morphsci

x3. It seems to have missed the boat by a few years.

Buon Compleanno! Dino.

Yeah KG's statement was quite interesting to me. Listening to the HD800 out of either the Headroom Balanced Ultra-Desktop or the Millett 307A, I definitely preferred the sound out of the Headroom amp. Then the Balancing Act threw a monkey in the wrench. Even though it is a 307A based amp, I preferred it to either of the other amps. So right now the inductive nature may certainly be a factor, but I do not think it is the whole story. It lets you hear your upstream gear very clearly and some people like that while others may find it "disturbing" depending on what that upstream gear is actually doing to the music. P.S. It's the HR desktop portable 2007 (latest) version.

Steve Earle - Townes (Deluxe Edition)

Well my GS-X arrived home today from its trip to CanJam (seems to be less wear on the amp from the trip than on me). The relevant point for this thread is that along with the amp was another box with a D100 for a nice in-home demo.

Sharon Isbin - Journey to the New World

Very, very nice. My MS-Pro's are weeping.

Fine by me.

FTFY

Welcome Wayne, don't forget to duck.

The buffalo board is in back right. Just left of it is a 4:1 MUX SPDIF board for switching between digital inputs. In front of those two boards are two LCBPS and one LCDPS board. Then the three trannies, all 15VA load, 2 with 15+15V secondaries (for the LCBPS's) and one with 9+9 V secondaries (for the LCDPS). On the back panel is the small toslink input board and underneath he is using the board from an M-audio transit for USB input. The black box is a relay for the power switch. That's about $900 and then there is the casework and connectors plus I probably missed a few other pieces/parts so $1000 is pretty minimal. $1200 - $1500 is not an unreasonable cost estimate. I'm not sure what you mean by the reclocking board as the ESS chip does the reclocking. Oh and it is even more impressive seeing it in person. I can only aspire to such build quality.

I haven't enjoyed hanging with a group of crazies this much in a long time. Thanks to everyone and you are more than welcome, Pete and Dan.

Very Nice DOTU. As for me: One LA Superstar T-shirt, childrens small One Schleich Spinosaurus One Schleich Triceratops One Ty SpongeBob One Ty Patrick One pair of Grado flat pads

Well they have been transmitted, just not yet in this universe.

But that's the beauty, the negative time smearing cancels out the positive time smearing and there you have it, no time smearing.

I prefer the Ultra-Moar Black, GS (gravitational singularity) cable. A truly awesome cable, absolutely no time smearing as the bits actually arrive before they leave.

Wow what a thoroughly great and exhausting weekend. This was a superbly organized event and the California crew (jpnums, 909, Iron_dreamer, LFF, augsburger, Jasper994 and Edwood) did a great job and always went the extra mile to make sure everyone had a great time. Still, the best thing was meeting everyone. It was truly amazing but all the HCers that I met for the first time were exactly like their online persona's, goes to show you the value of open discussion. I apologize for not saying so long to everyone on Sunday evening. But in my defense, it was 2:30 AM, I was a slow walking zombie, I did have to leave for the airport at 4:30 AM. I'll buy you all a round next year (or sooner) to make up for it. I think these have now been retitled, "The Basement Talks".

Not gonna happen with those mercury vapor tubes for many, many reasons.

Audeze Planars Also listened to the Head-direct planars side-by-side using the Headamp GS-X and Neko Audio DAC. I slightly prefered the Audeze on sound alone and with price factored in (Audeze: $350-$4000; Head-Direct: $700-1000). Remember, however, that both of these are prototypes. The first 25 Audeze units will look like the above, using the off-the-shelf housing. The housing limits the driver and I was told they will also sell the drivers, but pricing was indeterminate. If you angle the drivers so the front is closer to the skull than the back (Hopefully not using a ) the sound improves and IMO that is the direction they need to go with these. I listened to Frank's electrostatic amp with my O2's and it handled them like a champ, plus the Mercury vapor tube glow is just cool as shit.

Wow, great impressions already, so will just add a little. First off, the biggest surprise for me has been the hf-2's and the Audeze planar (I will attempt to get pictures today). The hf-2 is remarkably good, as long as you like the Grado sound. Sounds to me most like a mini PS-1, with reduced bass. That is a plus in my book as the PS-1 has always been too bass heavy for my tastes. The real shocker has been the Audeze planars. These are very fast, clear phones with a great frequency balance. They may lack a little low-end weight but that is definitely IMO. A big chunk of that comparison was using them on a Gilmore lite fed from the Spectral 2000 DAC and a PCDP transport. I compared them to an O2/BHSE using the same source, so not a liteweight comparison. The Audeze kept up in clarity and speed, but not in midrange smoothness or bass extension (WooHoo big surprise with the price differential). At $350 - $400 dollars, this phone is a steal. I will try to get a listen to it on the GS-X/Neko Audio D100 rig today. Which brings me to the Neko Audio D100. This is the real deal. Listened out of the GS-x on my K340's with a Macbook feeding it via optical output. Very smooth and clear with a variety of genres (rock, classical, jazz). Definitely to my tastes as it, like the GS-x simply gets out of the way so you can hear the recording in all its glory or with all of its faults, but the it does not accentuate the faults in the recordings. It lets you hear them but doesn't throw them in your face. I want to go back and listen to the Audeze planars on this rig. The HD-800's were awesome on both Al's Luxman and the Headroom BUDA. Others have given good impressions. IMO the impressions vary because this phone lets you hear the upstream components in all their glory (or not). Very electrostatic like speed but you have the advantage of dynamics of dynamics. Can't really say much more without more listening time to see how the electronics are influencing any other specifics. It looks like I will own this but I'm definitely going to let the dust settle first. OK I need to go eat something and drink at least a gallon of coffee ... I guess I need to look for Billy.

Excellent, an ugly car that's always in the shop.

I have to agree with Nate, I have put in about $700+ in parts and I do not have any casework, USB input or controller/display pieces/parts yet. Unless someone grossly undervalues their labor it may be hard to find someone to build one for you for that price. That being said, this thing has an astounding level of flexibility and potential from my rather simplistic viewpoint.

Old news. The actual story is from last August. It was rumored after the Sabre32 was announced that the MCD500 may be updated with the new chip and supporting silicon. It is still unclear, at least to me, if the current MCD500's are using the new or old ESS chips.