Currawong

I knew there were benefits, I just couldn't remember what they were or how relevant they are. I'm guessing it's a toss-up between making an SE amp that needs higher rated components or just doubling everything to get the same net result. I wonder sometimes if, say, Little Dot didn't go with a balanced MKVII simply because it was cheap to just use 4x a very basic OPAMP-based circuit for this reason. I saw some Dynahi discussion there too, with mention of balanced operation, gain, stability and low-impedance cans. Is doubling everything essentially double the voltage swing, or does it affect current as well? I'm thinking specifically of, say, HD-800s vs. LCD-2s with amps here.

Nice one Uncle Erik. I had to grab the camera quickly before she ripped the improvised bandana off her head, but, ya know...such random flashes of inspiration and all that don't make for great photos, but still ...

Toslink is a shit connector for starters. The ST connector, which you can find on older DACs and has a BNC-like locking connector, was much better. Of course, like with RCA plugs, manufacturers chose whatever was simpler and cheaper.

Not as funny as Asr's "If I were drunk..." comments, but here, after 3 tries, are my (sorry, somewhat hype-y) thoughts on the LCD-2s and HD-800s which I posted on HF (with some unnecessary crap removed): What strikes me about the LCD-2s are they are the first headphone which allows the music to shine as it is absolutely. The HD-800s do this too, stepping back to allow the music through, but stepping TOO far back. They don't do intimacy where it is required, and they suffer from a degree of vagueness, rather like listening to orchestra, and the individual instruments are somewhere "out there". For a lot of music, I prefer the Symphones Magnums, which are, to my ears, equally fast, yet very front-row, with the kind of intimacy that you can see the strings on a player's guitar vibrate as he plays, yet sometimes are a bit too intense. The LCD-2s aren't that close, yet they aren't far. They are ready to step in and really hand the music to you when it's required, yet will step back when the music steps back. The singer in front of the mic is in front of the mic, the instruments are exactly where they were placed on stage at the distance they are from the microphones and with the exact intensity that results. On my 3+ stars random playlist, I have a Black Crowes track which starts off with vocals. I had the volume up a bit from normal, and out of the black of nowhere their voices just jumped out at me in total detail, rather as if they'd appeared right in front of me and started singing. I'm not a real fan of their music, but it was absolutely stunning. The thing is, this isn't being done by tonal trickery (eg: a peaky treble or mid-bass) but by being extremely fast. Take my Black Crowes vocals impressions and substitute The Crystal Method or Shpongle or anything where there is bass impact. Same result. Their frequency response, being as technically the closest to genuine "flat" possible with a headphone becomes quickly irrelevant. The HD-800s you are often trying to compensate for, with a re-cable, with a slightly warm-of-neutral tube amp -- the absolute seems always just out of reach, so you compensate a little, maybe spending a lot of money in the process. The LCD-2s just hand you the music as it absolutely is, warts and all. If there's distortion, it will tell you about it, including details of exactly how that distortion is, yet, it will still make the music sound glorious at the same time. With the HD-800s, you stand back and look at how beautiful the musical painting is. With the LCD-2s you are IN the painting.


I was just reading Dan Lavry's forum about world clocks and IIRC he basically said they are as susceptible to jitter just as much as a combined clock and data stream is, but just add expense with more circuitry.

Basically, buying some device that is supposed to improve digital transmission from your transport is a bit silly if you're going to use a connection method that makes it worse by virtue of not being to spec. I'd say though if it's just a cheap adaptor, no big deal, but I'd say if someone decided to drop $500-1k on one of these things then using RCA would be fail. S/PDIF is only to spec if all the bits in the connection are 75 Ohms. Supposedly if the connection isn't to spec, then you're undoing some of the benefit of the converter by introducing signal reflections. RCA is just used on a lot of gear out of laziness or cheapness and probably because most people don't know any better.

The smack addicts I knew in Australia were totally the opposite -- very clever and sometimes very manipulative.

If you have a good DAC which has S/PDIF input (preferably BNC), you are using a cheap transport, or you want or are forced to use USB or optical, which are less than great, then these things help IMO. Ideally though, the last connection should be 75 Ohm BNC to BNC.

810mW not enough for a pair of headphones? Like Nebby suggested, wouldn't it just be bad amp design if an amp that amount of output can't do a good job?

Not a pop-up, but there are "notices" which sit at the top of pages depending.

I have been thinking about getting one of these to deal with such issues, as the small ones would fit on my desk nicely:

He used to call it CAST and mention Krell, so I guess so.

I vote you as having the best avatar for a newbie here. I pulled the Zamp out and gave the LCD-2s a run on it. Very nice indeed. I'm willing to bet on a good power amp they'll be very pleasant.

Hope you've having a fun birthday while on the road. Will be great to meet you one day.

I think he says he tried them once.

I've been slow about starting it (waited until I was least busy for good measure) but here it is: Audio-gd Reference 7 Loaner Program (USA) - Head-Fi.org Community

I've been chatting to him via PM. He did try a bunch of expensive "audiophile" power conditioners before going for the industrial one fed by batteries. It's surely more sensible than plugging a stupidly expensive audiophile power cord straight into the mains. Back on topic, I understand why Smeggy is smitten by the LCD-2s now. The presentation is very absolute-this-is-what-the-music-is without the treble peaks that make such a presentation annoying when a recording isn't so great. Everything just sounds good, even music I don't really want to listen to, especially if it's well recorded. Some music can sound a little muffled, however, such as orchestral works.

I bags first listen. I'll take some high-res shots too. I regret not getting the 4070s when I had the chance. I did get the 404LEs for 50k yen though so I can't really complain.

I say, get the Denons. Here's why: They'll sound great initially, then sometime down the track, you'll try the Senns, which might not be so great at the start in contrast, but will, should you have a decent mid-range amp, end up getting more head-time. Then you'll have learned something. I'll leave it up to you to discover what. Eventually, you'll try a Stax rig (and hopefully a real DAC) and learn some more, like what instruments actually sound like.

They are certainly the first cans I've used that are /lower/-mids forward (@1kHz). Like immntbiker posted, stuff I'm used to hearing more in the treble does seem somewhat muted, but the sound isn't dull, more gently muted in the upper ranges.

Wow, a newbie with a clue. Holy shit. Anyway..my cans arrived today (double boxed none the less, or triple if you count the pretty wooden box) and have had the requisite 4-pin XLR plug attached. Interestingly different from run-of-the-mill headphone sounds.

Today I played with bias voltages in the Phoenix after re-arranging my rack so I could pop the lid easily. Found that they had drifted a bit and were a volt or so off. Yesterday I took the little one to a day care I've been teaching English at for 3 years. It's run out of a house belonging to a woman who has very carefully thought-out ideas about bringing up kids. As a result, the kids are the most sensible, intelligent, thoughtful and good-mannered that I know. They had been wanting to meet my daughter (again) for some time. After an initial shy and clingy half-hour, broken by being completely overwhelmed with toys being presented to her, they played with her for 5 hours, including lunch time. She was so happy and comfortable that I could leave the room and she wasn't worried in the slightest, which is very unusual. I didn't have to do anything, the kids, most around 12, even making sure she washed her hands before and after lunch and even helping her eat. My daughter is in the pink striped top in the middle.

It has been in the back of my mind, since parting with the RKV, to pick up one of these or the Elekit amp as they tick all the right boxes for price and flexibility of use.

My new Seagate Momentus XT hybrid SS HD arrived a couple of days ago and I've been using it in my MacBook Pro. However, today, while running SuperDuper! which clones my HD to another in an external case, the external got disconnected by accident, so SuperDuper! filled up the main HD by continuing to write files to the external's mount point on the main hard drive. I decided to reboot to kill off some gigs of swap files, but my MacBook Pro wouldn't even give a welcome chime on reboot with the XT installed. Fuck. Just spent my spare time today surfing the net using my iPhone 4 after wiping the old drive, cloning 400 GB of files to it from the XT, and now I have wiped and am cloning once again back to the XT after a firmware update. Now I pray I can get up in the morning, switch the drives around and be back to normal. At least I still can listen to music.