Tagging for me comes in two formats: The easy (non-classical) way and the hard (classical) way.   For non-classical stuff and classical style that isn't full pieces from standard repertoire (stuff like Canadian Brass) I just make sure I have album, album art, artist, album artist, date, genre...

Another Houstonian here checking in.  I'm up in the Atascocita/Kingwood area on the NE side.  Does anyone actually live inside the 610, or are we all out in 'burbs?  Some kind of central location inside the city that's roughly equidistant for everyone would be nice, but then there's the matter...

That's sad to hear.  I saw Cornell when he was with Audioslave and he had good stage presence back then.  One can hope your experience was an outlier, but he has been in this business for quite a while now, and he hasn't gotten any younger in that time.

I've been listening to the HD 650s recently through a system composed of my computer -> ASUS Xonar Essence ST -> Cambridge Audio 651a.  This replaced my previous setup of computer to a NuForce Icon HDP.  The Cambridge is a much better amp than the NuForce, and the ASUS is to my ear a better DAC...

My favorite version of The Planets is a local one for me.  The Houston Symphony plays The Planets pretty often (given the city's connection to NASA), and has a blu-ray called "The Planets: An HD Odyssey" with the symphony playing while NASA images of the planets cycle through on screen.  Yes...

I found this sort of out of the blue while browsing on Amazon and I love it.  I really enjoy the timbre of the mandolin in general and I think replacing the usual voice of such pieces (the violin) with a different instrument changes the pieces quite a bit.       Who's Feeling Young...

I prefer to pull test tracks that use instruments that I play, so my test tracks tend to be more focused than my general listening.  I also tend to rotate tracks in and out of my evaluation list pretty frequently, while generally sticking to the same principles for selection.  In general, it...

I would not consider quality audio gear lost on older folks.  It's pretty easy to get gear that's simply capable of producing very high frequencies, but it's more difficult (read: expensive) to find and acquire gear that will produce clarity and accurate instrument timbre.  Those last two things...

What musical background are you approaching this from? I suspect someone who listens to a lot of rock might like different things than someone whose listening is primarily classical. I listened mostly to classical when i took an interest in jazz and I found Dave Brubeck to be the most accessible...

I would say my favorite composers overall are probably Prokofiev and Tchaikovsky.  While there are pieces I may enjoy more individually, I find their bodies of work as a whole (or at least what I have of them), to be pretty enjoyable across the board.  Tchaikovsky's fourth symphony and...

I've had the HD 595 for about 2 years now of almost daily use (first as primary phone and now as a work phone) and it shows no signs of cracking.  Astroid has a point though in bringing attention to the design of the cup swivel on the 5xx series though and I suspect whether or not the cup arm...

I went on a bit of a binge last week and bought a bunch of albums all at once.   Bela Fleck, Zakir Hussain & Edgar Meyer - The Melody of Rhythm Stuart Duncan, Yo-Yo Ma, Edgar Meyer & Chris Thile - The Goat Rodeo Sessions Chris Thile & Michael Daves - Sleep With One Eye Open Punch...

Connecting the speakers to the NuForce Icon HD via RCA will be fine.  The NuForce will only be functioning as a DAC in that setup.  The headphone amp circuitry doesn't do anything unless you plug headphones into the headphone jack, at which point it will automatically use the headphone out as...

Quote: I would say it depends on the particular aspects of the 650 you would like to find an opposite for.  Personally, when I was looking for a complement to the 650s, I went for a Grado.     I definitely agree that coming back to the 650s always feels like a return to home.  Other...

I've actually put serious consideration into this idea before (also in Houston, weird), but I'm just not in a position financially to take the leap right now.  My thought was that it could be a viable idea, but it would live or die on adding some value to the headphone experience above and...

The V-Moda M80 is built and tested for durability.  They use steel in pretty much every part of their construction and the cords are kelvar reinforced.  The cords are and the earpads are both detachable and easily replaced.  If durability is your prime requirement, you should definitely give...

A quick check on Monster's site shows that byheadphones.co.uk are listed as a counterfeit beats seller. http://www.monstercable.com/counterfeit/dealers_blk.asp   As for the beats in general, just ignore the hype and the backlash and get whatever it is you like.  They're widely available...

There are people in every field/hobby/whatever who will try to substitute experience and understanding with large sums of money.  Audio is not an exception, it's just a case where the behavior is very visible.

Sorry to resurrect this thread, but I just received this box set and I'm having problems with it.  So far I've tried ripping the first two discs and on both of them the last tracks on the disc have had read and sync errors and have been unable to rip accurately in EAC.  When I listen to the...

How does price affect quality? As has been said, high price does not indicate quality, but quality going to come at a price.   Does hearing that quality require a trained ear? Yes and no.  Many people have an initial "Wow!" moment during their first experience with quality audio gear...

Quote: The original question was posed to owners of the NuForce HDP or HD who used it with the HD 650.  The comparison was between the same DAC, amp, and headphones.

Quote: About 10 or 11 o'clock for most things.  Certain classical recordings will require me to turn it to about 1 or 2, but I rarely go any higher than that.    

Do you wear glasses?  The ear pads on my 650s will squeak sometimes when I move my head as the pads rub up against my glasses.  If this is the case, the obvious answer would be to take your glasses off when you're listening. Quote:    

A couple of my favorites on my RS2i:   Bela Fleck and the Flecktones: Greatest Hits of the 20th Century John Williams: The Ultimate Guitar Collection

Quote: The difference in the HDP and the HD is the inputs.  The HDP has RCA, 3.5mm, s/pdif, and USB inputs with the second knob on the front that switches between input channels.  The HD only has the USB input.  Both have analogue ouputs if that would matter to you at all.  If you have any...