The diary entries of a little girl! ~ | ~ Latest memoir: oıpnɐ ןɐuıɟ - Page 37  

Very good, thank you. :)
 

Well I guess we'll just discuss architecture while waiting for the XBA reviews to start popping up in Japan then.

So... what's Panasonics offices look like? Toshiba? JVC? Here's a video featuring a Fostex workshop in Japan - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jy0pei91Gg

You actually see a glimpse of the 'TH900' in that video, that was over 2 years ago, they're not in a rush to develop their audio products. :)

We could also discuss some of the new pretty pictures listed here - http://www.head-fi.org/t/578899/headphone-festival-2011-in-tokyo-october-29th-2011-pictorial-bandwidth-warning

I feel pretty intimidated by some of this stuff, I don't think I'm cut out to be an audiophile.

Example: http://www.gem-zk.com/index.html

Seems we have some Sony XBA impressions here, I'm copy-pasting this info from user Mkubota1. (source)

The Sony BA Premium Headphones. For me, these stole the show. I am up to my ears (no pun) in BA IEMs, and while I like each of the ones that I have for their own sound, I promised myself that I would not get anymore of the BA kind (dynamics are still fair game). But these made the exception. Of the four models on hand, I liked the XBA-3sl the most, with the 4sl a reasonably close second. Here are my notes from the 3sl: "wow. Sweet highs! Nice bottom end. A bit of a v-shaped curve. Really smooth upper area though. Bass is pretty big (fat) for a BA. Wow. I have a prediction that this will be a very popular IEM. My god this is one sweet smooth sounding IEM! 2nd listen... still shaking my head. Freq separation and clairty. Man." And when I was listening to them, I actually was shaking my head.

And at a show like this, of course you would meet the lead designer of the line. His business card says:

Naotaka Tsunoda

Sony MVP 2004

Distinguished Engineer Dept No. 1

Personal Entertainment Division

If you Google his name, you will find that he hold multiple patents. I had the honor of having a brief conversation with him, and he pointed to the gentleman on his right as being the lead engineer of the design team. How cool is that? Other Head-Fiers in the group were similarly impressed with the 3sl and 4sl. Some of my notes from the other models: 4sl "warmer and more forward mids from the 3. Like a W4 (Westone) with more balls. This has an exotic sound to it. The highs are similar to the 3s but a little hidden by the midrange- not in a bad way. I'm shaking my head listening to these. It has a slightly dark character to it. I prefer the 3 for now, but this is very nice too." 1sl "same smooth overall character to upper models. Not the same level of sweetness or bass (of the 3), but still really nice. Quite neutral. Over-achiever." 2sl "sort of the opposite character of the 1. Big v shape. Probably the most ordinary of the lineup."

Ah... now this is what I was looking for.

These are the new Fostex TH900 dynamic headphones that were on the promotional poster and material for the show, alongside the HP-A8.

On the downside, I was only able to listen to them for a very brief few minutes since it was almost closing time and I wanted to let the other people in line hear them too. But very quickly after listening to them on the HP-A8, I plugged them into my HP-P1 where I could listen to my reference material. And man, those headphones sounded great! I had been spending the last two weeks listening to Stax 007s and 009s almost every other day at various places. And while I can't really say how they compare directly, what I am saying is that they are in that league (top tier, HD-800, LCD-2/3, etc.). I definitely hope to hear them again sometime soon for a longer period of time.

You see the SD card on the back of the HP-A8? That supports DSD (.DSF) playback.

In other words, you can rip an SACD, transfer it to an SDHC, and play it directly from the Fostex HP-A8, without an SACD player.

Why SACD instead of CD? Because multi-channel on speakers sounds amazing, that's why. I listened to "Björk - Debut" in 5.1 (DVD-A) today, one of my favorite albums, she remastered it a few years ago.

Why DSD instead of PCM, in only 2-channel? Here's a decent article on it - http://www.cirrus.com/en/pubs/whitePaper/DS668WP1.pdf

Hmmm I missed that one too.

Check this out - http://www.ortofon-dj.com/en/products/headphones/263?phpMyAdmin=e5a01501e493495e7d4929f2ae4ee988 the headphone specs link us right back.. to head-fi! AHAhahaha.

Edit: OK, they hired Ultrasone to make them for them, according to Ortofon's desired specs, makes sense, so this is a "DJ" headphone and made by Ultrasone... Errrrrrr

The PRO 2900 look pretty decent and it says they have titanium plated drivers... okay I'll have to try them next time I'm at addictedtoaudio then, I'll bring the EHP-O2. ;)

Turok, see post #549.

No, only the Final Audio headphone deserves the title of a true piece of art (like, in an art gallery) and yet a medieval weapon at the same time.

OK, let me know when you go there.