catscratch

I've had issues with the H2's midrange running the TR2 off the Dareds' 4 ohm taps. In this setup, the midrange was recessed while the bass was very upfront, as was the treble. Switching to the 8 ohm taps really brings the midrange out, and it is now more or less balanced with the bass and the treble, at least in general terms. I think the TR2 is a 16 ohm load but 8 ohm taps are all I've got so it will have to do. I have to second the notion that these headphones are very system-specific. Some amps just sound like rubbish with them, and even though the transformer box hurts the ultimate resolution (I think, going on hearsay here but it seems pretty universal), there is still an awful lot of resolution to be had, which shows up your system irregularities very nicely. Think of these as truly high-end phones, because they are. You wouldn't drop an O2 into a consumer-grade system, and you shouldn't do it here. I've really been amazed at the performance improvement I got just by replacing my rubbish Onkyo arc welder with the Dared monoblocks (which also cuts out the lousy Denon preamp); it's a completely different headphone now and there is much more resolution across the board. Let's just say that the days of it getting stomped by an HD600 out of a Hornet are over. I'm expecting some very good things in the next few weeks, with a tuberoll and some silver cables on their way into the system.

Wow, the Dareds really do make a difference with the H2. Much more resolution, the treble is back under control, the bass is no longer loose, and everything is much more realistic and defined. The transformer box still limits the ultimate resolution, as does my source and the rubbish cables I have in the system, but it's already very palatable and will only get better from here, I think. The soundstage is already pretty astonishing, and the bass will make you run home and cry to mama. Everything just sounds BIG and there is enough air and space around each instrument to make electrostatics weep. I can only imagine what a good tube direct-drive amp will do. This is also a very lousy headphone for meets, since not only do you need to listen in a quiet area, much like you do with a K1k, but it's also pretty system-specific from what I've been able to tell, and needs smooth and neutral gear if it's to sound balanced.

The fit definitely makes a massive difference. When I heard it I made sure to manhandle the poor thing into exactly the fit it needed to be in, and the echoey/cavernous effect was mostly gone, as well as the extra brightness. It was very tonally balanced and not bright at all, very smooth and even sounding, extremely detailed, and fast for a dynamic. But, there was something decidedly wrong with tone and tembre of instruments that are predominantly in the midrange. So, it was excellent with electronic music where its tonal and tembral irregularities don't matter, but for things that need a more realistic tone and tembre, I think there are better choices. Still, it's one of the best dynamics I've heard, period. It does have an electrostatic quality to its sound, but with much more impact and crisper imaging.

In my experience, that very much depends. Some do, some don't. Tryptamines (ex. psilocybin) tend to really alter the very fundamentals of your thought processes and can very much produce life-altering results. They may enhance your perceptions of the music, but perceiving music is usually the last thing on your mind (such as it is at the time). Phenethylamines (2C- on the other hand will leave your central processes more or less intact, while thoroughly scrambling your perceptions. They can definitely enhance the music, or perhaps a more accurate description would be "alter the music." Salvia Divinorum (which is in its own category entirely) definitely alters your perceptions of the music a great deal, but using that stuff as a music enhancer is like using a nuclear warhead to hammer in nails. Good ol' Lucy definitely does enhance the music to a great degree, and you tend to simply get lost in the spaces between the sounds. Some of the most astonishing musical experiences I've ever had have come from this. And your basic greens enhance your ability to perceive microdetail immensely, but at the same time they also reduce your ability to focus, as well as hurting your short-term memory, so it's a great listening session while it lasts, but you tend to not take away anything useful from it. Of course, in audio we say "everyone's ears are different," and when it comes to neurochemistry, that's even more true.

God, I fucking love Top Gear. Too bad the BBC doesn't bring it here to the states. Now, I'm not a media pirate, but if you deny me my favorite show for no reason that I can see, well, then it's not really a moral question anymore. I find gin to very much be an aquired taste, but I like it, either straight up or in the gin & tonic variety. My friends think I'm nuts and can't stand the stuff though. Still, it has to be said that alcohol does NOT in general enhance my audio perception. It tends to make me lose focus and shortens the attention span. I can't really appreciate the finer subtleties of the music I'm listening to, though often it does enhance my ability to go along with the flow of the music. So, psytrance and the like goes down a lot better, but ambient electronica tends to go over my head, and classical is just too complex to be fully appreciated except when you're sober. But, the gods blessed us with many other things besides alcohol, and some of them, together with the right music (and the right system) have produced a full-blown mystical experience. And by mystical, I mean the type where you're completely shattered and have to rebuild your mind piece by piece for hours afterwards. Hm... seems I can't go a post without mentioning at least two crimes in it. Oh well.

Just about any prog and power metal band that tries to write classical music. I used to be a classical composer, maybe that's why I have higher standards. But, I have a hard time appreciating the metal in a song when the classical elements are something that an 8th grader with a classical music education could handily improve upon. So, stuff like Rhapsody and Dragonforce is hilariously bad to my ears. Latter-day Dream Theater as well; DT was pretty good when Kevin Moore was at the songwriting helm, but when he left he took all of DT's melodic talent with him. Whatever, Watchtower already said everything that DT was trying to say in back '89 (I think... a bit hazy oh my music history). Just about the only classical/metal hybrid I could stand was Symphony-X, and then only for a few albums - V is their masterpiece and Twilight on Olympus (I think? Don't remember) was also pretty good. Winds was alright too, but way too bombastic and overblown.

Nile's "Black Seeds of Vengeance" and "In Their Darkened Shrines" are the two best metal albums I've ever heard. Somehow, though, they don't exactly go over well when played to an unsuspecting audience

Um. My first point was that with the gear I used I didn't like the HD650. My second point is that I admit the possibility that somewhere out there a rig could potentially exist in which I will like how the HD650 sounded. These 2 points aren't mutually exclusive. I'm simply being open-minded about a system I don't like. Besides, what doesn't sound veiled to one may sound veiled and bloated to another. I don't subscribe to audio relativism but since headphones ignore HRTFs to a point, they do sound physically different to different people.

Well in that case I would have driven the car around the parking lot for a year, and the lot would have been the size of my daily commute. I've lived with the HD650 for over a year and I've heard it with several portable and stationary amps. I haven't heard it balanced or with a truly reference-level source, which is why I put that disclaimer in my post. I don't like this headphone. I don't care how much you flame me for it, I'm not going to lie about it just to be popular. But, I acknowledge the possibility that there may be a rig in which I will like it.

I'm not a fan of them to be honest. Sennheiser took the HD600 and ruined it with too much bass and an overly recessed top end (which was too recessed on the HD600 already). The HD600 was not a fast or especially detailed headphone but at least it was neutral, and had very good tone and tembre. The HD650 is none of those, but it's still not very fast or detailed. Still, to each their own. I never heard the HD650 in a very good system so it never had a chance to really show its stuff. Maybe when I do I'll change my mind.

Well, Deus Ex for one. Just about any other game that didn't set its sights too high, for another. Gothic has a lot of extremely well written dialogue. The best out there is probably The Longest Journey, as well as the old-school Sierra games, like Space Quest, King's Quest, etc... and the best of that bunch was Quest for Glory (I only played 4 though, but it was terrific). Wing Commander 4 also had a tremendous storyline and dialogue; if you look at the cinematics alone it was a much better movie than the atrocity that was released in the theaters. Yes, I think D&D alignments are utterly ridiculous. People don't think that way, and if they do, they're mad. Basing a whole bunch of moralizing dialogue in a game on this alignment system is a recipe for disaster in my book. If not for that bit, I would have liked the series a good deal more.

I hated Baldur's Gate (played 1 and 2). Far too much annoying and completely idiotic moralizing. They tried to make character interaction meaningful but if you do that, you'd better be able to write any kind of meaningful dialogue, otherwise you end up looking like a bunch of stuck-up buffoons. I guess I'm just not a D&D type despite having played D&D quite a bit many years back. I hate the whole "good vs evil thing." If you're going to be morally pretentious, at least be realistic. I have to say though, a few one-liners were absolutely hilarious. GO FOR THE EYES BOO!! GOO FOR THE EYES!!!

The first one was definitely one of the best single-player gaming experiences I've had thus far. Haven't played through 2 though. I've really had so little time for games, and whatever spare gaming time I've had WoW has taken up. I love the idea of interactivity without the stupidity of a typical online community to ruin it. Companies like Bethesda definitely have the right vision for single-player games but unfortunately they never seem to have the writing and design talent to completely pull it off. Oblivion was largely a humorless game with a pathetic storyline, and once you've exhausted its sandbox playset capabilities there really isn't much to it. Then on the other hand you have games like System Shock, Deus Ex, and Thief that have the panache and talent to create an immersive world and a good story but don't have the breadth of scope to really flesh out the illusion of freedom and total immersion. So far Gothic (1 and 2, haven't played 3) has been the single best single-player experience I've had. Humor, an excellent story, solid writing and design, and plenty of scope for exploration and free-form gameplay. Too bad it was so buggy and unstable. Prior to that there was Privateer 2. I was really amazed at the world design there - a sort of Terry Gilliam take on a SF space opera. I haven't really seen anything quite like it since. Too bad that other than Tachyon: The Fringe there hasn't been a single freeform space sim worth its salt after that (though I'll give Independence War 2 a whirl again, that looked like it had potential.) Yay, another rant... \

Wow, interesting info on the Orpheus clone, though we really should stop calling it that Well, I have been tempted into pre-production headphones before, and that didn't turn out so great. So, I will wait until this is well and settled before picking up a pair. However, I will probably end up picking up a pair anyway. $1500 for a good-sounding electrostatic with a tube amp (especially if it's not a bad tube amp) is pretty damn good, especially if it's like the HE90 in signature (which is still my favorite sounding headphone by a mile).

Electronic music begins, and ends, with Shpongle. Shpongle's most accessible album, which is not to say their worst. Music to open your mind. Maneesh makes truly mystical music. Most horrible album cover ever, which is in direct contrast to the music. This is one of the few modern composers thoroughly worth their salt. Astonishing flutist, too. Nile will kill you and stomp all over your corpse with their awesomeness. Too bad it went downhill from here. If only more metalheads knew this band. Absolutely bloody brilliant. Lousy Rite of Spring but the Petrushka performance is seriously great. Technical but inspired. The single best pianist I've ever heard. And I trained as a classical pianist myself, so I'm not just spouting gibberish. More techincal wizardry from Volodos. Here, he was still somewhat restrained in interpretation, but it's still wonderful. I guess you could say my tastes are a bit eclectic, but what else can you expect from a classical pianist snatched away from his musical future and immersed in too many psychedelic drugs to count...

Pretty bloody loud. I have no idea how loud exactly since I don't have an SPL meter handy. But, it is basically the minimum volume you need for the music to really open up and bloom - which does vary from system to system. The thing is, loud as I'm listening right now, it is much, much quieter that I used to listen, and it is also much, much quieter than most people around me (who listen to deafening levels, in my opinion). So I don't know if it's me merely perceiving an average volume level as loud or others simply cranking their music up to 11 regardless of what it does to their ears. I suspect the latter. Anyway, I gave myself tinnitus in the first few months of this hobby, and I've since cut down my volume by a lot. In the last year and a half, it virtually disappeared, and my current listening levels - which I still think are pretty loud - haven't caused it to recur. Yes, this doesn't make me seem very brilliant does it... Then again, with my listening preferences, which include psytrance and death metal, I would want to understandably crank it a bit. But just a bit.

I haven't really noticed any warm-up changes. They sound good out of the box so to speak and the sound good hours down the line. However, I haven't specifically listened for it either. With the K340's on, it's more about the music and less about the sound. I haven't noticed any fit changes either but that is because I pretty much have to hold my earcups in place in order to get the right fit. So, there's no gradual sealing going on. I will eventually mod them and replace that ridiculous headband assembly. These headphones need substantially more clamping force than that stupid headband assembly can provide. The fit makes such a critical difference in sound that you really do need the headphones to basically force the right fit from the start.

I'll have to check that out. I've been too into WoW and had no idea that it's anywhere close to being finished. I used to be a very serious competitive Quake 3 player back in the day (OSP 1v1 and TDM) and since those days I haven't seen a single competitive shooter worth a damn. Everything is that "realistic" crap that has little gameplay depth other than teamwork and completely limits a good player's ability to shine. Hopefully this will put some action back into the genre - IF it's up to par. I always thought the original UT had great potential but was limited by a sloppy physics engine. If this is UT but with better physics, it may well be awesome. Still, Q3 strafejumping > UT dodging. There's something about Q3 movement that's utterly addictive. Too bad Q4 sucked such major ass.

QFT. As always, we try to solve problems in the short term in ineffectual ways which will cause us more problems in the long term.

Word of mouth. I like it here more than head-fi so far, though I really don't know how far to take the whole "being honest" thing. If I give everyone exactly the earful and tongue-lashing that I think they should have, I'll come off as the biggest asshat ever. Even if I will be right let's conservatively say, 1/2 of the time. Every single time I see another "do you think I'll like [...]" or "I can't decide, make up my mind for me!" type post, I just want to yell out: "Grow a fucking pair and make up your own fucking mind, I'm not here to make you feel better about your own petty insecurities." But, so far I've kept quiet about it on head-fi (which is why I'm not banned yet) and I think I'll keep quiet about it here. So far, there hasn't been any need to, either. Sorry for the rant folks, but this is therapy. I can do it here, or in front of a shrink for $150 an hour. This is cheaper, and keeps me sane longer, though arguably it may be too late for that.

Well, I just picked up some Dared VP-20 monoblocks on the cheap. Let's see how it turns out! These will drive the K1k, the H2 at least temporarily, and I think I'll have my K340 reterminated to be driven by these as well. They do look stunning: Hopefully they sound as good as they look at the very least.

I solved the A250's bass problems by using an old very soupy sounding tube amp with overblown bass (MG Head OTL Mk 1, stock tubes). It balances out my very bright pair of K340's and it does the same thing on the A250. Now, I don't like the A250, I think the mids are unnatural and the highs pierce your ears, but the bass on this combo is terrific. It's easily the A250's strongest suit, but you do need an appropriate system to bring it out.

Um... I have no SPL meter and I don't have much of a sense for what volume equals what dB in the first place so I can't really tell you how loud it is. It's basically the minimum volume you need for the sound to really open up and bloom. This is, of course, system dependent, and in the current H2 setup it's also quite a bit higher than what I would be comfortable with on a long-term basis. In my listening comparison I tried to match the SPL between the H2 and HD600, but the HD600 seemed to bloom before the H2 did. This is most likely due to the more recessed midrange on the H2 in my current setup. This, incidentally, is another knock against the K340, which you also noted. It needs a lot of volume to really come alive. Though mine is the bass-light version, which sounds very much like a better, more linear and more coherent SR-404.

In terms of fit - I think I am wearing it much like Duggeh, resting lightly on the head with most of the support coming from the headband. The pads are basically there to keep the thing from sliding around all over the place, and they don't do the job very well. My ears are flush against the cloth mesh surrounding the drivers. It's not an uncomfortable fit per se. It's certainly not painful like the SR-001 can be. But, it's very loose and sloppy, and given how incredibly sensitive the H2 is to position on the head, it simply needs to have a tight, grippy, clampy fit that locks it securely into the position that it needs to be in. Otherwise, I forsee lots of disagreement in listening impressions based on the positioning alone. Of course, the flip side of that is that one fit may not necessarily work for all, and this is infinitely more adjustable. Still, it just doesn't have anywhere near the feel of a finished commercial product. The housing may not be any worse than the SR-404, but the SR-404's housing sucks. Balls. It's not exactly the best basis for comparison.

I'm exhausted beyond the capacity for rational thought, so bear with me here... I have just done some listening. I compared the H2 driven by my rubbish gear (Denon PRA-1500 pre, Onkyo M-504 160wpc arc welder and Monster cables) sourced from my trusty Rega Planet 2000 to my transportable rig - HD600 driven by the Hornet out of a MicroDAC, 1s and 0s coming from a Sony D-NE920's optical output. The H2 suffers from an uneven tonal balance. The highs are very crisped and very bright, the midrange seems to be recessed, and the bass seems to be somewhat overblown in the midbass and upper bass region. The HD600 is much more linear, though it doesn't extend as far in the bass or in the highs. However, I should point out that the M-504 is known for its toasty highs and general frequency response nastiness. The H2 seems to be lacking definition. I would compare listening to the H2 after listening to the HD600 to looking at a focused image, and then getting it out of focus. Everything is just blurred, and sonic images have a lot less definition. This is most evident in the midrange - vocals aren't localized with any kind of accuracy but sort of occupy a formless space at the center of the soundstage. At the same time, the soundstage is much bigger with the H2 than it is with the HD600. This is definitely not good news - if the HD600 is beating you in imaging, you have problems. But, I should also point out that the Onkyo amp is also known for collapsing the soundstage in a recording, and I'm guessing at least some of the imaging problems are caused by this. The H2 also seems to be lacking in dynamic range. Everything is either uniformly quiet or uniformly loud. It doesn't seem to be strained for power during loud build-ups and swells, but the difference between these build-ups and the quieter moments isn't as pronounced as it is on the HD600 rig. Everything on the HD600 just seems to have more power, and is a lot more vibrant. The presentation is vivid and alive, whereas the H2 seems somewhat squished. Tone and tembre seem to be handled well by the H2 in this rig, but texture isn't. This gives everything a sort of crystalline quality, quite pretty but also unrealistic. The HD600 is more accurate in this regard. At the same time, the H2 is definitely the faster transducer, and not by a small margin. This leads me to believe that the veiling/blurring effect that I hear is upstream, and not a product of the transducer itself. It is also more impactful, and much more extended in either direction. I also hear a rattle in the left driver during bass-heavy passages. I am not a low-volume listener, I like to crank it, and a lot of my music is very bass-heavy. So, if this persists, it will be a deal-breaker for me. I am hearing a great deal of potential here - if we could just focus the sound a bit more, give the headphones a much clearer and more resolving signal path, give it some more punch and dynamic range, and take care of the FR irregularities, we could have a seriously wonderful sounding rig. Specifically, it seems to me that the H2 should be capable of conveying incredible amounts of spatial information. In fact, with some recordings, even on this rig, it throws a truly incredible 3-d soundstage that is full of depth cues and nearly holographic imaging - but only with a select few recordings. Which, unfortunately, I can't find right now, so I have no clue if the HD600 would do it better. **** In terms of amping - I can't afford the BH at the new $4.5k price tag, so that's out of the question. The most I have for spending on an amp is $2k, and I want to put a K1000 rig together as well (and fast) so realistically it's more like $1k. At this price, I don't think I'm going to get anything stellar, so I might as well wait it out and see what comes of the direct-drive H2 amp project. But in the meanwhile, it would be great to find a nice tube integrated that can power the H2 as well as the K1k decently well. Hence my useless posts here If only I liked solid state more, I'd have more options. This looks tempting (Dared MP-15): That's not an amp, that's just pornography...