hirsch

Actually yes. There is a simple procedure to remove the limit from a personal account. When you withdraw money from a personal account, you will be given the options to raise your limits. Once you have done two of the three possible options, they remove the withdrawal limit. My personal account now has unlimited withdrawal. Vertigo, I do not add on the Paypal charge when I sell gas or fast food

I have two Paypal accounts. One is a personal account (no fees and no credit cards). The other is a Premier account, which has a 3% (or higher) fee on all transactions. If someone wants to use Paypal, and can send to my personal account, there are no fees (at least domestically). The limit on amounts that can be withdrawn from personal accounts can be raised, so throughput to my bank is not an issue. If someone wants to use a credit card, they can use my Premier account and pay the fee (although I eat the fees myself most of the time, rather than hassle with the 3%). Alternatively, I could simply close the personal account, and price everything I sell higher, so that the fees are built into my asking price whether somebody wants to use Paypal or not. Not all that viable to me, as I don't see a reason to overcharge for fees that can be avoided if the buyer so chooses.

Redwine will modify the 4th generation iPods (iPod Photo), but not the 5th generation (iPod Video). Apparently, the DAC in the 4th generation is superior, and you can't get the same improvement on a 5th generation unit. My office rig is iPod into modified EMP into L3000. I've been using this rig for a long time, so any changes tend to jump out. The obvious difference I hear is bass. Lots of it. The stock iPod was rolling it off, while the Redwind unit simply has more, but it's textured quality bass, rather than bloat. There is also an increase in fine detail. I seem to be hearing more of the capability of the L3000 at work. There is some quirkiness to the modded unit. You hear some crackle as the unit starts up (dead quiet once started, except for music). This is actually a similar quirk to that which happens with my Exemplar Denon 2900. I suspect some filtering has been removed. Doesn't hurt anything in either player. I will admit that the modded Denon is a better player than the modded iPod.

Just got an iPod photo with the iMods from Redwine Audio. I've also kept my original iPod photo, so I have an identical stock unit to compare to. I won't be able to do any real comparisons until the Black Gates burn-in, but initial impression is that attack is faster, low-end is deeper. It seems to be a more dynamic player as well. More details once the sound settles down. Even now, I've heard worse sources that cost a lot more.

I've been running straight 6SN7's. Tung Sol round plates for gain and a quad of short-base 6SN7W's on the outputs. However, I've been having good results on my single-ended amp with Tung Sol 5687's for gain, and Syl 6BL7GT's on the outputs, so I'm going to give that a try balanced when I get a moment.

Hehe. Check my personal text. The admin needs to update my custom title. It's out of date, now that my R10 set is back up to full size again.

Heheh. I really hope so, because my iPod rig is likely to be the spot for my newest R10 (Enough with the L3000, I need a real headphone there). UPS has scheduled delivery for today (insert animated drooling smiley here).

Actually I don't really have a problem with the cables. The length gives them enough flex that I've been able to move freely. OTOH, I really like Virtual Dynamics interconnects, but may never ask Risk to build a headphone cable. Something like the Master would be four 10 AWG solid core copper conductors. The headphone would simply stay suspended in the air, and you'd have to move under it.

Almost all moving magnet cartridges have replaceable stylii. Dirt on the LPs and poor setup are much more responsible for stylus wear than whether or not a stylus is replaceable. Moving coil cartridges are a different story, and retipping usually involves a trip back to the factory, or complete replacement. Good moving coil cartridges start at way above the cost of your cartridge, and just keep going up. I'm a firm believer in not fixing something that ain't broke. If you like the sound of your cartridge, replace the stylus and don't look back.

Hey, my main home headphone amp has a dedicated phono input:

Hey, you get to listen to music and build up your neck muscles at the same time. What could be better?

Based on my conversations with gpalmer, we believe that the PS-1 seems to respond to balanced solid-state amplifiers, while the RS-1 thrives on tubes. Greg really likes the PS-1 with Gilmore Balanced Reference combo, but neither of us thought that the PS-1 responded to SDS-XLR the way the RS-1 did.

I also hate to be a party pooper, but I'm not even sure about the layout. It looks like there are wires with different voltages bundled together. If you've got the B+ (hundreds of volts) bundled with the filament voltage (6-12 volts), there may be some interference. Shielded cables would help, but even so the inverse square law does its part also. That's one reason even good P2P amps tend to look like bird nests. One of the objectives is is to keep wiring with different voltages apart from each other. OTOH, too much solder is not a problem in P2P the way it is on a board. The real connections is mechanical, with wires twisted together. The solder is too keep them from coming apart. It doesn't hurt anything to slather it on. Too little can be a problem, but there is only too much if it's shorting to something else.

The actual power supply is 24vdc. Any commercial 24v supply around 500 ma should be able to power the HEV70 if hooked up with proper polarity(and probably cost less than the transformer as well). If the wall wart is working, the next thing to do would be to open the amp. There's a 650 ma round fuse soldered onto the board. That fuse can be checked for continuity. The only way to replace it is to remove it and solder a new one into place (finding the right fuse will be the hard part). The fuse on mine was blown, but I just ran a jumper across the traces instead, at least for now.

I'm still trying to think through ways to keep this forum different from another place we know. Right now, the level of discourse here is much higher than at that other place, in part because we are confirmed hobbyists, without a large influx of newbies stumbling over us. That is likely to eventually change, though, and I think we should try and find ways to keep forums focussed on sound, particularly the high end. So, as a start, how about a forum titled "What should I buy?" or "Is this the right gear for me?" or something along those lines. This could serve as a focal point for all of the questions of this nature, be it headphones, amp, source, or whatever. This might help the other forums keep their discussions focussed by drawing the inevitable personal purchase questions to a separate place. Just a thought. Not useful now, but might be useful later when real newbies start showing up.

Yes, that is in fact the end result of eating barrels of pretzels. They gotta go somewhere once partaken of

In order to eventually develop the traffic it needs to stay vital, Head-Case is going to have to grow, and eventually become open, I think. So, the first question would be if the bandwidth is there. The argument for Headwize is that the bandwith IS there, and it's free. A face lift would be the major improvement needed were a merger of some sort to occur. amb, I don't see any way around community fragmentation as long as moderation at Head-Fi is random and biased. No matter how good forum moderation is, it's going to piss somebody off, but truly bad moderation accelerates the process. The current problem may not be community fragmentation at all. I think that has already occurred. The real issue may be providing venues where those that have become disaffected from the hobby due to incompetence at Head-Fi can become reinvolved, and keeping the disaffection from evolving to become alienation and disappearance.

Wondering if something like Walker SST or Quicksilver ExtremeAV would help out on socket wear. These are silver treatments that provide a better contact at the socket (the treatment goes on the tube pins). Head would be generated when resistance at the socket was too much for current, so that current started dissipating as heat. By increasing conductivity, you can increase the efficiency of the contact, so that more current goes to the tube, and less heat is dissipated at the socket contact, at least in theory. The increased current draw would still be present, but by increasing the conductivity of the socket-tube contact, it could become less of a problem at the socket (and the tube itself should not have a problem with it in a properly built amp). Could have the same effect (or better) as starting with gold or silver plated sockets.

'splain' pretzels to you? Isn't that kind of like explaining swimming to a fish?? Open mouth. Insert pretzel. Bite. Chew. Swallow. Repeat as needed.

Picky, picky, picky. Just for that, I'm going to finish the last pretzel in the magic barrel

Thrice, if Stevieo's away, we can move the meet to his house. That way we won't have to trash yours...

I had actually bought an X-stack (X-DAC, X-PSU, X-10v3 (or whatever they call the buffer), and didn't like that at all. I tried burning it in, and couldn't get a handle on the sound. Not an improvement on a cheap Toshiba DVD player. I wound up returning it, somewhat confused by the whole experience. MF is sounding very odd to me lately.

Headphone geeks gathering. Canman's friend came to see the lowlifes he hangs with... K-701 coming out of RKV/Impedanzer Stevieo cleaned up nicely for the meet Canman's Lavry DAC with Pass Labs Aleph 3 amp. This could be one of the finest K-1000 rigs I've heard. Eastsound CD player, Raptor, and another player whose name I may never have known. I didn't do a lot of listening at the meet. My style now is to pick three or four things I want to hear. The Raptor was one of them. Now, I've gotten tired of a lot of the fighting. Some friends of mine like the Raptor, and I'd love to be able to say nice things about it. However, that just isn't happening. This is the fourth Raptor I've heard, and every one has sounded incomplete, in one way or another. In this case, being driven from the Eastsound, there was absolutely no attack to the notes. Tonally it was OK, but a drum had no leading edge, a string wasn't plucked, there was no dynamic to the sound. This leads to a very forward vocal presentation, with instruments sounding as though they are buried deep in the mix. A lot gets lost listening to this. The music never quite comes alive. I recalibrated my ears using my Earmax Pro, and all of the characteristics the Raptor was missing were present. Headphone was L3000. The Raptor is a very frustrating amp for me. People keep raving about it, and I haven't heard one that I'd rate as a better amp than the MG Head. Headroom MicroStack, and Ray's Hornet. Ray is finally approaching Xin in terms of miniturization. AKG-340 seems to have made a comeback recently. Laptop with Corda Aria, and another amp whose name has slipped my mind. The Musical Fidelity A5 and X-Can v3. I was looking forward to this, as the X-Can v2 was a favorite of mine. Unfortunately, I think Musical Fidelity took a wrong turn somewhere. This rig has lots of detail, lots of bass, and sounded completely sterile. Midrange was slightly sucked out. I wanted to rip my headphones off after a minute or two. What happened to them? I know they can make products that sound better than this. Chord transport and DAC driving an Aria. This source sounds as good as it looks, and IMO it looks good. Theta transport, Ack! dAck! but no name on the amp, and my memory is failing me again. Mikhail tries to figure out what's wrong with the ES1... ...and this was the culprit. Although this CDP by Leonardo was supposed to be the designated source for ES1, and theoretically should have performed at G08 levels, it didn't. In fact, my Creek CD53 is by far a better player. Lack of detail, at least in balanced mode and a slightly abnormal frequency response had Mikhail wondering if his amp was broken. It wasn't, but this source is eye candy, not ear candy. Dared monoblocks powering K-1000's, with a UHC Signature to use them with other headphones. Creek CD53 driving balanced Maestro ZR. Headphones were balanced SA-5000's. Note the balanced Ergo 2's. Not many people tried these. Too many cameras around, I think Thrice brought his Wadia, my MG Head, M^3 and balanced M^3. RKV driving Ergo AMT. This headphone is based on the Heil Air Motion Transformer, used as a tweeter in ESS speakers (there's a review of a speaker using this driver in this month's Abso!ute Sound). Note the rare Audio-Technica woodie. Wheatfield HA-2, Stax SRM-007t, and the best headphone of them all, the Koss Pro 4AA. High-Fi in about 1970 or so. I used to have a pair of these. You can listen for up to 30 min before your ears are bathed in sweat. Sony SCD-1 driving SFT Dynamight. Nice solid state rig. When I heard it, the imaging seemed shifted to the right, and I'm not sure everything was working properly, so I'll hold off on impressions. Back to thrice's amp... Best sound of meet. Singlepower ES1. Two HE90's were attached most of the time. Telica's brownies made it worth the drive.

I think balancing is also going to be an interaction between the specific amp and the specific headphone. At a meet that I hosted, Tyll brought a balanced DT-880. On the Balanced Max, that was possibly the best sound I've ever heard from a Beyerdynamics headphone. On my SDS-XLR, I thought the improvement was neglible. gpalmer lent me the balanced RS-1 and also PS-1. While both improved on SDS-XLR, the change in the RS-1 was radical, while it was incremental with PS-1. However, he reported that the exact opposite occurred on the Gilmore Balanced Reference (I didn't hear this personally). Since he preferred PS-1 a lot with his Gilmore, and we both felt that magic occurred between RS-1 and SDS-XLR, he sold me the RS-1 (Thanks again Greg!!!). Ergo 2 is interesting balanced, but an improvement over single-ended? Not sure. HD-650 is magic when balanced. However there are a couple of single-ended amps that can make magic happen with that headphone also (Radii HAP-03 comes to mind), although it's a different kind of magic. I get very good results with balanced Qualia 010. However, I've never heard it run single-ended with the cable I like (Headphile BlackSilver that I terminated myself). So, I'm not sure if improvement was due to balancing or the cable. Coming very soon: balanced R10. I've got high hopes for this one.

SDS-XLR with a tube rectifier in the power supply.