HeadphoneAddict

PS: In my bedroom I've been using a Motorola DC800 BT transmitter (RCA input) with the Motorola S705 BT pendant which I plug my own headphones into, and it's worked well to watch TV without bothering the wife. So that's another option, although I think I'll be using the XP400 more when it arrives. One issue I have with my current setup is that when I feed the S705 pendant into a nicer amp then I get a little too much noise to enjoy it if I leave the charger plugged into the pendant (ground loop, etc). Unplugged I the battery lasts long enough to watch TV for hours, but I often forget to plug it back in. In addition, the output of the BT S705 pendant isn't really high enough to use as a preamp to feed into another amp, unless you like to cramp up the nicer amp to make up for low source voltage. Unfortunately I often forget to turn the amp volume back down and when I switch to another source I get blasted. You can use the DC800 transmitter with any BT headset and it can act as a receiver too, so you could use two of the DC800 and feed the thing into a nicer amp (bypassing the BT pendant). The DC800 uses a std mini-USB charger like the BT pendant.

Turtle Beach XP400 doesn't totally suck for watching movies and games wirelessly - it has a transmitter that connects to an optical S/PDIF for dolby digital, and the headset can connect at the same time to the transmitter and to a bluetooth phone or PS3 for chatting. For Xbox 360 it comes with a dongle to connect to the controller so that it connects to the Xbox chat wirelessly too. My son got one for Xmas, and I found one at 1saleaday for $99 so I jumped on it for myself. Otherwise it's about $200.

Happy Birthday!

Try restoring the firmware in iTunes (after backing it up).

I only just saw this and donated - ride hard!

I have a D2 and it is an excellent DAC. The wireless S/PDIF output is MUCH better than the quality of my airport express's optical out, and the analog output beats the crap out of the Airport Express as well. I know it's expensive if you don't need the DAC part, but I'm very happy with it. I've got the transmitter hooked up to my retina Macbook upstairs, and the receiver in the basement is hooked up via optical into my Perfectwave DAC and analog out into my Eddie Current ZDT. I use Apple Remote to control the music in iTunes on my Macbook, and and it's easier to use than the PS Audio Bridge (and almost as good).

I'm a big fan of the budget Nuforce products, and I still use my UF-30 open portable phones a lot, but I found that the HP-800 weren't what I was expecting. They aren't bad, but from their marketing I was expecting more of a budget audiophile or studio headphone. What they really have is a fun flavored headphone for using un-amped with an iPhone or iPad. I'm listening to Eric Clapton Unplugged (Live) from my iPhone 5 right now and it's pretty fun to listen to. The sound reminds me a little of my Sony MDR-V6 in the mids and highs, but with the bass cranked up. They are well suited to movies and electronic music, or instrumental jazz like Jimmy Cobb Quartet "Jazz in the Key of Blue", but with vocals there is a little bit of cupped hands coloration to the mids. It's not a lot, but it's there and reminds me that I'm listening to a closed headphone. This is also more easily heard in the reproduction of things like snare drums, which begin to sound more like an electronic drum kit that real snares. However, the HP-800 are a bit less sibilant than the MDR-V6 and I don't experience ice-pick moments with them like acidbasement did.. They were a little grainy and rough in the highs at first, until I ran music through them for several days and then they smoothed out, but the sound signature is pretty much set from the start = V-shaped "fun" curve. Bass impact is impressive coming from a lowly iPhone. The bass quality does not suffer too much either, despite the bass boost, so that's a plus. Detail is not bad either, while soundstage size is fairly good as well for a closed phone. The HP-800 sound like what you'd expect from a $150 headphone. But if you want a closed headphone in this price range that's more "accurate" then the $199 HD25-1 II sound better, although with less bass weight and impact. The HD25-1 II were just more transparent and accurate with less coloration, although with a bit smaller flatter 2D soundstage. The Shure SRH-840 mids seem a little off somewhere, but without the slight "cupped hands" sound of the HP-800. But the Shure have a bit less bass than the HP-800 or MDR-V6 so they are not as fun. The HP-800 easily make the SRH-840 sound thin and bass-lite in direct comparison. I need to unbox my new V-MODA M-80 and compare to those too, but from memory of the M-80 at RMAF I expect to like those better too, although the M-80 and HD25 are not as comfortable as the HP-800. Again, the HP-800 are not bad, but like I said, they don't seem to be an audiophile headphone or a studio monitor. If you don't expect too much from them you can plug right into an iPhone or iPad and enjoy un-amped, with decent isolation from the outside and very little bleed of the music into the outside world. My son enjoys them and would like to have them, but he wont give up his HD25-1 II for these - he wants both. I do think the two would compliment each other, with their different sound signatures. Although I have not done a direct comparison I have no doubt that these are better than my old Bose or Darth Beyers that I got rid of, and I'm sure they'd beat the $199 Monster Inspiration that I tried out at the last RMAF. I like them more than my MDR-V6 and SRH-840, but I'd probably still take the more expensive HD25-1 II if I couldn't keep them both (my son and I each have our own pair of HD25). My V-MODA M-100 are also a step up in performance, and although not quite as accurate as the HD25-1 II they are much more fun than all the others, while offering a more transparent and spacious picture into the music. Of all these closed phones that I mentioned here, I prefer the M-100 followed closely by the HD25, and then the HP-800. But the MDR-V6 and SRH-840 I could live without. I haven't bothered to compare to my re-cabled ATH-A900 or HFI-700DVD yet, but I don't really use those anymore either.

Happy Birthday

Wow, the touch screen gets an erection.

http://youtu.be/1VyQipO4miw

Happy Birthday!

I'd really be curious if Tim Tebow actually used these headphones before signing up, and whether he really knows anything about them except for the color choices. I'm a big fan of Tebow, but this seems a little much. If I recall, Tyll was not impressed with these under another celebrity name in the past, so is this the same thing just repackaged? The press release sure puts a nice spin on things.

I check my cloud player, and saw "AutoRip update: due to high demand, we are experiencing delays. We will email you when we have added your music." Edit - Weird, right after I checked Amazon Cloud player and posted here the error message, they added 402 new songs to my cloud player, from 37 albums. But I'm still missing some, like Pink Floyd The Wall, etc...

I only have about 19,000 songs in my library and iTunes match sync has been working just fine for the past year. If I ripped all of my CD's I could likely double that number. But I don't use it on my iDevices, and still prefer to sync only what I want to carry with me when mobile. iTunes match on the iPhone or iPad would use a lot of 3G bandwidth, and you can't manage removing individual songs in iOS 6 anymore. So the more you stream the more space is used up on your iDevice by temporary downloads. Some people have complained that iOS doesn't always remove the temp buffer songs to make room for long 1080p videos via camera, or large app updates. On the other hand it's been great with my 2nd and 3rd Gen Apple TV's where all my ripped music is in the cloud. With Match I don't have to leave a Mac running 24/7 with iTunes open just in case I want to listen to my ripped music at any particular time via my stereo or theater system. I also keep a separate iTunes library on my Macbook that has nothing in it, but iTunes match is turned on so I can access any of my music as long as I have an internet connection, without sucking up valuable space on my SSD. My regular iTunes library for portable use on my Macbook is only about 1/6 the size of my full library. I treat it like a large iPod and only keep some of my library on it at any one time. iTunes match makes all my ripped music available, not just my purchases that iTunes 11 now gives us access to without Match.

That's a lot of gift certificates...

Happy Birthday!

We haven't opened ours yet. Will try them out soon.

Vodka is a lot harder to tell differences than Gin, but I'll take Scotch Whiskey over either any day.

R.I.P. Luvbug, sorry for your loss.

I've been reading too much of The Watch Snob at askmen.com lately...

It's sad, and touching, and many of us have been there. I feel for you man. You're excused in every way for a ways into the future. We've lost pets after caring for them for 16+ years, and it's really hard when it's time for them to go. Sitting up with a dog into the we hours of the morning until she takes her last breath is heart-wrenching. It took us 4 years to heal from that loss and get the courage to get another dog, and she's now 12 years old and likely to live only till 15-16 years old. We love her so much, and feel like she's the perfect pet and companion. Meanwhile our 13 year old cat, inherited from my wife's dad when he passed away a year and a half ago, also has early kidney failure. He's skinny as a bone, and eats well but can't get past 7 lbs. So, we're in line for a couple of losses in the coming years, and although we keep talking about not getting another pet when they all die off, I'm sure that pledge will not last long. It never does.

You gotta do what you gotta do. What will you do if he's got a backup? Can you hire the girl with the dragon tattoo to get into his backups?

They have plenty of volume, but do make sure to use stands to avoid the midbass bloom from having them on a desk, shelf or floor. I use a pair of A2 daily for about 3 years now. I'm going to add that I did buy a pair of A5 at RMAF 2010 and those are more transparent with better extension at both ends, but they were too big for my application so I stuck with my old A2 and let my son use the A5. The A2 really aren't bad, as long as you get the placement right and use stands. The A2 actually have pretty decent imaging and power, and they don't have any annoying midrange and treble colorations, just an easily boosted mid-bass that can overwhelm everything else if you put them flat on a shelf or desk.

You could build a riser to elevate the TV a little, and put a sound-bar under the TV. But an Audioengine D1 DAC with self powered A5+ or Emotiva Airmotive 4 and stands could work.

Moar watches!