Currawong

You are right, it should have a manual in the box, considering how many switches it has.

I'm over your touchiness too. Will be interesting to chat about in a year at the next Canjam, along with other stuff.

I just saw pics of naamanf's build. It looks modular enough that I'm interested in attempting much the same thing, though I doubt I could match the casework at all. What I'd like to know is, how hard would it be for an amateur like me to build something much the same? My level of technical literacy extends as far as knowing what components are, and how circuits work basically. I can handle soldering well enough and I recognise the TP modules. Also, what would be the $$ for the innards? Less than $1k? I reacall someone saying they'd spent $700 already on building one.

Considering grawk had a go at me for writing it in chat, I'm surprised none of you read the FAQ, which tells you what the S button does. I was hoping you'd all tried the Ref 1 instead, as it's more in line with the kind of gear you're used to listening with.

I borrowed a pair of ESW10s, and, unlike the last two times I tried them, I actually like them a lot, to the point they have distracted me from using the Stax rig. If the HF-2s can produce more magic than the ESW10s do, then I'll be most pleased. Yummy mids certainly sounds promising, as the 10s seem to either need more burn-in or possibly a better cable to make good theirs.

Damn you all, I pulled the trigger. I blame the aluminium. The irony is that they'll likely arrive well before the HD-800s.

According to this post, this is Ray listening to the Pico Slim.

Transmit is the best IMO, if you don't mind paying for it.

I recommend having a read of this before putting faith in DBT. As I was trying to point out before, most forum-initiated DBTs I've read were invalid. Just because a test was double-blind does not make it "scientifically valid".

Damn, this is killing me I couldn't go. Good to hear. I'm looking forward to people's impressions with a Blue Hawaii/O2 rig. Also, even if you think that expensive power cables are BS, at least borrow someone's stupidly expensive power cable and see if there's a difference using it vs. stock on the Ref 1. The second AFAIK. The first was a guy who (unofficially) works for Senn who posted a pic of his balanced HD-800s on HF. All the same, it's good to read more impressions. Now, of course, we finally know the real reason for the delay, that being the paint. I had suspected the reason was that some or other part wasn't robust enough. Unfortunately my pair will first be delivered to a hi-fi nut friend in Cali who wants to try them first. I'll bet he ends up ordering a pair himself or trying to persuade me to let him keep them.

I recommend getting these for an O2 rig. I have a pair, and they make a serious difference over cheap cables. x2 DBTs can go shove it. All the ones I've seen people do on various forums were invalid.

I've not had any issues with anything I bought that was set for 110V here.

I'm daft, you're right. I was thinking of the DSP.

I'm afraid I'm going to have to bail on Canjam this year. There's just too much going on (family the main thing) and I can't find reasonable flights at the times I want.

24/192 AFAIK. You're giving me a visual image of a mob, shovels and other tools in hand heading towards Head-fi. I'm going to have to bail on Canjam I'm afraid. Too much happening here for me to go and I couldn't get flights at the times I wanted. I was hoping there'd be more technical discussion here about the designs, but I guess that will have to wait.

I assure you, neither of my hands are under the table at any time. God help me if I actually ever say that a piece of equipment brings me more enjoyment listening to music.

I was doing really well, I'd put the O2's Craig lent me back in their flight case and was happy listening with the LNS on the 007t as they were better suited, being brighter. But then Craig handed me a new headpad for them and asked me if I could put them on the O2s, so out of their box they came again. Of course, then I had to plug them in and see how they were with the new headband and dammit I'm done for again.

I think it needs an engraved shovel. HF-1's aren't my style, so I can happily pass on this headphone. It'll be HD-800s or Stax as my choice soon.

How about a Stax rig? If someone has a T1S, 007t or 717, since they have balanced inputs, and Lambdas or Omegas as appropriate, that would do it.

Awesome. I've started discussions with the wife about attending. If I can find suitable flights then it wont be a problem I think.

Nice to see MS working on fixing their OS, instead of adding more crap. I know someone who was on the Vista kernel team, and he couldn't get another job inside of M$, so disgusted was the rest of the company with anyone who worked on Vista. Snow Leopard I'm looking forward to. Early reports show apps using a fuckload less RAM. The horrific bloatware many apps have become really annoys me. I can easily chew up 3GB.

I've only ever seen two, and one of them is mine (which I gather did the rounds around HF), the other being spritzer's mint one. They use the same drivers as the SR-X don't they?

I have a few stacks of smallish plastic drawers, each draw being similar crap, eg: USB cables in one, ICs in another, computer parts, etc etc. It gets a bit screwed up -- I've found, say, the same kind of item stored in 3 different places when I've forgotten I had already created a storage space for it. Once in a while, I pull absolutely everything out and re-sort it and get rid of shit I don't want or need. I'm a bit OCD though, i cable-tie-and-tube the fuck out of the cables behind my computer, even though I hardly look at them. I hate seeing ugly masses of cables though. Once in a while I completely pull apart my computer rig...and yeah...same shit again, re-wire it all to perfection. Now, when I get the tired of the layout of a room...then there's a day of complete anarchy.

screaming_oranges: I think you were thinking of AKG K1000s, which aren't electrostats. Most Stax headphones (or "earspeakers" as they were named) sit like regular headphones, more or less. The Sennheiser HD-60 and HD-90 especially are roughly the same size and shape as HD-600/650s. The main difference is that they don't use a voice-coil diaphram like ordinary headphones.

Dreadhead, it's not the end of the world if you've missed out. There will be other 717s and O2s available. It was just incredibly unlucky that this one happened to both end just before the major Golden Week holiday (which was why it went so cheap) and Craig had to deal with family stuff. Actually, I could have very easily sniped that auction myself, since I have my own Yahoo ID here, but I knew there would be people here that wanted that and don't take advantage of situations that way.