tkam

Hirsch, how about the bass? I always felt the old version of the DT880 was a little thin and lacked impact.

If you've heard the older DT880 how do they compare to the 2006 version?

What glare? All I see is a ball of fur, tongue and a nose...

It's really only the toilet bowl white color that bothers me. I can put up with the otherwise especially since I'll never own them.

Yeah those are ugly as sin. Sure I get they want them to match ipods but after the reception AKG had with the 701s you'd think Grado would avoid making the same mistake of releasing headphones that look like a toilet.

I agree that the mid-low end of the market will probably be affected the most but really take a look at the high-end market. Take the Omega2's out of the question and there isn't a single pair of headphones in current production that cost over $1k. Of course I'm not saying you have to spend more than that to get quality, but the complete lack of headphones in that price range isn't a good sign. I'm not going to predict the demise of the high-end headphone market but the current trend certainly points toward that market and the number of competitors shrinking. Yep thats how I see it happening and you can already see it to some degree. If you look at the overall headphone market the IEM segment has seen by far the most new high quality products over the past 1-2 yrs.

See I have a slightly different take on this, I'm concerned that with the growth of the hobby and the industry that we could actually see a decrease in quality. Once the market is large enough the manufacturers won't really have any incentive for creating new ground breaking (or even just great) headphones. They'll just be happy churning out large quantities of average quality phones to the masses.

When the new management at Sony took over they nuked the Qualia right off the bat. Not that I can blame them it was a pretty stupid idea to create special stores for the line and then only sell the line through those stores. Gee I can't imagine why they didn't sell many....

I think the Squeezebox is great to use as a transport and while I'm not familiar with your Monica2 dac it's a good bet that it'd be better than using the squeezebox as a dac.

I think the newer headphones have been a bit of a mixed bag. While I'm not a fan of the 701 I do think they are better than the 501 (remember they aren't k1000 replacements). I've also been pretty happy with the GS-1000 compared to the RS-1 and I do prefer the 650 over the 600. On the other hand I don't like the new Sony phones at all and I wonder how much if at all better the 2006 versions of all the Beyer phones are? Another thing to consider, how much of the dissappointment is due to completely unrealistic expectations?

Those are PS-1's and there is a pair of RS-1's there. Alex where are the other two pairs of L3000 and the R10s??

I kinda doubt it, and you can't get the drivers from bluetin anymore.

From what I've read it seems to be a problem for people with smaller heads.

I wouldn't have much faith in them to get it fixed this time either, I really think there must be something else wrong with the player. Is there any chance you get John to take out all the parts/mods that he does? At least if thats possible you could harrass Denon into giving you a brand new 3910 and then let John do his work on that. Given I have no idea how much John would charge for that. But it seems like a better option than just hoping they'll get the player fixed this time.

I spent some time over the weekend listening to the W5K again and I can't quite put my finger on it, but they just don't do anything for me. I mean I can hear all their technical virtues but for me the emotion/feeling of the music just isn't there. I have changed my mind about the bass a little bit, it's not so much lack of quantity as it is how fast it decays. Bass notes hit very quickly but the textures and resonances I expect to hear in the decay just aren't there because the decay is too fast.

So those L3000 drivers are working out pretty well for you?

Nope they don't you get just the drivers.

Thats really pretty interesing and FYI a pair of the drivers is very expensive these days. I'd guess probably in the $600-$700 range.

I haven't heard any of those DACs but they do have quite a good reputation.

I'll be keeping an eye on this thread, I've never really been into IEM's before but the E500s have caught my interest.

Wow that truly sucks. I do wonder what the root cause is, as I find it hard to believe that three transport would die by themselves like this. Is there a different repair center you could try sending it to?

That buzzing could very well be caused by high dc offset. I hadn't seen anyone confirm or deny that they fixed that issue with the 2.x version but it sounds like they haven't.

This is actually a pretty common occurence in our hobby and the audio world in general. In the Zhalou's case the fact that it is so cheap means that the majority of its owners probably haven't heard anything better. Of course that doesn't give them any reason to defend it like they do, but I think that is why they do it. We actually saw a very similar thing happen with the E5 just at a higher budget level. I think most people who bought that early during its FOTM time had never heard a player costing $1k before so of couse it automatically became the best player under $1k. Somewhere along the line that turned into people saying its the best under $2k, and even $3k. Now I've heard the E5 a few times and for under $1k it is one of the better players around but it doesn't hold a candle to either of my cdps. Not even close. I imagine when I hear the Zhalou it will be a similar experience, good for the money and nothing more.

The August 5th Cincinnati, OH meet will be held at the Rohs Street Cafe start time is about 10am but myself or EdipisReks will probably be there as early as 9am if you wish to come early to setup. If you are planning to attend please post the gear you'll be bringing in this thread or PM to me and I'll keep a list going in this post. We're trying to make this a pretty large meet so if you can think of anyone that might be interested in attending feel free to invite them. Attendee List: tkam edipisreks 5687 aka sacd_lover aka earl Chrysanthemum aka Mikey01 mikhail Mapquest link to Rohs Street Cafe: http://www.mapquest.com/directions/main.adp?2l=1J0mWZDoKVQ%253d&2g=YG0dRlOEYlA%253d&2pn=&2ic=31&2ex=1&src=maps&2a=245%20W%20Mcmillan%20St&2c=Cincinnati&2s=OH&2z=45219%2d1238&2y=US

Where are the pictures? I'm borrowing a pair of W5K's and I really agree with your statements about them being open and airy and that they tend to be light in the bass department. For my tastes I prefer a warmer and fuller sound so they really aren't headphones I'd ever consider buying. However I think fans of the dt880 and k701 sound would find the W5000 to be the perfect headphones. IMO they share sonic traits of those phones but with more definition and refinement.