Jon L

I once opened SRD7 MkII to see what can be done. There's an unbelievable amount of wiring going to everywhere, and of course, you can't check continuity with multimeter due to transformers. Any Cliff's note version of which transformer wire to where to bypass the switch?

To borrow the dictionary, I meant something along the lines of: close, contiguous, direct, firsthand, near-at-hand, nearby, nearest, next, nigh, primary, proximal, proximate, recent

I did mean X Japan.

Beside what others have already said, I can't imagine any parallel universe where seeing X is worth that much $. I find X's music quite bland and forgettable.

If you like the sound signature of K1000, you won't like the OII. They are almost opposite of each other. If you find K1000 way too immediate, literal, forward, or bright and very bass shy, then OII is your man. See above. IMO, a dynamic and a 'stat can never be "redundant" to each other b/c the essence of the presentation is fundamentally different. One other thing, unless you're Spritzer (possibly even a future Spritzer when he finally builds his uber amp), your chances of hearing OII properly driven is nil to zero

This is the crux of the problem. In principle, I don't have a problem with the concept of V-Day, but the sheer, blatant, annoying commercialism *must*be*stopped

Second that, especially HE1.2 vs. HE60. More specifically, bass extension aside, I'd really like to know how vocals and midrange-rich instruments sound on the two in terms of microdynamics, purity of resolution, clarity, and that spine-tingling "magic."

I don't understand the recent rage over GM70 tubes, especially for headphone application. I see where GM70 is required for non-sensitive speakers due to its ~50 watt capability, but that kind of power is not necessary for headphones, even K1000's. I only mention this b/c my (limited) experience with GM70 tube (deHavilland) impressed me with somewhat lush, rich, warmish signature with concessions given to micro-power tubes in terms of microdynamics and aliveness...

Yes, a adapter with resistance would be the same. You might have to play around with the resistor value depending on your source/system gain, noise, exact headphone used..

Since I already have SRD-7 MkII, I plan to pick up some more 'stats myself in '08. I really don't have the self-control to avoid buying the HE 1.2b methinks

IME, it's exactly the opposite. Speakers don't look like good values when compared to headphones in the price range. AT ALL, actually...

LOL. You might want to let him know the cost of cap upgrade to Mundorf/VCap TFT given the number/uF of Aristaeus caps. It's not just AN silver caps that would be considered insane

Better music is what we all strive for, so enjoy! Do I see the stock K1000 extension cable in the background still? Make yourself some nice cables with some solid-core copper/magnet wire, and you will gain another level of performance. I know some use the Canare Starquad, but I made one myself, and I don't like it much, especially compared to the Vampire magnet wire version. As far as background noise with "normal" headphones, I would solder in 2 resistors right at the 1/8" headphone jack, perhaps around 100 Ohms or so. In fact, why not put a 1/4" jack at the same time.

That is a rather interesting question, and of course I've tried both. Many times. With many other headphones, also. Basically, both makes me happy, but 8 Ohm tends to have a smidge more bass quantity while 16 Ohm tends to sound smidge more transparent up top, sometimes more revealing of recording flaws. After all, the 8 Ohm tap has to go through a lot more transformer wire...

I see used A205 MkII all the time for like $500. I doubt you can build your own SEP at that price that will sound as good.. Almarro really spent their money on what counts, i.e. heavy duty PS tansformer and output transformers with pretty heavy chassis. The rest inside is no chump change, either! Even the stock coupling caps actually sound dang good, even compared to VCap teflons, etc.

And I would be one of them Almarro/K1000 advocates Yeah, definitely get some nice speakers for them, but the real stunner will be a nice electrostat (Senn HE60, 90, maybe even HE Audio 'stat) via SRD7 MkII adapter and Almarro. It really doesn't get much better than Almarro/electrostat! To be honest with you, as good as K1000/Almarro is, I haven't touched that combo in a while due to the aching beauty of HE60 'stat/Almarro combo.

It's true. Unfortunately, UPS with surge protectors that are built well and sound good tend to be quite expensive. The usual $200-400 UPS devices will be less than satisfactory, often worse than straight off the wall. The following review is fairly typical of my own experiences as well: http://www.audaud.com/article.php?ArticleID=1594 Unless you are willing to put in some heroic efforts and $$ into the power conditioning equation, I would say get a nice power cord and plug direct into the wall. It's unlikely that properly-designed gear will be damaged by power outtage, etc.

Some of those old, discontinued AQ IC's were quite nice. The Ruby was very respectable IC's IMO, but their AQ Diamonds were really good. The VH Pulsar IC is the only one in your budget range, but I don't think they'll be "better" than what you already have. Also, Pulsars take a gazillion years to break in b/c of the thick, solid teflon dielectric, and every time you turn on your system, they need some time to sound good again. Impossible, I know, but I can clearly hear this effect..

I still don't see *why* these Audio Aero players cost as much as they do, including the SE upgrade, which is not much: "SE upgrade that replaces the D/A board capacitors, mounts the new ones on special Symposium pads for resonance control and swaps the stock 6012s with cryo'd versions."

The midrange, both female and deep male (Leonard Cohen, etc). I used to own unmodded Resolution Opus 21, so if you can compare the stock Opus 21 (before mod?) or even modded Opus 21, that would be helpful. To me, many asynchronously upsampling CDP's tend to be less excellent in the midrange as far as density, texture, and natural (not overblown) harmonic richness. This is why I sold my Opus 21. Anagram module is just another way to do 192kHz asynch upsampling...

Come on. I like Omega speakers as far as single-driver speakers go, but their spec sheet just says "37Hz to 18K." Is that -3dB point, -6dB point? Don't make me start quoting manufacturer spec sheets, such as 0.00000000000136% distortion..

As you're probably finding out, once you get used to good electrostat headphones, finding speakers that will satisfy is going to be *very* *very* tough. One impulse will be to get large electrostat speakers and/or electrostat hybrids, but once you introduce the room, low efficiency, weird impedance curves, macrodynamics and bass become much more of a problem for full-sized speakers than headphones. Not to mention extreme hidden costs in terms of capable, humongous amplification. Once you try to stick a dynamic bass woofer to a stat, say good-bye to anything resembling coherency. Even very expensive speakers will immediately let you know the presence of many different drivers and crossovers. The great ones will get close, but never all the way to what a single-driver crossoverless electrostat headphone can do. But single-driver speakers are not the answer, either, b/c unless you're a headphone, single-driver in an actual room has *severe* limitations in frequency extremes. Oooh, I would hate to be in your shoes looking at speakers when you've got HE90 to compare to :'(

LOLROTF! That's classic Since you're sending him a box anyway, why not build him a nice, short 15 pin DB25 to RCA adapter for him? Makes me wonder if Apogee is using some sort of custom drivers for asynchronous digital transfer via Firewire. Heck, disabling the power from Firewire and rigging up some sort of outboard battery PS, etc, will elevate it further. The possibilities are endless

Bingo But I wouldn't pay too much attention since this is HeadCase. I mean, how seriously can you take those who bust your balls for not experiencing "high end" DAC's while they freely bash OMZ without hearing one? BTW, why the heck do you have *3* sets of RCA jacks on your OMZ? And why did you use those huge RCA's? I would have gone with a pair of nice Vampire OFC or WBT Nextgens myself Anyway, there is a guy on AA who made an external overkill PS for Zhaolu and claim wonderous things. Ori doesn't really agree with many things done with this PS, which is basically taking things to 1000X necessary, but heck, what the hey? If it's good for Naim..

I hope you're not asking this question to pick up a certain Zapped Zhaolu on a FS forum on a certain website b/c I haven't finished my thoughts on whether I should buy it just for kicks and comparison purposes to OMZ I would have bought it if it didn't have the dang CS4398 board in that thing. I really much prefer the AD1852 board in my Zhaolu...