Currawong

I found Audio Technica AT-EA1000 wire being sold in my local hardware store here for about $7/meter, so I bought a couple of meters and whipped up an interconnect with Canare F-09 plugs, which fit both the cable and internal wires perfectly. Total cost came to about $32 (2960 yen).

Nate: Glad to hear your knees are reasonably ok. Today I had a 15-drawer cabinet arrive and immediately filled it with all the random paperwork and crap hanging around my desk. There is still a lot of crap around, including boxes full of stuff, so this doesn't bode well.

Happy Belated Birthday you crazy Scotsman.

Audio Technica already has a $1k wireless headphone rig. NFI if it's any good. I think it's based on the AD1000, but I could be wrong. Maybe I should add it to the list of things to plug in when I re-do the W1000X shootout at Best Denki.

Now I'll just have to find an equally awesome case to attach them to for my eXStatA.

When I went round to pick up Deadneddz Qualias to try out today, I decided to raid Craig's collection of woodies and have a last shot at appreciating them. So far so good. Stuffed the pads a bit and some of my complaints about them were somewhat rectified, making them quite listen-able. Bit too much mid-bass and the treble is a bit muffled still on all of them, but they are more enjoyable than I remember them, especially the 11JPN. W11JPN, W10VTG and W10LTD respectively:

Shelly: It might be that Front Row outputs direct to the video card, so nothing will show up in Screen Sharing. Don't suppose you have an iPhone or iPod touch by any chance? Apple's Remote software is much better than Front Row IMO.

"No Stax were hurt in this volcanic eruption." Glad everyone is safe despite too.

I wouldn't want to be the BBC news reporter who had to read the location name from that report: Eyjafjallajoekull looks like it's a huge mouthful. I'll bet there are crazy scientists rushing to the location to get as close as possible, just like those ones who chase tornados.

Apple finally fixed this same annoyance by telling you what program is still using files on a drive when you try and eject it. As for Windows, I just wish they'd abolish the #@(*)%ing registry and the mess made when things are installed.

Mine have survived the honeymoon period nicely. I've been alternating between them and the APS-cabled HD-800s depending on my mood. I think it'll take the eXStatA and O2s to ruin things. They are brighter, by the way, than the SR-5NB, but not as sweet as the latter out of the T1S I have here. Damn I miss those Omegas!

Actually, on second thoughts after a bit of googling, all those iZotope plug-ins must be for the re-sampling option and not for playback.

That's what I concluded too. Amarra seems to make the music more lively and intense. As for what it's doing, I recall the instructions on the first version I tried months ago insisting I set up Audio Midi Setup in some way regarding the input. This suggests to me that what it's doing is using the clock on the audio input instead of on the audio output (that is, if there are two clocks, which I don't know without either pulling my machine out and/or hunting for logic board pictures) and this somehow improves things, along with loading and pre-processing audio files in advance into memory. I just had a look inside Amarra Mini after having a look at the files Amarra had open, and found a bunch of iZotope plug-ins inside: iZBase, iZDSPBase, iZotope_MBITPlus, iZotope_Resampler. The plot thickens!

I'm very interested. I'm still due to build my eXStatA but have been busy, so if anyone feels i'm being a bit selfish here I'll pass. It looks also like I'll need to relinquish my RKV for something cheaper and not OTL, so the timing is good.

Pre Head-fi, the pads on my MB Quart QP 55Xs, which had served me well for around 15 years (despite me readily reading max volume on whatever Mac I owned at the time with them) were dying, as can been seen in this picture. Confused about the insane range of ATs available in the electronics stores, I decided to register...big mistake. My first rig was a pair of ALO K701s (purchased second-hand) with an LD MKV. Realising amping wasn't enough, I bought an Apogee Duet locally, despite it being overpriced here. The result was , because the amp was lousy and the headphones didn't entirely suit my musical tastes, though I didn't know it well enough at the time. But the picture is pretty, if nothing else.

If I'm ever lucky enough to come across a pair at the price you paid for them, I might have to sell my HD-800s. I foresee you neglecting the rest of your collection for a while now you have them.

I tried Pure Vinyl briefly a few weeks ago, just after my iLok for Amarra arrived. I am liking Amarra (Mini) a little better at the moment, but then its improvement over iTunes is a little more colourful (for want of a better description). The Pure Music special is certainly a hell of a lot better value than Amarra Mini though, and it uses a lot less memory and is a lot less flakey with Apple Lossless files than the current Amarra Mini build.

Happy Birthday Nate.

I have been very much enjoying listening with n3rdling's Omega I's for the last couple of days out of a T1S. If I had known that I'd have had this opportunity I would have gotten to work on the eXStatA faster, however, despite that, they are awesomely sweet cans in the rig as it is. If I don't listen with my re-cabled HD-800s first, then I don't miss their spacious sound. If I could get hold of a pair myself, I could very well stop here and be happy. Likely I will with O2s and the eXStatA if the combo is as sweet as this.

I'm thinking of taking a chance and going straight for the JH-16s when I get a pair myself. I need to find out if I can use the DIY earmoulds myself as finding an audiologist here would require trying to justify 4-figure IEMs to my wife, which I'm not going to go near.

I'd avoid visiting The Pirate Bay by the way, as friends have been reporting that their computers were infected by that site.

I'm hoping Apple will hurry up and release the new MBPs. The Apple Store manager has offered me 10% off if I buy a 15", i7 iMac or Mac Pro and the 3GB of RAM I currently have is not enough for Aperture 3, which is a bigger RAM hog than Photoshop. I want an Air for my wife, as she has bad rheumatism in her hands and can barely lift her Powerbook.

I've been thinking that, with the keyboard. I want the iPad though for myself.

Could be that too, but this supposedly came from Tenor themselves. I figured it was worth noting in case anyone intends to buy one.

Nice one. My wife was shocked how much faster my 3yo MBP was than her much older 1Ghz Powerbook. Time for a MacBook Air for her I think. She needs something lighter and less easy for the little one to damage by pulling the power cable.