Wow - ordered it yesterday (Sunday) and got an email at 5:47 this morning (Monday) with a tracking number! Does Arthur ever sleep?

Well, I just ordered a V281 to take advantage of the currency discount - hope I don't regret not going with the Taurus. I prefer the McIntosh house sound to say Spectral or Bryston, so I figure I will be happier with the Violectric.

Yeah, I figured the Cardas cables might have to go.

I'm very confused after reading this thread - I was set to get a Taurus Mk II, but now I'm torn between it and the V281. My current cans are older HD650's and Oppo PM-3's (purchased primarily to use with my Pono), but I am planning on picking up one or more of PM-1, HD800 or possible LCD-X...

Woo WA-2 but I'm probably replacing it with a Auralic Taurus MK II later this summer. I'm tired of the snipe hunt for NOS tubes and paying outrageous prices.

Which, of course, begs the questions as to whether the LCD-3's are worth $2000. I can get a loaner pair of LCD-3's from The Cable Co and I can always send the PM-1's back to Oppo or AudioAdvisor if I don't like them.   That will be this fall's project.

Not to get too far OT, but different how? I understand the PM-1 is slightly darker than the PM-3?

Not sure how the amp in the Pono compares power-wise to what player you are considering, but my new PM-3's have sufficient volume in single-ended mode. On the rare classical album that is mastered quite low (much of the Reference Recording stuff, for instance) I run the volume in the Pono at or...

Got the PM-3's today and I'm very pleased so far with how they sound on the Pono. There is some upper midrange/lower treble energy that is missing on the HD650's that significantly reduces the veiling on certain instruments/ranges (piano an octave or more above middle C for instance). There is...

I'm planning on picking up a Taurus MK II this fall, so going balanced full time on the Senn's is not a problem. Im assuming there are decent mini-XLR to dual TRS adapters?

Yup. Got the firmware updated (finally - what a MCF) and some music loaded - thing sounds pretty damn good right out of the box with the HD650. The problem is volume - on many classical albums that are mastered lower in level, I don't have enough volume with the 650's.   Now the question is...

Not sure I follow what you're saying. The PM-3's are apparently very efficient (confirmed by the InnnerFidelity measurements) with a pretty flat impedence of about 26 ohms so I doubt the Pono will have difficulty driving them. I realize Tyll recommended 30 ohms or higher, but I wasn't expecting...

After going blind reading reviews of semi-portable closed phones to use with my new Pono player, I settled on the PM-3's (nowhere to audition anything decent in town). Unfortunately I won't be able to really audition them on my main rig versus the HD650's I have since the WA-2 is OTL and...

Well, I'm going down to a local Pono retailer today to pick one up to use on our summer travel. Also ordered some Oppo PM-3's to use with it along with my HD650's (may spring for the Moon balanced cable for the Sennheisers). It will be interesting to see how it compares to my full size rig. 

Good to hear - I was rather amazed at how much worse it sounded with the stock power cable.