Dreadhead

I have the DiMarzzio interconnects from Headroom they do the trick and are pretty nice.

I'm at 259 and my goal is back down to 200-210 (I'm 6'5", in July 03 I was 289 then by Jul 04 I was 210 and kept it for about 12 months but then I've crept back up). I get the KGSS out of hock with my wife at 230 and hence I don't want Justin to finish too quickly and I have to let it sit in a box while I still have weight to lose. She says if I go back over 230 then she'll take it away. She's a lawyer she'll take my ass to court if I don't... Well at least it's good motivation. I'm doing very low calories 3 days a week and "healthy" 4 days a week and I'm already down quite a bit. It works great. Today is a low calorie salads only day though which blows.

Yeah I hope it works out Dan.

My original sentiment still applies

Newport News.... you poor bastard

it better be.....

Koss ESP/950 package (thanks JP#'s)

I second or third Grawk (Dan) because he invited me on to Head-Case and that's obviously the best thing that's ever happened to HC I hope I haven't ruined his chances...

A balanced audio interconnect (not headphone cable) contains 3 conductors: Positive, negative (-positive, some call inverse but not the inverse) and ground. What a balanced headphone amp does is that it amplifies both the positive and negative signals and applies them to the headphones so that the effective voltage the transducer is seeing is 2x the voltage between the positive and ground. Headroom has a very good explanation (in 4 parts): Art. I- Balanced vs. Unbalanced - HeadRoom - Right Between Your Ears Truly balanced means that the amp has an amplifier for both the positive and negative signal for each channel (so 4 amps) some amplifiers and pro audio designs convert the balanced signal to SE amplify/modify and then convert back to balanced through a transformer or other method. This latter approach is common in tube designs where getting correct matching is very hard and it also has the added advantage of impedance matching with the phones.

Just build it using the stock cable and build a SE to balanced adapter the same time. Remember the volume match if you A/B

I recommend the cable that Nate shows or for even cheaper you can modify the stock cable yourself using some neutriks. Now for my very contradictory two cents: As far as balanced vs single ended goes I'm now solidly in the unconvinced category. Which is a change since I was solidly in the convinced category before. With a lot of headphones and some amplifiers the balanced "tightens up the bass" but I'm pretty sure that's because of the variation of the impedance of the phones and the doubled output impedance interacting (I ran the numbers when I was running HD650s balanced out of a Benchmark DAC1 and in that case it was definately happening as the calculations showed exactly what I was hearing (I was not the one to point this out but I'll link to my mea-culpa saying that the guy was right): Best Amp to stick between DAC1-USB and HD-650 - Page 10 - Head-Fi: Covering Headphones, Earphones and Portable Audio On the GS-X the effect of balancing is much more subtle or non-existent because the output impedance is very low (at it should be). Everything also sounds more open because the volume is naturally 6 dB higher and louder nearly always wins without changing anything else. If people do the volume match using a very accurate SPL meter kept in the same place or a digital/analog volume control that has steps that add up to 6 db then you can use that too. When I was doing my A/B on the beta22 vs GS-X I did it by ear with a test tone and got it within 0.5dB after going back and forth 10 times but I doubt many have that patience. For actual advantages: as pointed out there should be common mode rejection at the headphone and a higher skew rate (which should help at higher frequencies). There are lots of other noises though that don't go away in my (ground hum). After all this I still listen to my system in balanced because the correction I apply can require 6-10 db gains at certain frequencies which is more than doubling the power requirement at that frequency and balanced gives me the piece of mind that I'm can drive my headphones without worrying about amp based distortion. If I switch back to SE and bump the gain 6 db though I still can't tell the difference with anything as yet. I'm keeping looking though. The GS-X is a truly wonderfully built amp and is upgradable so I view it as a worthwhile investment to spend the money on it. If I didn't have the money to spend then I would be aiming for the GS-1 I guess but in the end the GS-X just adds that level of insurance that I'm willing to pay for. I paid for it because now I don't have to look at other amps (at least if they are just amplifier and don't have any signal modification stuff in them).

Please don't I would get flamed over there.... Or lots of stupid questions. Over here they let me play in my sandbox and ignore me

Corrected: 1)Sennheiser HD650 (because I like how the feel more and that's it) 2)Denon AH-D5000 NA) Sony MDR-SA5000 (they sound like poo when forced to be flat) NA) Etymotic ER-4s (no binaural head) Uncorrected: 1) Etymotic ER-4s 2) Sony MDR-SA5000 (soon to be sold) 3) Denon AH-D5000 (modded) 4) Sennheiser HD650 There you go, you silly so and so

oops you crapped your pants...

Same here and because the discourse is usually on a higher and at the same time lower level.

I'm not saying that feeback or cascoding are quackery. Listening is not a test it's an opinion (unless it's DBT) I do them too but I at least understand that when I go in (I'm not saying you don't). What I think is quackery is blaming something you need a testbench and a square wave impulse to measure for something that you can hear. For example you can measure the effect of cables impedance and resistance but after you do some math and show that they do incredibly small things to the signal that are almost certainly below the fidelity you can measure using instruments at the transducers (speakers or headphones) much less hear (unless they inserted a active resistor or other component in the cables). Many people disagree with me on this and many other things and to be honest as long as you're not trying to force your cables/demagnetizer/etc on me go for it. It also appears that this distortion is apparently fairly well known in circles where the amps deal with large transients all the time (i.e. not audio). Btw: I don't think wooden earcups are necessarily quackery if they change the volume/shape to of the air behind the driver, then they can make a difference though how big I don't know.

hmmmmm Drive a transistor with a ultrashort step function and there is distortion in the circuit? WOW. I wonder what would have happened to any speakers attached to said system..... Seems like quackery to me.

I did that years ago. Totally forgot about it. Good tip.

Doubtful I would say. My wife and I are to tied to work. Lame I know That and I'm not sure you guys are worth $247 plus hotel I think DANJam may be a possibility instead though.

Dammit I don't think I'll make it! I'm likely going to Denmark 13th-19th May then San Francisco 22-24th. That would just be too much travel to go to the left coast again.

Started with: Shure SE530s Headroom Total Bithead M-Audio Transit (for other reasons) Bought: Sennheiser HD650s (balanced) Benchmark DAC1 Headamp GS-X Denon D5000s (modded/balanced by me) Balanced Beta 22 (later modified to move transformer out of the case) Bel Canto DAC3 Behringer DEQ2496 and ECM 8000 measurement mic Sony SA5000 (DIY balanced by me) New Music Laptop Edirol FA-66 OPPO DV-980H Etymotic ER-4p (with S adapter) Headamp AE-2 Westone 3 Sold: Benchmark DAC1 Balanced Beta 22 Shure SE530s Westone 3 Next year: Put in order for Headamp KGSS and I'll get a pair of ESP950s and APS adapter cable. Maybe a new DAC (doubtful)? Still to sell: Sony SA5000 Headroom Total Bithead

happy birthday!

Thanks for being generous about my idiocy. Your point about the noise being possibly common mode is valid but again I highly doubt it unless they have some very exotic electronics nearby because to be wide banded like that it would have to be running at a lot of different frequencies. Most of the noise we are usually trying to get rid of is 60Hz and the harmonics of it. I is my understanding that the impedance effects come in two flavors: If the output has high impedance this can cause a boost at some frequencies in many phones where the impedance curve is not flat. For example this happens when you plug balanced 650s into the back of a DAC1 and causes a bass boost and some roll off and is likely why some people feel the bass impact is improved by doing this. The damping factor which could be part of it but resonances are usually very narrow banded (and if they aren't they are well damped) so I really doubt that's the difference. In the end I think that their measurements seem to show enough inconstancy that I don't think they are of any use for any conclusions.

damnit dan ^

happy birthday!