slwiser

Thanks for stepping in and attempting to help me in quantifying what humanflyz was speaking about. It still may not be clear to me because of my lack of experience in higher end equipment but at least you gave some description as to what this concept of musicality speaks toward. I think humanflyz has a point with climbing a ladder since I don't have extensive experience with equipment much higher than the lavry.

All I ask was for you to be more specific in what being more "musical" is considered to be; a definition so to speak. Maybe someone else will come in and help out. I Google it without any success. I gave my take on it as something like an EQ or a non-linearity and you suggested nothing in return that was descriptive and a belief and a thought that it could not be that a unit in the 1000$ could be "musical" I guess.

So it a faith thing after all; mysticism after all, indeed!

Can you be more specific? It would seem to be some mystical something otherwise!

Everyone seems to be talking about having a musical DAC and that the Lavry is just not musical. Well how much EQ or sound modification does a DAC need to provide?

Link to curves noted above FYI... http://www.geocities.jp/mister_terch/audiotechnicaATHA900Ti.html

I expect the Ti's to be less refined Leatherheads. I have seen their frequency profile and if that means anything which it may not, but if it does, it is almost an exact match to the L3000s profile.

I use the XLR-RCA cables.

In my mind the ESW9 fall toward the warmer side of the AT house sound.

This is in respect to the fit issue. Mine were very well fitting on me but SK138's were loose on me. I have them at my house and set them on my headphone stand and took pictures of both. Mine closed on themselves while SK138s had from about 0.7 inches open between them in a natural hanging position. That is what I was referring to as small (mine) and bigger (SK138s).

You heard SK138s W5k and my W5k using your M^3 that SK138 had purchased and my AT-HA5000 at SK138s during a mini-meet about two years ago when we meet at SK138's home. Mine were the smaller version and SK138s were the larger versions of the W5k. Mine pads touched while SK138's dangled freely with more than a half inch clearance.

There is life after the W5000+HA5000 after-all. But this still does not mean that they are not worth having and being enjoyed. They are still very good. My issue is that I don't want to have so much invested in many things that I can't enjoy them, so I consolidate into what I can enjoy. Others can and do enjoy many different setups. I have only three at different levels of performance, my computer, my easy chair and my portable setup to be used at work. Each gets some time from me when I am located properly.

More clarity and room for later impressions is a given, thanks.

^^^This suggests that all three of you may have a bias for a certain standard sound. There is nothing wrong with having that bias but denial may be an issue here.

Nate, I thought that you said that they did sound good after about an hour of listening. It sounds like you want it to sound like a HD650 and it is just not an HD650. I think this bias will always disappoint. I would edit your statement above to say "I have exactly zero tolerance for headphones that require intense setup tweaking to sound like my HD650s" and this would be more clear. To me it sounds like you said that the AT-W5000 sounded fine after about one hour without tweaking so what "intense" tweaking are you suggesting is needed? I am confuse by this post!

Enjoy them, I always did.

An Inconvenient Book by Beck

Ever heard of "John Galt". You appear to be much like him until he went on strike and took all the knowledge workers with him. John Galt is a character in the novel "Altas Shrugged." This is a great read BYW.

Elephas, how does the Lavry DA10 compare to your Cord dac?

Here is an audiophile equalizier; DEQX PDC as reviewed here: http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/deqx/deqx.html Cheaper than mulitple sets of headphones/amps/dacs.

If you can find a Yamamoto HA-02, see how it sounds to you with your UE9s. I love mine but I may not know the difference where you would. I think the mids is where the HA-02 takes care of the UE9s for me.

You sure those new ESW9s don't!

I like to see what people have. It helps me understand where they may be coming from rather than just blowing in the wind.

I got catch in one of Joschmo's images in my last post. I am really glad that there is some moderation there...based on what I saw. Thanks for ridding the thread of it, reks....

So on Head-Fi this site, "Head-Case," has become "THE SITE That Can Not Be Named."