Name Your Best Audio Decisions For 2011 - Page 6

Repurchase of HD600s with Cardas and the Apple TV2

Best Buy:

3-way Pioneer sp-fs51-lr Floor speakers

AKG 240DF

Pioneer Monitor 10

1985 Yamaha R-9 Class A receiver


Best Tweaks:

Re-terminated AKG 240 sextetts LP with 4-pin Neutrik male XLR

Re-wired AKG 240DF with 18AWG silver/copper wire for balance use/speaker output use.Gonna terminate it soon to 4-pin male Neutrik XLR soon as well.

DIY female Neutrik 4-pin XLR to 18AWG bare silver/copper speaker wire

DIY 1/4'' Balanced TRS jack to speaker output box

Best Value:

AKG 240DF

Best buy:

Audio Techinica A2000X

STAX SR-404

Beyer DT150

Best tweak:

STAX SR-404LE/SR-507 leather earpads on SR-404.

Best value:

Beyer DT150

Dissapointment:

Audio Technica W5000

u didn't like the W5000?

 

 

I can dig the "Silent Sponsor". Aphrodite Cu29 has been absolutely wonderful to work with.   I've been eyeballing the Electra 5^2 power cords myself. I think one of those is next!

 

 

Over the years I've probably owned at least 4 pairs of the HD600s and 1 pair of the 650s.  That upgrade thing.  Kept coming make to the 600s

My JH16s. No doubt.

 

Best Buy:

 

Meitner MA-1 DAC

 

 

Best Tweak: 

 

Symposium Ultra Platform

 

 

Best Value:

 

Courtesy of the Meitner, being able to utilize my Toshiba laptop as my music server. 

 

 

Best Thread:

 

Audeze LCD-2 Orthos

 

 

Best New Music Discovery: 

 

2L The Nordic Sound 24bit/192khz free download music files

 

Best Decision: selling ALL my equipment and starting over from scratch

 

Favorite (replacement) purchase: Headamp Gilmore Lite with DPS

 

 

might buy 600s next month, but its probably better if i just buy the T1/LCD2 combo instead.

Best Discovery:

 

Ipod Touch 2G isn't as neutral as I thought. Oops. Best thing I did this year was switch to a Sansa Fuze with LOD for portable use.

 

The old PS1 makes one very nice CD player for specific headphones and it only cost me $30!

 

Past $150, price doesn't really always equal better sound quality.

 

Most headphones I like, sadly are not very well know or under-appreciated. More people should check into headphones that fly under the radar.

 

Too many headphones now are severely overpriced for the sound you get.

 

Sounds stupid, but I thought a new K702 cable made no difference due to the internal stock wire still being there. Silver plated copper made me think otherwise. Too bad it's so expensive.

 

Upgrading my DAC to the HRT Music Streamer II is the best improvement I've made this year. Why did I not buy a better dac sooner? Usually prefer CD players, but that will change soon.

 

Q701. Yes, no joke.

 

When people say an amp/dac/headphone is neutral, it usually is not.

 

90% of all Beyerdynamic DT-770-990 headphones are not compatible with my head. Only the DT-770 Pro is. Too bad.

 

You don't really need a tube amp for a 600 ohm (or the K501!!) headphone despite what people say.

 

Mogami wire is the best.

 

Learned how to make my own cables this year and I'm so glad I did.

 

 

Best purchase this year:

 

Headroom Micro Amp (love this thing), HRT Music Streamer II, KRK KNS-6400

 

Worst:

 

DT-990 Pro, ESW9a, D1100 (first headphone that ever made me curse with disgust)

 

Low point:

 

Spending 20+ hours modding T50RP and getting nowhere. Only got glimpses of how good it could sound. It's in a landfill now. Think I had a lemon.

 

Biggest surprise:

 

DT-770 Pro 80 is super comfortable and not as bad as I thought. If I can score a new one for $120 I'd buy it again.

 

AD300 sounds better than the AD700!!

 

White boxed M50 is quite good. Way better than my old pair. Still kind of bores me.

 

yeah its pretty good actually. i personally didn't like the recessed mids, but they're still pretty smooth and everything is all nicely detailed. of course the bass is really nice. either way, i upgraded to the 990-600 ohm and lvoe it!

 

Buying another Zana Deux and picking up a Oppo BDP-95 as my source.  Plays way above it's $1000 price tag with a ton of versatility.  I highly recommend it.  It replaced my Sonic Studio Amarra 4 and I have not looked back.