Elephas

Tonally, the Qualia seems to lean a bit too cold for me, but it is very good in other respects, such as tonal balance, details, imaging, soundstage, bass quantity etc. Rihanna - Umbrella (Remixes) sounds good with the Qualia, less so with R10. I take back what I said. I think spritzer should buy one and listen to Rihanna - Umbrella (Remixes) on repeat until he becomes convinced that the Qualia is better than the SR-007.

The Qualia in largest size is supposed to be huge. And there's that custom Singlepower headband that Icarium has. I don't think spritzer would like the Qualia if he considers the SR-007 the most neutral-sounding. I'm guessing he would prefer the R10 over the Qualia. Anyway, I don't know how the SR-007 sounds with a BH. Out of all the dynamics I've heard, the Qualia is definitely the one that competes with and maybe even exceeds electrostats in details, speed and soundstage.

No, Stax made the O2Mk2 to sell more blutack to spritzer. Er, that reminds me. I don't have any blutack. It doesn't matter anyway, because I'm afraid of removing the earpads. Maybe if Markl Mods offered an O2Mk2 mod service...

Do Ray, Justin, Jack Woo, Craig Uthus, Tyll and others also lie, make excuses, delay and otherwise jerk their customers around like Mikhail? Is this supposed to be a defense of Singlepower? So customers frustrated with SP are assholes?

The "personal collection" description is just an excuse to sell more brand-new PS-1 headphones. Given the prices of some of the PS-1's that have sold on eBay (around $2200 to $3300, I believe), I don't necessarily blame John Grado for trying to sell more. But the PS-1 was supposed to be a limited edition.

I talked to Mikhail yesterday (Sept. 12) and my ES-1 has supposedly been shipped. I'm concerned by potential issues with the design, build quality and reliability of SP amps. As someone who doesn't know anything about electronics, I appreciate the efforts of anyone who's looking into the potential issues. Most amp owners, including SP owners, are nervous and a bit defensive when the design, build quality, reliability and especially the competence of the amp manufacturer is called into question. One major reason is resale value. Head-Fi and Head-Case are basically the only places where info about SP amps can be found, and also practically the only places where an SP owner can sell his amp. I doubt an SP amp will sell for a high amount on eBay. Mikhail's lies about ship dates and his shoddy business practices have been exposed and documented by some people. Some other SP customers have apparently been reluctant to speak up publicly for fear of retaliation by Mikhail and other reasons, such as the potential difficulty of selling their SP amps. By lying so shamelessly about shipping products, Mikhail has called into question his entire credibility. I ask myself, if someone can lie so easily about when an amp is ready to ship, what about his statements and claims about the quality of the amps? I don't think that Mikhail intends to change his business practices. I think he sees himself as some kind of "talented artist" who is highly in demand for his skills. The customers can all line up and wait. He'll take his time if he wants and deliver an amp when he damn well pleases, and the customers should be grateful. During all these months of waiting, Mikhail has apologized many times to me but I don't believe he actually feels any real remorse. His excuses are not believable. He claims that he did a lot of additional work on my ES-1 and Supra-XLR, more than I paid for. Basically, he's saying that while he's sorry he didn't ship my amps yet, I should shut up and be grateful. As of now, I've yet to hear an SP amp, so I'm still inclined to give Mikhail the benefit of the doubt when it comes to the overall quality of SP amps. But I'm beginning to have doubts.

The first time I heard the O2Mk1 + KGSS, I was very impressed. Up until that time, I only had dynamic headphones. Fairly good ones, such as L3000, W5000, R10 etc. I was particularly impressed by the O2Mk1's refinement, details, precise imaging and sense of smoothness and liquidity. Its few negatives to me were a slightly dark tonality, a smallish headstage, and an average size soundstage. That O2Mk1 + KGSS was the beginning of a fall into the abyss. I no longer have the KGSS and currently use an Aristaeus, and ended up with several electrostats including the HE90 and SR-Omega, my two favorite headphones.

Haha! Fing, APureSound can also make a Qualia cable for you. I'm still using the Qualia and its stock cable with a Zana Deux, but eventually... I expect receive a Supra-XLR and will need a balanced Qualia cable.

I was thinking of hot summer sunlight such as the interior of a car after being parked for 9 hours at an amusement park parking lot, but I would still try to minimize any temperature extremes. Dust, humidity and temperature seem to be the things to watch out for. One thing I don't do is put anything on top of an amp such as a wooden Stax stand (which I don't have, boohoo, I only have a cheap acrylic copy of a Qualia stand). It might save some space, but I think amps should have their own air-space.

Dust and humidity are two things to watch out for. The headphones come with a small dehumidifier packet when new. I put in three packets at a time and change them out regularly. Extreme heat is probably also better to avoid. I wouldn't leave the headphone sitting in direct sunlight.

The Apex looks interesting, especially if it is better than the Oracle. I have several recabled headphones and have compared some with stock units, but I've never been able to compare a recable vs. recable, such as an L3000 w/APS v3 vs. L3000 w/Enigma Oracle.

I have the old HD25-1, I agree with GPH's description above and I'll add that it is dark-sounding. If you like brighter highs, you probably won't like the HD25-1. Hahaha, I first heard Rihanna - Umbrella around Jan. 2008, I thought I was an old fart who was out of touch with pop music. Now I know there's always someone worse! Make sure you hear the remix versions. If you can't find it you can ask ol' Dusty the Moose if he still has a copy.

Hey, do you like Rihanna - Umbrella Remixes? I've got some headphones that sound great with this kind of music. But unfortunately, I don't think there are many good options for closed headphones on-the-go. The ES7 and ESW9 are designed for portable use, but their isolation isn't very good. The ES7 seems to isolate a bit better than the ESW9. I like the ESW9 much more than the ES7, it is more refined, has clearer highs and bass is less muddy and boomy.

I'm afraid to remove the earpads in case I can't install them again. Maybe if you posted a 12-Step Plan with lots of photos and a video... And I'll wait for the Blue Hawaii SE, I don't think the O2's are competitive enough vs. the HE90 or SR-Omega with the Aristaeus.

I use a PS-1 with Moon Audio Black Dragon cable with a Zana Deux. I prefer bowl pads. Using flat pads can be good with some types of music such as fast-paced dance music or electronica, but I think the flats have a bit too much bass slam and thump. Bass quantity using the bowl pads is not exactly lacking. I've found that tube rolling the 6SL7 for the PS-1 can be a bit tricky. I generally like a more fuller-bodied and warmer sound for the PS-1 as well as other Grados, but some tubes that have good body and warmth such as the Mullard CV569 can also make it seem too bass-heavy. I've settled on using Sylvania VT229 for the PS-1. My PS-1 is balanced but I don't have a balanced amp yet.

Due to this massive demand for Elephas Mods, I'm gonna have to charge triple of markl mods. I've come up with a similar business model: "After performing the Elephas Mods on the Sony PFR-V1, I famously sold my R10's, SR-Omega's and L3000's! Markl mods only (stupidly) sold one R10 after getting a D5000. I sold six headphones!" Kylie Minogue doesn't seem to work very well on the headphones I tried them with. Listening to the "The Loco-Motion (7" Mix)" five times in a row actually seemed to reduce the SR-007Mk2's soundstage by 13%.

Bah, another "I'm here" thread by someone with apparently the same username as his account on another headphone-related site.

I don't understand why anyone would want to listen to jazz when there are remix versions of Britney, Hilary Duff, Tiffany, Debbie Gibson, etc. True, I also have many jazz albums, but seriously they can't compare to a nice remix version. Whoever buys my headphones are gonna get special units that were "Exclusively burned-in for 400 hours of actual listening time with Rihanna - Umbrella...and only Rihanna - Umbrella." I don't think markl mods can beat that. The headphones are going to sell for double market value.

Links: Britney Spears - Everytime (Remixes) Never Say Never (Kim Wilde album - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) Tiffany: I Saw Him Standing There

So after 6 months of listening to Rihanna - Umbrella (Remixes), I began to become a bit tired of it. I tried listening to other similar-type songs, such as remix versions of Hilary Duff, Kelly Clarkson, Frou Frou, Goldfrapp, some Sarah McLachlan and Madonna. But none of them could substitute for Umbrella. But now I'm pleased to announce that after an intensive three month search involving a lot of tiring butt wriggling while sitting in my listening chair, I've found the perfect substitutes. Yes, plural with an S. I had to crawl slowly back in time while taking increasingly larger risks. Several encounters with low bit-rate tracks of Expose, Stacy Q, The Cover Girls, L'Trimm, and some bad covers of ABBA songs almost left me unable to listen to headphones anymore. I doubt that anyone can question my determination. It took three songs in order to fully repair the emotional hole caused by not listening to Umbrella daily (admittedly because I got sick of it, but is this relevant?). Now, these three songs were carefully selected out of thousands of potential candidates. I am only sharing this valuable info here because... actually, I don't know why. Anyway, without further ado, the substitutes for Umbrella are (drumroll): Britney Spears - Everytime (Above & Beyond's Radio Mix) Tiffany - I Think We're Alone Now (Extended Version) Kim Wilde - Kids In America (2006 Version ft. Charlotte Hatherley)

I've tried various DSP's and I prefer less of them. The only one I regularly use is the Secret Rabbit Code Resampler, set to 176.4. With two of the DAC's I use this setting sounds very good to me. Besides DSP's in foobar, I've also tried one for iTunes called Volume Logic. Its effects are interesting and not too bad for some songs. However, overall I prefer a "purer" type of sound and minimal DSP. My configuration is: Vista > foobar > RME HDSP 9632 > AES/EBU > Esoteric D-05 or Chord DAC64 -- Oh, I've used a Turtle Beach Audio Advantage with a Lenovo laptop. Its digital output matched with an external DAC is OK, but its analog out or headphone out sounds bad. It is a cheap and convenient option, but sound quality is mediocre.

No, no, it was all Icarium's fault.

Haha, so you're here too. We have traded some music files but haven't made a transaction. Sorry. Er, I think you got a free headphone stand. Not really a transaction either. WINNER! Yes, I remember this, it was one of the first transactions I made. Send me a PM with your mailing address and I'll ship out the PFR-V1. I hope your ears have thick skin.

It seems that this contest flopped horribly. Instead, I'll offer the Sony PFR-V1 to anyone who has ever had a transaction with me before. First one to post here gets it.

I owned a Raptor for about two years and sold it after getting a ZD in Jan. 2008. I think the ZD is better than the Raptor in every way. The R10, Qualia, Grados, AT's, HD650, K701 all sound better with the ZD than the Raptor. The Raptor matches better with the HD650 and K701. However, even with a Telefunken ECC802S which cost me a lot of money, it can't match the ZD. Though the ZD costs more than the Raptor, tubes for the ZD are less inexpensive. Unfortunately I've never heard the Edition 7 or Edition 9. Given my bad experience with the Proline 2500, 750, ULE2200 and a few other Ultrasones, I'm not inclined to buy an Ed. 9. Haha, I'm glad you like them. I'm not much of a photographer, though, and anyway headphones should be heard and not seen. For great photos of audio gear, search for Afrikane's photos.