Tyll Hertsens

What! Have you guys gone all pussy on me. No, "Fuck you Tyll and this bloody wallet bullshit" posts. No " old farts over fifty can't hear anymore" commentary. Oh, I'm feeling let down. Thanks guy, I feel the love ... even though it's a bit on the sappy side for this crowd.

Just thought you guys would get a kick out of this thread over on Stereophiles forums. http://forum.stereophile.com/forum/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=21972&an=0&page=0&gonew=1#UNREAD

That's fuckin funny. They are big and enclosed feeling. Have you ever notice that pulling the headband in and out doesn't really change the size much, just makes them wider. Check it out. It wouldn't take much for me to say the best full-sized sealed headphone is the HD25. It would be bad advice for most consumers, though. No, earwickers problem is that there really aren't any great sealed cans. And I still lust for R-10s.

I'll go back and have a listen, but as I recall the HD-25 sounds pretty damn good too. The problem is that they really rest somewhat on your ear other then being fully circumaural. But I agree, they sound good; very dynamic and punchy.

I know it's not a dandy answer, but I think the Senn hd280 Pro is the best sounding sealed cans that are normally available. But in your shoes, I think I'd might consider some Sony R10s. They're damn good sounding. The IEM choice is the real good one for sealed cans, but comes with the problems of having to take them in and out in used around the home---but they do sound better than full sized sealed cans in my experience. I lust for a pair of R10s.

Yeah, that would just be silly; get something different. BTW, I'm so glad you're digging your amp. I thought about the electrostatic route, and the mentions of Justins e-stats amps is a good one. But if I were in your position (and I'm not...$10K to blow? Nice!) I think I'd be looking for a sweet tube rig for dynamic cans. And since you're into computers and such, it'd be a shame not to be able to integrate a Squeezebox in somewhere along the line. These guys around here would be able to tell you better than I about what tube amps rock, but me, I'd go for some sweet 300b amp as a first reaction. I understand the killer source comments, but I think I'd be looking at a sexy digital pre-amp. Then hook up a simple digital transport of some type for the CDs, and still have room for a Squeezebox and maybe a computer as an alternative. I assume you have a TV and a DVD player in the bedroom, maybe you can just get a digital signal out of the for cds. The guys here can tell you what DACs and/or digital pramp might work with a killer tube amp. Another good reason for doing this is that you can put adaptors on balance wired cans and se them on a single ended amp as well. I'd buy both rewired for balance AKG K701 and Beyer DT880s. THan you'd have three differently flavoured cans the could be used on both systems. If you are going to look for a good source, I'd be looking at Meridian and Wadia --- not that there aren't other good players out there, I just like Meridian and Wadia. My experience is that the killer CD players are at $10k and up. Under that you can do just as well with a cheaper player digital out to a good DAC.

Justin, upon reflection I think I should add that I think you've done a pretty good job of making your presence known at Head-Fi. When folks run off a list of makers you're usually on the list. That's a damn good sign. I know I try to keep you on that short list when I refer to other makers, and I think most others do to.

No worries, I respect your opinion. I really do understand your frustrations. But I would also like to see bridges built, not burned. And I don't see that happening, and that's sad to me. I think that's the nature of business in general: gathering momentum is an ephemeral and difficult challange. To be truly successful you have to make thousands of descisions in dozens of disciplins. Marketing, finanace, emplyees, customer service, management, not to mention product design. And everytime you grow a little and have to leap to the next step (Hiring your first employee, first ad in Stereophile, move out of the basement and rent office space, outsource your first board) you have to redefine everything some to make the model work under the new circumstance. There is no middle, just jumping from one slippery rock to the next. Getting traction at Head_fi is very difficult because it's just a powerful (in terms of their opinion making power) mob of people. You might get a FOTM buzz, but a long term branded impression? Not so easy. I think HeadRoom doesn't even di it particularly well. I've stuggle for a long time to find a way for us to get a better rap on Head-Fi. In the end, my only conclusion is that we'd have to build better sounding amps. HeadRoom is like the Mercedes (if they hadden't fucked up their brand) of headphone amps. If you want a hot-rod Lamborghini, or DeLorean, or old school Cobra you're really not going to be interested in a Mercedes. But try commuting to work and running errands with the kids in a Maserati. But if you want an all-around, reliable, servicable, amp, ours do that very well. Well, let me tell you, that's a hard sell at Head-Fi, or among any enthusiast croud. But that's my brand and I'm sticking with it. And I think, eventually, that at least half the guys at Head-Fi (once they've got a hot-rod rig they are happy with) will eventually want some HeadRoom gear that they can comfortably take for granted at the office or bedside nightstand. That's what you have to do, Justin, figure out who you really are and what you really want people to think of HeadAmp as a brand. Then work on that, and NOT on getting FOTM responces. (Not that I think you're doing that at the moment.)

Sweet! I'll start on the enclosure and laying out the panels. Olive drab with red lettering?

Thanks for your comments, guys, I think they're quite accurate. Initially the market was small. There was me and DIYers (an oversimplification, but bear with me). At that time people griped that my stuff was way to expensive compared to the DIYers. Duh. I had a payroll, ads, health insurance etc to carry and they didn't. But the market grew some. Then some of the DIYers turned pro. As they did, they found that they had to raise prices to cover more real corporate operating costs. But the competition got people interested and the market grew some more. Now, as you so rightly point out, some makers are making models just to make models. They're reacting to the clamor, and they're having a hard time dealing with being dragged around by the nose. Well, they're letting themselves get sucked into it. But you're right, after all, a headphone amp is a simple thing at its root. How many different kinds of them do you need? Here at HeadRoom we try to keep innovating and adding interesting features to redefine what a headphone amp can do. We now see a headphone amp as more like a desktop pre-amp than as a simple headphone amp. I think my competitors are having a tough time with that because they would have to keep sinking dough into developement to keep up. It's much easier to come out with six flavors of bling rather than to really keep innovating. Your guys point here is, if I'm reading it right, what good does it do for us to turn up the heat with more promotional activity if the current makers can't keep up? The answer is that if we can get this segment to heat up enough, we will see folks like AR, Krell, etc get interested and then we'll have a race. I guess my point is that PR opportunities within the headphone community, if they continue to grow, WILL eventually attract exactly the kind of makers that will then be able to do some serious innovation. If the current makers can keep selling cause they convince you of their product value, then they'll be around. But if they can't keep their shit together, they'll die. So, the problem is not that the headphone amp market players (certainly me in particular) are pushing the PR too hard and fucking things up, but rather that this market has not grown to the size and maturity it needs to sustain people who can afford to do real innovation. The truth is that even our gear, which I would argue is lightyears ahead of most headphone amp makers, is still lock in the technological paradigm of the 80s. No micro controllers, remote controls, switches on the front panels. And, given the size of the market at the moment, I certainly can't afford to speed forward to DSP headphone compensation and HRTF. I really think you guys should welcome the stress put on the makers by the HeadFest activity as it will shake out the lagards and attract and feed the star performers. The trick is patience. You're not going to fix the problem by making it easier for some makers; you'll fix the problem by making the market so attractive that serious folks will do serious work to get a piece of it. And they (and hopefully me) will simply compete the weak out of the race.

That was actually my concern with your post, people who don't know what's going on are going to jump to conclusions that are ill informed. I know that, but your post would likely not be read that way by many people. I don't know about that. How about we settle on the fact that we're both smart guys.

I don't see it so much as an emergent problem as an emergent opportunity. Let's take HeadRoom as an example: Did we do something extra for HeadFest? Yes. Are we time and resource limited? Yes. Did we loose some operational capability because of it? Yes, maybe a little. But, did we gain in the transaction? Yes. We got to efficiently introduce members to some of the things we were prepairing to do. Did the hobby gain in the transaction? Yes. (Though you guys might argue this point.) I had fun. Everybody I saw there had fun. Members put faces to screen names; got exposed to a lot of gear from both vendors and pther members; and people partied hearty. That's some pretty good gain. But back to your particular point. Is it proper that manufacturers have some external force pacing their developement. Well, there are already plenty of external forces that push developement: customer desires; competitors actions; new technologies becoming available in better chipsets and parts, to name a few. What's wrong with having a PR event punctuate the year? Big consumer electronics companies fundimentally introduce products in January at CES. Occasionally they introduce things they think can hit big before Christmas, but for the most part they don't want to confuse consumers who have developed their Christmas wish lists over the year. So they wait 'til after Christmas to introduce new product and try to convince people over the next year to get on the lists. HeadFest in spring (though likely a little later this coming year, is at a good time. High-end gear sells better in the winter and takes a dive in summer as people spend on vacations. Having a spring event may tend to bump summer sales a bit...a good thing for makers. Again back to your point, is HeadRoom or SinglePower likely to be harried by the event? Yes. But we want and need it, and we're willing to work a bit harder for it. Is it possible that some of us screwed the pooch to some extent to rady ourselves? Sure, possibly. But could not that simply be the normal process of learning and improving our activities throughout the year---after all, this is only the second such meet; give us a bit of time to learn how to deal with this new pacing item. I think you're projecting your own opinion into a generalization that's not really complete. You're makeing an argument out of a limited number of possibilities that might be, rather than looking at the whole of the opportunities presented and being willing to let the players actually make their moves in the new environment and then judge that. If you were to ask me to identify the real "biggest and emerging problems", I'd say it's a lack of organizational structure that allows a central entity to: take action to forward a rightly motivated mission; organize HeadFest and improve it over time by haveing a stable body that can learn from experience; provide a way to vouchsafe the nature of the activity desired by the members from potential derailment by industry. While Jude and I have a complicated and sometimes conflicting relationship, I non-the-less strongly believe we are both rightly motivated and want the same thing in the end---a hobby by and for enthusiasts. I have been working closely with him and believe we are on a track to putting into place a member-based organization that will accomplish the things I mentioned above. If your statement is really a hidden expression of dislike for commerce as it is practiced in America, then please don't just automatically place that lable on the headphone market trade participants. I know what my motive are and they are not reflected by big corps. I have very different beliefs. I'll add that it's a very damaging thing to just lable commerce as evil and leave it at that. Stores are a natural and necessary part of a community. You really can just say that commercial activity is bad, so it's a problem. It's a bullshit argument. I have to add here, that the tenacity with which those here hold resentment to Jude or Ray or whoever, has, in my view, done this community more harm than good. I'm not perfectly satisfied with what Jude does, but that doesn't stop me from trying to find a meeting of the minds. We've got LOTS of serious problems all over the world because of people holding extreem perspectives that they are unwilling to comprimise or moderate. And, it seems to me, you guys, as a whole, are doing just that. Alright, go ahead and fling shit at me. I'm confident that I see constructive things happening, and that I can explain my position. Just try to make it at least a little constructive, or I'll just fling it right back. And I'm full of shit so I come well armed.

I see hope in the iPhone, even though I think it will not do as well as they hope simply because of the Singular only service. My hope is that because it has a serioius OS it will be able to feed a portable DAC with it's USB. Does anyone know if the iPhone will act as a USB host for mapping audio out to another player? As portable devices become "smarter" we might get back the ability to usefully have portable amps with DACs in them. I've got my fingers crossed hard.

My wife and I rented the DVD and watched in bed. At one point she took a break and went to the kitchen to prepare a little dinner for herself. When she got back from the kitchen I was still in tears doubled up laughing half hanging off the bed. My funniest movie of the year.

It's the Cardas headphone cable...the Smurf blue stuff. Our first roll of "FatPipe" does not have the requested insulating jacket on it and it is a bit thin in diameter for our taste, but we will be using the roll up on recable jobs. The next roll of cable will be slightly larger in diameter (more like the normal Cardas 600 upgrade cables). We also specked out a "ThinPipe" lower cost cable from Cardas. We did get a roll of it, but I don't know what Jameys plans are for it.

Yeah, Merry Chrismas, guys! Enjoy the day and your loved ones!

I used to be in the Coast Guard. Does that count?

Hey! People are trying to sleep in here! Knock it off!

Oh, and by the way, my dear Sloth, I got the official go ahead that I can send you a Desktop Balanced w/Home modules to play with. I doubt it'll make it there before Christmas, but please email me you current shipping info (phone# too) to [email protected] so it can asap. The rest of you can just wait.

Maybe at RF frequencies, something like that might happen with video, but not 20 to 20K. They are just straight up circuitboard trace from the modules. But I believe you might have had some wierd problem; heck we might have lost the ground to a bad solder joint inside the amp, that shit happens from time to time.

Actually, the rear outputs are totally in parallel with the front jacks---no difference what so ever. You might have not had a connector in all the way or something, Daniel, because it should sound exactly the same from rear or front outs. Bottom line: a headphone amp is just a ballsy pre-amp with a low output impedance; there should be no problem whatsoever with driving a power amp from the front jacks on ANY headphone amp---ours included.

God! That sounded just like Ray!

Alright, Billy, I'm sorry; I'll be nice. Um...I think they'll think, "Man, that sounds pretty sweet for such a small amp. HOw the fuck am I going to get my Audio Technicas recabled?" or something like that. Sometimes I have a hard time believing that there will be any real market for these things when people have to figure out how to get their cans recabled. We're only going to be doing the 701 and 880 for a while. Eventually we'll add more cans, but I doubt we'll ever get around to doing too many models. If it does get popular, I'll be there will be a number of one-man headphone recabling companies that start-up and they'll do a good business. Re-sale value? Fuck, I don't know. I have heard the comment that HeadRoom's products resale value suffer from us changing models so regularly. Frankly, I just can't listen to the argument; I've GOT to keep trying to improve the products. After all even in your post you knock me for not doing enough new cool stuff. I'd counter by saying that we re-vamped the entire product line; added USB and digital capability to headphone amps; lowered the price of and improved the performance of our AirHead/BitHead; and, most importantly, stayed alive and kicking in the process with continued product developement---that seems like a pretty full plate to me. Sorry, the product lines are color coded: Micro=red; Desktop=Green; home=Blue; and Max=Gold. So the DB has a Green LED. Yeah, we have serial numbers on the back. They're usually date driven though so the first will be DBD(or H if home moduled)07010001. But I'd make an exception for you, buddy, and make it say "Ser#000001 Just for Billy" and sign the back panel myself.

Danny, our previous engineer, tried it on the BlockHead and thought it sounded pretty good... I did spend a little time listening and, OK, our amps put out a pretty good signal and you can tell, but soooooo underpowered. I really wish I thought we'd have an amp out sometime soon that would power the K1000 well, but it's not to be, I'm afraid. The first chance will be the 300B amp that's something like 4 years out. But who knows, maybe we'll strike it rich and be able to develop products willy nilly; I'd love to do a sweet FET amp for them. OTOH, what could I do that Nelson Pass hasn't done so much better than we could in that regard. Well, I'll be taking one to the Florida meet this weekend. Sloth will have one for a little while after the new year. They'll be up for sale in Feb. I'll be at the National Meet. And....well....where do you live? Maybe I can swing by one of these days.

No shit! These guys go on and on, Head-Fi this and Head-Fi moderator that, blah blah blahhhh! And then I find MY OWN POST with this in it: Holy Crap! Moderator abuse for sure! You never know where the shit will be flying from around here. I'ts like living in the headphone world equivalent "The Clockwork Orange" Back to your normally schedualed broadcast..... Yeah, man. You going to the Florida meet? I can't keep up with that thread, I have no idea if you've chimed in over there. Oh you're just an obsesive HeadRoom fanboy! The K1000 needs so much more to sound good! Makes me wonder why I'm so darn willing to send you one to play with? But I am. Let me work on it a bit; and sending some 650 cables soundln't be a problem. my guess is sometime after Christmas. Sounds like mastopinionation to me. It's hard to know how to suck up to CHAOS but I promise to be a good boy and do my best. ....small squeeky fart.... ...gentle oily egg fragrance.... And in closing, I do solemnly swear to send EdipisReks a bottle of good Scotch.