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antonyfirst

antonyfirst's Community Profile

Location:

Milan (Italy)

Forum Post Count:

3867

Join Date:

12/14/06

About Me:

The stream of digits going down a digital connection have no chronological disorder

Interests (Hobbies, favorite activities, etc.):

Humour, Music, Poetry, Computer, Gadgets, Reading, Writing, Travels, Learning

What I do for a living:

Developer-Analyst in IT Consulting

Headphone Inventory

Current:
Stax Lambda NB
Audio-Technica AD2000
Etymotic ER4-P

I would be interested in trying: Stax 4070, Stax SR-009, Koss ESP950


Had:
Stax Omega 2 (3x) -> 7xxxx S/N: exceptional bass, resolution, tonality and layering capabilities. Extremely amp dependant... boring sound with SRM-717 and hollow on SRM-007t, I prefer stock SRM-727. The SZ1xxx production is harder to amp, has worse bass reproduction, seems generally less dynamic
Stax SR-X Mk3 Pro (2x) -> great midrange, lean midbass, but extremely rumbling and powerful deep bass; small soundstage, extremely discomfortable, fantastic sound, great resolution
Stax Gamma Pro -> Princess of the loudness war
Stax 404/Spritzer modded -> I only remember it was sweaty
Stax SRS001 Mk2 with Audiocats-modded amp -> fantastic
Stax SR-003 -> lovely
Audio-Technica AD2000 -> wonderful, live equalizer. Bass and treble are never out of place. Super involving midrange. Likes solid state, but could enjoy more a DHT amp.
Tamboti Thunderpants -> super aggressive midrange, small soundstage, smooth highs, fast, tight bass
LCD2 Rev1 -> unnatural, clinical, strong deep bass, empty midrange... sounds like it's making music for something else
Yamaha HP3 -> a bullet must have killed the midrange frequencies. Otherwise super tight/deep bass, super comfortable, very fast if properly damped
NAD RP18 -> darkish...
Sennheiser HD650 -> thick; thick and sibilant when badly amped; I wish to hear it in a proper, balanced setup
Sennheiser HD580 -> the bass goes its own way, constantly missing the timing of the music. Bloated. This is with CKKIII, regardless of the source and cables
Sennheiser HD250 Linear I -> hole in the midrange, fast, spikey treble
Sennheiser HD250 Linear II -> hole in the midrange, fast, more spikey treble, strong deep bass
Sennheiser HD800 (only loaned) -> super fast, hypertextured, wrinkled bass; distant, hollow midrange, spikey treble; huge soundstage
AKG K501 (repeatedly loaned) -> beautiful midrange, not very resolving, slightly sibilant, average soundstage and bass depth
Apuresound Etymotic ER4P/S -> fantastic but aggressive, not really "warm", the bass is as tight as a stone, in general a lean, aggressive, addictive sound without any hints of sibilance (the P), or with some hints of sibilance (the S).
Etymotic ER4P/S -> more linear midrange, but less emotionally addicting than the Apuresound version, easier to drive (the Apuresound P requires higher volume, go figure). The stock S is very sibilant
Etymotic HF-5 -> inferior to normal Etys, the bass reaches less deep; less refined across the notes; exceptional for home use with the Etymotic PtoS adapter, especially with a warm/darkish signal path behind
Westone 3 -> big sound, lovely low level details (echoes), the balance is weirdly u-shaped so that the midrange lacks some energy. Upper bass is full, treble is extended
Westone UM3X -> warm as a womb could be. With triflanges it can also sound airy, otherwise suffocating
JH13 -> transparent, neutral, small, polite midrange, transparent
Triple.fi 10 Pro -> big bass, big soundstage, overpowering bass, ghastly midrange, extended treble
HifiMan RE272, RE262, RE252, RE0 -> the RE272 and RE262 are very fine sounding, lifelike, if you can stand the comfort
Yuin OK1, OK2, OK3, PK1, PK2, G1 -> I will remember the PK1 as the one with a meaningful personality
Koss A250, KSC75
Grado SR60 (and I have heard RS1i, PS1000)
Shure SE530

Headphone Amp Inventory

Current:
Stax SRM-727 (Spritzer Mod)
Antelope Zodiac Gold headphone amp
Headamp AE-2

Projects:
DHT amplifier (thanks for the help, Frank Cooter)
Preamp using Jisbos and KG digital attenuator with constant impedance

Past:
Stax SRM-717, Stax SRM-001 with SFC++ mods (by Audiocats, Vitq caps), Stax SRM-1 Mk2 Pro, SRM-Xh
Burson HA-160DS
CKKIII
MisterX Mini^3 and less interesting portable amps.

Source Inventory

Antelope Zodiac Gold + Voltikus
Museatex Idat-44 Mobile with 2012 John Wright Upgrades/Blackgates, battery powered
Metrum Octave Mk2

All time (in order of preference):

Museatex Bitstream with 2010 upgrades (and Blackgates) -> unforgettable, first love
April Music Eximus DP-1
Yulong D18
Audio-gd NFB-9.2
Assemblage DAC 2.7 -> easily forgotten, PCM1704 doesn't mean everything, until a DAC implements at least 8 of them (if not 16)
Assemblage DAC 3.0 -> clean, polite, forgotten
Halide DAC HD -> lovely warm tonality, small soundstage, not very detailed. Super compact
Peter Daniels NOS DAC
Museatex Bitstream (stock)
Yulong DAH1 (better than your average mp3 player)
AMB Gamma 1 (not better than your average mp3 player)
various portables, Imods, etc

Cable Inventory

Belkin Synapse Platinum digital cable
Forza AudioWorks USB cable (2 in, 1 out)
Forza AudioWorks RCA cables (1.5 m)
Di Marzio RCA analogue cables

Music Preferences

Rock:
Captain Beefheart, Frank Zappa, Tim Buckley, Robert Wyatt, Gong, Faust, Can, Amon Duul II, Red Crayola, The Velvet Underground, The United States of America, Jefferson Airplane, The Moody Blues, Silver Apples, Grateful Dead, Pink Floyd, Roxy Music, Public Image Ltd, Traffic, Royal Trux, Television, Pere Ubu, Talking Heads, John Cale, Lou Reed, Nico, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Ry Cooder, Van Morrison, John Fahey, Leonard Cohen, Cat Stevens, Roy Harper, Yes, Area, Van Der Graaf Generator, Henry Cow, Brian Eno, David Bowie, Cocteau Twins, Buggles, Jimi Hendrix, Pixies, Husker Du, Violent Femmes, Foetus, Mr. Bungle, Phish, Nick Drake, Jeff Buckley, Lydia Lunch, Franco Battiato, Mercury Rev, Red House Painters, Lycia, Morphine, Solex, Peter Gabriel, Steven Ridgway, Antibalas, Sonata Artica, Dream Theater

Jazz:
Charles Mingus, Carla Bley, Sun Ra, John Coltrane, Cecil Taylor, Miles Davis, Art Ensemble of Chicago, Albert Ayler, Ornette Coleman, Thelonious Monk, David Holland, Dexter Gordon, Eric Dolphy, Joni Mitchell, Alice Coltrane, Paroah Sanders, Zu, Paolo Conte

Classical:
Shostakovic, Mahler, Beethoven, Arvo Part, Philip Glass, Oistrakh, Kogan, Lutoslavski

Modern:
Penderecki, Stockhausen, Iannis Xenakis

Avantgarde:
Moondog, Terry Riley, Steve Reich, Steve Roach, Penguin Cafè Orchestra, Diamanda Galas

Trance/Psytrance/Goa:
Shpongle, Ott, Hallucinogen, Younger Brother, Juno Reactor, Shulman, Amethystium, Spectral, Maneesh De Moor

Gear-Fi (Favorite Non-Audio Gear & Gadgets)

Motorola Photon Q
Toshiba Portege' R830-138
Nintendo 3DS
Samsung Captivate Glide -> screen cracked...

antonyfirst's Recent Activity

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Metrum Acoustics Octave
antonyfirst posted in this thread in Dedicated Source Components 6/14/13 at 2:44am | 482 replies | 45965 views
FS: Forza Audioworks 1.5m Claire RCA
antonyfirst posted in this thread in Cables, Speakers, Tweaks, Accessories For... 6/10/13 at 1:50am | 0 replies | 62 views
FS: Forza Audioworks Twin USB cable
antonyfirst posted in this thread in Cables, Speakers, Tweaks, Accessories For... 6/5/13 at 12:24am | 0 replies | 66 views
WTB: Etymotic ER4P replacement cable
antonyfirst posted in this thread in Cables, Speakers, Tweaks, Accessories For... 6/3/13 at 7:14am | 3 replies | 203 views
ART Legato and BNC to RCA: impedance matching-related question
antonyfirst posted in this thread in Dedicated Source Components 6/3/13 at 7:13am | 5 replies | 545 views
FS: Headamp AE-2
antonyfirst posted in this thread in Amplification For Sale / Trade 6/3/13 at 3:37am | 0 replies | 134 views
WTB: Acoustic Revive USB1.0-SP twin cable
antonyfirst posted in this thread in Cables, Speakers, Tweaks, Accessories For... 5/29/13 at 3:57am | 0 replies | 29 views
Forza AudioWorks - The Appreciation Thread
antonyfirst posted in this thread in Cables, Power, Tweaks, Speakers,... 5/29/13 at 3:48am | 38 replies | 1457 views

 

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Latest upload: May 29, 2012

antonyfirst's Forum Signature

Cool, I dreamt that I was listening to a music cd in black and white!! Then I realized I was only amplifying the 010010111001

 

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