Long Way Around

I thought Sony already cornered that market - otherwise I can't imagine why they would brag about frequency response of up to 100khz! https://www.sony.com.au/electronics/headband-headphones/mdr-z7m2

If you don't mind the weight, the LCD-XC is easily the best closed-back I ever owned. The carbon fibre headband helps.

I thought the idea that a fancy external clock would have any impact on simple DAC playback has been thoroughly debunked by now. I guess dcs decided it's been long enough and current generation of cashed-up audiofools can't care less about actual sound. Hard to argue I suppose.

Not sure if this is the right forum for this, as it's not a source component... but then again it doesn't really fit anywhere else. I'm sure you know Jan Meier and his work. He just released an interesting new product, which - if anything - is certainly innovative. An external DSP box for headphones and speakers, with digital ins and outs, and an analog section with headphone and line outputs. All controls happen with physical buttons but on the digital realm, with an EQ, crossfeed (as expected), and then a number of more unique features I haven't come across before. More details here. I've been following the development of it via his newsletter, it's been years in the making. Nice to see it come out, and nice to see some innovation in the field. http://www.meier-audio.homepage.t-online.de/country.html

Personally, I always thought that this issue is overblown. Below is a chart of normal hearing loss with age, shown as hearing threshold db per freq per age group, for men and women. There are many versions of this same chart floating around, this particular one was recently reproduced in a Lancet article. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanwpc/article/PIIS2666-6065(21)00040-7/fulltext We know that the magic in music happens in the midrange. Sure, there is spatial information in the high frequencies etc, but honestly, we can all change eq settings / equipment / listening levels as our hearing shifts with age. When we are first exposed to music that we fall in love with, in our teens and younger years, it's not because we can hear what's going on at 15khz. Or even 8. We often listen with crappy speakers and headphones in those ages anyway. Is it unfortunate that we can often afford more gear as we get older and our hearing gets crappier? maybe. But all of the riffs, melodies, lines, and even harmonies I love listening to should still remain well audible in my older ages.

I'm seeing less and less "JR Audio" but more and more similar looking "Felista Audio" amps being flogged on facebook. Here's a Blue Hawaii build that they are sharing - of course, no photos of the inside. I'm fairly certain that Felista and JR are one and the same (or a very similar enterprise), but I wonder if anyone can confirm or deny that?

Too much hipster appeal to fail... for now.

Who really needs this? This was tried for over-ear headphones already, by Aiaiai. Didn't particularly take the audio world by storm.

Thank you for exposing those crooks. They always advertise their wares on a couple of facebook groups I'm on. I might start circulating a link to this page.

Is the model name to indicate that it's 1,000 times better than the 009? If that's the case, then the price is a total bargain! Otherwise it would have looked as if their pricing is further and further detached from reality.... imagine that!

OK. Working back on how I aquired this piece of knowledge, I suspect I've read this once about the ESP900, from which I assumed that all headphones used in MRIs are electrostatic, which was reinforced the one time I had MRI and I indeed was given headphones. Though I now realise it was a headphone connected to those tubes, essentially. Audio hobbyist logic in action!! 😛

The other planar-specialising brands that had their go at estats (Dan Clarke, HFM) have placed the bar rather low... and the prices of some headphones seem to be almost random at this point. Looking forward to spritzer's review. Also, I'm not sure what's the medical enginuity part - aren't all headsets used in MRI essentially estats, because of the magnets involved? isn't that a decades old tech by now?

Finally have one on order - looking forward to it! the L700 has been dominating my head for a good 6 months or so, and made me gradually stop listening to my non-electrostats. Will be neat to have a different type of stat to complement the 700.

Not sure if anyone is following the rolling controversy with Abyss, but this article sums up the main parts. It's quite the read. https://www.headphonesty.com/2021/01/the-abyss-headphones-crinkly-controversy/

I recently picked up its lower grade sibling, nicely restored, from a local dealer and fixer, to add a tape deck to my system. I did buy it more for its looks than its sound... but who can blame me for that?