aerius

I can't say I'm surprised by the report of lackluster sound. A 2-chassis 300B amp with output transformers as well is going to be severely compromised somewhere, and that somewhere is going to be the circuit design and sound. I can't say I'm surprised that it sounds just like every other under-driven 6SN7 300B amp. BUT HEY EVERYBODY LOOK AT THE FUCKING BEAUTIFUL CHASSIS WITH SEPARATE POWER SUPPLY!!!!

I'd actually go for the Nottingham Anna Log. I've heard the Dais which is one model down from the Anna Log and it is freakin' amazing.

Honestly now, does it look like I give a shit about looks?

I'm torn between complete indifference and couldn't care less. Whoopdedo, another 6SN7 300B amp, to go with the other 10,000 6SN7 300B amps. Give me something different like the Wavelength Audio designs, which use fun tubes like the 6C45Pi and WE437A to drive the 300B.

No, it needs MORE COWBELL!!!

You could always sell one of your kidneys. I've heard that some places will also pay you for a partial liver donation, and unlike your kidney, your liver will grow back after they cut a chunk off it.

In your case the K340 is the woman you married.

My GF's sister read about 20-30 pages before giving up in disgust and returning the book to the library.

As many Head-fiers know, digital is digital and bits is bits, and every CD player and DAC sounds the same anyway as long as it's not broken. Therefore the comparison was totally fair.

To me the HP-2 and PS-1 are very different, other than being metal, hideously expensive, made by Grado, and having a similar soundstage and high level of detail & resolution, there's not too much in common. I think the best way is to use an analogy. The HP-2 is a sexy hot chick, but she's a perfectionist temperamental bitch and if you accidentally do one tiny thing wrong she flips out, calls you stupid, gives you the cold shoulder and refuses to sleep with you. The PS-1 is a sexy cute chick, you can goof with her and make fart jokes and she'll laugh with you and give you a great time in bed.

BUT IT PLUGS INTO IPOD!!!

Because it's small and it's cute, and HOLY SHIT IT PLUGS INTO AN IPOD!!!!!

Or when you're searching the 'net for schematics of the gear before you even buy it. "No, I do not want yet another 300B amp using a 6SL7 input with a 6SN7 cathode follower!"

I've run into a few more since the meet, I still haven't heard a properly working one and frankly I'm not holding my breath.

I wouldn't touch either one of them, the build quality and QC on those cheap Chinese amps is pure utter shit, as of now I've run across more than a dozen of them at meets and so forth, there's maybe 3 or 4 which worked properly. The rest had crapped out pots, linear instead of log pots, massive hum, massive channel imbalances, and a bunch of other problems. The working ones, well, frankly I wasn't impressed by the sound at all, just the usual mushy bloated tubey crap. To me they're pretty much worthless unless you want to gut the entire amp and use the case to build your own project.

I need the fine control of a standard pot, or failing that a stepped attenuator with somewhere between 70-100+ steps. Unfortunately, SA's with that many steps are rather large and ludicrously expensive.

I'd still urge you to try the Living Voice Avatar, to me anyway they're a lot closer to Quads than anything else. Though they have a warmer tonal balance, the one thing they both share is an incredible clariity and freedom from colouration, especially in the midrange. Going from the Avatars to most other speakers and you notice all the colourations & distortions which you never really noticed before, I was pretty shocked at how unclear most speakers sound.

Go vinyl and ditch the DAC!

Ok, this is bad. I've been listening to ABBA records for the last 2 hours. I'm not sure what's worse, the fact that I have well over 2 hours worth of ABBA records or the fact that I'm on an ABBA listening binge.

I bought an 872A MV rectifier from the local surplus shop a couple months ago just because. I can't even fire it up to see the pretty glow but it was just so cool I had to have one.

Personally I prefer TV damper diodes such as the 12D4 or the 6CM3 if you need more power. I'd go with mercury & other gas vapour rectifiers only if I needed massive amounts of current which likely ain't gonna happen in a headphone amp. A couple 6CM3's will power both channels of a typical 300B SET amp, unless your amp uses more power than that or you just like the pretty glow, I don't see a reason to use gas vapour rectifiers.

The sad part is this is what Head-fi has come down to for some time now.

Don't drop it. If it breaks you have an instant hazardous waste zone.

Well, given that I haven't found any reviewers in magazines and on the web who I share opinions with, it's not surprising that I'm disagreeing with pretty much all of them. And of course a lot of people disagree with my opinions. The mags all say the Dynaudio Audience 72SE is a great speaker, I think it's among the worst sounding pieces of shit I've ever heard, go figure. With that said the Adagio is undoubtedly a good speaker for its price, I'd take it over a B&W, Dynaudio, Sonus Faber or any other mainstream speaker anywhere close to its price range. However, it's nowhere close to the perfection which reviewers claim, it's not the 2nd coming of Christ or the be all end all of $4-8k speakers. I don't have to nit-pick it to find issues (ie. it could use another 2Hz of bass extension) like I have to with the Living Voice Avatar or OBX-R. Still, having heard both the Quad 57 & 63, I feel the Adagio is going to be a letdown, then again, almost everything is.

A pictorial tour of a dildo factory. I've always wondered how they made those rubber penises.