HeadphoneAddict

Great job, loved reading about it and living vicariously through you.

I agree completely, the P-1u loaner from Todd pretty well mimics what I get with my upgraded ZDT with HD800.

Hmm, don't pay the optional fire tax = screw you. How did the national news not pick up on this a couple of years ago, or was I in a coma?

I think that you can only use one USB DAC at a time (if you have a Mac), so that means one cube if you use the built-in DAC. If you have two cubes and a special cable that plugs into the headphone jack and then into each cube separately you could use them as stereo cubes. And you can still power them from USB if you don't want to run down the internal batteries. I have one Nuforce cube and think it's one of the best "tiny" speaker I've tried (at least that's this small). It gave new life to our mid-2009 Macbook with crappy built-in speakers, and it's been okay for listening to music in the hotel room when traveling. But in no way is the single speaker audiophile quality. The headphone amp in it is not bad, at least beating the Nuforce Icon Mobile. I took the cube with me to North Carolina two weeks ago for a week long trip and it got the job done. Overall it wasn't working for me for watching movies and having the sound coming from the side of the screen, so I tried a variety of clips to mount it at the top center of the screen. I didn't like the look with the jury-rigged setup. Does it have to be USB audio? I ended up buying a bluetooth Zooka from Amazon just recently, and should be able to try the Zooka tomorrow. I'm hoping it will beat the Insignia USB, Logitech USB, and GOgroove SonaWAVE USB sound-bars that mount to the top of a LCD screen. With bluetooth I can use it with Macbook, iPhone, iPad and such, without being tied to USB. If you don't need to have a stereo speaker on each side of a computer monitor, you could consider a Jabra Big Jambox if you can get it on sale. I got one at the ATT store earlier this summer, on sale for $160, so we could play music from an phone or iPad in the kitchen. The sound is much better than the smaller Jambox, but it's not worth the $300 retail price. I know it's not optimal to place it behind the laptop screen where the sound is blocked, but for music it sounds pretty nice and isn't too hard to tote around.

very cool.

How is everyone doing with booking a room?

A Sad day...

http://youtu.be/RXRAQyiqx-M

Human Centipede? Or, it's a "How the hell did they break that off and then stick it in there, and did it hurt?"

Well, I'm waiting with baited breath in hopes it will sound more like the original MDR-1 and not like the CD-3000 (i.e. smooth warm inviting mids without the CD-3000 edgy honky upper mids).

The Monkey will chime in soon enough...

Um, you can't be the monkey - there can only be one monkey in these parts.

Yeah, maybe if I up my dose.

You still need airfoil if you want to send audio to your iPhone or iPad/Touch. For a while Airfoil Speakers Touch app on the iPhone/iPad would let you turn them into an airplay device for an extra in-app purchase, and you didn't need airfoil on the Mac. But Apple made them take it out of the iPhone app, and so now you need the companion app on the Mac. I missed the window of opportunity for that, but I pretty much use several airport expresses and Apple TV's around the house for that anyway.

Happy Birthday!

I think you would really like the ES5. Interestingly, I have SE530 drivers/x-over in custom Livewires shells, and while the stock SE530 were not sibilant at all the customs are. I saw that you were experiencing sibilance with the SE535, and was going to suggest the SE530 except they have less treble presence than the UM3X (which you wanted more of). The SE530 kinda reminded me of an HD650 a little, while the UM3X remind me more of an HE-500 in an IEM, and the W3 remind me more of a Denon D5000. I'd say the W4 is more reminiscent of an IEM version of LCD-2 r1. (in a general sort of way). I find that the Complys foam tips smooth out the W3 treble a bit, which is more present than the UM3X, while the W4 treble is too laid back for me to enjoy with the Complys tips. For some strange reason I found that my UM56 custom tips work well on all three of the Westones as well as the SE530, and balance them all out nicely so that the differences between them are less. I think I preferred my first set made out of vinyl more than the silicone replacements that I got after I lost the first set. They gripped the sound stem tighter, and were easier to insert into my ears. So, you could consider UM56 tips since you have so many IEM with the small sized sound nozzles.

Do you wanna borrow a Westone 3 to try out? It might fit the bill when used with Complys foam tips.

Got back today from an 8-day trip from Colorado to North Carolina and back, to get my daughter moved into college. I was amazed that we could pack all her gear into the car and still see through the back window over the boxes. I was afraid we'd have to use the roof-top box that cuts 10-15% of our gas mileage. According to the trip computer our 2006 Subaru B9 Tribeca averaged 22.5 mpg by the end of the 3500 miles, but only achieved 21.6 on the way out there due to the bike rack and extra weight from all her stuff. So we had to get at least 23.5 mpg on the return trip (uphill) to bring up the average. Anyway, I don't think I ever want to do this again. We now have 99,850 miles on the car and when we do end up replacing it I'd like to find another 7 passenger AWD vehicle about the same size but with better gas mileage that's still as much fun to drive. Whatever we do, I'd likely be looking at a 2-3 year old used car and not taking out a loan on a new car. A 2010 Toyota Highlander Hybrid might be just the thing. We almost traded this car in for a 2009 MDX a few days before the trip, but with only $11,500 trade-in the difference in price was too high, and actual gas mileage was almost 10% less (the MDX trip computer showed about 18.5 mpg over the past 3,000 miles, while the Tribeca was averaging 20.1 before the trip).

Wow.

I'm in.

I followed one of those up an onramp to the highway the other day, and was surprised by how quickly it got up to speed to match highway traffic.

I'm stuck at a Hampton Inn without a bar - stuck drinking iced tea until tomorrow... Got my daughter moved into her dorm room at college, and the baby bird is ready to kick us out of her nest now. We'll spend Wednesday and part of Thursday AM with her and then head out for another 3-day drive back home. My wife wanted to stay until Friday and the kid vetoed that, "It's party week until school starts Monday and I don't want to miss anything!" They grow up way too fast. It's like that Subaru commercial where the dad is talking to this 6 year old girl sitting n the driver's seat, explaining to her how he wants her to drive safe while we're thinking "she's too young to drive, but after the camera cuts away to him it returns to her we see that the girl he's talking to is now all grown up instead. I'll be doing this again with our other daughter next year, but she'll be studying in Colorado and wont be so far away. Three years after that our son goes to college and we'll be "empty nesters". Sigh...

I don't know what to say except I'm sorry I didn't get to know you. Happy Birthday.

When I listened to these Fostex headphones at RMAF last year I thought the mids were a bit sucked out in relation to the bass and treble. I don't feel that they were balanced and realistic enough to be worth $2K, although they felt more detailed than a stock Denon D7000 for example. But I'm not sure I would buy them, even if they were much cheaper. [edit - have the sound of these changed in the past year since I heard them?]

Happy Birthday!