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MobLand (2025) - Paramount+ a Guy Ritchie joint, which tells you all you need to know.

I'll post some CRBN2 impressions soon, might even make a video about them. I've had the idea for years now to document all the weird and wonderful electrostatics in my collection and some impressions in video form.

@kevin gilmoreI think 833A tubes with 1Kv supplies would work with 230V mains 10A.

So complicated !

chicken pot pie was on the menu tonight so I figured what else could go wrong?

No pain no gain. Tokelau is a nice place this time of year!

New Shriekback

I'm curious on your thoughts on how the ES-2a and the CRBN2 compare.

".tk"? I ain't clicking on that.... My afternoon: The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway by Genesis (1974) https://album.link/9wdb4bwv4kq4w Example: It has been a while since I have listened to the full album. If you have 94 min of your day. And as I went to post this, I saw a new release is coming out. A Deluxe, or super deluxe or ultra deluxe or something like that. Coming out in June, they have released a few tracks and they sound good, but not a big improvement over this 2007 remaster. And of course you will need 230 minutes of your life to consume the new version. Good luck with that.

Sound track of my life https://keygenmusic.tk

Nice!!!

Apocalypse & Chill by Delain (2020) https://album.link/nwk07vqwtdzmv Example: In my queue for a little while. But the album title seemed appropriate.... Also I liked the album...

I love it!!

finally. higher signal to noise ratio, more than 110db. takes signals up to 20 volts peak to peak unbalanced, 40v peak to peak balanced. no input attenuator that adds noise for those stupidly high voltage dacs. ( requires 30v power supplies) (volume control in the middle) thd about .005% no feedback. work in progress 4 layer board. preamp2025e.PDF

There is clearly some upper midrange/lower treble weirdness going on but to cover ca. 40% of the driver face in solid plastic and then obstruct the rest of it makes zero sense to me. I can take a bit of that odd behavior on some tracks over having headphones I just didn't want to listen to at all. Btw. driver cover whipped up in 3 minutes and already ordered. Naturally in black and gold... Not looking forward to removing the rest of the plastic crap in there though.

I think the point of all that AMTS stuff is to act sort of as a passive EQ and reduce treble resonances. The Corina does seem to measure quite nice: Graph courtesy of techpowerup which is a reasonably sane spot for reviews. Now, if only the point of a headphone was to measure nice and not actually sound good to real humans.

I do like me some space documentaries. I was at Vandenburg, CA during this period as an Air Force brat. I followed the MMU progress closely at the time.

Huh, looks like somebody is emulating the vintage JBL LE85 "Potato Masher" Horn concept, likely an effort to manipulate sound dispersion.

I primarily listen to classical and jazz and recently purchased a Blue Tack modified pair of Stax SR007A's. I have a KGST amplifier on the way to drive them. My old SRM-1/Mk-2 is doing duty until the new amplifier arrives. I'm considering upgrading my front end. I have Brennan B2's upstairs and down feeding an Mhdt Havana, and Orchid and an Orchid SE. Will the Soekris 2541 or Denafrips Ares 15 or Pontus 15 provide a significant improvement? Has anyone heard all these options? Thanks.

Dinner.

MAYHEM by Lady Gaga (2025) {no link} Example: Overall the album was good, but a little too samey from song to song. The best thing was still the duet with Bruno Mars that they both released.

SACD

I did some further digging: Drivers are accessed from the back and this is a nice piece of aluminum. The driver is in a plastic carrier but somehow the dust cover on the front is not included and was just loose. I was told that these drivers were supposed to be easy to service in the field but that is just a flat out lie. I lifted the cradle out of the aluminum shell and the dust cover was left behind... how does that make any sense? Dust intrusion is a major issue so if somebody is going to replace a driver the first thing you do is expose it to dust. Makes zero sense to me... You knew it was coming, I went all viking on its ass... I simply used a flatblade screwdriver to vedge underneath the lip of the plastic and slowly the adhesive gave up... most of the time. The other channel was much more difficult though so this is not easy. Plus I left the driver in there so exposed face of the driver means one slip and you've done some major damage. There is still some remnants left over but I'll likely design a simple PCB that I can glue into place to protect the driver. Let's call this the un-fuck mod... Now for the sound, it is a definite improvement. Is this sound staging I hear... in an electrostatic? Perish the thought... Much better bass too and everything sounds more alive. There are some midrange issues present in drivers though, especially on voices when I push the volume up a bit (remember these are roughly 6dB down from the Stax norm) but it is still a stark improvement over the stock headphones. More listening needed and a quick PCB session...

There isn't enough room inside the earpads to do any real repositioning for me , maybe 10mm back and forth max. I didn't spot any meaningful difference. The headband is just horrible, too much clamping for me and no good way of adjusting that out of fear of breaking it. It rings and it always wants to twist on me I grew to hate the Voce over time (well a couple of good listening sessions) and the earpads were huge part of that. I heard them again at Canjam with the angled ether pads and they are much better. I told the people manning the DCA booth that "wow, there were utter trash but now they are good" and they didn't like that comment all that much. If I remember correctly they replied in a fit of rage "they won awards!!!". Yeah as if anybody puts any stock in that trash. No major failure point them that I can spot, nice materials and all that Edit: Okey I got fed up and ripped off the earpads. Just look at this stupidity!!!!! The only thing that springs to mind is why on earth would anybody do this? I'm going to dig deeper and see if this trash can be removed. Btw: The earpads are simply glued in:

Multiple by Joe Henderson (1973) https://album.link/tgfvb24bkbtbt Example: Goes a little far now and then into the 70 experimental jazz, but always keeps it musical. I did really enjoy this outing. Lots of flavors to enjoy.