Question to the folks who have tried both - I recently got myself a pair of YU2s, and compared to my audioengine a2+ they are significantly less loud than the A2+. This is when I use the built in USB DAC, which is why I purchased the YU2 for in the first place. Can anyone confirm this is normal...

Was browsing B&H when I came across these new listings: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1371601-REG/etymotic_research_er3xr_extended_response_headphones.html https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1371600-REG/etymotic_research_er3se_studio_edition_headphones.html and searching google...

Exactly. I requested an out of warranty repair, and instead of simply saying "we will not service our products out of warranty", or "our products are not service-able", or offering any other paid alternative to a repair, they simply sent me a link to buy a new pair at retail. Like I said, oh well.

LOL @ Westone and the laughable way they handle repairs. I recently received a pair of UM Pro 30s and discovered a slight (not immediately obvious) flaw in the left earpiece (confirmed by comparing to a dealer's demo pair, and by listening to a mono track and alternating the channel). I email...

  Amen. IMHO the only role any amp should play is to faithfully *amplify* the signal given to it. And in this respect specifications and measurements are critical. 

I'm not sure if this has been covered in the re-grilling thread, but has anyone tried removing the metal grilles and just stretching some speaker grill cloth over and securing it with the plastic rings with the HE-560? 

    Seems just a little annoying to keep putting the cables on and off though, you would think that they would design a case that allowed the cable to stay attached, but then again that means a bigger risk for damage in transit.   Would you mind sharing how much the shipping was? I'm not too...

  IMHO ordering with 1x gain is not the best choice, for the simple reason that you can just clip whichever resistor pair you want to achieve 1x gain (i.e. removing the gain resistors). Better to order something higher then clip or de-solder the resistors if you don't want the high gain. I have...

  +1 - the documentation is still out there, if one bothers to read it. It's dense reading but it's there.   I would venture to say though that if your music is pretty varied though, and *if* you use replaygain, I think 2x/6.5x is still a workable gain. I find it to be quite useful for my...

Not sure if this has been posted already, but benchmark is having a closeout sale for their DAC1 models    http://benchmarkmedia.com/collections/dac1-closeout   Although for $1250 for a DAC1 HDR it's still not cheap. But 5 year warranty.

My O2 at 1V RMS input and 4x gain is already very loud for me; how loud do you listen to your music usually? Don't want to be preachy BUT do take care of your hearing... once those inner ear hair cells are damaged, they do not regenerate.    But if you really want to hook it up to speaker amps...

  No, just have a brain the size of the universe (points to anyone who got that reference)   I have the (p)leather band on the biggest setting on both sides and am pushing against the metal band when they're on, plus the bottom of my ears are touching the pad. It's vertical distance that is...

It's a busy weekend but in my brief listen to the HE-560 it appears to be a superb performer in all of the genres I listen to - classical, opera, electronica, jazz, etc etc. I can concur that is seems to be very balanced and sounds good with the tracks I've tested it with. I'll need more time to...

  No offense meant, but damn statisticians, always trying to use fancy words like "effect size" and "statistical significance" to basically say whatever story they want to tell.       You are missing the entire point here, probably without even reading the paper. I'm not going to fall prey...

WASD keyboards has virtually no branding and you can customize the key layout to your exact specifications