NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!   What happened to the HE500s?!  Where did they go?!  Hifiman, what have you done?!     Seriously, with no exclamation points, what happened to them?  I don't see anything in the new hifiman lineup that compares sonically.  The 500s were competitive with...

Quote:   Well, aside from $800, I doubt very seriously there is much difference.  I listen almost exclusively to hip hop and electronic (dubstep, d&b) when I work--which is where I do the bulk of my listening--and the DA150 performs excellently.  There is very little difference between it...

Quote: Yeah, the stock silver cable.  One of the reasons people (Mal included) had for forging a whole new cable was to replace the old-school rubber coated one that hifiman used to ship with the 500.  The new bare braided silver cable is shorter and much more svelte.  If you know anyone...

@zoom: if you're getting the new HE-500 and know anyone who does any electronics work at all, they can put the banana plugs on for you in about 10 minutes for the cost of the plugs.  The new cable from hifiman is really, really nice.  If not, check with Chris_himself.  He works pretty cheap and...

Okay, so the DA does work after all.  Seems like one of the speaker outs wasn't getting a good connection.  I jiggled and pressed and whatnot for about 15 minutes today and got it working in stereo.   Yeah.  You guys were right.  WAY too much power.  It opens up around 7 o'clock and I can't...

Okay, so the posts got here today. Our techs soldered'em up, I plugged'em in, and...well, the APA150 doesn't work in stereo.  Nothing out the right channel.  At all.  Flip the switch to mono, and suddenly: boom!  Sound out both ears.  That means our wiring job is fine; the amp is jacked up.  So...

Quote:   Okay.  I've got an EF2 I can use as a preamp if the speaker amp is outrageous.  I mean, it's 50% or so more power than the Emotiva, but it still calculates out to, like, 9wpc @ 32ohm.  I guess we'll see when my banana plugs get here--I got the amp in today, so they should be here...

Mal, You think I may have overshot with the little DA 75wpc amp I ordered?   On another note, got them in today.  Packaging was really, really damn nice.  I love the new cable Fang is shipping with them.  About 5 feet, silver, no sleeving at all.  Trying to power them out of my EF2A is a...

Quote: hey dude, check with wayne on here.  He makes custom headbands for Grados and this would be right up his alley.  his username is wje--just shoot him a message and tell him I sent you.  If he's willing to do it, I'll probably order one, too.

Ordered today.  Calyx Coffee -> APA150 -> HE500.  Emotiva wanted $50 to ship out here; the DA amp was only 150 shipped.  If it sucks, I'll hand it over to our electronics techs for spare parts and order the Emotiva after the new year.  All the DA's reviews were quite good, though.  ...

Just ordered it from Amazon.  Should be here in the next 5 days or so.  I'll post up some initial impressions when it gets here.

I am thinking of this.  For $128 + $15 shipping to APO, it's almost a throw away if it sounds like crap.  And Emotiva doesn't make shipping out here easy for me--no way to do it through the website.   Thoughts?

Fantastic.  Thanks for both, my friend.

Mal, Do you have Brian's email address?  His website's blocked out here.

Mal, Thanks for this post, man.  I'm finally about to take the leap to the 500's at the end of the year.  I have been looking at amps and was becoming straight jaded at the outrageous price you have to pay for power.  I finally decided on a speaker amp yesterday--$500+ for a headphone amp that...

Quote: Sure thing, man.  Right here.   But the simple answer is: The Q has most of the bass of the PRO900; it's more articulated and less robust (the digiZoid ZO improves this situation greatly, adding robustness without sacrificing the low frequency detail retrieval of the Q). ...

Sorensiim, So did you get them?  I'm curious to know how you feel about them.  I've been away from head-fi almost completely for the last few months.  I need to update my review for these sometime in the next few days to relay my current feelings concerning them.

Yuceka, I dunno what full size cans you've listened to, but compared to my pro900 or my Grado SR225i, the Q sounds downright flat after 5khz.  NOT compared to those two things, I would still never say they reach "sparkly", but they do a pretty damn good job of reproducing high notes.  They sound...

After speaking with digiZoid, the Science behind the ZO is solid.  There is no negative affect on the rest of the spectrum; the reason most don't think this is possible is because it's something that can't really be accomplished with signal alteration at the software level, where most of us have...

Apparently editing is broken in ie7.  Crappy work computers won't let me upgrade to ie8/9, and my security policy won't let me use any other browser.  :(  There are a few additional things you need to keep in mind, so I reposted my original here, including my updates.     Quote:  

Quote: Check the post in my sig (xb900 how-to).

Quote: They're 525 with no extra options, plus anywhere from $25-50 for the impressions.  Damn good deal for that price.  I was initially a little disappointed with them because the top end is not nearly as exciting as the PRO900's, but the bass is nearly in the same category and they've...

Quote: No doubt.  I was listening to this song and had my ZO up to the max with my customs in (1964Q, very nearly the same bass reproduction as the PRO900 with the ZO at 2) and I've spent the last two days letting my ears recover.  Seriously.  The ZO can do some amazing ****.  

Quote: With the ZO, yes.  Without, on the scale from 1-5, they'd be about a 10.   THAT SAID, if you like the XB500's extremely warm and dark (bottom end-focused) signature, you may want to demo the PRO900 before you buy it.  It's still a very warm can, but the top end is not recessed at...

Quote: More volume...or a ZO. :D