Wmcmanus

Raffle for Doug! I'll hold the money.

Now that's what I'd call an honest review!

Happy birthday, Grahame! As my ever-drunken barber from back home always says, "You're a true gentlemen and scholar, and there aren't too many of us left these days!"

Yes, and he's diggin' on the EAR V20 and K1000 set up! I think I'll blow the dust off of that combo myself tomorrow in his honor. It's been a while since I've imbibed on that liquidy smooth sound.

I want a pair of IEMs that also have bass traps that can be inserted in my nose. They've just not trying hard enough.

About as comfy as sitting perfectly still in a dentist's chair for an hour for fear that they'll slip a millimeter and send you back to the drawing board again in an effort to get anything close to a reasonable seal. Indeed. But I still think they're great. Just wish I was one of the lucky ones who can get them to seal. It really distracts from my listening enjoyment with them.

If, as you say, it's an empty bedroom that you can do anything you want to with, then I think the Maggies should be fine in there. I wouldn't want much clutter anywhere, however. The MMG's might be a better bet for a small room though, but you would probably have to add a sub. Should also add a sub with the 1.6 but it's not an absolute must unless you're a bass head or if the Maggies are serving your HT needs as well. Problem there is in trying to match up the right sub that integrates well with them, and that can be pretty tricky. You won't notice the bass deficiencies as much if your listening position is somewhat low to the ground. Not sure why this is, but near field listening in a low rider seating position seems to help boost the perception of bass weight/heft with ribbon/planer/electrostat speakers, particularly in smaller rooms. The thing is, you're pretty much forced into near field listening so that's a given, but when you're sitting up higher the sound field often seems quite thin and lacking in body. Thus, you start trying various subs to smooth out the spectrum, but all they seems to do is mess everything up (i.e., it's hard to get them to integrate with very quick speakers). So then about the time you're ready to give up, and you're sitting cross legged on the floor with no sub connected (at the moment, but you're about to connect yet another one to give it one last try), all of a sudden you say "Hey! It sounds just fine down here!" Don't ask me how I know this or what I'm doing with a pair of Maggies in my closet, next to a pair of Martin Logans (electrostats) and a pair of Newform Research (ribbons), plus 4 or 5 subs (including a Talon Roc and Velodyne HGS15). I'd suggest taking a look at Audio Asylum to see what Maggie owners who've set them up in small room advise: how far back their listening position is, how far off the floor their ears are, whether they use a sub, and whether the 1.6 (or 1.7) would sound cramped in a 10' x 12' room. The thing about Maggies, as others have said, is that while the setup can be very tricky and quite frustrating for a time, once you get them dialed in they are about the best bang for the buck you'll ever find (assuming that you're not a huge bass head, and that quick/clean is more your thing).

This kid was conceived in a motorhome, so he or she will just have to get used to living on the road. I asked one of my friends who is a mom what sorts of things that a new mom and baby would need while on the road. Her response was something about warm water or warm milk (I can't remember which and I can't remember why). No problem with either of those. Warm water right out of the sink. Warm milk with the help of the stove top or microwave. So no reason they can't both come along. Or not. If she thinks not, then not it will be. No sweat off my grape fruits. All will be well. Just a man and his music and the open road. Unless of course he takes a liking for the kid and then after finding himself alone on the road for a while, he suddenly gets all soft about "missing out" on the "joy" of changing diapers and such, and voluntarily domesticates himself. She's now at the "can't wait" stage. I'm still at the "what the fuck did I do" stage, but am starting to come around a bit.

I don't know, what do the HD800 sell for now? Has the price come down? Seriously, I don't know. Bought mine from day one and haven't paid attention since. As I mentioned, Todd's answer was that $995 is pretty much the best deal you can expect to get for now or the foreseeable future. No doubt, that will change in time, as do all things. Likewise, that doesn't necessarily mean that there won't be a fringe e'tailer who is willing to discount them further right away. But my guess is that won't be the likes of TTVJ, Moon Audio, Headroom, and other proven companies in this circle. Just reporting what I've heard. Not trying to make the decisions for Sennheiser or Beyer, etc., or agree or disagree with their policies.

The more T1 impressions that pour in at HF, the more intrigued I've become about them. It's still a pretty small sample size, but at this point what does seem clear is that everyone who hears them at least agrees that they're an outstanding pair of headphones (a true high-ender) and worthy of an audition. That's all I need at this point, because I'm not really looking for my "ultimate" flavor, but just something interesting to add to the mix. I really like the fact that Drew can mod them quite cost effectively, making them an excellent candidate for balanced cables. This gives us the flexibility of trying his Black, Blue and Silver Dragon options at CanJam, and perhaps some other cables from other companies by then.

Happy birthday, my friend! Hope you can make it to CanJam.

Good question! Plus, my sort-of, kind-of, not-really but I think of her that way, daughter, is getting married in Florida the week after CanJam. I'd been planning to be in Illinois with the motorhome before CanJam and then fly out to Florida with my mom for 3 days for the wedding. But where does one put an angry, feeling neglected, broken hearted, ("Why is your ex-fiancee's daughter's wedding more important than me and your own child?") kind of woman for 3 days while you go off to do that sort of thing? There I was, 47, single, and completely unattached. A man with many toys, time on his hands, all sorts of interesting hobbies and friends, the ability to travel anywhere at a moment's notice, no 9-to-5 to worry about... This sort of thing conjurs up all kinds of fears! I might have to go to work again! Ehhh!!! Moving all the cables and booby trapping everything else may turn out to be the least of it.

Near field listening is actually quite nice with Maggies. I wouldn't get closer than about 5 feet, but then I wouldn't sit any further back than 8 feet in most rooms either. I don't think that should be a terribly big concern, although it would be if you had less than 2-3 feet behind the Maggies and less than 2-3 feet behind the listener. I don't think they would do terribly well in a 10' x 10' bedroom, but then again, not too many speakers would so that's kind of a moot point.

Yes, excellent choice! As you say, one of the best rides among the many you tested and you can't beat the warranty.

I think Todd has something like 30,000 albums in his personal (i.e., not for sale) collection. But maybe it's only 15,000. How can you even begin to guess when you see this 10' high wall running 30' across, and then there's more on the other side of the room, and in the adjoining room around the corner. It sure looks like a lot! Maybe if Jeff has seen Todd's listening room, he'll be able to make a realistic guess since he's got such a massive collection himself.

My first reaction was - meh, just the lawyers trying to get themselves (oops, I mean as many minority shareholders as they can put together as clients) a piece of the pie (if there is any left after settling the company's debts). So no big surprise there. But in the disclosures below the story, it indicates that they're not a law firm and provide information as a public service. Hmmm... "Foundation" implies that they're not-for-profit, but they don't make that claim directly. Color me suspicious. This does bring up an interesting point. I had mentioned earlier in this thread that chances are the outside directors and non-family officers of Koss will be "well" covered with D&O insurance. But for a company this size I'd imagine it would be for $10 million or so of coverage (perhaps less)* because they wouldn't have ever contemplated that there would be high transactional risks. In other words, sure Koss has to pay suppliers and such, but probably doesn't ordinarily enter into multi-million dollar single transactions. With D&O insurance being so expensive these days, and with Koss not typically doing high dollar transactions, I'd bet anything that they'll be underinsured. Plus, I can't imagine that they'll be able to convince their insurance company that all of this was a single occurrence! Ha! Fat chance. So the outside directors are probably shopping for fresh undies about now. Of course, normal protocol is to have the company stand responsible (in way of indemnity clauses) for any judgments handed down against individual directors. Thus if, a) Koss does appear to have the financial ability to emerge from this mess in tact, and then there is a successful shareholder derivative suit against the company -- which essentially involves a judge agreeing with a well represented group of minority shareholders that the company should be forced to sue the directors for their negligence, and c) the company then, in turn, must stand behind the directors (thus sued) to indemnify them for any personal liability they might stand to suffer... The end result might be that Koss would need to use it's own funds (whatever is left to begin with) to pay the minority shareholders for the damages that they've suffered. This would, in turn, bring on another round of litigation expenses to attempt to measure the minority shareholder losses. Not a straightforward process since Koss' stock price has slumped so much in recent years to begin with, part of which may well be attributable to the fraud that has been going on. Without adequate D&O insurance, I doubt that Koss will come out alive in this mess. Perhaps the only saving grace will be that 73% of those losses won't need to be indemnified by the company (that representing the family's ownership of the company). So if $31 million is the total loss, and if only $10 million of that is insured (just a guess), then it's a $21 uninsured loss that they might be held accountable for, which translates to less than $6 million of losses to the minority shareholders (assuming the worst case that there is a successful lawsuit by minority shareholders). Of course, their money damages could be measured differently, such as the loss in the value of their stock directly or indirectly related to the fraud, but that would be much harder for them to prove. All speculation as to what might happen, but suffice it to say, if Koss does appear to be emerging as an ongoing entity, it would for sure have some serious legal fees to deal with (not to mention all of the costs of this ongoing investigation), and there would also be a strong possibility of having to stand in the shoes of their directors as well to indemnify them against any shareholder actions. Like any such situations, it becomes a case of bad news piled upon more bad news. * Regarding the escalating costs of D&O insurance, I'm one of 4 outside directors for a company that has a market cap of about $150 million. The annual premium for D&O insurance to cover the 4 of us for $10 million per transaction this year was quoted at $82k ($119k for $15 million of coverage, $139k for $20 million of coverage). That was the best quote by far. One insurance company wanted more than double those figures. It's not cheap, to say the least. Now, given that, and given the attitude that I can see with Koss (e.g., not wanting to pay Grant Thornton to do an internal controls audit), plus the fact that their normal transaction profile is undoubtedly regarded as low risk, I just can't imagine that they'll have $30 million of D&O insurance coverage.

I agree(d). The trick in these situations is in trying to gather as much 'intelligence' as you possibly can about the mood and the environment in the workplace at Koss these days. Not insider information as such (you can't trade on that), but sort of the near-inside scoop in the 'talk of the town' sense. If you know people who know those who likely know more about what the future is likely to hold for Koss, you might want to make a calculated bet and make a substantial investment. But, even then, not more than you're willing to lose!

That's excellent! You're getting a great price and you'll absolutely love reading with this device. I've been somewhat tempted to buy a DX to keep at home and use my Kindle 2 when traveling, just because I think it would be fun to have the larger screen, the horizontal view option, etc. Just not sure I'd make enough use of it to justify having two of them lying around.

Ball, chains, and cage? I might not be very good at this...

I think either of these would be great. The MaxGuard looks remarkably similar to the case I have, but with the nice improvement of using two magnets to close the case (which eliminates the need for an awkward strap). My only concern would be their complaints about the smell. Mine doesn't have that issue.

Ya, that's it. She's aw'right. I could do worse. Have done, in fact. She's due in mid April. Already talking about "all of those cords" that will be "in the way"... To which I say, "In the way of what?!? Pick the kid up, already, and try walking behind the speakers, not right through the soundstage!"

Yes, definitely seems worth it. The extended warranty is pretty important for the DX since they tend to crack quite easily. Read the low rated reviews at Amazon and you'll see that it's important not to ever use any of the cases that connect the DX to the case via the two little metal tabs. Unless, of course, you don't ever expect to travel with it and thus are not likely to accidentally apply too much pressure at these points (as can happen when the DX gets loaded into a bag with other stuff that gets piled on top of it). Problem is, it seems to be hit or miss -- even with the extended warranty -- as to whether they'll replace it under those above described circumstances. (Although having the extended warranty and huffing and puffing a bit surely couldn't hurt.) It seems that they've been trained to say no and blame it on the customer for misuse of the product which is complete and utter BS given that it happens so frequently and often with not all that much pressure applied at those two attachment points (i.e., a clear design flaw if there ever was one). Same problem occurs with the regular Kindle but since the screen isn't nearly as big, it seems to take a bit more pressure at the leverage points to cause the screen to crack.

Todd told me that Beyer won't allow authorized US retailers to sell the T1 for less than $995, so that's where all of the usual suspects are pricing them at. Of course, this could change at some point in the future. Plus, it's anyone's guess as to what "Beyer won't allow" really means and how important it is to them to enforce their wishes. Who knows? There may be some fringe Beyer retailer who'll be willing to challenge it and start selling them for $900. But the minute one of the other authorized retailers gets wind of it and reports it, I'd bet anything the discount retailer will never get another shipment of T1s.

Remember to order two pairs, kiddies. It's always more fun when there's someone to share the experience with.

As a practical matter, yes. See my reply above for more details, but in a Chapter 7, chances are pretty good that product owners would get shafted completely. Yes, again, to all of the above. In a reorganization, the judge could void (or more likely modify) existing warranties. The reason I say more likely modify is that in reorgs, it's always a give and take process to get all of the various creditor classes to agree to the "plan". The more classes there are, and the more stubborn the senior note holders (i.e., banks) and other secured creditors are, the more difficult it becomes to get a plan approved. It all comes down to how badly everyone wants to get the job done to ensure that 1) the company can somehow survive, and 2) that everyone comes away with something. If the higher priority classes decide that warranty claimants (and other unsecured creditors) should get absolutely nothing, then they would be sabotaging any hopes that they might have had to get a plan approved. If just one class of creditors won't approve the plan (in this case because they are being offered nothing at all) then they can vote against the plan and kill the whole deal. Thus, for a Chapter 11 to work, the warranty claims would have to be honored at least to a certain extent, if the judge even allows them to be represented in the creditor meetings/negotiations as a separate class to begin with. So there are a zillion "what ifs" involved. You can be sure that if we were talking about GM (rather than Koss), and if they were in Chapter 11 (as regulated by a federal bankruptcy court and not "The Man" Obama) then the significance of warranty claims and the undue hardship imposed upon present car owners if their claims were not to be honored, would ensure that they are adequately represented. Why? Bigger dollar claims potentially involved and a much broader audience, as well as the political risk of not honoring those claims (to any extent). But with a small company like Koss and (for the most part) very inexpensive products and thus insubstantial warranty claims that are likely to occur, and no political pressure to ensure that their rights are being represented, sure, a judge might throw them out as a potential creditor class altogether just to simplify the overall process.