Early impressions: -Tight bass with excellent extension. If it's too low for preference, they take very well to EQ. You can really tweak these to your preference -Fantastic instrument separation -Airy, crisp. Like an HD600 with less focus on bass impact and quantity -Occasional spooky 'lifelike'...

re: the Adorama deal That's an exceptional value. Barely costs more than the average pre-owned. Kinda makes me want to return this pair and hold out for a better deal, lol. But it seems like they were trying to clear their stock and aren't carrying the k712 anymore. I picked up one of the last...

I wish I had checked around more for deals on these cans. I see a couple of pairs floating around on reddit's AVexchange. Ended up going for a new pair from Sweetwater for 399.. I know it's steep but they throw in a two-year warranty and are an authorized AKG dealer. These are meant to be a...

PX100 + HD414 pads are a great way to go. Cheap + upgrade in comfort

Grado SR60i's offer a nice step-up if you want something a little different. Otherwise, if you're into the Senn sound then go up the line to HD600 or HD650.

Does the sound stop emitting from both speakers? Or just the slave speaker. If the latter, then you just had an unreliable wire connection that you just fixed.

Either of those will be a huge upgrade from the laptop onboard audio. Those aren't VERY high-impedance cans, so I'd say keep the amp secondary and primarily upgrade your source. So I would pick the one with the better DAC, trade off on the amp which you could always get later on.

I don't think the frequency response changes much if at all when properly amped. Instead, they sound more "controlled" and speedy than you would think an HD600 to do, especially in the bass. There's a little more detail as well. In more complex recordings with an amp, the sound doesn't get...

Quote: Originally Posted by ROBSCIX Some were worried about the HD650's and IIRC the HD600's an a couple others as they were unsure the can amp would have enough power to drive these higher needs cans properly from a electrical point of view. I am considering getting a set of the...

The line-out straight to headphones won't have the control or speed of a dedicated amp, but it is still, in my own opinion, an upgrade to the built-in head amp.

Wait 'til you get an amp for those babies

RCA Y-splitters are the only solution but you'll have to turn the speakers off or turn their volume all the way down when you want to use the headphone amp.

Very important info for anyone upgrading to Win7 RTM: The Essence drivers are epically broken. I troubleshooted for the last 3 hours to figure out why I can't open any application (Firefox, foobar, whatever). The Win7 drivers are the cause and they will mess with your UAC/Administrator...

SR60i is definitely NOT weak in the bass. It may depend on your source and amp but they have just slightly less bass than the HD600 which is a somewhat dark headphone. Just look at HeadRoom's FR graph of the SR60i. It's also a very FAST headphone that does distortion better than anything I've...

I used an LT1364 for a while in this amp and after reading the posts regarding DC offset, I put a spare LM4562 I had lying around. Didn't notice a diff. in SQ but if I can avoid cooking my cans I will do so

General consensus is that the Gilmore Lite has wonderful synergy with the HD600's. KICAS Caliente is another recommendation. If he doesn't mind tubes, perhaps some of the more expensive Darkvoice or Little-Dot amps would work great with high impedance cans. Occasionally on the FS Amp...

Do the dual 49710HA's on the adapters fit in the I/V and buffers?

HD600's are good all-rounders but that means they are easily surpassed by Grados for rock, that's for sure. Don't underestimate proper amplification. Though Grados don't need it, they benefit just as much from it =]

I also just got the SR60i's (previous owned the iGrados and very much missed the Grado sound) and HD600's (good all-rounder). Amplified, the difference between the two becomes very narrow, the HD600's have an edge but the Grados just do something magical for certain albums. Radiohead's In...

So here's a short story... I've been ready to sell this amp. You can see my high-impedance setup in my sig, and since I sold my Denon D2000's I haven't had use for the I+. And either way, I thought it was an okay amp, outshined by the HeadRoom Cosmic which synergizes well with my HD600's...

Yep, the Zero DAC w/ discrete Earth module in the DAC section. I had it connected to a Little-Dot I+ amp. The Essence alone was a big step up from that combo. The HeadRoom amp was another big step up =]

It's a better source stock than an upgraded Zero which is in the same price range. Even better with some opamp rolling =]

You should use the RCA outputs, not the speaker-level binding posts because the Swans are already powered. There are some subs (like the ones in the pictures you posted) that have a pass-through; you can connect your source's RCA outputs to the sub, and then out of the sub to your speakers. In...

When I briefly used it for recording, it worked just fine, though I did have to amplify the signal. Other than that it was clean and everything. I'm not sure what a DI box is.

Guitar will work just fine if you switch to mic input and boost it.