Dusty Chalk

Well, you knew this was going to happen didn't you? You start a thread like this, someone you like is bound to get listed. I'm with grawk on the Beatles and for the same reason, not because they're bad, but just because I've heard all the Beatles in my life that I will ever need to hear. Oh, and I don't think I've heard those albums in their entirety -- I mostly only know the Stones from the radio. I'll see if I can track them down (but knowing they're available on SACD makes me not want to settle for anything less, and I'm not sure I want to pay Japanese import prices without hearing them first).

Well, they do sell replacement pads for the W5000, maybe I'll give those a try if this doesn't work out.

He misses bass.

Great topic idea. I don't get Flaming Lips, I just don't. Bright Eyes -- yuppers, I agree there. I'm one of those people who likes Opeth and Dream Theater a lot. I suspect one of the differences is that I don't take the lead singer seriously in either case, and am listening to the rest of the band, while you are having a hard time getting over the lead singer. To the point where I'm used to both of them by now, and, like Robert Smith, can't imagine anyone else singing their songs. Rolling Stones -- a couple good songs, but they should not have been anywhere near as huge as they are/were. Shattered just goes nowhere, for example. U2 -- well, that's not really fair, I saw them live around the time of Under a Blood Red Sky, and (a) they were nowhere near as good as they were on that live record, and ( they annoyed the shit out of me by telling everyone else in the stadium to ignore security and come on down to the front, despite my desires to the contrary, just to feed their (his?) ego(s). And Rattle and Hum just sucked -- it, to me was like their Coda (Led Zeppelin) -- just a mishmash of stuff thrown together hastily. But it's hard to fault Achtung Baby. Mahler -- I don't like him as much as I should -- I love bombast, usually. How can you not like Portishead? I've got two words for you: Moody Atmosphere. See the live DVD if you can, you may appreciate them a bit more. Or not -- I am one of those people who says, "don't force yourself" if we end up disagreeing on something, if the fact that I like them makes you doublethink for yourself whether or not you like them. I love "Roads" (in fact, now that I think about it, I'll have to put it on Sad Vol. 2). Grateful Dead -- I love jamming, why the hell don't I like Grateful Dead? I've only heard one song by them that I like ("estimated prophet"). Wilco -- just boring, from what I've heard.

Dude, it works out to like $2.50/disk.

I'm pretty sure I'm not communicating with Kohn: I've already implied to them that I won't order any more limited headphones if this is how they show support to their customers (yes, I bought my A100Ti from them). I've already responded to this, explaining to them that Kohn already responded as recently as March that this was do-able, I was just verifying before I did it (my bad for not getting around to it right then and there) (and actually, I was going to go ahead and just do it, and then show them the email after the fact, but I didn't want them to get the order wrong, so I wanted to put it in the front of their minds, so that when they actually got the order, the chances of it registering would go up just a little bit). I also explained to them that the W2002 is also discontinued, and yet they still sell the pads for that. Grrr...Pfff...(whine)...Lppp...

Awesome, so maybe dropping Kohn's name will be sufficient...hopefully. I'll wait until they respond. Yeah, Kohn has always treated me well, too. I think I was one of the first people to buy from him (other than the truly early adopters, such as Hirsch). So...Elephas...or anyone else who has a large AT collection...I've noticed that the L3000's, W100's, W2002's, and the W1000's have similar size enclosures (I.E. all smaller than the A100Ti) -- any of them have larger enclosures? I know the A100Ti does, do any of the others? I'm looking for possible substitutions, just in case Kohn doesn't come through.

So...in anticipation of my newly arriving A950LTD, I broke out my A100Ti's. Their pads were shot, and I'm not getting the response I want from audiocubes, and I haven't heard from Alex (has anyone?), so I broke out some of my others. W1000/W100 -- too small; L3000 -- too small; W2002...nope, sold those. Dang! What am I supposed to do? (spots Sony CD3000's) Those look like they might fit. Alright, so they're a little too big, but that just makes them easier to put on. Wow, I forgot how good these sound when adequately amped (I had been using them straight out of my M-Audio Sonica). And putting on these oversized pads give them a slightly distant (3rd row back distant, nothing reverberant) Sennheisery sound. I like these! I may have to get another pair of CD3000 pads or another. The bass will not appeal to the L3000/PS-1/DT770 crowd, but then again, nothing short of speakers or a subwoofer will. And the prat is...well, the L3000 is the king of prat. But these are a bit better than the overly smoov CD3000's. Not inherently exciting headphones -- I am tempted to turn up the headphones, but I am similarly tempted with the HP-2's, so I don't. So anyway, I'm still looking for pads for these -- anyone know of any sources? I'm still waiting to hear back from audiocubes, but if they insist on not getting them for me, I'm not going to force them to take my money. Also, how would one go about getting pads for the CD3000's? Sony?

Just: and "I would have a hard time passing up a deal like this", too, if tomorrow's paycheck wasn't already pre-spent.

You got the ones you were talking about in that other thread? Good on you (I probably should have responded that I'm thinking ahead, and not in a situation to be buying those right now).

ph0rk and boomana -- exactly. A wiki would solve the reference aspect that Tyll describes, but wouldn't solve the "knows just enough to be dangerous" types. I mean, let's say I were just starting out -- I happen to know that my tastes differ from others, and I know what's important to me, and what's not -- is a wiki going to be able to tell me what has the most straightforward frequency response, the best prat, handles busy music well, but I couldn't care less about soundstaging and imaging? No, only if someone else who cares about those same things happens to post those same things. I'm going to have to ask someone more experienced about that. Hey, look, they talk a lot in this "head-fi" forum, I'll just go in there, pour a cold one, and chat with the locals. The funny thing is, it works in real life, too. Haven't you ever just chatted someone up, just because they seem to know a thing or two in your topic area -- say, standing in line waiting for concert tickets ("dude, you should totally check them out, they sound exactly like Gabriel-era Genesis")? Or responded to a conversation to which you were a stranger ("I forget whether it was the Moody Blues or Pink Floyd...I need to find out, because I was told I really need to hear the rest of the album")? So...why not? Other than it annoys the locals. But the people who run the tourist traps like tourists. So...there ya go.

Anyone live in New York? I need someone to go to Barney's for me...

Oh, they know how to use it alright, they just don't. They prefer to start their own personal thread about it.

Uh, no -- first of all, we don't all agree on that. Secondly, n00bs are called that because they are new to the forum -- of course they don't know yet, they just started researching the topic.

Slightly -- I think Stereophile rated the A3^CR as somewhere between Class A and Class B (their rankings), and the A3.2 was solidly Class A. I think the sentence I remember (from the Recommended Components?) was something like "the a3.2 fixed that which the A3^CR didn't quite get right". I think they still recommended an outboard phono preamp in either case -- that qualification stood, but the line-level preamp functionality was considered (a3.2) reference quality, and (a3^cr) almost reference quality. Thin? Struggling? I guess. When I heard it on my system (went from a Jolida JD102b tubed integrated to A3^CR solid-state separate pre and power), it was more like overkill -- trying to shove more water into a tube than it was capable of (speakers were Spendor S3/5's). The only struggling I heard was the speaker not to explode.

That's what I figured, not a problem. Yeah, not exactly their best high-end preamp. I used to own that one, and it was really good, certainly better than anything I had owned up until that time. But in hindsight, it lacked subtlety compared to many other high-end amps. I hear that everything from the A3.2 and after, excluding the A5/A3 split, is supposed to be better, but I've only briefly heard the A308, myself, so that's hearsay. (The A308 is certainly very good, and if I see one at a reasonable price, I'll probably get one for my Dynaudio system...except that I'm selling the Dynaudios, so maybe I should rethink that...)

I don't know -- I'd be hesitant if I were you. I mean, I agree that they were not the best sources/amps that you tried them out on, but the infamous Sennheiser house sound ("laid back") was there -- that may have been what you disliked. Though, at US$120 -- you could probably flip them if you still didn't like them for minimal financial loss to you.

Yeah, that's the way I took it. And Nate -- I'm only defending him, because sometimes my posting style is similar -- I give extensive impressions from what is actually very little data (or perhaps data from a very specific set of circumstances and/or upwind gear), so I feel obliged to qualify them at the end of my post. It doesn't render the entire post moot, it just establishes context.

I need a preamp. I'm thinking Conrad Johnson, any other recommendations? Are any of the entry level Conrad Johnson tubed preamps particularly good values? They seem to range in price, used.

It doesn't exist. He still needs it. And yeah, in the context of sig, it could be construed as a patch one wears, such as the nicotine patch, but I think it's intended as a patch as in patching a hole or patching something with a bug. Either way, I think it applies. And neither one exists. Alas.

See sig.

Thanks everyone -- I have my moments. -10 reading comprehension points -- did you even read the fucking thread? There is no place in the profile for one's gear. You need the patch.

I never saw the pics, and I never did get an answer to my Musical Fidelity preamp question (I.E. which one). Where were they hosted? Are they still there? Because I do have some places like imagevenue or imageshack or something like that blocked at work (especially ones that have a large amount of NSFW images, even if that's not how they're always used).

That's not entirely fair. I mean, suppose I were shopping for a car, and by some miraculous dip in snobbery, someone offered me a F1 GTR (or whatever it's called) to test drive. L yeah, I'd drive it as fast as I could, but without driving it on a test track, that "as fast as I could" would be a measly 65 miles per hour legally. I'd be underwhelmed with the amount of trunk space, and conclude that I did not like the car. You could come back and say, "Well, you certainly didn't determine what it was capable of", but I think my real-world test drive was perfectly indicative of the future driving habits I would have in that car. I would say that my conclusion in this hypothetical situation would be valid, neh? Back to the amp analogy, if that's what he's going to feed the thing, then that's what he should test it out on. And it's not like he didn't tell us.

But we'd have to have at least one discussion as to whether or not any of these make any difference whatsoever. Perhaps Wilson?