Source upgrade?

[humanflyz]

In the words of The Wolf: "let's not start sucking each other's dicks quite yet."

[Icarium]

Yeah I just realized I haven't heard JP raving about his Cosecant anywhere that I can see. I called him up and asked him about that just now (Left a message).

[tkam]

What Alex does that is markedly different is if you send in something for a minor upgrade or fix he gets it done in an appropriate length of time. I.e. fast if its something simple. There's none of the wait 1 year for a voltage swap or capacitor swap or whatever craziness

Well I don't know about that, when I bought my apl sacd 1000 used about 2+ years ago now I had the seller send it directly to Alex. This was around the time that Alex started offering balanced outputs and I wanted that option installed. It took a little over 3 months with almost zero communication before it was done. I'm not doubting that he's better with the communication and wait time now but my experience wasn't so hot regarding those two issues. The player does sound great and I guess I'm one of the few lucky ones to never have a single problem with the sacd 1000 so I can't complain too much .

I will say that the long wait with APL did a nice job of preparing me for Mikhail wait times

[Icarium]

Hrm I'm not sure I understand the anti upgrade sentiment. Do you not like having the option to improve your hardware or do you feel that makers trickle out these upgrades to string you along for cash?

I am always a fan of having the option to pay ~1k to make my product the equal of its successor rather than pay retail price for the new product itself (Since the new version may not be available at a good price on the used market/audiogon).

As far as getting strung along... well I mean in the end its your choice. Even if its a choice I'd never make I'd rather have the option there then not. I feel his upgrades/tweaks are pertty substantial. Different tubes for the output stage. Different amount of DACs or different type of DAC chip altogether. Better upsampler. Better clocks. These aren't your average capacitor/wire/resistor/transformer/power supply upgrades (Which btw I am pro existing as well.) that Alex offers. As technology progresses so can his products.

And I think his upgrade prices are pretty reasonable. The price for a new 3.0 GO is 30k. The price of the NWO 2.5T (Previous version) was 25k. It costs 4k to upgrade the NWO 2.5t to a 3.0GO. Can always not upgrade if you think its bogus for the money. Shrug.

Options are good to have.

[Icarium]

Well I don't know about that, when I bought my apl sacd 1000 used about 2+ years ago now I had the seller send it directly to Alex. This was around the time that Alex started offering balanced outputs and I wanted that option installed. It took a little over 3 months with almost zero communication before it was done. I'm not doubting that he's better with the communication and wait time now but my experience wasn't so hot regarding those two issues. The player does sound great and I guess I'm one of the few lucky ones to never have a single problem with the sacd 1000 so I can't complain too much .

I will say that the long wait with APL did a nice job of preparing me for Mikhail wait times

Oh interesting. No I don't think wait times are better now. Definitely worse now if you take in the current page of 2.5ts (Some have been upgraded into 3.0 GOs with the onset of the new DACs). My opinion and experiences are probably a little bit out of sync (As are the Bay Area customers that I've talked to irl and on forums) since we live relatively close to him.

For instance 2 weeks ago my Esoteric UX-1 (After 2 weeks of ownership) was having an issue where the tray wouldn't open up all the way when I hit open. I could manually pull the tray out and close it with the open/close button. Needless to say I freaked the hell out and emailed Alex and Esoteric. Twas a Sunday, but he was like hey drive up and I'll take a look. Drove up and he fixed it in like 10 minutes and I took the time to listen to his stuff. Other guy I am basing my info on is this local guy I've been talking to on the forums and I've heard his modified Denon. He says that he's sent it in 3-4x for upgrades and he always got it back in a 1-2 week turn around time. Was going to buy his unit... but then I found out that it's not true balanced :(

[boomana]

Yeah I just realized I haven't heard JP raving about his Cosecant anywhere that I can see. I called him up and asked him about that just now (Left a message).

Ya gotta keep up with him. He's moved on to his next thing: new speakers (not yet purchased). I know he likes the Cosecant a lot. He's bringing it back to Florida for us to hear. He was, though again ya gotta keep up with him so hard to tell, talking about keeping the Cosecant in the bedroom, and getting a Crimson for whatever room he's talking about now. I sure miss having him around.

Dan, did you just pick up mikeg's almost brand new recabled K701s and Yamamoto? If so, he's sold off ALL his headphones in the last few months: HE90s, R10s, and now these. He loves his new speakers! I guess he's keeping his Yuin PK1s

[Icarium]

I didn't know he was selling. I heard that his Yamamoto was in shop for repairs. I already have one myself that I use with my work rig so I'm not looking for one.

And I'm not the biggest K701 fan.

I just got in his R10 today. About to take it home with me from work.

[boomana]

I didn't know he was selling. I heard that his Yamamoto was in shop for repairs. I already have one myself that I use with my work rig so I'm not looking for one.

And I'm not the biggest K701 fan.

I just got in his R10 today. About to take it home with me from work.

I thought you got his R10s moons ago. Congrats and enjoy!!! I saw that you'd posted new feedback and made my assumption based on the fact I thought the 701s were the only headphones he now had. Plus, he's in love with those JBL nearfield monitors, bought three (yes, count 'em) turntables and is now out hunting down vinyl wherever he can. No time for headphones. He's bringing everything to the Oct meet.

The 701s are not my fav, but Gene let me have his Jena ALO recabled pair for a few weeks, and my opinion on them has changed greatly. The recable and a couple tube switches really filled them out, even the bottom end. They were pretty impressive, and I totally get why people love them, but for me to get something new, they would have to trounce my R10s, K1000s, or 650/600, or seriously arouse my curiosity, like the TakeT has. They don't do that.

[Nanoha]

I didn't know he was selling. I heard that his Yamamoto was in shop for repairs. I already have one myself that I use with my work rig so I'm not looking for one. I just got in his R10 today. About to take it home with me from work.

R10, very nice. What do you think of the Yamamoto so far by the way?

Plus, he's in love with those JBL nearfield monitors, bought three (yes, count 'em) turntables and is now out hunting down vinyl wherever he can. No time for headphones.

JBL near-field monitors aye? I should talk to him regarding those. I might need to get some new monitors for our multimedia studio.

[Icarium]

Yamamoto is pretty good. I'm not 100 percent convinced its the best possible value at its price point... I think the Extreme or a 2 channel beta22/dynafet might give it a serious run for its money for that particular title.... but it may be in the running. It does things very good and synergizes pretty well with the w5000 adding warmth/body/tone to a normally thin sounding headphone.

Yeah I finally paid Mikeg all the way off... its been 7 months of thousand dollar payments (R10 + Maxed SDS). I could have probably completed it a lot sooner but when I made the arrangement I was not planning on spending basically all the money in a certain account I actually wasn't supposed to touch period until I dunno I buy a house. An account that if my family ever found out I have emptied I will be disowned and then slain.

[Nanoha]

Yamamoto is pretty good. I'm not 100 percent convinced its the best possible value at its price point... I think the Extreme or a 2 channel beta22/dynafet might give it a serious run for its money for that particular title.... but it may be in the running. It does things very good and synergizes pretty well with the w5000 adding warmth/body/tone to a normally thin sounding headphone.

Ah, very nice. I read that some people had a problem with hum; how has that turned out for you?

Yeah I finally paid Mikeg all the way off... its been 7 months of thousand dollar payments (R10 + Maxed SDS). I could have probably completed it a lot sooner but when I made the arrangement I was not planning on spending basically all the money in a certain account I actually wasn't supposed to touch period until I dunno I buy a house. An account that if my family ever found out I have emptied I will be disowned and then slain.

Oh my. Let's hope that doesn't happen.

[Icarium]

Yes I was one of those that was having some ass issues with hum. It would come and be very audible and only go away sometimes if I quickly switched the amp off and back on. Possibly was a ground loop. Either way when I went to a power strip with single item out of the socket + a signal cable magic reference power cord... hum = gone. Whether it was the power strip or the power cord... either way hum is gone.

[Nanoha]

i would like to hear a Yamamoto. it's very pretty.

Haha, yes. I also think Yamamoto's SET amps (A-08 series) are some of the more beautiful power amplifiers around.

Though, I've come to realize that HA-02 is surprisingly large. I initially thought it was something small and cute.

Yes I was one of those that was having some ass issues with hum. It would come and be very audible and only go away sometimes if I quickly switched the amp off and back on. Possibly was a ground loop. Either way when I went to a power strip with single item out of the socket + a signal cable magic reference power cord... hum = gone. Whether it was the power strip or the power cord... either way hum is gone.

Hmm, interesting. I'm glad it worked out in the end for you. Sometimes it is amazing how much noise/hum is reduced when power strips and upgraded power cords are used; I've personally experienced the difference.

[Icarium]

Surprisingly large? I thought it was tiny when I first saw it. I was moving down from the old style Headroom Home which was significantly wider but about equally as long

[Nanoha]

Hah, I thought it was about 8 inches long when I first saw the product photos.

[boomana]

JBL near-field monitors aye? I should talk to him regarding those. I might need to get some new monitors for our multimedia studio.

They're JBL 6328Ps and I have to say, they sound really nice. I got to hang out with them for awhile in Sarasota. Mike actually took a measuring tape out to place the chair in just the right spot. I'd check out any recommendation he gives. He has pretty impeccable tastes and great ears. I don't agree with him on what we like some of the time, but he's always dead on with what's what.

[Nanoha]

Awesome, thanks for the info. I'll have to ask him for advice sometime!

[deepak]

Yamamoto is pretty good. I'm not 100 percent convinced its the best possible value at its price point... I think the Extreme or a 2 channel beta22/dynafet might give it a serious run for its money for that particular title.... but it may be in the running. It does things very good and synergizes pretty well with the w5000 adding warmth/body/tone to a normally thin sounding headphone.

Yeah I finally paid Mikeg all the way off... its been 7 months of thousand dollar payments (R10 + Maxed SDS). I could have probably completed it a lot sooner but when I made the arrangement I was not planning on spending basically all the money in a certain account I actually wasn't supposed to touch period until I dunno I buy a house. An account that if my family ever found out I have emptied I will be disowned and then slain.

Key to saving money on a house: do not buy a fireplace imported from Italy

[Fing]

Icarium,

Congrats on the R10.

Sorry about your account. Once you start the inexorable slide, it's difficult to stop....I hope you can somehow replenish it without your family finding out about it. I was just thinking how much MS engineers must be getting paid to afford your rig(s) and how unfair it is

My Yamamoto had hum issues. I ordered some sets of WE 408a tubes from Sphere research, stuck in a matched pair and it sounds noticeably better. No hum at all since I did the change.

I'll hopefully be comparing it to an upgraded Extreme Platinum soon which retails about 2x the price. I don't think it'll survive, but somehow I find the thought of getting rid of it very hard. It's the most perfectly finished piece of audio equipment I've ever owned (other than the Pilot Lump).

Yamamoto is pretty good. I'm not 100 percent convinced its the best possible value at its price point... I think the Extreme or a 2 channel beta22/dynafet might give it a serious run for its money for that particular title.... but it may be in the running. It does things very good and synergizes pretty well with the w5000 adding warmth/body/tone to a normally thin sounding headphone.

Yeah I finally paid Mikeg all the way off... its been 7 months of thousand dollar payments (R10 + Maxed SDS). I could have probably completed it a lot sooner but when I made the arrangement I was not planning on spending basically all the money in a certain account I actually wasn't supposed to touch period until I dunno I buy a house. An account that if my family ever found out I have emptied I will be disowned and then slain.

[grawk]

I could have probably completed it a lot sooner but when I made the arrangement I was not planning on spending basically all the money in a certain account I actually wasn't supposed to touch period until I dunno I buy a house. An account that if my family ever found out I have emptied I will be disowned and then slain.

Choosing headphone amps instead of house down payment ftw.

[Fing]

Another vote in favour of Gordon's communication and his turn around time. All my emails to him were answered very quickly (often within minutes). When I asked for a balanced output for his Crimson, he figured out how to do it and got back to me with the results within a day (the Crimson uses Autoformers for the output, so switching to balanced out via transformers would have necessitated a change in the output tubes and a change to the connectors in the chassis). I declined the mod in the end since Mikhail offered me a maxed out demo Supra XLR which will accept single-ended and convert the signal to balanced, using transformers funnily enough

Ordering it from Gordon direct also meant he threw in about $1000 worth of extras (a spare set of tubes, Ebony wood finish and an upgraded module board when one became available). He shipped my unit with a week of receiving the money.

I've not had a chance to compare the Crimson to other high end units. I wouldn't say it's vinyl, though perhaps I need to set up some speakers and a turntable to really make a correct comparison. I will say that it has very pure treble, authoritative bass, and extremely good spatial imaging. Dynamics are pretty good - I will have to play with equipment to really check, as it's not quite jump (around) in your seat stuff, though its nearly there. Tone is spot on.

Some pix: http://s32.photobucket.com/albums/d6/firmfroggy/Crimson/

Yeah I've talked to Gordon as well and he knows his shit. Moreover when I acquired the Cosine the upgraded power supply wasn't really working (Cracked connector Gordon diagnosed later) and he fixed it in like a day and shipped it back to me all free of charge. Great service. I got the DAC like 3rd hand too.

[hirsch]

Because I am the way I am, I'm considering upgrading my source, but am not sure. Right now, I'm using an Exemplar modded Denon 2900 as my main source, which I like as much as any I've heard for redbook in a price range that's feasible ($3000-5000). Both the Esoteric DV50 and SA10 beat it out for SACDs imo, but I don't have too many, and probably won't get too many more. I could go the route of the Transporter and the like, but so far, I've only heard the Transporter, which I thought was good, but not good enough to spend my money on. So here's the question: Since I think my redbook player is damn good, would it be worth upgrading now, and if so, what direction to explore? Or, should I just save my money, keep the Denon, and start saving for a vinyl rig?

I did some pretty extensive tube-rolling on the Exemplar 2900, as it just wasn't right when I got it. Once I found the pinch-waist 7062 (E180CC), I stopped tube rolling and listened to music. I also bought enough tubes to keep the Denon running for years, and have not experienced an upgrade itch. it's a clearly better source than the Transporter. I've heard the original version of the Esoteric, but never warmed to it. I also auditioned the Capitole MK II (not the current SE version) and couldn't figure out what the big deal was with that source. I may eventually get a 3910 simply to have the balanced option, but I don't need that with my single-ended SDS, which is where the Denon lives. I recently heard the Meitner single-box unit, but as good as it was it didn't trigger an upgrade urge from the Denon. The pinch-waist tubes used to be on eBay all the time, but I haven't seen them lately. Maybe I got them all I was unsure of just how good the 2900 was until I found those tubes.

Since I've got the Transporter, I think my next move may be an outboard DAC for that. It performs at about the level my Wadia 301 used to before I sold it, but the Denon and the Meridian G08 are both clearly better, and, in all honesty, I prefer the Denon to the Meridian. The 2900 is going to be difficult to find a significant upgrade from (The person who sold me the 2900 went to the 3910 from Exemplar, but admitted that he felt the 2900 might have been the better unit from a musical standpoint. However, he needed balanced output).

[boomana]

I'm using the Amperex pinch-waist 7062.

I've decided to hold off on anything right now, save my money and investigate options. Maybe in about a year I'll be ready, unless an amazing deal on a tt falls into my lap.

[Nanoha]

The Denon is that good aye, hmm. Speaking of source upgrades, I just "potentially" upgraded my source. I'm not sure whether I'm going to keep it though. I'll need to get the opinion of a few friends before I decide.

[Icarium]

Eh, I've heard the 3910s don't really have balanced output. They have XLR outputs but the signal is not true balanced.