I'm sure that's true. Niche, technical hobbies are much easier to get into now than 20 years ago. Well, any hobby really. Which means more enthusiasts, with more awareness of how far down the rabbit hole their hobby can go. So it behooves the market to offer deeper and deeper holes.

I wonder if those halo products are really bad for the lower end of the market or not though. The lower end stuff has all gotten much better too. And presumably, the crazy stuff they do in the TOTL headphones eventually trickles down.

GLWS. My daily driver for a while now. Love them. They are special.

I generally bypass for vocal, rock, bassy stuff, etc, and don't bypass for electronic, classical...stuff where I want it sharper.

The thing I like most about this amp is the "more cowbells" switch. I don't remember what it's actually called. But I really like having a quick way to lay on a little more seasoning for some tracks.

I pretty much always EQ it. Sometimes I forget the EQ is off, and I won't immediately notice anything, but over time it will start to bother me, like an itch, and then I'll realize I didn't have the EQ on. It's mainly around upper mids: it's sounds a little...tinny or something.

How would you describe the difference between resolution and detail retrieval? I had thought of them as synonymous.

I have the ZMF Decware too. I run them right out of the Decware. Sounds great.

I have these, they are wonderful. Good price, and these don't up very often.

I suspect it's because many folks in this community like to change gear periodically, just for the sake of trying new stuff. Half the fun is just trying something different now and then. That's been the case for me. I had been using the gsx-mini exclusively for a couple years, loved it, but...

Dumb question: what is “GOTL”?

I don't know...a tube amp *might* not interact with a high impedence planar the same way as a high impedence dynamic...I'm not sure. But at least it lets you try it out. Like, it's pretty cool that I can run the LCD-4 on an OTL amp with no huge downsides.

I picked up the Decware ZMF Reference OTL, and am happy to report that the LCD-4 actually works really well with it. You just need to turn up the input voltage pots to max. It was a pleasant surprise. I was expecting I'd only be able to run dynamics with it.

What gear do you have in that upgraded system?