Recent content by Pharmaboy

Since posting that I read some fascinating reviews of the Dark Star. 14 years ago everything was different: there were a few planar headphones that completely tapped out most headphone amps of the day. The Dark Star was Ray Samuels' brute force response. This thing could swing 80 volts (insert...

No, never had the chance--never heard any of the 4 cables you mentioned. Of course, as a ZMF fanboy I've had any number of stock cables with their headphones. Always pretty good sounding and probably better than many other stock cables. Years ago I had one of ZMF's modest upgrade cables, the...

I've never heard the Noir Hybrid HPC--mainly because I just don't do well with silver cables. But I can strongly recommend the pure copper Noir HPC MK2, Forza's TOTL copper cable. I have 2 of them and love everything about them--not just the sound, which is close to the best I've heard, but also...

Beautiful doggie!

I couldn't agree more. All that really matters with liturgical choral music is whether the composer is religious or not. Most of the time they were, even if under time pressure & writing for sustenance (J.S. Bach comes to mind there). Music that is composed while directed at the (presumed)...

I'll PM you about choral. That's better than stalling out this thread for it.

Definitely. I have 2 systems here, and the onyx anchors my side system, which is headphone only (w/a DDC + V280 + Wells Milo + Icon Audio HP8). I find the Onyx best for headphone listening. My other NOS DACs are a slight bit better for speaker listening (Harbeth 30.1s driven by bel canto 600Ms)...

Just wow!! that must have blown your mind. My 3 favorite Beethoven choral pieces are Missa Solemnis;; the Oratorio, Christ in the Garden of Olives, and his towering opera, Fidelio.

I probably mentioned this before, but it's worth repeating. When I talk about classical music, I don't just mean instrumental music. I also listen to a ton of choral music, primarily liturgical music from 1400 to yesterday (ironic since I'm an atheist to the core). And my silkwood Verite Open...

Never heard of that one, though I sure know the name Ray Samuels. Is it good?

I listen to a ton of classical on all my headphones (and speakers) ... quite a bit of jazz, too. No doubt the VO excels in these genres. It does so well with the tone and timbre of voice and any instruments. However, it also can pound like George Foreman on genres with a heavy bass and beat...

Love that Joshua Bell/Chopin! The man has such a pretty tone. This makes me wish for more violin transcriptions of Chopin....

Rodney Dangerfield: "When I was little my uncle asked me to sit on his lap. He was in the electric chair."

Can't say I really like Albert Ketelby's work. But I can say that I LOVE carillon, a strange and wonderful sounding musical beast. The video below is one several informative, well presented pieces by Joey Brink, the Leonard Berstein (educator/musicologist version) of carillon. I was fascinated...

It is. What is it? And what's the blue tape (it looks like blue table) on the left side of the earcup facing the camera?