catscratch

Who cares what your friend thinks. I used to show stuff around, not so much to try and make people envious of my gear but just to show people what really good sound is like. "Listen to this! It's the Omega 2, the best headphone ever made!" Nobody cared. Nobody still does. So I stopped caring too. The less others handle my gear, the better shape it's going to be in. On the other hand, the few people that actually do care about sound but aren't into the hobby serve as a good reality check. If someone's face lights up when they listen to your rig and you can see the amazement you're on the right track. And often untrained ears will pick up things that your golden audiophile ears have been conditioned to miss. My best reality check is a friend who is a recording engineer. His rig makes mine look like a joke, but then I don't have the benefit of a mastering studio that lets you borrow EMM Labs sources and doesn't really care if you return them.

What's more transparent than BHSE + O2 Mk1? The most transparent system that I've ever heard was the speaker system in the Mastering Lab, Ojai. Don't ask me what was in it though (mostly because I don't remember). All I know is that it was dynamic, single ended, with a fully custom-built signal path and of course perfectly tuned acoustics. Actually very similar tonally to the O2 and in many other respects as well. But the clarity was unreal, maybe because I was listening a 24/192 rip of Dark Side of the Moon straight off the original master lacquer, on an amazing custom-built source. But there are only a handful of systems like this around the world.

Q-tips do take some practice in order to be used correctly. However IMO they are useless for deep cleaning, you will generally only compact the wax and make the problem worse. An ear syringe with some warm water is the best way to go.

I'm just waiting for ear problems to subside until I can use IEMs again, at least something other than soft foamies. After that it's JH13 city, big time. Would have gotten them a month ago if not for that. I really hope that it's everything it's cracked up to be, then maybe I can get rid of most of my stash. I do want to mess around with the ESP950 for a while though. Don't know why, but I have an irrational desire to get my hands on a set. The ESP950 is calling me...

Man, there are too many pieces of music that are perfect. Like all of Bach's Well Tempered Klavier (played a lot of it actually). Or Stravinsky's Petrushka in which I wouldn't change one note. Or nearly everything Rachmaninoff ever wrote, ever. A few of my favorite non-classical perfect tracks, though: Shpongle - "Shpongle Falls" Shpongle - "Divine Moments of Truth" Shpongle - "Once Upon the Sea of Blissful Awareness" Shulman - "Retroscape" Shulman - "Invention" Maneesh de Moor - "Raindance" Maneesh de Moor - "Namaste" Amethystium - "Shadow to Light" Porcupine Tree - "Radioactive Toy" Porcupine Tree - "Nine Cats" Porcupine Tree - "Lightbulb Sun" Radiohead - "Subterranean Homesick Alien" Pink Floyd - "Money" Buddy Guy - "I Smell a Rat" Bruce Dickinson - "Jerusalem" King Crimson - "Frame by Frame" There's too much too list. I could be here all day.

Yeah Bear does some fun stuff, but since he's with a camera crew there is no psychological element to what he's doing. With Les though you can really see the mental effects of survival, and that makes the show much better and more impactful. Plus he doesn't do anything that anyone in his position couldn't potentially do. Which isn't to say that he isn't entertaining, on the contrary watching him do just about anything is great because of his humor and charisma. I don't think you should drink urine in a survival situation. It usually dehydrates you even more. Plus there are toxins in there which have been removed from your body for a good reason; putting them back into your body can lead to some serious problems. If you're drinking urine chances are you are already dehydrated, which means that water content will be lower and toxin content will be higher. Les made a urine distillation still in one episode to get fresh water without the toxins and that is a pretty cool idea, but the amount of water you'd get from that is pretty small. But better than nothing. Which is not to say that people haven't done it historically, but often for other reasons than survival. Siberian shamans that used Amanita muscaria for divination purposes drank their own urine. The theory is that muscimol is converted by the body into an active metabolite which is then partially excreted; drinking the urine gets more of the active metabolite back into the body and increases the potency of the mushroom. Not something I'm keen on doing myself mind you; sounds a little dangerous to me, not to mention disgusting. But people certainly have done some disgusting things in the pursuit of getting high. And speaking of getting high... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVbXdkxdX3I

Anyone else a fan of this show? I missed it the first time around since I don't watch TV but I'm catching up now. Les Stroud is truly amazing, musician, survival expert, writer, filmmaker, and a remarkable TV personality to boot with endless charisma. He films everything himself, no camera crew, nothing is faked like Man vs. Wild, just genuine survival techniques with a bit of humor thrown in. Les doesn't do anything excessive, and his escapades don't always work and sometimes he has to bail and call in help. Still, I've learned a few nice tricks, and the show is massively entertaining.

Yeah, it's usually a peak around 7-8kHz where the bulk of the "s" sound is. Peaks around that area generally set off sibilance though it can sound different depending on where the peak is. The A250 has some sibilance, but mostly it's a general treble emphasis.

Been liking the A250 a lot lately. Don't know what the hell is wrong with me. The brightness doesn't bother me quite as much. Very nice airy and open sound, clear, great soundstage, good bass, really crisp/sharp attack with extended decay. very dynamic. Maybe this is my mind trying to tell me to get the ESP950? If it is anything like the A250 but minus the colored mids and excessive treble energy I willl probably like it a whole lot. Don't know how it ranks but it's not going to threaten the O2 any day soon.

This has been answered many times before. The search engine won't bite you if you ask it politely. IMO you need at the very least a 717, or an SRD-7 Pro/Mk2 transformer box - which is more difficult to find - and a decent speaker amp behind it. You could get something weaker but then you're wasting your money since you'll get better sound for the same $ elsewhere.

That's basically the effect of Fletcher-Munson curves. The O2 doesn't have any treble emphasis whatsoever so it doesn't really sound flat until you hit the higher volume levels, whereas brighter headphones with more treble emphasis sound flat at lower volumes but start to sound bright and glaring as you crank the volume up. I'd be willing to bet that some of the O2 vs [brighter headphone] preference has a lot to do with listening level. I do listen pretty loudly, not loud enough to be rock concert levels by a long mile (I can't even go to most concerts without earplugs) and not enough to risk noise-induced hearing loss but certainly not background listening levels either. The O2's dynamic and tactile presentation and awesome bass generally egg you on to crank it up more, too. Glad to see the BH working out for you and also nice to see that you finally see what we're on about in the Mk1 vs Mk2 debate. I am so tempted by the BHSE it's not even funny but I do need the money for other things unfortunately.

Hopefully the funds are going towards the O2 Mk1?

I wonder what kind of DRM this will use and what other tricks it will have to limit Fair Use and in general bully consumer rights, and do all that other stuff that everyone loves the music industry for. Album covers and lyrics are great but come on, the main reason IMO why this format would exist is to give the big labels even more control over the content of (not)your (licensed) music library. I'll stick to FLAC for now.

Ah. Well here's to hoping that it gets there safe and that Icelandic customs don't take a shine to it all of a sudden. Looking forward to the impressions.

Meh, James May = awesome and the more JM we see outside of Top Gear the better. He is becoming a fairly popular show host/presenter in general from what I've gathered.

So where are the mandatory two tiny paragraphs about the sound? And do you still have the SR-Omega to try this with? Oh, and congrats, too.

I had just woken up from a strange dream in which I was posting on a message board dedicated to people who made survival shelters out of Tequila trees (they were a sort of pine tree whose needles could be soaked in water to make a passable tequila). I got up, staggered up I should say, and shabled off zombie-fashion to wash up. But then I heard the sound of a growling chihuahua coming from the window. I stumbled closer and what I saw was a little cardboard box on the windowpane. It was covered with a lid, it was shaking as if something was dashing around inside, and it was growling. Then, the lid popped off, and out peeked a little mouse, white with gray spots, and fuzzy. "Grrrr!" It said in a demented chihuahua voice. "I'll kick your ass! Grrrrr!" It poised itself as if to jump at me out of the box, but then toppled over the side and fell on the floor. Picking itself up, it ran growling straight for my legs and started nibbling at my toes. I jumped back, but it went at me again and this time scrambled up my leg and started biting at my neck. It tickled more than it hurt. I flicked the thing off, and it landed on the floor again. "Grrrrr!" it said, staring at me. "I'll nibble your fingers off!" Then it charged me again, went up my leg, and tried doing just what it threatened to do, tickling more than hurting again, and growling. I flicked it off one more time. It flew through the air and landed in a cup that was standing on a table next to my bed. I usually keep cups full of water next to the bed, so that when I wake up in the middle of the night with cottonmouth I have something to drink. But this cup was full of beer. The mouse splashed, then tipped the cup over and flopped, in a messy puddle of mouse and beer, onto the floor. It shook itself off, then scrambled up onto the bed and scampered under the blanket. "Grrrrr!" came the demented chihuahua voice from under the blanket. "I'll kick your ass! *hic!* ... where are you! *hic!*" "The fucker's drunk!" I realized, and took a few steps back. "Okay." I said to myself. "What drugs did you take last night?" I had certainly been drinking. But the only thing that could make me hallucinate this badly was the Dramamine. I keep a box around in case of nausea and the like. But was I plastered enough last night to eat the whole box? I wasn't that drunk but maybe I had blacked out. "Oh yeah!" I suddenly realized. "I'm dreaming!" Then I opened my eyes and woke up, and got up again, this time for real.

I think neither the K1k nor the O2 do all that well under meet conditions. Also both require absolutely exact system matching. Which explains to me why both headphones have impressions that are all over the place. The O2 further exascerbates this problem because it requires a perfect fit, and can change sonically quite a bit depending on the fit. So there's even less chance of getting the sound you want right off the bat at a meet. Another, admittedly strange plus of the K1k is that it puts no pressure whatsoever on the jaw and ears when you're wearing it. I have a friend that can't wear headphones since he gets sudden splitting headaches if anything puts sustained pressure on the ears, and can't really wear IEMs either due to comfort issues. The K1k on the other hand works out perfectly.

The K1k to me sounds like what the SR-404 should have sounded like: very clean, clear, immensely airy and open sound with a slightly bright tonal balance, forward presentation, and massive dynamic range. Very vivid and exciting sound on some material with microdetail pushed forward. I really do like the K1k my comparison with the O2 notwithstanding. It gets the mids right which is the most important thing to my ears (though the O2 does mids even better). I think the O2's technical merits are undeniable but if the K1k's tonal balance sounds natural to your ears then I can completely see how the O2 would sound dark. But my hearing is the other way around and the K1k sounds a little too lean and hopped-up in the highs while the O2 is just right. Source will of course be a massively important factor and with a dark source the O2 will sound dark, but if you don't care for the O2's presentation then no source change will probably fix that. I say "probably" since the O2 has responded more to source and amp changes than any other headphone I've ever had. It even makes me believe in cables (sort of; I hear a massive difference but I never did DBT so I am open to the possibility that I'm wrong).

I also prefer the O2 over the K1k, for some of the reasons you mentioned. It has better resolution but presents its detail in a very natural and unobtrusive way. It's faster and tends to stay resolved no matter how complex the music gets, whereas the K1k is still a dynamic and begins to lose imaging and definition as the complexity racks up. The O2 also has the edge in bass extension. Its midrange is more fluid than the K1k generally, and I think it handles transients better. But the K1k does have better macrodynamics which together with the slightly overemphasized treble (to my ears) make it sound very exciting on some material. The O2 also has better imaging but the K1000 does have that massively wide and wide-open soundstage with natural crossfeed. Both headphones have very good impact and slam though I've never heard the O2 off the BH or the K1k off a truly monstrous amp. I do find the K1k to sound slightly more artificial and give you lots of initial "wow" factor, whereas the O2 is decidedly unimpressive on first listen with material that isn't impressively recorded to begin with, though it can sound impressive with the right source material and system. But over time flaws begin to be evident with the K1k which the O2 simply doesn't have, and it betters the K1k in more areas than the K1k betters it. I don't find the O2's treble to be rolled-off in any way with the 717, but it was somewhat rolled-off with the SRD-7 Pro/Dared combo. However I also find the K1k's treble to be overemphasized slightly, and most headphones overdo the treble to my ears so I may just like a darker sound. However the O2 does not sound nearly as dark as the HD650 or even HD600 in my rig, and it was downright too bright with the 840c as source. Would be nice to get my mitts on the BH but that will have to wait. I do like some tube color in there though so the WES may also be a good choice.

Driver principle? From the looks I'm guessing dynamic?

E06 was good too. The show seems to be back into the swing of things. Still no real gems like E01/02 of last season or the Vietnam special but at least we have some very solid episodes.

Actually, that doesn't bother me much. His general attitude seems to be the same. What does bother me is the way the content is presented. It's as if some studio exec said "hey, KN is a great show but what we need for our version are some 3-second Bruckheimer-style edits, non-stop dramatic cheesy synth music in the background and commentary straight out of "Cops!" After all that show worked, why not copy the style for this one! There was content enough in there for some pretty good episodes but the presentation is absurd and ruins everything.

Yeah that's a great show. The US version is a disaster in comparison but that's to be expected I guess. I'm not a fan of his other stuff but a few parts of the F-word were pretty funny.

I never said it was a warm amp. It is a mostly neutral amp with a bit of warmth and tube flavor. SRD-7 adds colorations too, as does whatever speaker amp you're running it from. The O2 is brutally revealing and colorations that would be inaudible on lesser phones are very clearly audible with the O2. Now this could be placebo, etc, blah blah blah and I'm definitely open to that idea. But I think I understand why people go on DAC and source-swapping binges after they get the O2. Every component sounds different. I'm only safe from the swapping madness since I can't really afford to indulge in it fully, but it would be a lie to say that I'm 100% happy with my source as it is (Opus 21), and it is still the best source I've ever had (but not ever heard).