Akathisia

QWOP is seriously the hardest shit I have ever tried.

Update - I picked up the STAX that John posted above, and I am finally getting to listen to it now. Obviously it will not be going with me on my deployment, but I am extremely happy I finally joined the 'stat gang. I just finished the Inception soundtrack and now I'm listening to Karajan's Symphony no.9 and am in disbelief. My source is embarrassingly lacking right now - went to find a DVD player I thought I had stashed to use until I picked up a DAC, but I brain dumped that I gave it away. So I'm using the headphone jack directly into the SRM-1/Mk2 which is probably blasphemy, but plan on picking up a budget DAC without delay (Pico DAC or something else around that price range). Thanks for all the help both in this thread and the chat, Alex

Can someone recommend a good U.S. source for the cloth pads? I am looking to replace the rotten foam on my new to me Lambda Pros. A quick google search only returns Audiocubes II, and I have never ordered through them/don't know of their reputation.

Yeah, the Stax would definitely be more for home. I'm starting to think I may just take my KSC75 (or pick up some 35s and try those) for my deployment.

Alright guys - thanks to everyone that posted in this thread and helped me out in chat... But there has been a turn of events, would anyone care to comment on the worthiness of me buying this little setup : Audiogon SRM-T1/Lambda Pro I have wanted to get into STAX for a while now, and this is well within my budget - just not sure on the details of what to expect.

I didn't even know JH Audio existed. It's been a while. I am an Air Traffic Controller in the USAF (so my hearing probably shot anyway), and I wear a custom/molded earpiece in my right ear all day and I really don't want to relax with them in my ears. I should clarify a bit, now that I'm awake. The portability of the cans is not a necessity - I won't be wearing them outside of whatever my living situation will be downrange. It's really just the source/dac/amp/whatever else that will have to be portable, as I'm going to have a bunch of people living in the same room. Isolation should not be complete (I need to hear mortar attacks and alarms), but I can't have too much sound bleeding out of the cans since everyone sleeps on different schedules downrange. I most likely will be listening at reasonable volumes while I am there, for the situational awareness reasons listed above, but since my government sponsored vacation is of unknown duration (could be two months, could be six or more), I want to have something that I can build on when I get home. And to grawk - I have an iPhone 3GS, and will probably upgrade to a 4 before I deploy - is the sound quality inferior to a current generation iPod? Here's a little USAF ATC cocksmanship for you guys :

Well hello Head-Cases. It's been quite a while since I've been in the audio scene, and this post probably belongs with much of the other unread drivel "what should I buy with $XXX" posts on another forum... but I like you guys much better. I am getting ready to go to one of the sandy places America is currently occupying, and I'm wanting to build a somewhat portable rig to take with me. My sources at home are mediocre at best (budget turntable, laptop, iPhone), and with the exception of vinyl, I am not sure what I am going to take with me. My ears have been battered to death by car stereos and some Polk Audio home speakers, so I don't need the best - just looking to get my feet wet again. My budget is around $500 per component - I'll do a home rig as long as it can be made somewhat portable (home amp/dac, portable amp/dac, headphones that will work with both). I still hope to someday get into STAX for home use, but I think that my be a bit much to pack... I appreciate the help in advance, I wish I had more time to be active on forums and didn't have to ask questions like this. ~Alex

Ate some In-and-Out earlier. Delish.

Ettan l

Muse "Origin of Symmetry"

Not bad at only $20, and he takes custom orders.

Thanks to the OP for the link. It seems the sale will go through July 1st, so I may have to shop for an SACD player before I place an order.

Woke up with hangover, ate a panini and soup, laid around, drank good beer over at Dad's and ate burgers, watched a bad movie, currently listening to great music Great Saturday.

So I'd like to get a small desktop amp to power my SR-44 setup from my laptop and I was wondering what other options aside from a T-Amp might be out there? Budget (Sub $100 would be preferable) or something along the lines of the Starving Student Millet for speakers would be awesome if such a thing exists.

I've decided to just keep them. They were the right price and they are really mint. I found a thread over at HF with instructions on how to test the energizer and headphones, so I may do that as well. Spritzer, I read you always ground out the pins on your sets. Could you please explain what you do and the reasoning behind it ?

Has anyone here actually had a driver die on a set that had a channel imbalance? I'm tempted to just keep them and enjoy them until death do us part... And then upgrade

Oh man that really blows So is it just a steady decline to dead driversville from here? Or can I expect years of the same imbalance? I'll contact the seller...

With the sectioned aluminum legs, plain switches and front portholes it makes me think of steampunk.

Congratulations on the beautiful looking (and hopefully equal SQ) amp. If I ever do a worthy DIY build, I will go for this sort of steampunk look that I love so much.

I would resize those images but I fail at the internet

Well I finally got to spend a reasonable amount of time with my new Stax SR-44 set. Bear in mind my only speaker amp is a 2 channel Technics home theater receiver fed by a Pioneer DVD player, so I'm not sporting anything special before the electrets. First thing, these arrived in incredible condition physically. Both the SR-40 headphone and SRD-4 adaptor are in flawless condition. Leather earpads and headband look unused, cable is soft and perfect with the little white markings perfectly intact. Aside from a tiny mark on the left grille, they seem to have been frozen in time since their production date (between 1975 and '80?). This set has a bit of channel imbalance favoring the left driver, which I can correct with the balance knob, but a downer nonetheless. For sound quality, the bass is pretty rolled off and lacking punchiness, but it is still there and what is there is plenty tight. For mids and treble these are the best headphones I have yet to hear, every instrument is more separated and crisp than I've experienced. The upper extreme end of the highs may be rolled, or maybe I am just sensitive to harsh highs (MS-1's are harsh and fatiguing to my ears), but it is fine with me. The biggest thing is the separation, I can easily pinpoint every sound in space and nothing pushes anything else out of the way. Very quiet sounds come on earlier in recordings than I was previously aware and new things are jumping out at me. I guess I have never heard anything decent before These headphones do not like metal, or at least I think it sounds like shit on them. It's probably the rolled off bass but heavily distorted/saturated guitars pretty much sound like total ass with these, and some of the poor recording quality makes everything sound very congested. Well overall I'm really happy with the purchase and would like to build a budget setup to use these with my laptop. I definitely want to move up to one of Stax's more recent offerings in hopes that the positive attributes of the SR-44 will stick around with a little more bass depth. Sorry for the poor audio writing skills, Stereophile writers can sleep safe with me around for sure.

Just got my first taste of Stax from the FedEx guy yesterday, an SR-44 electret combo. Only had a brief minute to listen yesterday Pics and impressions to follow if anyone is interested.

I went ahead and gave this a try. If any of the drugs listed make you go deaf, or die from boredom, then these could work

3 tubez and 2 knobz. 5 channelz. duh.