catscratch

I use the HD650 for 90% of my listening, basically all of my casual listening. For music listening, I use the L700 and SR-007, both modded. I went down the Focal route for a while and they were pretty nice, but too fatiguing, and in the end I preferred Stax. But I do like the lively Focal-ish sound, they just need to fix the highs on pretty much all of them.

The L700 clamps a lot and there's not much you can do about that, at least that I'm aware of. Is it tighter around the temples than around the jaw? If the clamp is tight around the temples, you can try socas3d freedom yokes which will even out the clamping force... but they'll also increase clamp slightly, if anything. You can also do various pad mods by buying a spacer that lets you mount 3rd party pads, but once again, you're gonna probably see increased clamping force, and those pads might induce changes in FR you don't want. The 007 is much less clampy and way more comfortable, at least once you have it adjusted. No, the 353x won't be able to drive it properly. It'll be ok, but dull with not a lot of dynamics, and you really need more than that. I'd save up for a good amp and go the 007 route personally, but I also got adjusted to the L700s clamp over time, and I modded it with socas yokes, so now it fits well and is decently comfortable.

$11k? So it's only 1/5th as good as the Hifiman Shangri-La? Please. What kind of plebs is this even for. I will take headphones that are 5 times as good as this, k thanks bye. It's twice as good as any Stax though... lol. The best Stax is what, less than $6k? Take that, Stax mafia.

Yeah there's a bunch of stuff you can follow on twitter for updates on what's going on, there is a good amount of analysts, both amateur and professional, keeping an eye on things. https://twitter.com/RALee85 https://twitter.com/warinthefuture https://twitter.com/KofmanMichael There's way more but these guys tend to be more factual and objective. There are Ukrainian sources but they're a bit heavier on propaganda, and there are Russian sources which are a bit heavier on not existing anymore, at least not independent ones with any degree of credibility. Also, the Institute for the Study of War has been publishing daily updates on the situation and seems to be quite reliable. And of course there are tons of memes. ALL the memes...

I have friends in Belarus. Lukashenko is a clown and would get maybe 3-5% popular support in a vote. Word round the campfire is - and these are total rumors and should be taken as such - he hired a western company to help stage the election, and when they advised him to make the election close to make it appear more legitimate, he flew into a rage and said "I need 95% of the vote, all the people love me!" and proceeded to ignore their advice. Then came the protests, which he repressed pretty brutally. So his hold on power in Belarus is fairly tenuous I would say, though backed up by military and police and whatever other tools your usual tinpot dictators have, for now. Russia's endgame in this is clear - the removal of Ukraine's government and an installation of a puppet government to make a buffer state between Nato and Russia - but they were all based on wrong assumptions. Putin thought Ukraine would fold in a few days, it hasn't. He thought its citizens would support him and welcome his troops as liberators, they haven't. He thought his military would be prepared for this war, they aren't. And he thought western sanctions would be light and ineffective, and they weren't. Lastly, he clearly thought china would support him in all this, but china so far seems to be neutral and minding its own interests. So now he is trapped in a nightmare scenario where the best outcome is a pyrrhic victory followed by an afghanistan-style occupation which is likely to be bloody and ineffective, or military failure overseas and economic disaster at home. None of this makes life in Ukraine any better and Putin's crimes more forgivable. Also, don't make the mistake of assuming he's crazy, he's not. He's what he's always been - a russian imperialist who only thinks about russia vs the west, who doesn't care one iota for international law and doesn't give a damn about the wants of sovereign states on his borders, and who is used to taking high-risk gambles to achieve what he wants. These gambles have generally worked out so far, but this time he miscalculated, badly, and it will cost him, and it will cost Ukraine more.

I dunno, I find the 007 Mk 3.14159265359 has a more... well-rounded presentation.

Thanks for the impressions. Since you mentioned the new Lambdas - I would very much agree and reiterate that the new Lambdas have issues with design, build quality, and frequency response. They needs mods to achieve a good seal and they need EQ. Without it they're a mess, but a technically interesting mess that does a number of things quite well. The midrange resolution with these new drivers is really impressive. With mods and EQ you can fix at least some of the issues and make them a much more compelling.

Happy thanksgiving to everyone!

Remember how I said I'm not playing Valheim? I'm playing Valheim. Yeah, it's good.

I bought mine in 2007 or 2008, I don't remember, but I also didn't port mod it. So that might have helped fix the issues too. I did port mod my current 007A and yes, it makes a huge difference.

I had an early 007 Mk2 from that batch and I thought the midrange on it had some of the same issues that plagued the SR-404 and other Lambdas from that series. But I wonder if that's fixable with EQ. The L700 responds really well to EQ in the mids. But, I sold it and then got the Mk1.

A modded 007A is pretty close to the mk1 especially if you EQ it, so I wouldn't worry too much about it. The mk1 is perhaps a tad more resolving in the mids and smoother in the highs, but the mk2/A is more dynamic and impactful. So there are tradeoffs either way. Good mk1s are getting harder to find in great condition so getting a 007A or mk2 and modding it is generally a safer bet. Oh yeah, Edifier has a new headphone out, don't they. Wow grandma, what fat wallets you have!

I used to DM a lot, maybe 15 years ago. Haven't done it since. DnD is basically all about the group you play it with. Get good people and it'll be great. Get a bunch of boring dorks and that's what it'll be. But learning to DM actually teaches a lot of writing and storytelling skills and isn't easy. I certainly was bad when I first started and it took years before I really learned. I do miss it, but now everybody's got families, jobs, obligations, responsibilities... the time for a bunch of nerds gathering in basements is over. For better or worse.

Wow, the idiot... committed credit card fraud because he was angry at a customer? ... ... If I facepalmed any harder I'd knock my own head off. I have a McAlister heap of scrap too, but it's in a basement that flooded a few times (though the amp never got wet afaik) so it's probably beyond repair. I'll check. It never worked properly to begin with so no big loss. McAlister pulled some dodgy shit with shipping it too, delaying it forever then claiming he sent an amp that was lost. At the time I just wrote it off as a learning experience.

Very interesting tech since it looks like it can easily trickle down. However I don't know how well it works, whether or not it has any detrimental effects on sound, or whether it's a more effective method than digital EQ and DSP. But very interesting nevertheless.

Oh, I think you could make the argument that the electrostatic market has gone backwards. Meanwhile, absolutely, there's a ton of movement and hype everywhere else. So if someone hasn't heard a top 'stat system, and has been keeping up with developments in planars and dynamics, then it's clear where the perception comes from. But then you hear a good 'stat system and you understand. This is why I'm moderately hyped about this - the 'stat market needs a good shakeup - but we'll see how it pans out. Looking forward to Spritzer's teardown! And if it's good, who knows... (looks at wallet) (wallet: why are you looking at me like that)

And I'm being a pedantic prick so ignore me 😀 Regarding "progress..." If electrostats were really old these days, maybe some of these new planars and dynamics that came around as a result of this progress would actually sound better than the old electrostats. But that hasn't been the case in my experience. IMO this progress malarkey is just another FOTM, with the big revelation being - drumroll please - that "neutral" doesn't mean "bright as fuck!" Wow, we've come so far! But, seeing more electrostatics, or cool new things like RAAL - and they've got a new circumaural headphone announced too - is actually interesting, and the more good headphones out there, the better. Besides somebody needs to light a fire under Stax's ass and what better way than actual competition. Maybe this way they'll stop making headphones with headbands that crack, ergonomics not designed for human heads, amps that are defective by design, or tuning that's best served as an advertisement for EQ plugins. And if not, well other people will make stats too.

HD650 has a slight resonance around 5k together with a very small peak. But we're talking a few db at most. Definitely interested, but don't know if $4500 interested.

Happy happy unbirthday, To you To you!

Definitely check out Dusk then, if you haven't. It's heavily inspired by the first Quake, but takes it a step further, borrowing a lot of level design tricks and atmosphere from games ranging from Portal and Half-life to immersive sims like Thief and System Shock. It seems like a simple retro throwback shooter for the first few levels... but it's not. There's a lot more to it. Edit on the topic of soundtrack: I think id/Bethesda parted ways with Mick Gordon, but they still have Andy Hulshult, who did the music for Dusk, Prodeus, Amid Evil, and a whole bunch of other recent boomer shooters besides, and I expect if they really are remaking Quake and want a metal soundtrack they'll have him do it. So it should be good, he's very talented.

Yeah. No. On the plus side, Roboquest is a very nice roguelite FPS (though still in early access) and definitely recommended if you like that sort of thing. Also, rumors are flying about a Quake reboot, which means I should probably get back into Quake at some point so I'm not completely useless when it comes out.

For the Clear, drop 1.2khz by 2db and 11khz by 5db with Q-factor 2. That goes a LONG way towards mellowing them out. Also you can drop the 6khz peak, but it is nowhere near as problematic as it is on the Utopia and I generally don't bother. Of course, YMMV and when it comes to treble peaks, everyone will hear them in different locations and with various degrees of severity. I hear peaks at 6khz, 8.5khz, and 11khz, but it's the last one that's the major issue. Clear reacts better to EQ than Utopia does IMO.

It could be. Focal drivers use lightweight metal diaphragms with a very thin and flexible surround, and they have a very high degree of excursion so they're able to displace a lot of air despite being quite small. They do operate near the limits of excursion though and have less maximum SPL capability. But I'm non engineer and have no clue how that relates to listening fatigue. In terms of tuning, they're rather Sennheiser HD6X0 like, though they trade off less linear highs for better extension in the bass. This tuning and overall character is why I like them in the first place.

I finally sold my Utopia. I just wasn't using it enough. Yes it was very impressive, but it was far too fatiguing, and a $4k headphone that you could only use 30 minutes at a time wasn't worth keeping. Sadly, I think the Clear falls under the same category too, I can listen to it for longer than the Utopia (1-2 hours) but still it's not an all-day headphone. I don't know what it is about Focals, but they seem to irritate my ears in ways that other headphones don't. Regarding the DSHA-3F, it is a very transparent and resolving amp, and if you want to max out the Utopia's resolution, go with that. But it doesn't really change what the Utopia is. And you find the Utopia borderline, the Clear with the DSHA-3F is nearly as resolving (the highs are worse, but the mids and bass are similar) and definitely less abrasive. You could also try a bit of EQ, the Utopia does have a narrow 6khz peak and exaggerates treble past 13-14khz by about 6db or so. But to me that only mellowed it out a little bit. So, I think I'm leaving team Focal, since my ears refuse to cooperate.

Happy belated birthday (missed the thread) and welcome to the 40+ club. (del Toro voice) As your attorney, I advise you to start drinking heavily.