[Magick Man]

A couple modded ones have appeared in recent weeks at decent prices too. I'm looking for a meaningful improvement in a DAC rather than an incremental one, so I really want to be able to audition models before I start looking for any in earnest.

the guys from Antelope will ship you an eval unit.

 

[veyrongatti]

Quote:

Taken from private PM over the last week or so (edited and only roughly quoted for the sake of not polluting the thread with an encyclopedia sized entry)
 
 
 
 

Ill give you my Crossfade LPs if you fly to Australia from Canada if you give me your Beyers 

Lol but seriously no one would really want the Denons........ You Beyers however will probs sell quickly ^^ 

 

[ardgedee]

Quote:

the guys from Antelope will ship you an eval unit.

 
I also have access locally to loaners from a few companies, but I want to hold off until I'm ready to start shopping in earnest -- partly a budget thing, partly because the ground tends to shift a little after every CES and NAB show, and partly because I'm sufficiently far behind in audio-related obligations to others that I don't want to take on any more until the agenda's cleared a little.
 
I also feel vague on what I'm looking for, exactly, so I'd like some time to read up on what's going on right now.

 

[driver 8]

FUH-KING-HELL
 
So I woke up from a dream wherein I had spent roughly 1.5K on stuff to get clean power to my Stello U3 and was anticipating listening to my closed Audez'e on the ECBA... when I realized that the tubes had been removed from all of my amps, including the $650 pair of KR PX4's.  I found them all shattered in my bed sheets along with random kitchen ware.
 
Then questioning whther or not I actually had closed Audez'e caused me to wake up feeling relieved... until I found shards of glass in my sheets.  This time only those PX4's had been tossed in my bed and I was freaking out over the fact that I could feel the glass, meaning it must be real.  I then got up to discover that the window furthest from my bed in here had been opened and most of my more valuable **** was gone.
 
Then, thankfully, I just woke up feeling like crap.
 
I blame my cat.  He woke me up around 4AM to play "knock things off my nightstand" and I didn't get back to sleep until 5 (it's 7:23 now).

 

[MuppetFace]

Quote:

I blame my cat.  He woke me up around 4AM to play "knock things off my nightstand" and I didn't get back to sleep until 5 (it's 7:23 now).

 
My cat is senile now (like, literally), so he'll howl all night long. It's horrible. When I try to get some rest it's like... every hour he starts up again.

 

[Silent One]

A howling cat? And a cat burglar...posing as a real cat? 

 Hope when I retire in a couple of hours, I won't have anything to report. Hope you both have a better day than night. 

 

[driver 8]

That's the worst because you can't really do anything about it without feeling awful cause he don't know no better.  All I had to do was close my room door and deal with Jerry scratching at it for, like, 10 seconds before he fell asleep in the living room, but that howling (my grandmother's cat does it too) is just... I don't know. 
 
@Silent: Thanks, I do too!

 

[MuppetFace]

Quote:

That's the worst because you can't really do anything about it without feeling awful cause he don't know no better.  All I had to do was close my room door and deal with Jerry scratching at it for, like, 10 seconds before he fell asleep in the living room, but that howling (my grandmother's cat does it too) is just... I don't know. 
 

 
Yeah. It was my ex-girlfriend's cat too, but she never really took care of it and just unloaded the responsibility onto me after moving out, so it's not like I even wanted to get a cat. I mean I adore cats, but caring for one isn't something that fits well into my life at the moment. I just hope I can find someone willing to take in an 18-year-old cat before I have to move.

 

[Silent One]

I'm not a cat kinda cat. But, I do admire (from a distance) all Black cats with yellow eyes.

 

[MuppetFace]

H E L L O  D I A R Y​

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My Leckerton UHA-6S has returned from Austin. Nick said he couldn't find any of the noise issues I described, which was a little frustrating, but he went ahead and replaced the volume pot anyway thankfully. I'm hoping he switched it out for the one used on the mk2, which is apparently better. Either way, I'm pleased with how things turned out (assuming the noise is gone--- I haven't listened yet). On the other hand, I'm still waiting for QUAD Musik to get back to me on reimbursement for shipping the Float QA back to them for repairs. It wasn't inexpensive sending them back, so yeah, I'm going to keep bugging them about it. Now that the holidays are here however I expect things to move more slowly. Here's hoping the Floats come back by the end of January, as I really miss them. In fact no other headphones are hitting the spot at the moment quite like they did. The closest I'm coming is the Qualia 010, but that's just in terms of feel; I still prefer the overall tonal balance and weightiness of the Floats. Not to mention that cerebral effect with center vocals, which I'm actually able to reproduce more closely with the Flat4.
 
Overall I've been preferring IEMs lately: namely the Flat4, Heaven VI, K3003, and TG 334.
 
I've been using a rather bizarre trifecta of Tegan & Sara, Death Grips, and Machinedrum to do something akin to "evaluations" lately, though I've been purposefully avoiding the whole A/B comparison rigamarole because it's tedious and, frankly, boring. So here are a few very general observations which probably wont be of much help to anyone.
 
1. The K3003 is one hell of an earphone, and TBH I have a bit of difficulty fathoming some of the negative commentary these have garnered. The keyword running through my mind while listening to it is usually "clear." The K3003 has certain polished quality, but the TG 334 however exceeds just about everything in terms of overall refinement. It also sounds the most effortless.
 
2. The K3003 has a cloud-like presentation, and it's a little difficult to pinpoint things at times, as if their quantum wave functions weren't collapsed and they existed in some superposition. The TG 334 is like a solid, continuous band that wraps around the listener's head in an arc from left to right. The Heaven VI is a little flatter and is more delineated into left - center - right, but it has pinpoint imaging and an impressive depth despite being "spotlit." The Flat4 is the most cerebral, with the most going on between the ears. It has an interior, inward depth the others lack.
 
3. What I find so impressive about the Flat4 is that it manages to be both a detail monster while retaining such an agreeable sound. It's a wee bit bright at times but not enough to be bothersome.
 
 

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As previously mentioned, I decided to procure the Audio-Technica CKM1000:

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I know we're not supposed to talk about the way things look because that's girly stuff and this is a serious manly hobby grrrrr, but I think those---along with the CKW1000ANV---are some of the most attractive IEMs ever made. While I genuinely like the way the CKW sounds (quite a bit) and am curious as to how the CKM compares, I'll freely admit that aesthetics played a sizable role in my wanting them. Same goes for the VSONIC GR07 Bass Edition, which I pretty much wanted for the candycane cable:​

 

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It's seasonally appropriate, too.​

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I must confess to not really understanding the ways of VSONIC which strikes me as a wholly enigmatic company, though not really in the same way as, say, Final Audio. With the latter it seems purposeful, like a local artist around which a cult of personality has sprung to life, someone who is thus obliged to be aloof and mysterious to further the desires of those of the periphery looking inward. With VSONIC on the other hand, it seems like they're genuinely from another dimension, one which uses a wholly different system of logic from ours. For instance there's the GR01 which I'm also interested in, supposedly their co-flagship along with the "normal" GR07 (which I own). I just found out the GR01 was a flagship as well, because it's not labeled as such and has a numerical designation at the opposite end of the spectrum; I mean, usually if the GR01 is your highest model, then the GR02 would be the next highest. But the GR07 is higher up than the GR06, which is higher up than the GR05. Then there's the GR04 which they actually call "Flagship Edition," which is apparently not a flagship, but an improved version of the GR04 which still exists as a standard version in the middle of the lineup. The bottom-tier product? The GR99.​

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Makes perfect sense. Or so I've concluded, in between licking windows.​

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All this seems harmless enough. The real threat lies in the form of the IE800 which I'm compelled to seek, letting it draw me into its world of chest huggers and acid spit.​

 
 

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Yes, this too is a decision prompted largely by design. A year ago I wouldn't have imagined Sennheiser as a company to which I'd attribute such a response; I mean I like Star Trek and all, but the HD800 was still a decision prompted by sound first and foremost (with comfort second). The Momentum is a design champ and all, but it's going for a certain classicism whereas the IE800 is taking their sci-fi fixation somewhere pretty ballin'.​

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Something not prompted by visual design is my sudden interest in the JH13 and JH16 Pro. In particular, I'm a little fixated on "Freq-Phase." Not only is it fun to say over and over, but some of the impressions I've been reading suggest it contributes to major improvements in areas that matter a lot to me: coherency, focus, texture, sense of presence. What pushes things into the red here is the JHA holiday sale going on currently. It gives me an excuse. That's dangerous.​

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The Ultimate Ears PRM is another uber-chic CIEM I'm interested in, but [thankfully] it's rather elusive in terms of its acquisition process: one needs to be in a state with one of those tuner boxes or go to a meet where there's a UE rep. So I'm safe. For now.​

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I'm the ultimate mornings person. My favorite time of day is between 4 am to about 8 or 9 am. I love going on drives or walks when it's still dark out, just as the sun begins to ascend into the sky. I'd love to see the sunrise over a desert landscape, when the sky was still filled with stars. That to me is the ultimate romantic sublime scene.​

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I realized the other day that my two favorite geographical features---oceans and deserts---are actually more alike than not. Large expanses, seas of either water or sand. Mountains are pretty cool, but that's probably just my Basque-ness talking, homesick for the dark caves of my ancestors or something. Speaking of which, the Basque are insane people. For instance our Santa Clause is a giant who went on a rampage cutting off peoples' heads with a scythe.​

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But yeah, mornings. The best soundtrack for morning drives lately has been:​

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Oneohtrix Point Never, Emeralds, Painting Petals On Planet Ghost, The Observatory, Barn Owl, Oikos, Guillaume Gargaud, Hiroshi Watanabe, Lone, Water Boarders, and How To Dress Well.​

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The Neo Geo X Gold bundle arrived a few days ago, and boy oh boy it's awesome.​

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I've mostly been playing Fatal Fury Special and Real Bout Fatal Fury Special.​

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The attention to detail in the packaging is great, down to the replica of the original box and the docking station that is styled to look like the original AES system. The arcade stick controller is pretty much spot-on as well, albeit slightly smaller than the original if memory serves. The handheld itself is solid feeling, and the analog thumbstick even has the same sensitivity, level of feedback, and clicking noise as the original AES controllers. That is just badass.​

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The original Neo Geo Pocket wasn't a bad little handheld either. In fact at the time it smoked the Game Boy, Game Gear, and Wonder Swan by a pretty fair margin. Had fun games too (tho there seemed to be a rather disproportionate amount of "card battle" titles...). Too bad I don't have mine anymore.​

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SOUND and TEA​

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A few mornings back I tried some Song Zhong, Fenghuang oolong tea. Definitely some strong floral notes, a bit of fruit, and a pleasant sweetness I wasn't expecting.  Perhaps a little sweet for my tastes in fact, but overall it was well balanced. This was a rather complex tea, so I'll be trying more of it over the next few days.​

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I've got some Da Hung Pao (aka "Big Red Robe") oolong to try as well. Really looking forward to finally doing so, as this tea has quite a reputation. I think for the time being that will satiate my desire for oolong, and afterward I'll probably move back to my slightly more familiar domain of green tea.​

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My preferences are such that I tend to go for flavor profiles with more grassy, earthy, and vegetable notes. I like variety however.​

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SOUND and TEA​

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A few mornings back I mentioned my love of installation art. In particular, I have a thing for sound installations. I suppose this ties into a larger overall fascination I have with music playback and presentation: ornate devices like music boxes, drone boxes, devices that play themselves (musical automata) both ancient and modern, waveform visualizations, synthesizers, remixing and sampling, DJ culture, etc.​

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Basically presenting and manipulating sound in ways that draw attention to the relationship between the sound and the listener.​

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One installation that has been on my mind lately is Nam June Paik's Random Access (1963). The composition involves magnetic tape laid out over a wall in a series of angular tracts. Two small speakers are suspended on either side of this central design, with wires running to a pedestal on which the playback equipment is placed. The observer uses a handheld reader (the sound head detached from the tape recorder) to "play" the tracts of tape, passing it along and creating a composition by "cutting" into various parts of the recording and controlling the speed of one's tracing. ​

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I love this composition. It's "deconstruction" of tape both literally and figuratively, and also directly explores the relationship of the listener with time and intentionality in listening. However like the best "deconstruction," it's not merely disassembling something, but in turn reassembling it into something new.​

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Another artist on my mind recently is Yoshi Wada. His Appointed Cloud (1987) involves self-made pipe organs and a large metal sheet which are controlled by a computer program, droning away in the New York Hall of Science. This actually drifts into performance art as well, as Yoshi Wada and a few other musicians joined in on bagpipes and percussion for a recording that was eventually pressed and released on CD.​

 

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Unico.​

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Several pages back I posted a picture of a little unicorn with red hair and a glowing horn. Back when I was a little girl and knew nothing about Japanese animation, when my imagination resided in the interior depths of my own innocent world, this little unicorn came into my life and thrilled me with stories the likes of which I had never quite experienced.​

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In fact, if you were to trace the trajectory of my creative and aesthetic preferences back to the origin which largely informed and nurtured them, you'd arrive at a series of cartoons: Donald in Mathmagic Land (1959); a trilogy consisting of Dr. Seuss' The Lorax (1972), The Hoober-Bloob Highway (1975), and Halloween is Grinch Night (1977); and finally Unico in the Island of Magic (1983).​

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Unico is the story of a young unicorn who has the power to make people happy. Up in the skies of the realm of ideals, some jealous gods order the West Wind to cast out the unicorn; she takes Unico to the forests below. and thus begins his adventures. In the second film, Island of Magic, Unico happens upon a young girl and her small village. The older brother of the young girl wants to be a magician, and he has unfortunately allied himself with a powerful and corrupt sorcerer named Lord Kuruku. Once a child's toy, Kuruku was abandoned and as a result harbors a bitter grudge against humankind. Using the older brother, he turns the villagers into puppets and leads them off to his castle (which is made from many other people who were likewise turned into puppets). Unico and the girl thus go off on an adventure to save the people, and along the way they meet all sorts of interesting characters.​

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(Hey.. the sphinx has my current hair style. In fact it kinda looks like me...)​

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To this day, the film still haunts me. Lord Kuruku is a creepy ol' thing who can change his shape, often turning cylindrical or pointy and changing colors as he does so, wailing in this creaky voice. He also has a large mechanical dragon thingamajig that guards his castle, rolling around and screaming while his eyes spin, scooping trespassers up in his mouth and depositing them in the dungeon.​

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See you in my nightmares....​

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Fin.​

 

[Silent One]

What a diary 

 entry! Love the colors on display...

 

[driver 8]

There's just this one peaky area of the K3003's that prevents me loving them as much as my other good IEMs.  The FIBASS has a similar issue, but it's in a part of the spectrum where I expect that and I find myself hardpressed to care because it does everything else so well.  I couldn't care less about the AKG's bass being "slow" or whatever.
 
I can't say I like the rest of its album, but "& It Was U" has to be one of my top 5 songs from this past semester.  It does so many things so right and just constructs a wonderful atmosphere, which is primarily what I'm into all of this for.
 

---

 
In response to my dream dilemma I ordered that Aqvox USB power supply thing because it's less crazy than other products that do its job. 

 

[ardgedee]

In other news...

Baudrillard is dead.

 

[thrak]

Quote:

Got all irrational and fed up waiting to be able to order an MK3 JKSPDIF so I ordered a Stello U3 instead.  Maybe I'll regret that for one reason or another, but I'm sure it'll be a step up from the my DAC-2's USB input.

 
Please keep us updated on the results.  I am very curious.  
 
I bought an Audiophileo2 after reading reading about all the voodoo black-magic massive improvement specifically on the DAC-2's USB input.  Since this was coming from some reputable (imo) folks here on HF, I decided to take the plunge.  Got it in and hooked it up using the coax out to the DAC-2 with a nice and presumably high-quality 75ohm digital cable.  Nada, zero, zip, nyet, no improvement at all.  Even tried a longer coax cable (Thanks to SO's writings), still no difference.  What I've come to figure out is that the quality of your computer's USB output depends on many, many variables.  Not least of which is the quality of power at your home.  Yeah, the Venom 3 power cord upgrade also did nothing.  The only time I've heard an improvement is when I upgraded my USB cable to an AudioQuest Carbon cable.  I can only assume that conditions are very good here and my USB can't sound better.  My wallet can dream, can't it? 

 
Now, as I said, this is not to imply that it won't help your system.  Different computer, different software, different power cabling, different EMI, etc, etc.  I still believe so I remain curious so as to add validity to my theory 

 

[Silent One]

What I eventually came to discover is the quality of USB cable matters, even if you're "re-clocking." I figured since my USB cable and interface weren't decent to begin with, that all would be as it should after re-clocking. But I have an open mind. And decided to audition a better USB cable expecting no results, whatsoever.

 Well, I'll be John Brown (1800-1859)! 
 
And in agreement with thrak, like running water, your experience will vary...