feckn_eejit

Erlend Øye - Unrest (2003) ...................o hai gaiz!!!lololol

Hardee har har. Mm, they do sound pretty cool, wish I had a couple more so I could keep flats on a couple for when I feel like thumping it out Macca style

I know, I know... I've listened to other gear the whole time to try to keep some sort of orientation... I mean I honestly thought that given how hard these sucked from the start that maybe they'd get a bit better but mostly stay sucky and that I'd be begging Rhydon for my V1 drivers back, as I thought those were awesome from day 1. Anyway, I'm not looking for any sort of conformation; here's my experience as I perceive it, take it or leave it!

For whatever it's worth, after a good 500 hours of shit-loud bass-heavy break in, I now really like the V2s. The bottom has lost its bloatiness and has become beautifully integrated! Walter Becker's Circus Money and Air's 10,000Hz Legend were unlistenable up to 250 hours or so at which point they became basically bearable... now they're totally enjoyable. On the other end of the bass spectrum, Aztec Camera's High Land, Hard Rain (thanks 'stretch!) was also absolutely unlistenable at the beginning, sounding like it was coming from one of those Civics with a pair of poorly ported 15s in the rattley trunk... now it sounds more or less like it did with the V1s, but with more impact in the low end. If I had to zero in on one major thing the V2s do better than what I'm used to from headphones (caveat: I have very limited O2 time), it'd be resolving information related to bass instruments. Mick Fleetwood's kick drum on "Brown Eyes" sounds amazing yet isn't overpowering and decays forever... fucking beautiful... John McVie's bass in the end bit of "The Chain" never stops sounding as growley and awesome as it does when it's solo right before everything explodes into the end/fadeout of the song -- all the information is there the whole way through... Carmine Rojas' wicked, deliciously grindey-sounding bass line over David Bowie's cover of Metro's "Criminal World" on Let's Dance absolutely slays... So many goosebump moments! Oh, and just got through "Til I Die" from Surf's Up... speaking of goosebumps... You know, when I used to A/B my Pass D1 and SFD-2 Mk.III DACs through headphones, I'd like the D1 better as the bass was tighter and deeper... but on the tweaked MG-IIIa speakers with the X250.5 driving them, I'd prefer the SF's ability to just reach in and drag that much more spatial/textural information out of redbook, helped along considerably by the D2D-1 upsampling to 24/96. I think I will have to claw the D1 back from my buddy I sold it to to try it again with the V2s, but based on what I'm hearing out of the Digital Lens/D2D-1/SFD-2 Mk.III rig through the V2s now, I'm reasonably sure I'll prefer the SF. I've had the luxury of hearing an album I helped mix from the first generation 24-track analog masters right down to the 16/44.1 two channel mix (through Genelec monitors), and even with great converters used carefully, there's always this huge difference in how the final 16/44.1 master sounds; so much magic disappears... the Lens/D2D-1/D2Mk.3 rig really does seem to get a lot of that kind of magic back... no clue how it does it, probably witchcraft... but through the V2s it's really appreciable! I've had plenty of "I can't fucking believe this is red book" moments over the last few days of heavy listening. In conclusion, the V2s are a flavour that isn't going away for me any time soon. So much music to get around to re-hearing for the first time!

Another (late) vote for the CAL Delta. One of my workhorse CD spinners (Icon Mk.II w/aptly named Power Boss upgrade) uses the same Technics transport mechanism and it is absolutely unkillable despite considerable effort on my part. I've put stupid hours on it in the 5 years I've had it. Not to mention I still can't find anything it won't play, and it ploughs through brutally scratched and scathed CDs long after every other transport in my stable has cried for mommy. I've never owned another CD spinner as hiccup-free and flawlessly reliable. It's the best sounding sub-$1000 (used) standalone CD player I've heard by a stupid margin, and while not the best sub-$1k (used) transport (that award going to the Micromega Drive 3, which sounds so good it doesn't make any sense whatsoever as it effortlessly reduces a Levinson No.37 to a pile of merde), it's certainly very respectable in that arena. It is the last piece of high end gear I'd ever sell under any circumstances.

I have been expecting to run them for a while as Rhydon told me to give them "a few weeks", then after that exercise find I still hate them, then beg for the Series I drivers back. Call me full of shit, but after ~100 hours of stupid-loud techno, they are becoming enjoyable on bass-light recordings. Bass guitars and kick drums are beginning to sound like musical instruments rather than electronic synth-generated shit. Heavier stuff is still unbearable...

Actually, when I start it up it does the Swedish anthem.

Already have bowls. Traded in Series Is, because I'm an idiot. Rhydon told me to put some hours on them before making a judgement call. Meanwhile I am going to rebuild one of my old Saab engines and run it at 6000rpm for three weeks straight. Then when I still hate the Series IIs, I'll wipe my ass with a handful of Benjamins, then I'll throw the Magnums up for sale for some wacko Senn-loving bass head to pleasure themselves with.

8-ish hours on them now........... still too much bass............

Just got home from picking up the Series II MAGNUMs from the post office. With the Series I, I plugged them in in the box and let them break in for a while before I listened to them........ I couldn't resist this time, and...... woah......... waaaaaaaay too much bass! I went straight for a album I loved listening to with the Series Is which is pretty light in the nether regions, and I hate how it sounds on these......... so, off my head to have some techno blasted through them for a while............ will report back........

Ohio Players - 1973 - Ecstasy

The fact that I haven't been able to arse myself into hooking up the Illusion ESC-1001 transfo box to the X250.5 in order to even do this comparison should speak towards how good the Magnums are... I do intend to do this but in a way I'm king of avoiding in that I'm worried the SR-X/Pros will lose and I'll kind of want to sell them but not really since they're so rare and I'm weird...........

Prefab Sprout - Swoon (1984) Finally expanding my Prefab Sprout experience beyond _Steve McQueen_. This is fucking AWESOME!