n_maher

I was more referring to if you had an amp from another man'f that used that tube he might not be the best place to get them from. I tried to order parts from him once, after several attempts I gave up. I want to be clear though, I can easily understand how selling parts to another builder would be a seriously low priority for him and that I chose not to pursue it, it's not like he refused.

I didn't see a dot on the W5000s that I tried in NYC, but it's possible I missed it on those as well. Just ran through some of the pics on the site, see the red dot now, all set.

Given his response times he'd be the last place I'd want to look for tubes.

Pardon the potentially dumb question but how do you tell which XLR is right and which is left on Alex's cables? I suppose it's easy enough to plug and find out but I always thought it just a bit odd that he doesn't appear to use an identifier.

That would directly contradict at least one source I read, specifically Vacuum Tube Valley.

Todd, Based on what I read on a couple of tube sites the 6528 was considered pretty rare and is not currently produced by anyone but I hear what you're saying, you can find them pretty easily right now. I know of at least one manufacturer who was considering using them in a new design and abandoned them after their initial research on availability. As far as the PS is concerned with each heater drawing around 5A it'll take more than just a little planning to keep it running cool.

The caps are there to remove DC from the signal going to the driver, but they don't at all limit the AC voltage or the current so I'm guessing this is probably what killed pj's RS-1s, not a DC spike. But I'm applying what is rather limited knowledge of this stuff so bear that in mind.

Lee, You don't have to build it, you can usually find DIY amps for sale used or your can commission someone to build one for you.

I've heard too many stories of Paypal siding with the buyer (go read about the engagement ring that got stolen on Head-Fi) to want to even have to worry about under-declaring, under-insuring, etc. Sorry if that rubs some folks across the pond the wrong way.

Vincent, If you're serious about NAS I'd start looking at preconfigured NAS devices that you can stuff with the drives of your choice. Pre-built 2TB systems appear to run ~$1000 based on some very quick searching.

And I have to option of not being a party to your circumvention of those laws and regulations, especially when it puts me at risk of not being able to properly insure a package.

For a bit less $$$ you might have a look at the toaster MPX3 that is also listed on Head-Fi. It's listed by cantsleep, who've I dealt with before, and would be worth a PM to get more details.

Yeah, I saw shillymcshills little "i may sell it, but i might not because it sounds so good" comment earlier.

No grudge, but I'm not beating this to death anymore either.

If you don't see that I'm trying to help you I guess I'll stop trying. Continue your worthless posting at will.

Perhaps you should have completed the statement then and not assumed that everyone knew exactly what you were talking about? And I didn't say anything about the two products I was comparing sounding the same either.

I'm not sure I'd say (based on my limited experience) that the W5000 is necessarily a can that scales well but rather is very particular about what it will and won't sound good with. It could just be one of those headphones that likes what it likes and hates everything else. All I do know for sure is that I heard them on two distinctly different amps and they sounded vastly different.

A single chip does not a product make. My Wadia uses the lowly BUF634 on its outputs so by your logic it's the same as something like a PIMETA which uses the same chip.

I'd second to get a stock 650 cable reterminated to balanced, Headroom can help with that as well and it'll save you $200.

Indeed, I'm loving it so far. I just don't want to pull a Deadwood and go through it too quickly.

Nursing my way through season 1 still, don't want to rush it since it looks like there'll be a distinct lack of good TV this winter.

Mr. Chalk, If you're serious about trying the W5000's this is as cheap as I've ever seen a pair listed.

I caught that for sale listing the other day. Nothing like pulling a trose, shilling the heck out of something and then selling it. At least mark didn't jack the price way up.

If you prefer to keep things simple one possibility would be the Headroom Balanced Desktop w/ the Home/Home module options -> balanced HD600 or 650. I'm pretty sure you could get into that and that it would sound significantly better than your current rig (based on my impression of the ED9s in better rigs). Otherwise, if you want to keep your components separate there's way to many choices to run through. My only advice would be to budget equal parts for both your source and your amp, going overboard on either one never makes any sense to me. And I tend to spend the least amount of $$ on the headphone part of the equation, there are lots of good headphones under $400 and I have yet to hear twice the performance from the next tier.

I'm pretty sure that Ultrasone uses the same headband as the HD 280 for just about all their headphones, regardless of price.