Nanoha

I'm still a little bit confused. Perhaps I need it broken down as: - How is the sound of the bad recordings you are referring to? (no bass, huge treble?) - What does "hot" mean? Sorry about my n00bness.

Whenever I hear people talk about the HP-2, I hear the word neutral. Haha, so as people have said, I'm guessing it's just like pure music flowing into your brain. Nice. Too bad I loved that bass and treble (ahh, the treble is so sweet sounding) of the PS-1 and my source isn't very good at all. PS-1's go for how much? 1.8 to 2k? Or is the range a little bit bigger?

So the HP-2 is brighter than the PS-1? Ouch, that might be a problem. (I think the PS-1 has the threshold brightness for me; it's extremely bright yet so smooth; any brighter and my ears would die haha). I was thinking of maybe acquiring a HP-2. Hmmm...

Does the HPs sound anything like the PS-1 just without the bass? Gah, I want one now. This is horrible.

Singlepower PPX3 Slam 6SN7 and Moon Audio Luna out of a modded Denon player. The PRaT! THe PRaT! The PS-1 is in a totally different league from headphones I've heard in the past. So some things I learned today: - Balanced HD650 with Silver Dragon is great. - Non-balanced HD650 with Silver Dragon is quite decent. - My K701 is okay. - Moon Audio Luna is a good amplifier. Wonderful control. I didn't spend any time comparing it to other amps however. - AD2000 out of my PPX3 Slam 6SN7 sounds somewhat dark and uninvolving - UE9 sounds strange; I wished I had listened to it for more than 15 seconds though. Har har har. - 4040 system wasn't especially spectacular in my opinion - Omega II is a wonderfully sounding headphone. Just as I remembered. Of course, unfortunately it's not a headphone that makes you go "Whoa!"

I listened to a PS-1 today. Oh my goodness.... Damn........

That is EXACTLY how I would describe my experience. Every single point. I think we have similarly shaped heads. Gah, I need to get some comfy cans.

The main problem with the comfort of the K701 for me are the bubbles on the headband. You can really feel the pain on the top of your skull if you listen to the headphones for more than a hour. Garbage can / cable ties are the way to go to fix this problem though.

Yeah, that's what I figured. And here I am buying a Chinese Lite Audio DAC 38 hours before a M24 goes on Audiogon that I can afford. This sucks.

I've read some rather interesting comments over the past year or so regarding the DarkVoice. Is it something like the Ming Da and Bada offerings (relatively not so good in my opinion but some are quite vocal about it), or is it actually pretty good? Would anyone take it over a PPX3 SLAM? What about the Dodge amp some other people (you know who) are pushing?

By the way, whose VDA2 and M24 are those?

I'm interested. Quite interested. I doubt I can hold on very long however. Gah.

I don't know. For some reason I was almost swayed by mulveling into considering getting a UE9. Of course, my tastes is total shit and I think the SA5k is great, but whatever. High cost in relationship with relatively POS construction is probably the only things keeping me back from trying them out for a little bit. It doesn't hurt to try out something that has potential though. I'm interested because Mike has the same tastes in sound and music as I do. Of course, he's been known to be rather excited about almost everything. (Some might say it's because he's hyping them, but I'm sure that's not the main factor.) Peter, I'm interested in hearing more of what you think about them since you seem to have the similar tastes in sound as I do. I'll need to do some investigations and figure out what you think of different headphones in relationship to each other to get a better feel for your tastes though. Haha, anyways, that'll come later.

I've entered the DAC hunt. Not having a source for a week has been horrible. I'm still trying to find a VDA2 or DA100. Too bad I just both of them on Audiogon by just a few days.

Amazing deal. I would have taken that right away if it was two weeks ago. Financial crisis here, so no game.

I need to go build one of those boxes sometime. With loop out, source switch, and amp switch with headphone jack. Perhaps even two jacks. Not sure how that would sound though. Any ideas?

We need a DC meet during the summer.

I enjoyed the GCHA myself with the K701. It's rather pleasant in my opinion. Rather smooth for for a solid state; detail was one of its key points. Though the imaging was strange, I found it mysteriously enticing. For $995, I wouldn't own one though. For the $650 I bought it for, definitely. I eventually decided I needed a hard hitter so I switched to the PPX3 SLAM. I tested the internal DAC extensively; it's acceptable, but not exceptional in any way. From what I've read, I would think an Opera is better. That, and I trust IronDreamer's reviews. They seem to be on the mark in comparison with my own experiences.

Haha, interesting. It's quite easy to get access to liquid nitrogen in university labs. Heck, it'll most definitely be easier for me to get access to a chamber for cryo than get access to a lathe. Maybe I should go cryo some random tubes.

We're getting excited. But wait, are you serious about this?

Oh snap? I might need get some of your advice later. Haha, hopefully that won't cost too much.

Oh yeah, they said I would need 35W to 40W, 8 ohms. I must have forgotten to say that earlier. I suppose integrated amplifiers usually don't go up that high? I think that's why I was guessing I would need around 50W into 8 ohms as my power requirement earlier.

Eeks. Any thoughts on the valaues?

Yeah, I had considered the Stello stack (excluding poweramp) when I was looking for a DAC/headamp last year. I currently don't have the money to buy a DAC (if I did, I would have the DA10, or if I had more, a DA220 ), but I'm pretty happy with my Singlepower as a headamp and possible implementation as a preamp. The Stello S100 looks somewhat interesting, but I'm not sure if that'll be the best bet. If all fails, I guess I may have to resort to buying a cheapo used poweramp for the moment and maybe build a Pass Lab poweramp sometime late this year. Bleh?

Of course, sorry about the missing details. So unfortunately I don't know what speakers I will be using, but I'm thinking my power requirements are going to be around 50W? (guessing), 8 ohm load. I can totally settle for separate boxes if that is a more cost effective solution. In reality, I'm just looking for an inexpensive solution where I can listen to headphones or speakers depending on the mood. I currently have a PPX3 Slam, and can only afford to spend about $300 to $400 on top of the value of the PPX3 (~$650) as of right now. I can attach/detach cables whenever required, so simplicity is not necessary. Perhaps my most imminent goal is to drive my Stax headphones (currently without an amplifier) with a energizer/transformer box (they attach to speaker outs). Supposedly that will require around 35 to 40W, 8 ohm according to what others are telling me.