aerius

Yeah, we'd never have a crass popularity contest on Postjack's forum, it just wouldn't happen.

Given that Benazir Bhutto got whacked in Pakistan, and food rations getting cut in half in Iraq, world peace ain't happening unless things go nuclear in the South Asian area, followed by China, Russia, and the rest of the world joining in and emptying out all their doses of instant sunrise. That will of course be the case of "they made a desert, and called it peace".

I probably missed it somewhere and can't find it, but which amp are you using?

I don't think it's really worth it, the P3 is better but I'd rather save up and get something that's a few levels up like the Pro-Ject RM9 or RPM10. Taking little baby steps doesn't make much sense to me, if you're going to upgrade, make it a big clear upgrade. To use an example, why go from a Grado SR60 to an SR80 when you can save up a bit and make the jump to a 325 or RS-1? With small upgrades you're often left wondering "is this really better? is it really worth it?" while if you take a big step up it's more like "holy shit this sounds awesome!" and you don't really give a fuck about how much money you spent.

There's a couple things which ring warning bells, 12AU7 tubes and the fact that they're biased so low that they'll last nearly forever. The 12AU7 isn't a particularly linear tube to begin with (diyAudio members really dislike the damn thing) and running it such that it's barely on is going to make things even worse.

Some minor changes to my K340 amp and fine-tuning of my K340. Got an RS-1 and built a tube amp for it, currently working on a better tube amp. Picked up my parents' Dual 721 turntable since they're not using it anymore, and plugged it into an old Technics receiver which had been gathering dust in my storage area. I was going to sell my Senn 580's, but they actually sound pretty good with this rig so I'm holding on to them. Added "electron pools" to my CD player and headphone amps. I still can't believe it works.

I held off on commenting since I wanted to go hear a couple of the players for myself, namely the Supernova and AR CD7. The Supernova is pretty much as you described, it's similar in sound to the discontinued Simaudio Eclipse but with a larger more filling soundstage. Lots of detail & resolution, but the tone & balance is a little too bright for me, I prefer the fuller richer sound of the flagship Andromeda. If I were to take a guess, I'd say that Simaudio is targeting the Supernova towards those who like solidstate sound while the Andromeda is more for the tube guys. The CD7 was a little hard to get a handle on since it doesn't really do anything, it basically has no sound and upon first impression it's a little bland, kinda reminds me of the Grado HP-2. Frequency response is dead flat from top to bottom, the soundstage is basically whatever's on the CD, it realistically portrays small spaces, big spaces, and everything in between. Like the HP-2, it's great at doing the initial transients, but tends to sound a bit lean and dry on the body & decays of the notes. For instance, "Sweet Child 'O Mine" sounds a bit too much like a thin 80's recording even though all the details are there, it just doesn't have the fullness to really make it sound good. The resolution's great, the soundstage & imaging is good and so the frequency response, but the damn thing is just too lean & dry sounding to me, especially in the midbass and midrange. Drums & bass don't sound big & full as well as being a bit lacking in weight & impact. The initial transient is there, but there's not enough follow through "whoomp!" For music which is mixed with too much warmth & bass, the CD7 sounds great, but with recordings which are pretty much dead neutral it's too bland sounding, and with less than excellent recordings it's just no damn fun at all to listen to. As a rough guess, I'd say a good 80% of my CDs would be a pain to listen to with the CD7, so despite all its technical merits it would be off my list real fast. It just doesn't do anything for me.

Flat out impossible. To produce a current, you need dissimilar metals in an electrolyte. A USB jack is all one metal, there will be no electron flow, thus no current. Even if there were dissimilar metals in the jack, there isn't anywhere close to enough surface area to create any significant current. In other words, it's a fake.

I just saw it on the news. The music world has lost another legend.

A problem which is easily remedied with generous servings of alcohol.

http://www.damasteel.com/ Michael Walker is the US distributor, comes in many sizes and patterns.

I think Salt Peanuts summed it up, Ori doesn't really know the Zapfilter and yet he claims his design is better. That should raise a few red flags. Then there's this: This just sounds fishy, it implies the DC servo is bumping up or otherwise influencing the low bass, and if that's the case then something ain't right.

My personal preference is live Jimi Hendrix albums where he does long improvised guitar parts, I find it helps pass the time since there's little regular repeating melody so it's kinda like one big trip, figuratively speaking. Pink Floyd, along with Emerson, Lake & Palmer also work well, but I always end up going back to live Hendrix and Zeppelin.

Tubes are so last year, or actually, last century. Mankind invented transistors for a reason. You gotta get with the program! In all seriousness now, congrats on the new amp!

It's called "cut a hole in a sheet of plywood".

It worked for the Raptor, I can't see why it wouldn't work for the rest of his products.

It's a hybrid. No way in hell you can get 13W from 12AX7 & 12AU7 tubes unless there's at least a dozen of them. 12AX7 gain stage, 12AU7 drivers, MOSFET output. Really not enthused with the tube choices, but that's just me.

The button theory is bogus, at least as far as my Grado 225 is concerned. I've pulled the button off, put it back on, and now taken it off again and the differences are so damn small that I might as well be imagining them. The highs are completely unaffected, the only change I can sort of pick up is that the headphones "disappear" a bit better and don't have as much of the drivers on the ear sound.

I don't. I've heard HF-1 and 225 drivers stuffed into various other enclosures. The tonal balance can change as can the soundstage, but the resolution barely budges. A 225 driver isn't going to have the resolution & low level detail retrieval of an RS-1 no matter what kind of enclosure it gets stuffed into.

In any case Billy's point remains, the HF-1 is more like the 225 than any other Gardo, so the RS-1 upgrade path is the one which makes the most sense. Grado may say the HF-1 doesn't use a 225 based driver or whatever, but bottom line is it pretty much sounds like a warmer 225 with a better soundstage and smoother highs.

Already posted...

Interesting, since his SACD vs. CD observations are exactly what I've encountered. The SACD has better resolution but the damn thing has the tone of a K701 in that it flattens out and desaturates everything. It sounds "hifi-ish", not real.

Dulcets have issues, way too coloured and do bad things to acoustic guitars, MM deCapos are nice but I'd rather save up for Living Voice Avatars. The carbon driver in the deCapo can get a little wonky if pushed, and bass just doesn't have enough weight & dynamics. Haven't heard the rest of their lineup yet.

We're supposed to get something like a foot of snow by tomorrow evening. I'm betting we'll be lucky to get 3-4 inches, Toronto for some reason never gets snow. We're basically in a snow shadow, go half an hour from Toronto in any direction and there's 1-2 feet of snow while in Toronto we get a light dusting that can be swept off with a broom. Very disappointing.

Since when have Bush and his Republican fuckheads given a fuck about the Constitution?