HeadphoneAddict

I've got 62 albums in my "saved" for later page. I guess I shoulda' bought bonus packs when they were still cheap. I think it sucks, they are dropping me to 37 downloads/14.99 instead of 50. At least with the 12 song/cd max cap it wont be as bad as it could be, and some CD are still only 1-5 songs for almost an hour of music. Those 1 hour new age CD with 1 song have always been a steal, and I hated blowing songs on the 17 songs for 50 minute albums. I may upgrade to a higher package to download my wish list faster, and then sayonara, because a 50 song bonus pack for $24.99 sucks.

I've been with eMusic for a few years, and I know nothing about this. Is the lack of informing us of the change intentional? Seems like it. Time to log in and see what's up....

So, at CanJam the A-10 sounded very good with HE90 and Jade, fairly good with O2 Mk2 but I didn't get to try any Mk1, and a little bright with Rays HE60 but not terrible. I think I am actually looking forward to reviewing the A-10 with my own headphones (and stock HE60) after the July Colorado meet, so I'm not sorry that I PM'd Ray back in September asking if I could review it. I still have to work out how much I have to insure it for to return it. I just didn't know it was going to be so expensive, so I'm pretty sure I will never be able to afford one, having been forced into early retirement by my health. I'm going to be out $7,000 in dental bills this year because I put off some work, and now my insurance changed Jan 01 09 and has crap for coverage now. So that means no A-10 for me, or KGBHSE, or WES or anything of the sort. I may even have to sell the GES to help pay for a couple of cracked infected teeth with bone loss that needs a bone graft and then implants.

AT&T won't activate MMS till later this summer.

I agree. It's terrible to have your mobility taken away, and the Segway is much more dignified and manageable than a wheelchair.

Yeah, the balanced square wave is great with my balanced HD600 and HD800, and has enough volume for the K1000 but the sound becomes more dull and less detailed when driving the balanced K1000. When driving the HD600/800 the Sq Wave is close to my Woo WA6 (still a notch below). But with the K1000 the Square Wave XL is closer to my $299 8-watt/ch Chinese Qinpu tube hybrid amp that I have here. That same Qinpu can drive an SRD-7 Pro and O2 Mk1 much better than it can drive the K1000, and sounds fantastic with all stats. My Nuforce Icon 12-watt/channel is no better, and my 5-watt Travagans Red with AD743 opamps has nicer detail and tone but less bass and power. I can't really easily get to the back of my Yamaha or Denon home AVR's to connect the K1000 pigtail, and I don't want a mishap with 80 watt/ch amps. It's really up to the ZDT I have on order to fix this, or I might have to look at the Almarro A205a Mk2 to drive the K1000 (or something on a similar level). I like tubes, so I was reluctant to look for a balanced Beta 22 with speaker output - wondering if I would have to revisit that idea later as well. Until then, the HD800 reign king here.

PS: Lest anyone think I am a K1000 hater, I like them a lot - but mine still just don't sound as good as the HD800 with my current lot of amps. With my K1000 I get a slightly mushy bass cloud, and not a whole lot of high-end detail either. Im thinking even my older APS v3 cabled HD600 may have more detail and better controlled bass than these, but in sound-staging the K1000 still lead the HD600/800. Unfortunately they are still less engaging, detailed and vivid than the HD800 which are more natural sounding and realistic because of that. I suspect with a good amp they can keep up with the HD800, based upon the fact that Naaman's K1000/B22 did keep up with his O2 Mk1/Jade/KGBH back at my house in February (and inspired me to buy my own K1000).

His source was the balanced Buffalo DAC (with a huge Dell laptop I think). I don't know his S/N unless he posted that in the K1000 thread on head-fi. My balanced PS Audio Digital Link III and Apogee mini-DAC aren't that far behind the Buffalo, and my sources are all very good with all my other phones (HD800, O2, HE60, Jade, etc). I think the difference in our K1000 sound is either due to our amps or my cable, and most likely both along with different production dates of the K1000.

Here is what Bluto and I were doing today:

Nice photos! For all of those peeps who don't believe Blutarsky exists, that is Bluto himself in the photo with myself and my son:

It sounded pretty transparent, uncolored and fast - reminded me a lot of my Smegma Pro (woodied Gamma Pro). The mids were the best part, but it didn't seem rolled off in the highs, and the bass was adequate as well.

I thought the FET-A sounded pretty good with the HF-2 in the TTVJ room, but I didn't bother to try it with the HD800. Sorry.

Thanks, that helps.

I would like to buy a Shure 840 from Tyll for $40. That would be sweet, and on topic too...

Right now my HD800 are much better than my K1000 #1478 (formerly Smeggy's then J-Pak's). But I'm sure I don't have the right amp for the K1000 yet, and I think I need to re-cable them. I brought mine to CanJam and didn't find any amp to really make them shine, although some were better than others. Mine are a little darker and bassier sounding, so not as transparent as they should be. I have an 8-watt EC ZDT on order but it never made it to CanJam for me to try, so I can only hope it will sound better than the K1000 did off the 8-watt Woo WA5. When I heard Naaman's K1000 in February out of his Beta 22 I had to own a pair, so I traded my first O2 Mk1 for these from J-Pak. At the Feb meet we had tried Naaman's K1000 out of my Square Wave XL balanced and it sounded pretty nice although not as good as his Beta 22, but it has enough power to play loudly. My K1000 just do not sound as good as I recall his sounding. I'd wanted to compare mine to his, but we never got the chance. Right now I have also tried the K1000 with some inexpensive speaker/headphones amps that I have laying around that do well with normal cans and stats - including 5-watt Travagans Red with AD743 (best) opamps, 12-watt Nuforce Icon (worst), and 8-watt Qinpu A-3 (in the middle). All three of these amps sound pretty nice with my O2 Mk1 or HE60 Mk1 when used with my SRD-7 Pro or Mk2. In those cases, like the HD800 the O2 Mk1 also beat the K1000. (my current O2 Mk1 used to be Naaman's). It's like trying to enjoy a Stax O2 off an SRM-1 Mk2 Pro - I almost think my HF-2 excite me more than the K1000 so far. So, if the K1000 don't sound noticeably better with the ZDT, I may either re-cable them, or consider selling the ZDT and keep looking for a better amp. I am NOT ready to give up on them yet, but If I had to pick, right now it would be my HD800 out of my Woo WA6 (maxed with pseudo dual power supply and Sophia Princess 274b rectifier, but no DACT).

I was using my cane for the whole meet (fibromyalgia, chronic tendonitis, enthesopathy, gout, pulmonary hypertension and pulmonary vein obstruction) but I was finally in a wheelchair by Sunday PM at the airport. It also sucked to have to pay $250 for round trip oxygen on the plane. I have been considering a Segway at times for the future, but usually when it is bad I cannot even stand on a Segway.

Ahhh, nice pink labia. It was great meeting you there, and talking about cars and bikes too!

Where does your personal "point of diminishing returns" lie?

I used some Quads ESL57 back in the 80's in med school set up in the middle of the room (about 5 feet off the walls) and I did need to use a MK subwoofer with them for the best sound, but otherwise it worked well after fiddling with it for a while. They also sounded better if they were higher up off the floor. I did have a spectrum analyzer to help me find the best position, but then got tired of it and ended up with some Polk SDA CRS which worked out better for me in the long run. I think I miss my 250 watt Heathkit power amp more than the Quads, but I still have the Polk 23-24 years later.

I still wonder how much better does a $5000 DAC really sound vs a $1295 DAC. There has to be a point of diminishing returns, where you could stop at something like this and never need to go past that?

I agree about the sound. My HD800/Woo WA6 offers stiff competition to my stats/Woo GES. And they're the only dynamic cans I've tried that can reach the speed, transparency, neutrality and immersion in the performance that I get out of my Westone ES3X. And yet I can tell the lineage comes from the same line as my HD600. Plus they don't suck from a $200 amp and sound gorgeous from a $1000 amp. Selling my Edition 9 to pay for these was the best decision I've made in a while, and I suspect the only way to get my stats to soundly beat this is to sell my GES for a KGBHSE. I don't know if it is worth doing that anymore, but if my ZDT doesn't noticeably improve upon the WA6, I'll maybe consider selling both the ZDT and GES and use the money for a Blue Hawaii. Or maybe not... PS: My "what's in the new box" solution is having a UPS Store mailbox for deliveries.

I'll recable my K1000 before I do the HD800.

I could have never done that. Since you don't need the KGBH SE so badly, how about I trade you a $2500 maxed GES and a $2500 Eddie Current ZDT for yours?

I am really wishing I hadn't been forced to sell my STi for a Tribeca just for making a stoopid car pool for kid's school work out. With my disability it was impossible to take and pick up my three kids to three different schools (elem, Jr and Sr high), so I ended up taking more kids to one school than the STi could hold.

Headstage/Headphonia was making the Arrow. Did they change their name again?