Elephas

OK, now the giveaway is officially over. Let's hope the shop can ship the stands out tomorrow.

Well, since you were the next post, yes, you win. Normally I wouldn't be in a hurry to get your mailing address. But Feb. 5 is the last business day before holidays, and I wanted to see if I could get the shop to ship out the stands tomorrow. If they don't, we'll have to wait until Feb. 12.

I haven't received a mailing address from "ojnihs" so his prize is cancelled. The next person to post in this thread wins the 5th headphone stand. Send me a PM with your mailing address and choice of color, black or clear.

OK, I've updated your color choices. Yes, you got the last one. Let me know your mailing address and color choice. You can try sending them an email, English-language should be OK.

OK, the giveaway has ended. I'll let you know when your stands ship. How come everybody wants black? I'm telling you, clear looks better and doesn't show all the dust!

All right, you get one. One left!

Hey! What about this post?

Ha ha, ol' Dusty was quick enough on the draw and got one. I assume you want a black one. But the black one shows dust a lot more than clear. I wish I had gotten a clear instead.

Whoa, that was fast! Two down, three to go!

The acrylic headphone stand is available at: www.hifi.com.tw I'll give away five of the stands to the first five people who respond in this thread by posting "I want a headphone stand!" Then send me a PM with your mailing address and indicate choice of color, black or clear. I'll arrange for the shop to ship it to you. Worldwide shipping included.

That's a cheap acrylic headphone stand, sort of a translucent black color. I think it tried to copy the Qualia stand. There's also transparent and maybe other colors available. It's a good thing that it is higher than the Qualia stand, which is basically unusable with most other headphones because it's too low and their cables get squished up at the entry points. You can see it here with the SA5000. I can't find the stand that came with the SA5000. You are entirely correct, sir. I can only use one amp at a time with my current rack. I can add another shelf (that's the advantage of this crappy rack), but tube amps get hot! I think they should be placed on the top shelf. After taking the photo, I had to move the headphones away from the Zana Deux, it is the hottest headphone amp I've used to date. Hmm, the Aristaeus isn't too warm, it can probably sit on a lower shelf with enough clearance. I forgot to post a "full frontal" shot. Yeah, I need another rack.

You don't need so many headphones. None of them sound very good, including the Grado 325i. The CM700Ti sounds decent with a home setup but not very good with a portable rig, making it kind of useless; I don't know why I keep it. Sell everything, including the 2 amps. Get a sound card with bit-perfect digital out and good, used DAC. Then, choose between a nice Stax headphone + amp setup or a dynamic headphone + amp. You can go for a Pico if you want a portable rig, but to me portable rigs just don't sound competitive with a home rig. Yes, I have a Pico with DAC.

I would trade many toys for some DIY ability and knowledge about amps. I'm envious of the people who keep their amp covers off all the time.

Yeah, I haven't had good results with any JJ, Electro-Harmonix or Groove Tubes ECC82 and ECC83. I've got various types of ECL86 and ECC83, Mullard, Telefunken, Valvo, Siemens mostly. I don't know why I need them, because the all-Siemens set sounds very good with Senn or Stax. Also, a pair of Sylvania 5751 I tried sounded really clean and crisp, very nice! The Aristaeus coupling caps can be upgraded? I'm interested, but I'm afraid of sending away amps for upgrades, who knows when it'll come back.

Gaaah ...stacked CDs without cases...

Step 5: Zana Deux Time to go wiggle my butt while listening to Rihanna - Umbrella Remix. Hey, it's a form of exercise.

I use iTunes to add album art to ALAC files. The art in the ALAC files show up in foobar.

I know, I know. The main thing is that it's under warranty. I don't really have a need for a test headphone, though, I don't know how to do any testing besides adjusting tube biasing. A set of Sylvania ECL86 and a pair of JJ ECC83 came with the amp. I swapped them all with Telefunkens, but couldn't adjust bias because I didn't have a multimeter. The Telefunkens were an improvement but I switched back to the initial set to wait until I could adjust their bias. The Siemens set recently arrived and I couldn't resist trying them based on others' recommendations. I also have Mullard and Philips ECL86 as well as various ECC83 and 5751 tubes.

Eh, what happened here? How come I have no clue? Is that good or bad?

I also installed a set of all-Siemens tubes in the Aristaeus and adjusted the bias settings. Whoa, it sounds a lot better now! I didn't expect this much improvement. So I was listening to a "crappy Aristaeus" before. I thought it was good before, but now even the Airbow SR-SC1 is arguably better than the W5000. I'm using the Airbow in case I did something wrong and the amp blows up the headphones. I can't wait to try the SR-Omega and SR-007.

Very nice. I would just keep it purple, it's different from normal audio gear black and silver. Did Hit Audio allow a demo session? I'm more interested in the A318A, with those 6C33C tubes.

Adjusting SRM-T1W tube bias is not easy. Just installed a pair of NOS made in Japan Raytheon-brand 6CG7 tubes. Can I become a "made guy" now?

I'm not getting an A900Ti. I had the A950LTD for a few weeks and then sold it. I think the A900LTD, A950LTD and probably other A900-based variations are good options in situations where an open headphone isn't as viable. There are many situations with low to moderate environmental sound levels where an open headphone just isn't going to perform well. Even a computer's noise can interfere with the K701 or HD650, for example. Turning up the volume to try to block out environmental sound isn't a solution, because dynamics, background darkness, clarity and details are affected, and the outside sound is still going to be interfering with the music. But overall I didn't think the A950LTD matched the K701 or HD650.

I've only heard the GS1000 once, with an RA-1 and Benchmark DAC1. I thought it sounded OK, but not particularly great. Kind of like a cross between a K701 and RS-1. Or should that be "the unnatural spawn of a K701 and RS-1"?

It's over and done with as far as I'm concerned. You're a jackass.