Nomad

You won't be sorry, Wayne! If you ever have the chance to connect the 650s to the V20, I'd be interested in to know how the setup compares to your other amps, as I can't really rely on my memory: it has been a while since I heard the 650 in one of your uberamps. The evil that "Sony Megabass" brought to this world... All those poor kids with those tiny walkmans that would infect their ears, making them bassheads for life...

Cheers Vicki. Yes. It has been a while, being very busy. But a pleasure to come back, as always. So much catch up to do... In these months a SRM-T2 surfaced, I barely tried the HD800 and didn't heard the Jade, the PS1000 or the T1 just yet. Many new amps and interesting DIY projects to follow as well. This new brand of IEMs that might make me consider to replace my UE10s... Oh well... I do like the Qualias a lot. No more than the R10s, though. I was toying with them a couple of hours before. Unfortunately I can't use them while in bed as I lose the seal with the pillow pressing around. I have to agree with Wayne that I can be kind of tense while having the Qualias on my head, fearing to lose the seal. Interesting the similar paths that Sony and Senn followed... from a euphonic can (R10, HD650) to a completely new modern design leaning towards a more "surgical" sound (Qualias, HD800). Both with quite conflicting impressions depending on people... Well, back to my listening (and it is 2:13AM here)

A few minutes ago I ripped the XLR connectors off a Zu Mobius so I can connect the wiring directly to the output of an EAR V20 and the HD650 are sounding pretty great. I wouldn't say SDS-XLR great (by memory) but still... I need to keep auditioning them, though... It's going to be a tough night... I wonder if people usually try to connect the HDs to conventional amplifiers in the same way that we all are doing with the K1000. I guess we could get pretty nice surprises. BTW, pretty impressed with the V20. 30 tubes and still dead quiet even at max volume with zero input signal. I know I have 300 Ohms but still...

Don't listen to him. He says he doesn't like the whole diffused thing and yet he likes the SR-Omega.

That might explain why I always found it so decent. I usually was listening by night at pretty low volumes. And I use to play with the output of my sources so so I can turn my amps loud enough to make them fully enter on linear operation and yet still get low volumes. Obviously they never clipped on me in those conditions. jinp6301, perhaps both of us are

Actually... I should clarify. It make perfect sense... considering your preference for Stax sound as the HE60 is closer to one of its varieties (SR-Omega) than the HE90 by a fair margin. For me the HE90 would be the winner, no matter how much I like the SR-Omega sound because I like the HE90 sound too. And probably most people would do as well. But I can perfectly see people looking for a very particular sound going for the HE60 instead. I don't think you would be the only one on a blind test. Trying to leave the amp out of consideration (tough cookie) I would say: HE90 > HE60 > HD800 > HD650 > HD600 And now justifying this a bit: Yes, you can throw very nice balanced amps to the HDs but I'd pick the HE60 with the HEV90 almost any day. Disclaimer: This statement only applies to HD650 and HD600 as I didn't hear the HD800 balanced from uberamps just yet. I really need to do that. Out of the same amp I did prefer the HD800 to the HD650 but I had better sonic experiences (so far) with the HD650 due to better balanced amps. The 650 vs 600 isn't that obvious. 600 might have the edge in neutrality compared with the 650 but it is not as smooth. So with an average/good amp tubey enough to smooth things out the HD600 can be on top even with the lesser cable. For example I can see people going for the HD600 on a Earmax Pro if the value neutrality. However with a very good amp in balanced mode the HD650 improves more than the 600: the occasional boominess/veil disappears while the 600 still can have a bit of grain, hence the edge goes to the 650.

Agree. Best out of the HEV90. Used maxed-out blackgated KGSS, T1S, 717, 007t, and HEV70. I don't care what other people say or to look like I have tin ears. HEV70 is not that bad after quite some time time running music. It might not look the part checking the schematics but it is decent enough. Of course you can do better, but it is not a piece of garbage either.

Makes perfect sense. The HE60 is more of a baby SR-Omega than a baby Orpheus.

Hey, Birgir just point me to this thread, after a long absence in which I missed all this (horrendous timing, really). I think he is hoping that I won't kill him for tracking down a T2 and not telling me. He is so wrong... I'm just waiting for him to finish all his projected DIYs... (actually, that might not work for me... I'm likely to end dying first of old age). Anyway... this is about the "only UK" comment. Living here, I would be happy to help with any component that might be sourced only in UK. Now or in the future. Just let me know. Cheers and good luck. I'll keep going through the thread now.

He doesn't live in London and he has quite a lot of space, closer to usual american standards.

Sorry, could someone point me to that particular place that was one of the first selling the new O2s? It was mentioned in this thread a couple of times, some picture was taken from the site, and there was even a link for it but I've been looking in lots of pages (sort of random order, but for sure more than half of the 100) and I couldn't find it. I was wondering what would be a good place for getting them if I decide to go for the black new ones. Thanks in advance. A search wouldn't help much here as I don't remember the name of the shop and in any case the search feature would only giving me back the tittle of this thread. Did I mention I hate long threads? Specially the interesting ones that I can't afford dismissing. Really hard to retrieve information afterwards.

Especially in London! Besides, that one was for my bedroom and I wanted to have it on my bedside table. On top of that I was renting/moving quite a lot by then and it is not great to carry big amps around.

I know I'm going to sound totally stupid but I have no idea. That was a few years ago and I couldn't find my email backups for that period of time. A couple of months ago I was looking for some other mails from the same period of time and I couldn't find the backup CD with them. I moved houses since and they sure got misplaced somewhere. I can look a bit more just in case but I wouldn't hold my breath. Sorry for the bad news.

I must say I always found the HE90 extremely comfortable, if at the max extension for me. I have quite a big head. You could think it might have something to do with having a big brain and a superior mind and intelligence. You would be wrong, though.

Yes, that thread pretty much covers it all. Ah... The KGSS DX Edition... Great memories. Justin did an excellent work overcoming all my space constrains, and the amp was showing all the quality standars and performance we came to expect from Justin. I ended selling it. Because I was young and stupid by then. I know better now...