hirsch

Yep. Roughly 5-10 minutes into the movie

Dusty Chalk and pretzels sound like a garbage disposal. Loud-ass combo.

Yep. Head-Fi seems to go through periods of "upgrading" where it goes down more often than a $5 hooker.

For metal, you'd want a very clean and fast presentation with lots of impact. A dry midrange wouldn't hurt much. One of the Raytheon VT-231's has flat plates and support rods, and might fit the bill nicely. Another possibility would be something like a Sylvania 6SN7WGT or WGTA. Quick, but don't have the lush mids of some of the other 6SN7's. Come to think of it, the GE 6SN7GTA might be an interesting choice. I'm not sure how to pair these up with an output tube, and they're not tubes that I normally use, but those are where I'd start if I was going to tube a Singlepower amp specifically to play metal. An interesting combo might be something like the Raytheon in front of a pair of Tung Sol 5687's (using the Slam adapters). That should have pretty decent kick to it. Internally, I'd suggest Sprague Orange Drop coupling caps if they're not already there. These caps are not as smooth as the Jensen paper-in-oil caps, but do have some nice kick to them, as long as you don't mind losing a bit of smoothness and microdetail (and that seems to be the objective).

Driver tube on the right, output tubes in center and left sockets. This is actually for the shortest signal path. Note the inputs are on the right, and the headphone jack on the left.

I hope so. A couple of years ago, used RS-1's were routinely going for $375-$400. That actually seemed about right. I easily found four or five of them in that price range for myself and friends. Not recently, though.

Reminds me of a story of my own. Back when I was an undergrad at Johns Hopkins, a lab had a "prodigy" freshman transport a radioactive isotope between the Hospital and the Homewood campus. The guy was 14 years old. He also carried the isotope in a beaker in a brown paper bag, on a public bus, and managed to spill it on his trousers while on the bus. Never made a ripple at the time...but radiation safety regs have progressed a long way since then.

Supply voltage? Are you saying the battery is better on other iPods? Or that the Wolfson WM8975 DAC is not good? I've heard improvement in the stock 4G by substituting a Turbodoc II for the standard iPod dock. This tells me that the circuitry in the dock is at least part of the problem, but not all. The iMod disables all of the analog output circuitry after the DAC, so it goes deeper than a simple dock replacement. It's not simply sticking Black Gates into the circuit instead of existing caps, it's completely disabling the analog output circuitry and capacitor-coupling the DAC directly to the input of an amp. That's fine for someone who wants to go into their amps, and start messing around with input capacitors. However, once you do that, the amp will have input caps present with sources that don't need it, so you'll have to dedicate that amp to your iPod...not good. If you're going to produce a product that most consumers can use, the coupling cap has to be in the iPod. The question is whether the DAC in the 5G is any better than the one in the 4G. Vinnie appears to prefer the DAC in the 4G.

Strange. I've never heard lack of clarity, or glare. The Black Gates will start off bright, and are going to change character many times before they settle down. The place I notice it most is the bass. Sometimes it's there, sometimes not in the early going. Once the caps are burned in, the bass stays. Black Gates tend to be all over the place until they settle in. If they didn't sound so good once they get where they're going, it wouldn't be worth the trouble.

Not a whole lot more than my initial impressions. As the player has burned in, it's got more detail than the stock iPod, and consistently better highs, with mucy stronger bass. Soundstage seems to go wider on good recordings. As long as you're running through an amp, this could be the portable source to get. The other option is to find an iHP-140, which will connect you to any DAC with optical in. Running RockBox/FLAC, that's a strong contender. However, the Redwine mods open up the iPod DAC, which is no slouch.

Is that really uglier than this? You can't really appreciate how cheap looking this amp really is from a picture. The plastic case dyed to appear as "wood grain" is just tacky.

Short version: The divisiveness is already there, and has been created by Head-Fi. This board IMO is not going to create more divisiveness, but may give those who feel disenfrachised from Head-Fi a place where they feel that they can post freely, without having to deal with hidden agendas on the part of the list owner or moderating team. The long version can get seriously long. See the "Ruh roh" thread in "Off topic" for at least part of it.

However, that resale value can also work in your favor. I recently got a loaded Exemplar 2900, including Siltech wire, at a very reasonable price on the used market. While I don't have dCS or EMMLabs gear to compare it to, it smokes the Wadia 301 in direct comparions, single-ended (the 2900 is not balanced, so the Wadia still has its place running balanced amps). I have not yet done a direct comparison to Meridian G08, but can say that in the system where my G08 used to be, I'm liking the Exemplar a lot better so far. It's clean, clear, and fast, with excellent extension. Detail and staging without a trace of grain or digititis. Heaven into Black-Gated SDS and R10, where it pushes the stage out far past the headphones. I've heard the Esoteric DV-50 a couple of times, but it didn't push my buttons the way the Exemplar does. Not really enough time with the unit to know for sure. There's also an upgraded version, IIRC (DV-50S) that I haven't heard. Ethan, try the pinch-waist E180CC (7062) in the Exemplar, if you haven't already. It's the best sound I've gotten out of mine. If you've heard anything better, please let me know.

I prefer a beef dialectric myself. However, the cables need an active cooling system around the shield, or you don't want to be in the same room as them

Tyrion is right, by the way. If we get into fights about who can join the club, it isn't a club worth joining. If people start ganging up on unpopular posters, this site won't be worth much unless moderation becomes active. At that point, we're back at Head-Fi, and can only hope that the moderators do better here. I'd rather see posters take responsibility for at least attempting to understand that interpreting the ability to post freely as the ability to attack freely can kill this site.

I invited ServingInEcuador.

No, you're still missing it. We obviously need a balanced Total Airhead. To conserve space, forget Neutrik and use something like these to balance a KSC-75: Lemo connectors (lemousa.com): EKG.2B.304.CLL on amp FGG.2B.304.CLAD62 on headphone Nice small four-pin connector to balance 20 AWG cable (you could use a smaller connector for thinner cable) and fit on a smaller amp (18 mm diameter, You could get something smaller to use a thinner cable). You'd only need one connector to put a balanced headphone on a small-chassis amp. Put the balancing transformers in the amp, connected to a mini-plug input.

Mullard rectifier, RCA 6AS7G power tube, and Ken-Rad VT-231 driver works. I'm playing around with a Mullard ECC32 in the driver position, and it's also very good. Killer mids, while Ken-Rad does more for bass.

It's true. My pretzel barrel may be full when he arrives, but it's alway empty when he leaves

No fucking thread can be the best ever without this: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=708965057230348407&q=genre%3Acomedy

My first impression of the K-701 was that it was an improvement over K-340, sounding much like what I suspect a modded K-340 would sound like. However, the longer I owned the K-701, the less I liked the sound. Odd, but there it is. The final blow came in a listening session where a friend and I were comparing K-340, K-701, and K-1000 (just for the heck of it). Bad luck for the K-701 was that I discovered that the Wheatfield HA-2 is a very good K-1000 amp. The K-1000 is simply better than either of the others if the amp has the power for it, and the Wheatfield does. However, I was able to alter the relationship of the K-701 and K-340 simply by changing the gain tube of the Wheatfield. Sometimes the K-701 came out ahead, and sometimes the K-340. I finally concluded that these headphones are much closer than I originally thought. I also realized that I didn't need the K-701, and sold it. That may be premature, but it simply isn't in the same league with K-1000 in any respect I can think of, and since the amp I like best for K-701 can drive K-1000, the 701 became something that would just sit on a shelf. I'm keeping the K-340, though, as Larry's mods are still sitting there tempting me... The alternative was keeping K-701 and balancing it. However, a balanced R10 should be here Real Soon Now, so a balanced K-701 just didn't feel necessary.

Why clutter the space with empty threads? I'd say open the forum, and let manufacturers start their own threads if they want to. The main rule I'd think would apply would be that they can only discuss their own products, not anyone else's (nor should anyone ask them about somebody else's product). That should apply to PM and email as well. Further, a manufacturer that uses Head-Case PM or email to send unrequested sales information should be shut off from those facilities. Any sales activity must be initiated by the potential buyer. Damn. I hate rules but just came up with a handful.

Heh, I'm going to the National meet. Should be fun. Welcome to Head-Case. Very few rules here: Wash your hands before going back to work. Look both ways before crossing the street. Keep your fly zipped while in public. Spray on deodorant is not a good substitute for a shower. And watch your fucking language. F----ers is not a word

The idea of a single manufacturer forum was what I was thinking about when I posted. IMO the thought of a child forum for each manufacturer is downright terrifying. They'd multiply like rabbits. Keeping it as simple as possible is good

Eric made some very good points in this thread: http://www.head-case.org/index.php/topic,238.0.html So we are faced with a situation that another forum we all know faced. 1) We want to know about manufacturers' new products. 2) We don't want manufacturers promoting products through Head-Case discussion forums or photo galleries. 3) We have no mechanism for a manufacturer telling us that a product exists until someone has actually gone out and bought one. The situation is one that lends itself to shilling, and a fair amount of that has indeed occurred in another forum. However, that forum has gone to extremes, so that anyone posting about new products (at least from certain manufacturers) becomes a suspect shill. I'd like to see Head-Case dodge that particular bullet, so that members could post about their new purchases without having to dodge that kind of suspicion. Best way would be to create a situation where the practice is simply not needed. As long as Head-Case is staying non-commercial, I'd suggest the creation of a manufacturer forum where manufacturers could post freely about their products, provided they followed certain rules of conduct (talking about their own products, not someone else's). This would allow "commercial" posting of sorts, but it would keep it concentrated in one place where members could choose to go or not. At least it would be labelled and identifiable, rather than surreptitious and hidden through shills and fake "reviews". In the future, if Head-Case decided to accept outside contributions to offset costs, this could become something like the "buy-a-thread" option in another place, perhaps with a sliding scale for DIY vs. established manufacturers. I think that this might be one way to encourage manufacturer participation without spamming up the discussion areas. "Shilling" would be reduced, since manufacturers would have a place to post directly, and members would have a way to find out about new products directly from a manufacturer. IMO this would avoid some of the more draconian and downright bizarre manipulations practiced in another forum that were originally intended to keep it non-commercial, but now appear to be completely random.