with him again if you are not satisfied.

No Sharpie?!

Almost done . . . Fuck Zu. Fuck Ju. Fuck Su. Fuck You.

I can't recall where I wrote it with all these HD800 threads, but the ones at CES in Jude's pictures were s/n 248 so I think you are completely correct. Sennheiser is a smart company and has the resources to roll out a good number of these bad boys right away.

Happy birthday Luis! Cheers!

And then you decked them, didn't you, you Irish fuck!