If they can put the stuff in a Bluetooth headphone, how special could it be?   Tangentially, I'm actually going to be returning my Utopia after reluctantly deciding I liked my HD800S + BUDA stack a smidge better. But at least this makes it easier not to let the whole fancy exotic material...

  Cool, although that seems to be matching frequency response to a theoretical neutral response rather than the full freq/phase matrix compensation of HRTF? Sorry, my Google German ain't too hot.       Sorry I wasn't conveying myself clearly. By "frequency response matching" I was...

Thanks for a great report!    Quote: This gets to something that has bothered me about the Realizer system for a long time. To get the most accurate representation of what the eardrum hears, the microphone for HRTF measurements presumably should be located as deeply in the ear canal as...

Thanks for the commiseration! I also can't wait: I recently upgraded my Grace M903 DAC/amp to M920 and my HD800's treble performance improved as a result, making the Senns' treble a bit richer vs icy. So if the HD800S' virtues are even greater, then I've probably got my new reference.

For a little color: I ordered mine from Jan on Dec 28 and it left Germany in the 30th. Two weeks later and DHL still hasn't shown an update, which I assume is because US customs still has it. FYI I'm in Boston. Still a great price though, even if I receive it the same time as everyone else (Feb...

Thanks for the follow-up! Good thing too: I put in my order earlier today.

Broadly-speaking, looking past potential improvements at 6kHz and low bass extension, any initial impressions on whether the HD800S is broadly brighter than the HD800, or softer?

So it turns out I was lucky enough to get a demo 7-foot length of the Endorphins and just outright bought all three of the Moon Audio cables to try. I had five HD800 replacement cables in at once! (Including the ALO Reference 16).   I will write more later, but in the meantime I left a short...

Quote: Thanks, I had completely forgotten about Double Helix cables.   I guess there aren't that many Endorphin owners to begin with ....

Hi,   I must be looking for this in the wrong way because for the life of me I can't seem to find anyone who has directly compared an ALO Reference 8 (or 16, which I am auditioning now) with a StefanArt Endorphin HD800 cable, like Robert Youman did on PFO. The ALO Ref 16 I currently have is...

Quote: Working late on the last Friday of the year, this a great read. Made me laugh! I agree with everything here.   I myself do find a bit of cloudiness in my LCD-3's midrange, but I can't decide whether it's necessarily right or wrong. It's as if I just have to readjust my mind...

Quote:   I can confirm this on my LCD-3s as well. Reminds me of the "gappy" 1/4" plug on my nearly decade-old Cardas cables for HD600. Same with the Grado 1/8-1/4" adapter. Annoying.

Quote: (My emphasis)   Quote: This is exactly why people are justified for being verbal sticklers: it appears you missed the last four words of Jude's sentence.

Quote: I really like Tom Bihn's bags.

Quote: I recognize the Great Divide between audiophiles and those in pro audio (not that there should be one), but this is only a matter of semantics driven by necessity, not a broader conspiracy to obfuscate or mislead. A language needed to be established at the beginnings of the...