Mine recently died, last year actually, after replacing the pot (Alps pots are great but not impervious to over a decade of riding the volume), which didn't work out so well due to my crappy de-soldering skills. The PCB quality of Little Dot products are suspect in my opinion. Prior to that, I...

There are 4 fuses on the PCB. Two for each channels' bridge rectifier. You would need to desolder them and solder in new ones. I've recapped and fixed various things (mainly from my lazy soldering habits) in my MK V more times than I care to remember. I got it in 2009 or so. It's finally bit...

This is one reason why I still have a Sound Card - the DSP options. The Sound Blaster Z has an adjustable "smart volume" option.

Making/ getting your own PCBs made aren't tough these days. But it does add extra design work since it adds resistance, etc. over just soldering components directly to each other.

Thin box cutter razor and stab down. Move over a few millimeters and stab down again... do this all the way around. The razor should go down about a quart inch or so. Then use the blade to pry up the driver a little bit at a time... all the way around. The thickness of the razor might cause the...

Mogami Neglex W2534 - for my now destroyed Grado SR-80e... so they're going on my HD 600 when it gets here in a few day... I'm done with Grado horrible build quality.

Creative is claiming 7.1 Virtual Headphone for the new card. So I'm guessing they updated SBX Pro Studio. I would assume it presents 7.1 channels to Windows, and just down mixes it to 5.1 channels if you're using 5.1 analog output. Really interested in the reviews. My SBz has had no issues...

Yeah, figured as much.

If I use Mogami 2534, is there anything I can do with the shielding when the cable will be ran unbalanced? ...like split the shielding after the Y, wrap them around each channel leg, and terminate them on the driver ground along with the dedicated ground wire?

Thanks for the recommendation

Excellent point. I never really found the bass to lacking, tbh. But the highs are a bit harsh. So I was thinking of putting in some insulation on the grill and maybe dampen the back of the driver with dynamat or something like that. It's been over a year since I looked at mods for Grados, so I...

So after a few years of use, my e series cables have frayed and broke twice. The upper part after the Y split is totally stiff. Completely junk wires Grado uses... will rewire very soon. Maybe vent mod them since I'll have them opened.

What really got me looked at other pads than the S pads is that hair would keep on getting stuck in them and "poke" the driver sometimes.

The L cush on the 80e really makes it more clear and detailed. Although it does reveal more of the "harshness" that the highs can have, it doesn't really make them more fatiguing or even make that area louder. I put the L cushions on last week and I think I'll keep them on.

Just replaced the stock pads on my 80e with the L cushions, and I really like the difference it makes. Everything is more clear. It's not louder, just more detailed, if anything, it does reveal the somewhat harsh nature of the highs - but it doesn't make it more fatiguing. I might felt the...

  Maybe since you can't eq one key on a piano compared to another one when they're both playing nearly at the same time.

  Thanks for the advice. I don't think the diaphragm gets misshapen once the hair is removed. When I take the cushion off, I can see one or two hair sticking through it, so I just pull them out. It's the act of putting them on and I think my sideburns and hair above my ears get easily trapped...

SR-80e here (driven by little Dot MK V amp and little Dot DAC_1)   Got them about 12 months ago. One pivot post broke on the left driver, cheap plastic.   I like the sound, but the build quality is junk, frankly. Also, hair constantly get's beyond the foam and causes the bass to crackle...

Old thread from the dead,      This AMP is very neutral and precise. It's not supposed to color the sound in anyway. If you have junk source, you'll get louder junk. If you have an excellent source, you'll get excellent sound. I you're use to an old setup and use this and don't like the sound...

why are people talking about grounding on digital connections (USB)? Unless the noise causes errors, you're golden - yes/ no?

For me CMSS Headphone is better than Dolby headphone for movies at least as I haven't tried it with games. To me, CMSS goes for positioning. Dolby Headphone goes towards simulating a theater environment with more reverb and less positional accuracy.

CMSS has different modes. It'll create virtual speakers from a stereo system. It'll simulate a surround sound environment with headphones (different setting that the virtual speaker mentioned before) and it'll up convert stereo to multichannel in a number of ways.

For compressed audio, I like it (read: you-tube and other bad sources). For well encoded music and lossless, I leave it off. CMSS Headphone is great by the way. I use it for gaming and movies. With music, you'll notice the distortion though.

With 300 ohm headphones, I'd get a headphone amp. I used to plug my 50 ohm HD595 directly into the Prelude, and it was loud enough, but some areas in the music were weak. I've since got a little dot mk V and HD600 running off the Prelude - definitely no issues driving phones now.

Essence STX unless you want the X-Fi features (real and full EAX support for games and CMSS technology) Those features make a difference for me