Not with Marc's BH. He has an adjustment knob, and he hooks up a meter to dial it in.

The Koss really sing at the higher bias, and they're less dark than the 007. Not to say that the 007 isn't a damn fine headphone, it's just that I prefer the more forward presentation of the Koss. The Koss scales very, very well once you loose that crappy Koss energiser.

Edited January 6, 200917 yr by swt61

You guys really make your point. Alright, in about a month, I'm going to sell a bunch if not most of my headphones and then pounce on a used ESP950, which may take a few weeks or months... It's too bad I didn't have the cash to buy either of the two that recently came up for sale.

I will be using either the stock amp or a SRM-1/MkII but eventually will build a KGSS with two output biases, 620v and 230v for my SR-Lambda. Actually maybe 3, another being 580v, but those damn WPI sockets are so expensive, and it's another hole to drill in the case.

Wow, that was much easier than previous posts in these threads. This minimalist thing has it's advantages.

Doesn't it though? Sometimes I still want to grab for a particular AKG that I no longer have (usually the K290), but overall I'm quite satisfied choosing between just 3 headphones. I'm still a bit surprised how much the K1000 has won you over, considering its differences from the sonic signature you've seemed to always like before, but I didn't expect to like it as much as I did either.

Well it's not to say that I never want to listen to other headphones. I'll keep my HD580, and I'll build a new Ortho woody, but the K1000 just does so many things right.

I assumed it would have great technical merit, I just never expected it to be so musical.

I'm totaly hooked, and they'll be the first phone I'll grab to test a new piece of equipment or music. Heck I expect they'll be the first phone I grab for just about everything.

I'm still looking forward to building my new speakers, because they're going to have a really superior cabinet design (forget conventional box designs), but these headphones almost take the place of speakers.

Fitz it's quite an interesting presentation with your old UFW-10, and mine. Mine had an issue with the amp about a year ago, and after 6 months or so it came back with a new replacement amp that's a bit different, but very good.

I have the new amp set to go lower, and yours set to crossover a little higher. Via the balanced UFW-10 inputs of coarse. (dual subs for those non Rocket savvy members)

Edited January 6, 200917 yr by swt61

Yeah, it never really impressed me at meets, but when I bought a pair for "extended audition" (honestly, I got it cheap enough that reselling was no problem) I realized the reason they sound so good is they don't do anything to wow or impress you and do a great job getting the hell out of the way.

I'm interested to see what you've come up with for those speakers. I'm looking at getting some planar speakers myself to try something different than box speakers for once.

It's no great secret. They'll be very similar in design to these Magico Minis...

By stacking individual Baltic Birch plywood pieces I can design just about any shape I want. Once the first piece is cut into shape it's simply a matter of using it as a template with a router to recreate the rest.

Mine will be a very similar shape to the Magico, with a cylindrical interior chamber.

Cylindrical? Why? 2/3 of a sphere (in terms of complicatedness to tame, resonance-wise)?

It's very easy to calculate the volume of a cylinder. The cylinder is a good shape to alleviate reflections, and a circle is very easy to cut with my router jig. Then it's as simple as following the pattern with a bearing guided straight cutting bit.

Those are some beautiful speakers, cant wait to see your take on them Steve.

Updated rankings:

Koss ESP/950

Modded Yamaha HP-1, modded Yamaha HP-50A and YH-3, modded Fostex T20 (v2, x2), Balanced deep woodied HF-1, HD580 (HD600 grills) and MB Quart QP400, then K701, Pioneer SE-700, and stock Realistic Pro30 all together.

The first three dynamics are actually pretty darn close to the top three ortho flavors really, though the ortho group is pretty solid in it's own rankings. Those three dynamics are better than all the orthos for some things, but I think I enjoy the ortho group just a bit more. Hard to tell, depends on the music and my mood as much as anything. The ESP/950 though, man, it is something else entirely.

I can't wait to hear those once you build your amp for them colin

So you need to open the PS and change the bias for the Koss or for the Stax depending on which ones you prefer to use... not very handy, but better than not having selectable bias nonetheless.

It wasn't really designed for the user to change but to be dialed in when the amp is built. Still it's easy enough to relocate the pot so that it can be reached from outside the chassis and setup two test points.

Are there other amps besides the BH that can do the ESP950 justice?

Purely out of curiosity. Happily dynamic, me. Not even slightly tempted by the stat side. Certainly not intrigued. No sir.

Justice is a tricky word...

I've heard the ESP950 out of a Woo GES, an SRM1-Mk.2 and an SRM-T1 and it was wonderful out of all three. Best out of the Woo, naturally, but I don't think it's nearly as hungry as the O2

Are there other amps besides the BH that can do the ESP950 justice?

Purely out of curiosity. Happily dynamic, me. Not even slightly tempted by the stat side. Certainly not intrigued. No sir.

Trying to self convince you sir? I for one haven't had previous fully satisfactory experiences with electrostats, cans or speakers, so my interest is quite limited, however I admit that listening to a properly amped pair of O2 is something I'll have to do at some point. The problem is that I have acquaintance to no one over here with such system. Hence I'd have to build the system by buying it, trying it at length and then deciding

Would someone in Europe rent to me a kosher O2 system for one month? We could arrange the fee

The ESP/950 though, man, it is something else entirely.

ESP950 is very good. I like it as much as my Lambdas and for somethings even better. I like O2 even out of T1S much more than ESP950 I do like my orthos as they are some where in the middle between stats and dynamics. Nice to see more people with ESP950, I think it's the best deal in the hi-end stat market at the moment.

The ESP950 did just fine out of my SRM-1 Mk2 P.P. and T1 so those are good places to start from. They are pretty far from being as power hungry as the O2's but still get a nice boost from the BH.

Would someone in Europe rent to me a kosher O2 system for one month? We could arrange the fee

Once the economy here bounces back I'll pick up some SR-007A's to modify and we can talk then. It looks like I'll have a surplus of amps soon given my ambitious DIY plans and that includes a couple of Blue Hawaii's...

The ESP950 did just fine out of my SRM-1 Mk2 P.P. and T1 so those are good places to start from. They are pretty far from being as power hungry as the O2's but still get a nice boost from the BH.

Once the economy here bounces back I'll pick up some SR-007A's to modify and we can talk then. It looks like I'll have a surplus of amps soon given my ambitious DIY plans and that includes a couple of Blue Hawaii's...

That would be wonderful Birgir. Maybe a rent with purchasing options?

It's very easy to calculate the volume of a cylinder. The cylinder is a good shape to alleviate reflections, and a circle is very easy to cut with my router jig. Then it's as simple as following the pattern with a bearing guided straight cutting bit.

Well...you still have to compensate for the two (top-to-bottom, and the diameter one). Although, if one were to extrapolate from spheres, supposedly that's easier.

Me personally, in my dreams (the ones in which I build a pair of speakers, not the desert island with a bunch of hotties one), I intend to use computer modeling to figure out some sort of random based one that has the fewest modes, sort of like the Kharma ...Ceramique? Was it? I remember seeing a picture of the insides in a review in Absolute Sound.

Edited January 6, 200917 yr by Dusty Chalk

That would be wonderful Birgir. Maybe a rent with purchasing options?

I'm sure we could work something out...

Well...you still have to compensate for the two (top-to-bottom, and the diameter one). Although, if one were to extrapolate from spheres, supposedly that's easier.

Me personally, in my dreams (the ones in which I build a pair of speakers, not the desert island with a bunch of hotties one), I intend to use computer modeling to figure out some sort of random based one that has the fewest modes, sort of like the Kharma ...Ceramique? Was it? I remember seeing a picture of the insides in a review in Absolute Sound.

You might find this link interesting. Happy dreams

Ooh, thanks. That link has given me some ideas.

You might find this link interesting. Happy dreams

Yeah, that image of the Kharma Grand Ceramique about half-way down is the one I was thinking of.

Those designs are really great. I especially like the bumpy texture to deaden the reflections, but it would be very tough to accurately calculate the interior volume of a similar design with the tools I have at hand. Still it really makes me want to go that extra step. I guess I could build a dummy unit and calculate the volume with sand.

Dew et.

Ooh, thanks. That link has given me some ideas.

Here some more. Make this one I wish I could, but I am not even capable of drilling a hole in the wall