While this is not an actual discussion-based thread, I'll run the risk of violating a few forum rules and answer the questions above.
Morbid Toaster: Are you suggesting the HEV90 has the incorrect bias to drive the HE90? I doubt you are saying this. The ES/2 is basically coming along for the ride in this sale.
As to the question of why I am selling this system - allow me to humor you with some personal information:
I made a switch from being a Hedge Fund Manager to a Recording Engineer after 2008. It probably doesn't take a genius to figure out what could have caused such a dramatic shift, so I'll leave the life changing epiphanies out. I did production work out of Hyde Street Studios in San Francisco, and ran the 'D' room for a few years. This is the same famed room where the Grateful Dead's American Beauty and Workingman's Dead were recorded, along with Herbie Hancock's Headhunters and Sextent albums; and needless to say, numerous others. I became inspired and had the chance to move to Emeryville where I had some leads with Pixar. This naturally lead to me procuring a small studio space in March of 2011. It was when I was trying to find wiring for that small studio space that I was introduced to the owner of what was then called Bayview Studios. In an attempt to purchase wire cheap from a studio that was shutting down, I went to visit the owner Steve. On the day I was visiting the studio they were wrapping up the interview segments for the documentary 'Through the Universe' which aired on PBS later in the year. I wondered what this place was nobody had ever heard of - the studio itself was incredible, with a great tracking room, and 2 control rooms - one looking down onto the tracking room from the second floor - Abbey Road Style.
Long story short, Steve offered me the studio and I took it over in November of 2011. Bayview studios (the prior name of the studio before I took it over) had recorded everything from Tupac to the Doobie Brothers. A mid 80's to mid 90's sort of slice in musical history. The spot is now called Airship Laboratories, and we focus on traditional recording techniques mixed with modern day digital video production (we don't really have a web presence yet since I have yet to update the placeholder site with our new design). I'm blessed to not only have a large tracking room with high ceilings, two isolation rooms for instruments and vocals, but also a 2 channel listening room for speakers. The best part is the acoustical treatment - the largest cost in properly building modern studios - which I essentially inherited.
Penultimately - a commentary on the state of recording studios in general at this time period: They are dying. The availability of cheaper consumer based products allows musicians to have access to tools they would have previously paid premium studio time for. Couple that with the growing untenability of modern day real estate pricing in contrast to the actual income which these studios actually bring in, and you have a business where, like many others, only the very elite and well placed houses really are profitable and make it. While I am not necessarily doing this to get rich and famous (well, maybe famous ;)), I do need to make ends meet and the equipment costs alone trump a toy like the Orpheus. Seriously. A competitive console setup properly and maintained will set you back over $100k alone.
Ultimately - I had a guitar commissioned for me back in 2008. It has turned into an epic project. In order to rationalize this expenditure along with the costs of the studio, I felt that I needed to sell off something valuable, but that I didn't really need anymore. I remember the day clearly - probably because it was 4 days ago. I came home from a party, sat in my rocking chair late at night, and put on my HE90's while I queued up whatever it was I was into at the time. As I felt the familiar warmth, like hot water flowing through and around my ears and brain, and as the music brought me deeper into alpha, and the ebb and flow of my rocking chair steadied and slowed - I suddenly realized it at once. I couldn't even hear the music anymore, I was just inside my head, but it was a vacant hall. The space suddenly filled with my own large and self-reflective thought - the answer was literally around my head. I felt closure, and felt that it was right. I felt a familiar fondness as I listened to the rest of that evenings playlist for what I knew would likely be one of the last times. I've enjoyed these headphones for 7 years. I posted version 1.0 of this FS Ad at 5:30am that morning. I've felt fine about it ever since.
Yes, apparently headphones can have this effect on people.
Neil
Edited by neilvg - 8/24/12 at 1:21pm
