Thinking about getting an L3000...

[vcoheda]

Heck, you think the RS-1 sounds great out of the Raptor.

yes. but i am not the only one. many experienced head-fiers have reported good synergy between the raptor and grados.

[Dusty Chalk]

Hey, I tried.

Oh, and: pretty much anything else.

[recstar24]

many people also attend special parties for the sole purpose of acquiring HIV.

Really? Sign me up, that sounds badass

[Nanoha]

Really? Sign me up, that sounds badass

[Nanoha]

yep.

Horrible.

[aerius]

yes. but i am not the only one. many experienced head-fiers have reported good synergy between the raptor and grados.

The problem is lots of people on Head-fi confuse bling gear and high post counts with actual experience. For many of these people, a Grado 325 or RS-1 with a Raptor and Benchmark DAC1 is the best thing they've ever heard, they don't have experience with anything better. If you mention "Cary 300SEI" on Head-fi, most people on Head-fi will go "holy shit 300B this is the best amp ever!!!!11", while people with actual experience will go "meh...".

Very few people on Head-fi have actually heard the truly great stuff, and even fewer of them post there since they've grown sick of the toxic atmosphere.

[Nanoha]

even fewer of them post there since they've grown sick of the toxic atmosphere.

Yes. Most of the people whose opinions I respect are rather quiet now.

[ojnihs]

yes. but i am not the only one. many experienced head-fiers have reported good synergy between the raptor and grados.

for the love of god don't equate post count with experience. post count on head-fi is meaningless. i mean look at trose or remember jagwire?

[Icarium]

The problem is lots of people on Head-fi confuse bling gear and high post counts with actual experience. For many of these people, a Grado 325 or RS-1 with a Raptor and Benchmark DAC1 is the best thing they've ever heard, they don't have experience with anything better. If you mention "Cary 300SEI" on Head-fi, most people on Head-fi will go "holy shit 300B this is the best amp ever!!!!11", while people with actual experience will go "meh...".

Very few people on Head-fi have actually heard the truly great stuff, and even fewer of them post there since they've grown sick of the toxic atmosphere.

Yeah f bling'd out gear and high post counts. I choose to place my stock in those veteran writers of those 50 portable amps reviewed!! threads. Have you SEEN the sweet A-F grading systems some of those reviewers use? Veritable street cred factories. I only wait breathlessly for the day when I amass a throne made out of darth beyers made with deep, full breasted cups sculpted from extinct woods and have my own sweet portable amps review thread going so I can command the respect that will inevitably follow.

*Okay yeah that was kind of a non-sequitor mini-rant*

[aerius]

...or remember jagwire?

I thought I had successfully repressed all memories of that twerp. Unfortunately, I'm mistaken.

[ojnihs]

I thought I had successfully repressed all memories of that twerp. Unfortunately, I'm mistaken.

my bad!

[n_maher]

I guess if gear counts I'm seriously regressing. I went from a beta22, to a Wheatfield HA-2 to a balanced mini3. OH NOS!

[aerius]

Yeah, I own a freakin' Denon from the early to mid 90's, my amp is a bunch of parts on a perfboard, my cables were from the surplus store, but at least I have an RS-1!

[Nanoha]

i don't even have a headphone rig, beat that.

Wait, is everything gone?

[ojnihs]

i only have an iPhone and etys. was thinking about getting something to drive my HD580's, but I'm not sure what to get. has to be cheap though. i was thinking mini3

[grawk]

i only have an iPhone and etys. was thinking about getting something to drive my HD580's, but I'm not sure what to get. has to be cheap though. i was thinking mini3

The tooleaudio balanced mosfet amplifier does a great job of driving 580s. And has cinemag transformers to balance the iphone input...

[ojnihs]

The tooleaudio balanced mosfet amplifier does a great job of driving 580s. And has cinemag transformers to balance the iphone input...

sounds nice, but how much we talking here

[grawk]

sounds nice, but how much we talking here

Probably less than $1400 in parts.

[ojnihs]

Probably less than $1400 in parts.

yeah....way out of me price range...although i'd love to have one

[ojnihs]

The tooleaudio balanced mosfet amplifier does a great job of driving 580s. And has cinemag transformers to balance the iphone input...

pretty sweet that it can balance an unbalanced input signal. wasn't aware that that was even a possibility.

[philodox]

pretty sweet that it can balance an unbalanced input signal. wasn't aware that that was even a possibility.

There are a bunch of ways you can do it, though most of the 'commercial' balanced headphone amps don't bother due to cost.

I didn't both with mine since the whole point of a balanced rig is that it be balanced from start to finish. I may build a little unbalanced to balanced converter at some point to use with my computer rig, but it is definately not a priority.

As for all the RSA talk... The apache and the B52 are not TERRIBLE sounding amps. I'd even say they are high end relative to a lot of the other stuff out there. High end has more to do with the cost and target market anyways. Now, are they good high end? No. Based on their MSRP and their general design you can do a lot better. Now, if they took the guts from either and put them in a simple case and charged a reasonable amount for them [marked them up 50% lets say]... I think you'd see a lot less people bitching.