Mad Dude

Currently offline

Mad Dude's Community Profile

Location:	Switzerland
Forum Post Count:	432
Join Date:	3/10/10
Last Online:	3 weeks, 2 days ago
Interests (Hobbies, favorite activities, etc.):	Music, Literature, History, Movies, Photography & Technology in general.
What I do for a living:	Design Engineer
Headphone Inventory	in order of preference: ■ Denon/Lawton Audio LA7000 - Sounds as beautiful as it looks. Wonderful allrounder that works with absolutely everything. Best bass I've ever heard, including the LCD-2 (which is cleaner, but the LA7000 has more "bite"). ■ Sennheiser HD600 (silver screens) - Possibly the best dynamic headphone out there. Very natural mids, punchy and natural sounding bass (doesn't extend too well, but still nice) and pleasant treble. ■ Philips Fidelio X1 - a very neat pair of headphones, great combination of sound quality, wearing comfort and build quality. Primarily for low-volume listening, as the bass tends to be overpowering and medium/high volumes. ■ Fostex T50RP (modded) - Does everything well. Primarily used for watching movies. ■ Beyerdynamic DT1350 - Portable & great isolation. Sounds good for a small on-ear phone. ■ Sennheiser IE80 - I don't like IEM's, but they're useful when travelling. Letting go: ■ Koss ESP-950 - sound-wise, close to perfection. Needs to be treated like a raw egg, unfortunately. Had: ■ Stax Lambda Signature SR-404 - Bass can be a bit boomy, but otherwise wonderfully smooth. Near-perfect midrange and treble (For instrumental music only, sounds unnatural with voices). ■ Audeze LCD-2 "Rev. 3" Bamboo - Technically great, but doesn't sound effortless enough. Heavy. ■ Beyerdynamic T1 (120Ω adaptor for use with SS amps) - One of my favourites, but a bit too treble-happy. ■ Sony MDR-Z1000 - Good, but unnatural midrange. ■ "Mad Dog" modded T50RP by mrspeakers - very clean sounding, very neutral, lacks some excitement. ■ Beyerdynamic DT250 (basically 80 Ohm version but with 250 Ohm drivers) - nice balanced sound and comfortable to wear. Excellent allrounder that also provides good isolation. ■ Phonak Audeo PFE 112 - One of the few IEMs I can tolerate (comfort-wise). Great value. ■ Hifiman HE-6 - Didn't like them very much. Possibly insufficient amping. Extremely uncomfortable. ■ Kenwood KH-K1000 (modded) - Very colored, but fun sometimes. Great soundstage, excellent for movies. ■ Audeze LCD-2 Rev. 1 - Regret having sold them, better than the Rev. 2 ■ Philips L1 - Surprisingly good, but somewhat uneven sounding. ■ AKG K240 Sextett (LP) - Very fun sounding, but a bit muffled treble. ■ AKG K701 - Plastic enclosure, plastic sound. ■ Sennheiser HD800 - Too much treble in stock condition, but heavenly when equalized (-7db at 6.3 kHz, -4db from 8-12.5 kHz). ■ Sennheiser HD580 (black screens) - Sligthly less refined than the HD600, but more forward and just as enjoyable. ■ Denon AH-D7100 - see http://www.head-fi.org/products/d... ■ Westone UM3X - Where did the treble go? ■ Sony ZX700 - Nothing special. ■ Grado RS1 (Vintage "B") - Great, but painful to wear for more than five minutes. ■ Grado SR325is - Same as RS1 (but even less comfortable!) ■ Grado SR60 - Same as RS1 (but not as great sounding) ■ Sennheiser HD650 (silver screens) - Great, but not as balanced as the HD600. ■ Sennheiser HD600 (black screens) - Strongly regretted selling them, bought a new one. ■ Sennheiser HD595 - Good sound when amped properly, lacking when unamped. ...
Headphone Amp Inventory	■ Mapletree Ear+HD "Special Edition" s/n #250 ■ ALO Audio the Continental V2 ■ Koss E90 ■ HeadAmp Pico Power (coming soon) Had: ■ Mapletree Ear+HD Super II - Miss it, sold only due to heat problems. ■ Woo Audio WA6 - Very underwhelming. Not recommended. ■ Stax SRM-313 ■ Meier Audio Corda Concerto - Neutral, drives everything. ■ Meier Audio Corda Headsix - alright, nothing special. ■ iBasso PB2 ■ Decware CSP2+ - Sounds coloured, but in a very enjoyable way. ■ audio-gd ROC SA - extremely powerful, but sounded grainy. ■ Little Dot MKIII - Useless. ...
Source Inventory	■ Marantz CD-6004 - Does exactly what a CD player is supposed to do. A bit expensive. ■ LA Audio EQ231-G - 31-band analogue Equalizer. Essential in any audio system! ■ Squeezebox Touch - Possibly the worst software ever conveived. Otherwise a terriffic player. ■ Cowon J3 32+64GB - Excellent DAP, very strong battery. ■ Audiotrak Dr. DAC2 DX TE ■ Apple iPod Touch, 4th gen, 32GB. I don't particularly like Apple products, but the Touch works well as a streaming device (using iPeng). ■ Yamaha CD-640 - alright ■ Cowon iAudio X5L 30GB - One of the best DAP's. ■ iPod Classic 6G - I can't stand iTunes. Otherwise a good player. Had: ■ Cowon S9 32GB - Excellent once you get rid of the stock UI. ■ Cambridge Audio DAC Magic - Lots of features, but sounds a bit weird. ■ iBasso DB2 ■ Corda StageDAC - Great, especially the crossfeed feature. ■ Marantz CD63 MKII - Alright.
Cable Inventory	Magic fairy dust covered, snake oil soaked cryo-treated bi-wired 99.99999% pure platinum cables.
Other Audio Equipment	■ Main speaker setup: Vienna Acoustic Haydn speakers, Harman/Kardon HK680 amp, Sony CD-990 CDP ■ Desktop speaker setup: DALI Zensor 1's (EQ'd), Yamaha R-840/CD-640)
Audio-Related Tweaks	Satanic rituals Human sacrifices Black magic Beer
Music Preferences	Classical (anything from Baroque to Modern); Rock, Jazz, Blues, Folk, Metal, Soul, Pop... Just about anything, really. Not a fan of electronic music though. Favourites include, in no specific order: Yes Sonny Boy Williamson Howlin' Wolf Genesis Jethro Tull Blind Willie McTell Ella Fitzgerald Tom Waits King Crimson Kate Bush Etta James Emerson, Lake & Palmer Son House Robert Johnson Bob Dylan Tim Buckley PJ Harvey New Model Army Queen Johnny Cash Miles Davis B.B. King Camel Patti Smith Led Zeppelin Gentle Giant Black Sabbath Fiona Apple Françoise Hardy Iron Maiden Judas Priest Shirley Bassey Neil Young Pearl Jam Favourite Composers: Camille Saint-Saëns Arcangelo Corelli Claude Debussy Pietro Locatelli Felix Mendelssohn Johann Sebastian Bach
Gear-Fi (Favorite Non-Audio Gear & Gadgets)	Multi-Purpose-"Workstation": HP Probook 6465b + Docking Station, Dell Ultrasharp 2412m