Currawong

From what I gather though, the Tenor chip is unreliable according to the maker of the chip themselves, something re-enforced by my Audiotrak Prodigy Cube (which uses one) dying on me soon after I bought it.

I got a bit of a shock a couple of days ago when I decided to compare the output of the Fun (with DIR9000/AD1852/HDAM) to the Ref 1. When I switched between them in the midst of a song, I could initially hear no difference. Knowing that both would have been voiced the same and that tonal differences are much easier to spot than detail and that they likely have similar output voltage and impedance might explain things. It could also be that the Fun has a great DAC or that the Ref 1 is really just not that great, or my hearing is or has gone to shit. I tried both with a Phoenix and HD-800s and a T1 with LNS, and switching to a CDP as a source and the result was the same, though after some time listening the differences started to become apparent. When I compared a DAC19MKIII w/PMD100 to the Ref 1 there was not a small difference, nor with the Ref 1 to Assemblage DAC 3.0, but that was distinctly a tonal difference at the very least. Maybe I need to pay more attention to the electrical properties of the output and input of gear I have or play with.

What you describe reminds me of the Goldpoint, which IIRC is somewhat as you describe. When I had one, it took a bit of use to settle down. Fair call on your comments on those attenuators though -- if they are crap they are crap and making a mistake deciding to use them is just that.

That sale annoys me, as my pair arrived with dents, so as much as I understand Todd gets a lot of respect, I have to wonder how my pair got out the door in the first place. Maybe they weren't dented enough to be called B-stock?

The stepped attenuator pissed a lot of people off on the C2C actually, because they didn't realise that they can be a bit noisy when changing the volume. I don't think they are worth it for the tiny improvement they make at that price range.

Win! I didn't realise how deep that snow was in the pictures till i saw the table and BBQ. I haven't seen snow like that since I visited Alaska. Glad to hear you've got power back.

Amarra Mini does for me seem to make the music sound better. All I know about it technically is that it uses the input clock somehow, I imagine for output instead of whatever Apple's Core Audio or iTunes uses. Vs the cost of the rest of my gear, the $295 it was recently was worth it for me.

They do have a unique name though entirely, even though they are a mod, so the point is moot, isn't it? I wouldn't be surprised if Rhydon eventually has it in mind to have the entire headphone built from scratch and not just be a mod, if enough people bought them. Now though I'd imagine it'd be too expensive to do.

Voltron: Nice write-up and nice music too. It sounds like they've dropped the power in favour of lower noise. They are great IMO if one has a balanced DAC for whatever reason and wants to get the most out of it, but doesn't want to bother with balanced headphones. I've seen them go for under $100k yen on Yahoo, so about $1400 or so shipped probably. The Japanese abandon stuff that isn't the latest, so right now they are a bargain IMO. Craig@Kuboten might still the one I borrowed, which I think he put on the 'gon for $1500 as well.

Forgive me if I missed someone else suggest it, but why not make a break-out dongle with a 1/4" and 4-pin XLR jack coming which plugs in using something infrequently used, like a 5 or more pin XLR? At least then it can't be plugged into the wrong amp easily.

New Magnum Lite for a very reasonable-sounding $199 ($500 including a pair of MS2i), the only difference being it uses the stock forks. Rather scary that the forks cost half the original mod. HF-2s can be modded as well.

You're supposed to order them through Kuboten.com (Lobstersan) then email to him to say that I'm allowed to borrow them for a week or two to try them (I live around the corner from him). Ok, joking aside, I did give them a go at a local electronics store on their high-end rig, but I find it hard to evaluate ATs with their ridiculously forward mids. If you do like the AT house sound though, they have a LOT of very nice bass, and the ~X versions have a much brighter and more pleasant (to my ears anyway) treble. It'd be interesting to get your and other people's impressions of them.

I'd love it if he walked on stage, went through MacBook Pro and other updates, profits and all the usual crap, then said: "Oh, one more thing. No, it's not an iPad or iTablet or iSlate. We do have a new Macbook though..." then proceeded to totally blow our minds with "It". IMO though, if you watch the Knowledge Navigator, and pay attention to the interaction in the video with the device, then apply all the possibilities that have come from technology since then, I think you will "get" what Steve Jobs is aiming for. With Safari, the iPod, iPod games, the ATV and whatnot, you can see how Apple has been slowly preparing for this. SJ was just waiting for the technology to be able to do what he envisaged.

If Lambdas existed with O2 levels of detail, I'd have stayed with exactly this rig. It's a good demo for anyone with the mistaken impression that Stax don't have bass, specially if you put Herbies dampers on the tubes. My HD-800s are on the chopping block too for this reason, even if they are the technically better headphones, they aren't as much damn fun, and anyway, once my eXStatA is built, they likely don't stand a chance.

I thought you only got beaten when you re-posted reviews of gear built by people who can't solder a piece of wire to a connector. I appreciate your reviews, though agree with Asr to the effect that you need to try a much more serious DAC sometime. I wouldn't call the HE-5s I have "forward". The mids are a bit further back than with my HD-800s and somewhat further back than the Magnums. It has a nice balance between sounding wide and intimate which is hard to describe. I use mine only from the Audiovalve RKV via the impedance adaptor, as it seems to be a great match with them. I think this means the HD-800s will be the sacrifice for the RK, as the Magnums are now my "fast and detailed" headphones of choice.

I'm re-posting aimlink's review and my reply here as I think they offer a useful perspective: Interesting thoughts aimlink. I just received an Audiovalve RKV Mark II tube amp. It's not as detailed and warmer than my Phoenix. Interestingly I found that I prefer the Magnums balanced from the Phoenix as that brought out a high level of detail and, I feel a match that has taken my listening enjoyment to another level, whereas the RKV has that syrupy smoothness at the slight expense of detail and treble extension which is enjoyable in a different way. With the RKV I prefer the slightly slower and more mid-range-lush HE-5s which are fatiguing balanced from the Phoenix, possibly due to the treble peak in their frequency response. When I found the Magnums to be fast and detailed, it was listening to music such as Chopin, SRV and jazz, where there is a particular focus on the mid-range, and often not so the treble. It was then I felt they delivered a very natural and pure presentation of instruments that I had not heard through dynamic headphones before. What this leads me to believe is that the Magnums are excellent value if you already have a very detailed high-end rig (compared to HD-800s which cost over 2x as much), but similar to what you concluded, with less than that they may not be as great a value proposition. I hope that makes sense.

I like being finally able to re-size the chat window. The logo looks awesome too.

Audiovalve RKV arrived last night. I sent the little one and mum off to the grandparents' place so I have some free time to listen to music, fix and solder things and do some re-oganisation and cleaning.

I'm booked from the 4th to the 7th, but might cut that back to the 6th depending on flight times. I need to sit down with a travel agent who can do the mental maths with flights and time zones as my brain just refuses to.

The old VBulletin had a grossly messed-up theming system, so I'm glad they rebuilt it using proper templates and icons that look stylish instead of amateur.

Extra-long stand-offs/spacers for sitting boards on while I work on them. 16V 220mf caps and a 4-pin socket for DC power to fix a couple of WTF failures. RCA to BNC adaptors. A BNC to BNC 75 Ohm cable. An Audiovalve RKV MKII with a bunch of tubes and OPAMPs. A crapload of small Oyaide LODS.

Posing using quick reply, which uses ajax (the fancy javascript that allows you to update the page without reloading the whole thing), followed by a lost connection and the browser window being left open will do that. Scissor lifts are safe enough. I'd still hunt down a training manual for one and go through it. They work best in places such as factory and shop floors which are flat everywhere. They are absolutely not for any place that isn't dead flat, and not for anywhere where heavy equipment can't roll without damage, so inside one's house is going to be out of the question unless you have concrete floors. Some idiot at one of the stores I worked at thought it'd be cool one day to take a forklift from the receiving dock onto the wooden shop floor and it broke through the wood, which made for an entertaining time getting it lifted out. Still, they are great for working anywhere where otherwise ladders or scaffolding would be required but where either of the other is a nuisance or inappropriate.

Nice going. I saw some people bought $100 of tickets too, which is great.

Relatives of mine in Japan living in an apartment with a staircase that folds out of the ceiling which is quite awesome. I'm not sure how readily available such a thing would be where you are, but if the ceiling isn't very high at some point, such as a hallway, it could work well. Edit: Just saw KG's post: Scissor lifts FTW if you have plenty of flat spaces to drive them around and use them.

Tried Data Rescue III? What exactly happened when you tried DiskWarrior? For future reference, never ever do this. I'd fairly recommend pulling all the data off, re-formatting and starting again. Their is no other solution that will be reliable.