jpelg

Bradley Whitford & Colin Hanks play unlikely detectives for the Dallas PD: FOX Broadcasting Company - The Good Guys This could have been annoying, but somehow is played by both main characters in such a way that it is nothing but totally entertaining. It's definitely lite fare, but not insulting one's intelligence, and good pacing. My surprise favorite summer show (I almost grew a mustache!). My wife & I both laugh throughout. The summer finale aired on Monday, and will pick up on Fridays this fall. I think you can watch full eps online @FOX.

Watched the first two eps on Sunday. Seems promising, a little quirky, if not totally compelling, but occasionally (intentionally?) disjointed. The train scene seemed a bit over-the-top to me, but I guess that implies that the conspiracy/coverup is big too *shrug*. I'll probably DVR it to watch "whenever" or if it's on-demand I'll do that.

WARNING - Potential spoilers... Watched the pilot & second ep last night. Overall, a bit of a disappointment. Pretty much "Alias"-lite. Actually a huge ripoff of that ABC series. Unfortunately, the story depth isn't there. Perabo cannot act nearly as sexy as Garner when necessary, and her character can't even fight. What's her one superpower - languages? Is she gonna talk the evil villains to death? Sure, she can grow into her character over time, but by then I've probably moved on. The Grado reference was weak too, imo. Why go RS-2 when striving for the highest resolution? Then give a pair of RS-1's in a mahogany box to a (albeit genius geekhead) kid? Doesn't make sense. Still, my wife actually likes it, so I guess we'll continue DVR-ing & watching when nothing else is on. She's never seen "Alias" though. I may have to pick up that series on DVD for her.

Have the first two eps recorded. Haven't watched yet though. Looking forward to it.

Just saw this - absolutely gorgeous!

Two completely different headphones. The MD1 is a dynamic, while the electrostratic prototype is...well, 'electrostatic'. Kinda makes sense for at least two reasons I can think of: 1. Those Rudistor e-stat amps are big & heavy - a royal pain to travel with, unless absolutely necessary. 2. Using a Japanese voltage Stax amp demonstrates how the headphone will work with your existing, off-the-shelf Stax amp, and solves #1. Anyone hear or know anyone who heard them?

Life on Mars (U.S) I'm sad that the US version of Life On Mars isn't coming back. I watched the first ep of the British version on PBS, and it seemed so similiar to the US series, down to very exact details, that I felt I was watching reruns, so I didn't go further. But the British series went for two seasons, and had a spin off, "Ashes to Ashes" for three seaons. Are these worth watching?

x3. Even Sharon Gless' character (my fav) is getting less airtime. But my wife likes it, so I'll probably continue. And the new assassin chick is hot. But then again, I'm partial to latin women.

I like how he doesn't think he's angry. Gotta catch up with last week's & this week's eps.

Original version, or the new one with extra, previously unreleased cuts?

^ Exactly. I think that both the HD650 & DT880/600's are very good, and for not too much $$ (relatively speaking), a very nice setup can be built around either of them. While the T1 is more refined than either of these in many areas, it is of a debatable percentage. If the T1 was only twice their price ($7-800 range) they'd be ultra-competitive. At their intro price ($1000), they still offered a performance value that could be justified, albeit not a slam-dunk. At $1300, it's a difficult sell.

What are you sticking them into, Din? The β22 may be a bit too neutral for the T1's. I know the Beyer & Headroom amps they were using at the last NY meet didn't do them justice at all. But I still liked them better than the HD800's that day, and thought they had a lot of potential. I do think some balancing of upstream gear is required, but isn't it always? IIRC, Rob (Skylab) uses only OTL tube amps, so he may be getting some synergy there. I didn't hear them out of the Woo amps, but that may be a similiar case. At their old pricepoint, they had a chance of getting into my stable some time in the future when funds become available. But unfortunately, with the recent increase it's doubtful. That may be the thinking of a lot of people who were on the fence.

Based on an Elmore Leonard character, Raylan Givens, played handily by Timothy Olyphant. Lots of guns, gals, good ol' boys, & drawls, to name a few of the Southern cliches that are unapologetically displayed in extremely charming fashion. Have to admit - Olyphant is charismatic as hell. Think I have a bit of a man-crush. Anyone else catching this new series on FX?

I tend to like DAC's with AKM chips inside (acknowledging it is not necessarily indicative of final sound), and liked the DEQ2496 as a DAC when I had it. The SRC2496 provides upsampling, as well as RCA S/PDIF inputs. The DEQ provides optical input only, user-controllable output attenuation, not to mention the digital EQ if you are so inclined. Having the two together gives a lot of functionality, and great sound. I really liked Ari's SRC/DEQ combo at the last meet I attended.

Is that if you do the ripping soley through the PC (ie. insert disc into PC's DVD-ROM drive)? If you had an external DVD-A player (not your PC) that could output the full hi-rez signal, couldn't a PC soundcard with the appropriate digital interface (ie. coax) accept that signal into a single ripping application? Where's the technical bottleneck?

Needle drops require an A-D step. Since it's PCM, I would expect/hope that ripping DVD-Audio is always in the digital domain, no? Different from copying analog-outs from an SACD player.

Thanks, T. It appears from that graph that it never drops below 600-ohms. Doesn't that indicate the amp's output impedance would have even less of an effect?

Is there any measurement data to show if the T1's have a significant variance from their nominally-rated impedance across the FR range?

I'm still not convinced this all matters to a 600-ohm headphone driver. Can someone show me some calculations that take driver impedance into consideration?

With my headphone amp also being a decent preamp, I have some interest in active monitors for when speaker listening is an option. I know that there is a fairly strong Quad active fanbase around here. I came across the Tannoy Reveal line: Seems this series has a bunch of options, ranging from passive, to active, to active w/digital inputs, all basically differing in driver size (5, 6, 8"). Anyone heard any version of these?

Thanks for the info & suggestions guys - just what I was looking for.

Cartridge reco's for Technics owners typically fall into the Denon MC camp for compliance matching, and classic sonics. However, the Ortofon Concorde integrated shell/cartridge presents some interesting potential usability/setup benefits. Anyone have any experience with KAB's custom hi-fi version: Thoughts on the general subject? Thoughts on which stylus is best (STY20/30/40)?

Interesting comments about the hi-Z output helping the T1's FR. I have heard a difference using 120-ohm output with 250-ohm Beyer models, including DT770 & DT880's which are not explicitly advertised as needing 120-ohm outputs (as were the discontinued DT831/931 series which absolutely needed it). However, it differs from my experience with my 600-ohm DT880 Manufaktur, which is imperceptibly affected by plugging them into the 120-ohm output of my Prehead vs. the 0-ohm jack. It also flies somewhat in the face of my admittedly limited understanding of electronic "theory" that a 600-ohm headphone be significantly affected by output impedance. All that being said, my ears/gear may not be up to the task to hear the diff, theory is not always reality, and of course the T1 is a different headphone from the DT880's. So I will have to wait for the next NY meet to hear & compare.

Thanks for the update, Mike. I recall seeing your posts about the ULN'2's phono inputs being too noisy. Also, this requires using Mac software for the RIAA equalization, correct?