Tari

The tubes in the LF are just for the voltage gain, I'm not sure if I would classify it as a tube amp (maybe tube hybrid.)

I assume he is referring to the Amarra Model 4 vs PWD/Marantz mentioned

Hartman is the best. Hartman/Coltrane in particular is sublime.

Per Tiffany (New CS hire at Audeze) they are currently in the D&D stage with no official release estimate. I'd guess that with the hitches in the LCD-3 release and the LCD-2 re-revision, their speakers/mics have been on the back burner.

The wood is a bamboo composite. It's supposed to be more readily available and consistent than the Caribbean Rosewood.

He did mention the EL34 as one of the rolling options for the SE but seemed to prefer his current configuration. When I mentioned chassis he thought he could fit the SE in a ZDT chassis as the transformers are about the same size. Can't comment on parts selection except to say I think he hasn't really skimped on them with his dynamic amps relative to his pricing. While I haven't heard the LL Craig has and said it sounded great. I'm not privy to it's current design, but I am under the impression that it has been changed - certainly since it's early iterations and I believe some changes were made from the prototype at Canjam. Edit - Just remembered I have heard the LL with a 507 briefly. It was my first time hearing a 507 so I don't really have a frame of comparison.

The meet was supposed to be in March but Craig said it should be some time in April for interested parties. I didn't press for for info as I don't plan being in California in the next couple months. Also, slip of the tongue with the 6SL7 on the OTL as I was just looking for some today. It was actually the 6L6GTB. The OTL was balanced input to output, 40 watts plate power per channel and 1800 peak to peak. I don't know much more about the SE as we discussed it for only a short while. I also believe the OTL would be on a PCB while the SE would be point to point.

Craig is now out of metal - sold out his current BA run. I talked to him about the 307A option at this point and he said it would be a $100 upcharge because of the different top plate/sockets than the current Current offerings. As it only runs the 307A, the bias switch on the back and the meter on the PS would be useless (except that meters look cool.) Oh, and turns out he'll have two versions of the Electra at the upcoming meet: One OTL with 4 6SN7's and 4 6SLGT's, and another version which will be SET, using 2 EF86's, a 6SN7, and two KT120's. The pricing he's talking about on the initial run is under 3K on an OTL option, while the custom transformer costs (I assume silver secondary electra-print) on the SE would bring price up to around $3200.

Instrumental - Peterson Honorable mention: Vocal - Honorable mention:

I talked to Craig recently and he said he could still do a 307A configuration but that it would be by request only - he's really trying to push the 300B/PX4. There's a whole lot of 300B's out there, and good (ie not Sophia according to Craig) current production PX4's can be bought directly through Craig who buys KR's in larger quantities. 307A's can be harder to find. It's not just Craig who it's fallen out of favor for - Pete did it too, going from his 307A to the PX4 pinnacle.

I assume he meant this way. I do remember seeing a couple people mention that they refused to replace the drivers when they bought R1's close to the R2 release date but from my recollection that was all sorted out. As to the "how do you know" the pads are fairly self-evident. As for FR/amounts of wonk: The opinions on the LCD-3 thus far seem polarizing. The LCD-3's I have on hand sound worse than my LCD-2's, yet Don swears by his pair. That's reason to send them in. If people send them in and get replacements with the same problems, that's when Audeze will be in trouble.

With a transferrable three-year warranty, buyers on the used market can just ship them out to Audeze if they think they recieved a veiled/mis-padded/wonky FR pair. The ideal solution would be for Audeze to get it right the first time, but at least they'll fix the problem if they mess up (albeit with inordinately long wait times for the buyer in some cases.)

The article was written in 2007, when the K701 was considered one of the top dynamic flagships - and before the HD800's were released.

Cost of materials, labor, shipping and utilities have all gone up considerably in the past few years. Creating 1000 items costs more now then in the past (as a generalization- obviously cost of some items, especially electronics go down.) Ramping up production to hundreds of thousands will save you per unit. But what indication do we have that Sennheiser is making the HD800 at a higher rate than a few years past? Assuming quantity is the same cost goes up - the only thing that should go down is error as any good manufacturer can tweak their production line over time.

Wavelength had released some of it's async USB DACs (Brick and Cosecant) by '05. It wasn't a buzzword at that point though. Weiss could certainly have hopped on the USB bandwagon before this year though. The Sony analogy wasn't exact. Sony would create (sometimes in conjunction with other companies) a medium they wanted to be a "standard." If it actually becomes the standard, they are considered the pioneer in the format (and reap licensing rewards as well.) In Weiss's case, whether or not it was proprietary, it was not a license held by Weiss. What they stood to gain was being the first real "high end" DAC with firewire. Being the trend-setter does give you clout. They chose, and they were stubborn about their choice until USB became the prevalent medium.

I remember when it first came out Weiss first came out they did a lot of marketing about Firewire being the only audiophile option for computer DACs. Apogee used to be the same way. Having a USB input would dilute the sincerity of their belief in firewire. Since then, with the popularization of (liscensing) async and the ubiquity of USB among computer DA/ADCs, (and the perception among consumers that USB is indeed an "audiophile" protocol,) companies like Weiss and Apogee have to keep up with the competition. Duet 2 was released this year with USB, and now the Weiss. Its also a quick way to make an extra buck without releasing a whole new product. Sony used to (still does really) do this all the time: Release devices with proprietary media, try to make it the industry standard so that everyone has to license it from you. Only revert to the other medium when it is clear that yours will never take off.

They're re-releasing with a USB input.