Wmcmanus

I called Todd this afternoon and had him put my name on the preorder list. Why even try to resist? He said that nobody in North America has them yet. They're expected to arrive sometime in February. He also said that his first order isn't completely sold out yet... I talked with him about the PS-1000 as well, but will probably hold off on those until sometime this spring/summer when I'm passing through Montana and can give them some serious listening time. My guess is that I'd probably listen to them more than I do the HD800; even though they're not as good, technically speaking, I think they'll be more fun for a lot of music. Just based on what little I can remember about them from CJLA.

I think it's what Vicki and Miguel are saying. We've all tried to love Beyer's other quasi high end offerings (DT770, DT880 and DT990) but have ultimately been left feeling flat, whereas the Senn crowd seems to have much stronger "feelings" (fanboy-isms) for the likes of the HD600 and HD650, so naturally it didn't take much to get them all stirred up. I guess the other aspect of it is that Senn had a proven track record with the HE60 and HE90 (different technology, yes, but still evidence that they can do great things). Beyer doesn't really have that, or if they do, very few people recognize it or identify with it.

I'm fascinated by the sociological aspects of our little headphone world, when comparing the overall level of response that the T1 is getting relative to what the HD800 got when the collective knowledge base was essentially at this same stage. Of course, it was Jude himself (in a very detailed and well written review) who broke the HD800 news, and not too much later, confirming opinions by 2 or 3, and then very quickly 8 or 10 other experienced and well respected folks. After that, all hell broke loose and order books were getting filled in hours, dozens of HD800 speculation threads started popping up (would they be good with X, Y or Z, and were they priced right, etc). With the T1, about the only folks who have heard them extensively at this point are Skylab (well known, but opinions vary in terms of his ability to "get it right" in his reviews/impressions) and achristilaw (I don't know much about him and suspect I'm not the only one who doesn't). So, essentially, the T1's aren't getting much attention, whereas everyone was salivating to get a chance to hear the HD800. I'm not saying that the T1's won't suck; they may well. But from what I've read from these two guys, they seem like strong contenders. Can't say I'm ready to buy a pair on faith, however.

I remember meeting you, and I've met Brent as well. Thus, the warnings!

Dunno... I'd be just as cautious about eating at a place called PePe's in Key West as I would be in San Francisco.

Did Santa stuff all day with 3 of my g/f's younger sisters serving as Mrs. Claus, Miss Claus and Elf. She actually has 4 younger sisters, 2 of whom are busy training for the Olympics (400 and 800 meter dash). They're all so fit as compared to Santa! Forgot the blasted camera, but I'll try to get some pics to post over the next couple of days. I'm pretty worn down, so I've decided to have my cookies and milk and then take a long nap until tomorrow. There has been light rain here all day, so another consideration is to give due respect to the "dry clean only" tags on Santa's expensive suit.

Careful, or you'll end up being a fat fuck like me... Brent is running that risk as well with all of his KK lust.

I love KK, and I know Matt's friends are founders of the business, but the DJ doughnuts seriously ruled.

You're wrong there. Chicks love hearing about accounting!

Nope, nothing so fancy. Had a Subway pizza last night. Not as good as the Esso gas station pizza, but a lot closer for me. This place has actually been there for several years, but the new manager chick has finally opened their eyes about the 24 hour business. I chatted with her for over an hour and was the only customer the whole time. Everyone else here is asleep by midnight.

The beach helps a lot here. When I'm restless in the middle of the night, I just go for a stroll or a swim. There is no surf as such here since the Island is reef protected in 90% of the areas you might want to wander to, so it's like one big swimming pool with the water gently lapping in most of the time. But hungry is hungry and at 3am that doesn't help much. I guess my point is that it's not as boring as a lot of the other places I've lived at. It's now time to jump on my Vespa and head to Subway for a 1am sandwich! No way, man, this is way too cool to be finally true!

Thanks, man. I forgot to mention that I met the rather cute and chubby young lady of a new manager from Canada who made it all possible, and chatted with her (oddly enough, considering her size, and worse yet - mine) about exercise gear and gyms and such tonight. I told her about all of the great equipment I have at my place, which (sadly) isn't getting much use these days. I'm sure I'll get to know her better since she has appointed herself to the night shift. So here's hoping that we'll one day get sweaty together when she needs a good workout.

Right here, in Grand Cayman, and less than 2 miles from my house... Ok, so I know it seems silly, but I've been living here for 13+ years and until now, there hasn't been a 24-hour anything. It took years before we finally had wholesale grocery stores, and the ones we have now are not exactly discount houses. Nearly everything in the retail world closes at 5pm, restaurants close by 9 or 10, and nothing (I mean nothing at all) is open on Sunday except about 150 churches and a couple of gas stations. As an old fart bachelor who doesn't cook (at all) and the kind of dude who stays up all night at least once per week for no particular reason, all I can say is that it's about friggin' time! I can now buy a sandwich between the hours of 10pm and 6am! For years I've been making a 10 mile drive (each way) to the nearest gas station for a gas station sandwich, a gas station hot dog, or a gas station slice of pizza. The pizza isn't bad, actually... Ah, but no more! Now I can have a friggin' sandwich whenever the frig I want to in the middle of the friggin' night (without having to pick all of the veggies off of a leftover sandwich and without having to then nuke it and choke it down). I might just have a couple of cookies tonight too.

Nice pics and impressions, Gene. Like CJ '08, it makes me sad to know that I was there, but not really! It sucks to show up just for the meet itself and miss all of the other stuff, which is where the real fun is. Maybe next time I'll plan around the beer rather than the music...

Can we skip the dildo thing and maybe make something with a pair of tits on it instead?

Better yet, check out the "position guide" which includes, inter alia, some simulated rug munching techniques: Best Sexual Positions Guide

A sensible comment if ever there could be one in a thread like this.

It was nice seeing everyone again, however briefly. The highlight for me was my chat about music and life and such with Rob from Zu, as well as listening to the fine system they had set up in a not so fine listening environment. It seemed pretty neutral in terms of tone, with nothing over or under emphasized, yet it still imparted a certain energy in very familiar music (Steely Dan, mostly) that made for a great listening session. I could hear all sorts of potential, but for some reason couldn't get the room limitations out of my mind. Maybe I needed a couple of beers or something, or just more time with them to better identify what I liked most about them. One thought that kept running through my mind was that these speakers shouldn't necessarily be limited to use as near field monitors in a small room environment. They seemed full range to me. I've always been intrigued by the Zu brand from the days the Druids came out and had such widespread praise at Audiogon and Audio Asylum. I mean, what a concept: produce extremely efficient and reasonably priced speakers that sound amazing and can be driven by anything! I'm thankful to have finally had a chance to give them a quick listen and meet a couple of the people from the company. I wish I could have spent more time at the meet (and the before and after parties), but there were logistical problems in finding a place to park my rig and I didn't quite have the courage to try to pull it into the hotel parking lot. I'm pretty sure I could have gotten in, but am 100% convinced that there was no way in hell I'd ever get out! That stupid cement plaza in the entrance area has just gotta go! Oh well, it was still fun while it lasted. I had done a long drive to get there (900+ miles from Virginia), and then decided mid-afternoon on Friday (while still driving) to opt for the Trans Siberian Orchestra concert on Friday night. Long story, but I wanted to take a couple of good friends (who just got engaged) to the show. It was a good time, but my guess is that 80% of the music was piped in and that 99% of the audience had no clue that it wasn't 100% live. I guess if you would like to see an extremely well orchestrated laser light show along with all sorts of jumping/running around air guitar battles (and even air violins) that come through giant speakers with note perfect, pitch perfect brilliance each and every note for 3 hours, then I'd recommend it highly. You'll just need to suspend your sense of reality a bit. Oh ya, headphones. I didn't listen to much but did get a chance to A/B two pairs of HD800, one stock and one Picadillo'ed (I know, wrong word, but whatever). There was definitely an improvement in sound with the after market cable. I'd say about $200 to $300 worth of improvement, unless I was missing something. About the HE-5. One of those pairs was mine, and it had exactly 46 minutes of break-in time. I've listened to all of one CD with them. So if that was the pair you were listening to, and if break in is even remotely important for these headphones, then you didn't hear them at their best. Can't speak for Colin's pair, and unfortunately, I didn't think to compare my pair to his to see if there were noticeable differences.

I'll be there with rings on my fingers and bells on my toes. You can call me Sweet Gypsy Rose, because I'll go anywhere CanJam goes. Seriously one of my favorite weekends of the year, even if I don't listen to any music at all. There are just so many people to meet and old friends to catch up with, I wouldn't ever miss it unless I absolutely had to.

Have a good one, John. Hope you take the time to smoke some fine c-gars, and spin a fine "slab of wax" or two (quoting you from CanJam).

That works for me. Most of us have been to (too) many meets, so something different will serve as a nice change. Plus, it's cool that the Zu folks are willing to do this at what I'd imagine will be a considerable expense, not to mention their time and effort. Well done, Mike!

I didn't really compare them side by side, nor did I listen to the same music on each, plus is was a loud room and fairly short listening sessions. I wasn't even thinking in terms of which was better because I had already bought the HE-5 and was only interested in getting a guy feel about whether that was a good decision (it was) and whether to add the LCD-2 into my mix of headphones (and I definitely will). They both sounded excellent to me. The LCD-2 seems to have an even wider soundstage, but probably a little more flat (as in neutral, non-colored, docile) and more O2-like in the sense of getting out of the way and letting the music shine through seamlessly. The HE-5 seemed a tad more aggressive, fun, and perhaps even somewhat colored in certain ways (although I didn't have enough time with them to pinpoint the why's and how's of this observation; it's more of a gut feeling). They just seemed more toe tapping, ever-present and noticeable. Of course, I've never been able to determine for myself which of these descriptions I like best. It's probably mood dependent. What's better? The O2 or the Jade? Same kind of thing with the LCD-2 and HE-5. They both passed the test in terms of being a great bang for the buck (SQ and build quality) so I'll get to know them better as an owner rather than trying to make firm conclusions under meet conditions.

Heard these at the NY fall meet today, and was quite impressed. I'll definitely be ordering a pair when they're available, which should be in the next 2-3 weeks or so.

Nice meet, and a big thank you to Erik and the other organizers. Hadn't seen a lot of guys from the NY crowd for quite a while (since the Fall '05 meet and the National Meet in '06), so it was definitely great to be back. Much warmer than the last time I was here in November, and I wasn't too late to miss all of the Fall colors. Not so excited about headphones these days, but I really liked the HE-5 and LDC-2 and think both are priced quite well and worth considering in you're in the mood for something a little different (transparent, huge soundstage, and pretty much effortless in terms of delivery). The other big hit for me was Hifiman's HM-801 DAP which is just a killer deal considering the quality of sound it delivers, along with all sorts of functionality. I'm not too crazy about collecting a bunch of expensive 32 SD cards (about $70 each, so that would add up in a hurry). Other than that, I'd be all over this little critter and say goodbye to iPods, LODs and portable amps.

That was my understanding, which is what led me to this one (as posted previously): Amazon.com: (9 Color Option) Mivizu Amazon Kindle 2 2nd Generation Leather Book Cover Case accessory travel package with reading book light: Clothing Now that mine has arrived and I've used it for a while, I'd have no hesitation in recommending it. Costs a bit more (an extra $15, but $20 really when you consider shipping) relative to the Amazon cover, but it's nicely padded and eliminates the risk of accidentally cracking it since it doesn't use the hinge holes.