After many years of using a nice high end surround setup, the time has come I need to go back to headphones for various reasons. So I'm looking for something that is nice and high end, very neutral, but above all comfortable. I have a big head and wear glasses, so I can't have something that...

I've got some on the way (for a price reference J&R sold them for $250 on 03/01/2012, have to call them to get that price) and I think I'd like an amp for them.   Only thing is I really don't want to spend a ton on it unless you can give me a real, real good reason. I have trouble with the...

Here's the situation: I got some Shure SE420 headphones. I was displeased with them, thinking about returning them, because of their anemic bass. Then I thought "Well let's try the PPA." Yep, that straightened them right up. They sound fantastic hooked to it. However, my PPA has two problems...

To understand this review, first we need to start with my situation/requirements. I decided to get some IEMs for nice, portable, listening. In particular, I decided to get Shure SE420s. The SE series seem to get good ratings and Amazon was selling the 420s for just $160.   Well when I got...

So I just got a new set of Shure SE420s. Amazon is selling the ones with white accents for $160 right now. Not a bad price for those it seems. Their purpose is to travel with my laptop.   Well I wasn't that impressed. The fidelity was good, but the bass was rather anemic. Now I have high...

Specifically, this is as opposed to the ATH-A700. I've got the A700s for work and just love them. Their sound is quite good but the thing that really sells it is the comfort. Only sealed headphones I've ever used that are comfortable for long term use over my glasses. However, as a surprise...

So I've decided it is finally time to finish up my PPA, get rid of the wires hanging out of it, and that means of course stop using my bench supply and get a dedicated power supply. So I was looking at the Elpac that Tangent recommends on his site. Only thing I don't like is that it is a wall...

So I'm looking at getting some new phones. I have some Sennheiser 590s that I'm not all that enthralled with anymore. So I'm looking at options. The 595 was my first thought, I've heard they are a good bit better than the 590s and I don't dislike Sennheiser (my 580s were quite nice). However...

So I'm looking for a recommendation for a pro soundcard with good Vista drivers. Basically what I want is something with really good sound quality, that has working, stable, problem free Vista drivers. Previously, I was an X-Fi fan and that's what I've got now. In XP, it is just a stellar...

I'm sure this has been asked before but here goes: For those that have heard both, is the HD600 worth the extra money for critical listening? I should clarify what I want here. I do MIDI work purely for fun, however for all that I like it to sound great. 99% of the work is done on my speakers...

I have a v1 PPA that I decided to test at work today with a scope. 627/637 opamps, 4x buffers, 10 gain, 24 volts input from an Agilent bench supply. Source was an HP function generator. The frequency response is dead flat (well +- 1mV was as accurate as I looked) from about 0.1Hz to 1.5MHz...

So I broke out my PPA today after having it sit on the shelf for a long time because one of my coworkers wants to see it and run some test on it. I took the time to check it to make sure it was still in spec. All good, the outputs have 1.5mV or less DC offset, the biasing on the opamps is...

So some people seem to be confused in to thinking that FLAC, or ALAC alter the sound of files, like MP3 does. That's just not the case. Lossless compression is just that, lossless. All information that was present in the original is present in the compressed version. When it's decompressed, the...

I need to get some new sealed headphones for work. After 10 years, my Sonys are finally done, the left driver is failing. So what I'm looking at is something reasonable but good. I don't want to spend a ton, but I don't want cheap either unless there are some really killer cheap phones...

I have a question for a friend working on a project for school involving an alcohol sensor, which provides a 0 to 18mV voltage difference between two output wires (varies with alcohol). Is it possible to increase the voltage between these 2 wires with a simple op-amp design? He would like the...

So, anyone ever mod one of these? I have one and the sound, well, sucks. I didn't care all that much since it's primary use is games (I have a Firewire 410 for real work) but I rather like DVD-A discs and the Audigy 2 is the ONLY card on the market you can use to play them on account of the RIAA...

So I had complained about the buffers running hot. Not hot enough to cause problems, just hotter than I'd expect. Finally figured out what it was "The screwing Sennheiser cable. Thing has a slightly weak connection between the 1/8-1/4 adapter. It wasn't enough to short it and pass a lot of...

Random electronics trivia you learn at work: Did you know you can make ICs using transparencies? No, really, you can, it's done all the time at our fab. For precision parts, you need something better, but for big processes (like 1um+ or so) you can use a good transparency from a copy shop...

I notice that after some play time, my ground buffers are much warmer than my L/R buffers. I'd guess the L/R buffers are about 35 degrees C and the ground buffers 45 degrees (27 degrees ambient temperature). Is this something I should be concerned about, and if so what should I do to attempt...

Tell me about these 3000s that I hear about on this board. I'm a Sennheiser guy, as I've mentioned in the past, however I do like my low end Sonys for what they are. So tell me about the 3000s. Why would I like them over the high end Sennheisers? Maybe I should think of having more than one pair...

I got my DMM back, so now I'm playing with the biasing on the amp. I've read the directions but I don't fully understand. So I'm measuring across R10 and seeing about .42 volts across the resistor on each channel. My confusion comes from the term "voltage drop". Does this imply negative voltage...

I just finished an amp (PPA) and now there is no question, I must have new headphones. I have a pair of HD-590s right now. I never got why people whined about these. I mean I had 580s, and I liked the 590s better, such that now mom has the 580s. Well, now that I have an amp, I see what the...

Wether idle or operational, my PPA draws 0.12 amps at 24 volts, according to my powersupply. I'm just wondering if it is supposed to draw that much, and if not what the problem could be. I can't hear any sonic problems, the amp sounds just great, and there's almost no offset at the outputs...

Well, sorta. The board is wired up at any rate. I'm going to have to get a case and get everything mounted and such at a later date. However, damn can that thing hit. Glad I finally have a real amp, as it is just amazing. Going to need to get better headphones now. Never really heard the...

I'm wokring on assembling my PPA now and I've got a quick question about the resistors: In the spec it says to omit R3 on the ground channel (I'm more or less building this with no changes from the spec). I assume from loking at the design, it needs to be jumpered. Is this correct, or am I...