HeadphoneAddict

Acknowledging the general disregard for markl mods and Lawton Audio's marketing tactics here on Head-Case (I myself am shocked by his HD800 impressions and cable comments), I will add the following info, knowing I am opening myself up to more ridicule by some here. The stock D2000/D5000 have too much bass for my tastes, and detail is a bit lacking, and the highs are not smooth - those areas improve noticeably with my APS V2 cabled D2000. The mids were a bit recessed on my re-cabled D2000, but that improved some with the mahogany wood cups that I got from Lawton Audio (and maybe from stuffing the earpads to be fuller). My D2000 have no internal mods and bass is well controlled with just the cable. At this point I like them better than the re-cabled Edition 9 that I sold, but I'd prefer to listen to my HD600 or RS-1 over the Denon. Switching from a listening session with the HD600 or RS-1 to my D2000 reveals the D2000 to still be a darker more closed sounding phone. The best "stock" Denon I have heard were the D7000 at the Nov 08 Colorado meet, but they were still a little dark with mild recessed mids, although bass was much better than the stock D5000. More recently, at the Colorado meet last weekend we passed around a pair of modded D7000 with Jenna Labs cable, Lawton wood cups, stuffed earpads and internal dampening. The modded D2000 sound a little more laid back vs the modded D7000 which sound a little more open and clear. Many people preferred these modded D7000 over my modded D2000 as they were indeed sounding like a "second cousin" to Ray's Sony R10. I still would NEVER sell an R10 for these modded D7000, but I would take them over my modded A900 or modded D2000 or any stock Denon, as well as over an Edition 8 or Edition 9. I'm a little flabbergasted that markl liked his early modded D5000 better than his R10, because while I thought his modded recabled D5000 were better than stock they were not that good. However, these particular modded re-woodied D7000 that I still have on loan for our recent meet are what I had expected from the original modded D5000, which were a little bit of a let down after all the hype. Those early modded D5000 were better than stock but not neutral/natural and rich like the R10. Nevertheless, when I need a closed can to not leak sound and bother others, I grab my custom IEM or ATH-ESW10 first, and haven't used my Denon much since February when I started playing more with my new O2 Mk1 and K1000. I consider my D2000 to be more of a fun phone than a reference phone, but these loaner LA7000 (as markl calls them) really do sound much better than you would expect. They definitely lack the "cupped hands" mids that I heard with modded D5000 last year, and are therefore more transparent sounding. I think if it weren't for mark's blatant BS marketing that the modded D7000 would be more popular, assuming they all sound this good and that this pair isn't a ringer. I hope more of you get to hear the modded D7000 and can make up your own mind about them. I still have a problem with the huge cost, and for the price of these I have the HD800 that are still better.

Well, "to my mind" there is little difference between what I said and the way you want me to say it. Anyway, my 24 hours was wrong. After your post I went to look at my actual comments about the Nuforce - burn-in only took about 3-4 hours for me, but I picked 24 hours to post here as a safe number so I wouldn't have to look it up (trying not to promote doing someone else's work when they can search just as well as I). I had posted comments about the Nuforce + D2000 with only 1 hour on the headphone section, and wasn't excited about the amp with headphones although I had been using it's speaker out with SRD-7 Pro and HE60 and liked it a lot: Nuforce Icon usb Dac, preamp, headphone amp, power amp ... Everything in one~ I said that I planned to give it 100 hours of run time and report back, and then if not satisfied I was going to do another 100 hours. I expected a long slow process with mild changes over a week or two. It turned out that it only needed 3-4 hours total on the headphone section. Nuforce Icon usb Dac, preamp, headphone amp, power amp ... Everything in one~ Nuforce Icon usb Dac, preamp, headphone amp, power amp ... Everything in one~ Nuforce Icon usb Dac, preamp, headphone amp, power amp ... Everything in one~ So, this is where you may now jump in and give me hell about my "minute-by-minute rundown" of the process. I hadn't planned to post hourly updates, but I was listening to it while I was online and it was changing quickly and settling down, so I posted what I heard as I heard it, while I was busy reading the forums.

Macbook Pro or Airport Express optical out > PS Audio Digital Link III at 96Khz up-sampling > anti-cables XLR interconnects > Jensens Transformers XLR-RCA input transformer > anti-cables RCA interconnects > ZDT. The 192Khz up-sampling mode is a little brighter, and I only use that with the Stax O2 Mk1. The volume level tolerable also depends on the music you listen to - I don't like current brick-walled rock music with them, but it gets better with jazz and classical and acoustic, electronic and new age, and such (most of what I listen to).

In your price range ($200 - $250) there are several decent amps for the AH-D2000, including the Nuforce (that particular amp sounds congested out of the box and needs 24 hours of burn-in to clear up/open up the sound). Other good inexpensive D2000 compatible amps include the head-direct.com HiFiMan EF2, and Travagans Red/White/or Green. Also, the Millett Starving Student Hybrid is nice with D2000, as is the Cavalli CTH tube hybrid. The Nuforce, EF2 and Travagans White will include decent USB DAC as well. You can improve the EF2 by tube rolling, and improve the Travagans by changing the opamps inside. If you find my public profile on head-fi forums you'll find links to my reviews of these amps in the "about me" section. Good luck!

I compared the HD800 (on maxed WA6 and ZDT amps) to my Stax O2 Mk1 with maxed Woo GES and I feel that the Stax rig is a little more detailed/refined, laid back and relaxed while the HD800 rig is a little more dynamic and energetic, and a little more forward and aggressive but in a good way. Sometimes the HD800 sound slightly edgy to me, while the O2 Mk1 are always smooth. The HD800 seem to thrive on having the volume control turned up higher to wake them up, while the O2 Mk1 present great detail and sound at low to medium volumes. The O2 Mk1 soundstage seems deeper/narrower, while the HD800 seems wider and more holographic - but they both have good imaging and positioning and definition of instruments in the soundstage. The HD800 remind me a little of my HE60 while not as detailed, but I also think the HD800 have more bass impact and a more solid and grounded image than the HE60. The HD800 do have a little more flavor of their own than the O2 Mk1, due to their midrange emphasis. The HD800, just like the O2 Mk1, are fairly sensitive to the amp you use. The 800's can sound decent with my maxed WA6 or balanced Square Wave XL (or even the Amphora), but the sound takes a big leap ahead with my EC ZDT. The ZDT amp is noticeably better and even single ended the HD800 sounds more spacious with better separation and dynamics. The ZDT is also the first amp to make my 4-pin XLR K1000 sound like they are worth keeping although it's still a little underpowered - but my HD800 still have better speed, detail, and transparency over the K1000. I don't know how much of that is the stock cable on the K1000 and how much is the amp.

I seem to recall owning a laser disc of many music videos of hers in the 80's. One of my favorites had her playing the daughter of a mad scientist who built a "rain-maker machine" - the scientist/inventor was a young Donald Sutherland.. She's 2 months older than my wife...

You should have been at the Colorado meet last weekend, you missed a good opportunity to achieve that goal. BTW, Didn't you sell me your O2 Mk2 last year?

The first stupid thing I did after unpacking my re-fitted JH13Pro was drop the case with the IEM 4 feet to the floor. The carbon fiber box took the brunt of the fall and there isn't even a mark on the case to show what happened.

Asr has the Pico DAC-only and the Arcam CD36 - I wonder if he thinks the same thing?

That's about as bad as Bruno.

Do we need to start a collection for Spritzer now? In my case, I would be happy with a KGBHSE.

You should have tried them on the ZDT which is a truely impressive pairing. Too bad your HF-2 are for sale.

Well, you can't please everyone.

I actually prefer the silver color cable, but don't recall asking for it. And believe it or not that is a photo taken by Blutarsky today using my iPhone 3GS. When I sent my UE11Pro to Jerry (along with my loose-fitting JH13pro) to scan and re-do the shells to match the fit of my UE11's, Jerry and Adam got a kick out of the "beer in a glass" artwork on my UE11pro - apparently Adam was the one who designed the "beer" for J. Summers of Rolling Stones. They wanted to do something wild like flames to show off the JH13Pro and their mad skillz, so I gave them artistic license to do whatever they wanted and surprise me. Here are the UE11pro:

My finished JH13Pro fit perfectly and the artwork is just fantastic, as is the sound:

Yeah, like in the "spit out your gum and chew another" commercials where they send someone to get your gum away from you.

I too greatly enjoy them. They are not perfect but there are few things I would change about them - maybe just a tad less lower-treble and a tiny bit more bass punch. Did you get to try them on the WA22 and ZDT?

iPhone 3.1 beta 2 breaks tethering, so stay away.

I checked Woot and saw a pinnacle product for sale. I was disappointed with my Pinnacle PCTV mini USB which I bought from Woot and it died after 4 hours of use and has me on a wild goose chase to find out how to get it serviced (with poor email response times). The replacement runs so damn hot that I am afraid to use it (can't touch it, could cook an egg with it).

Hmmm, I do seem to be grabbing the JH13Pro more often lately.

Maybe Head-fi needs a post like this every once in a while. As for HD800 burn-in, they don't change very much between new and 250 hours, but they do become less grainy and a bit smoother. I bought a new pair of HD600 last year and they also didn't change a lot with burn-in (nothing like Ultrasones lengthy process). The HD800 still remind me a little of my HE60, and yet I would still like my HD800 to be a little less bright with a little more bass - basically an HD600 with better detail, speed and soundstage. The HD800 are not as detailed as my stats and still seem slightly veiled when compared to my stats, although that is somewhat improved over the HD600. So, I really like the HD800 but they haven't made me want to sell my HD600 yet, and sometimes I like my high-end custom IEM more.

So, would you recommend a person with a maxed GES to add a KGSS to it and have two different flavors, or get rid of the GES and get a KGBHSE?

Well, now that you made me look at it again it does, but I think he was just trying to be funny (or show his feminine side, which Boomana can appreciate better)...

I understand, no problem.