I tried to send PriceJapan a message inquiring about their offerings a while ago, email was bounced back by a daemon. Coupled with the other evidence for it, I guess we have the best explanation. RIP. An alternative site people can try for JP-imported STAX is smartimports.net; haven't...

Would be a good choice provided you know what you're getting into with the Audeze sound. As mentioned above, they're not quite like the Senns. I am also moved to +1 the Focal Clear. Nice, even-handed presentation although it lives in a higher price bracket (to be fair, you did say you wanted...

With the constantly evolving landscape of people's tastes, the demands of the market, the state of the art, etc. there is reasonable expectation that the WoF will change over time. However, this most recent deep-cleansing seems to marks a significant philosophical change in what his honor roll...

As someone who has lived the starving student listener lifestyle and used both the Mojo and the vanilla iFi iDSD as tabletop units at home for a couple of years, I think the latter (or its newer iteration, the micro iDSD BL) is a better match for the job. Never had battery-related problems with...

Your "IN" and "OUT" characterization moves me to suggest that you read about what audio signals look like electronically, how they interact with transducers, as well as some circuit theory (V = IR and the like), then think about why connecting V+ and V- to a transducer works just as V and GND do...

If you don't mind waiting a few months, the Massdrop x Focal Elex is always an option (I believe it is closing soon). The current drop price is 699 USD and ships free to Australia among other places. There's been considerable chatter both on HF and elsewhere; maybe take a look at what's been...

"Never Skip Neck Day: A Cautionary Tale" Anyhow, the InnerFidelity WoF has really become a rarefied space in the wake of the Clear's entrance; virtually all multi-kilobuck flagship offerings summarily executed. Personally I don't intend to let my Utopia go any time soon (or the rest of the...

A few people have mentioned dust accumulation/protection. Given the fancy case the new estats ship with, I'm wondering if longevity in this sense is any issue. In other words, is there any implication that less sophisticated storage methods would be somehow suboptimal due to the headphones'...

I feel like you're asking the same question over and over. Again, there is no "thing" that does the "balancing" (unless you count the transducer itself). Thinking of balanced audio as coming out of a black box that "performs the operation" is conceptual, to help people grasp the nature of the...

Yes, balanced audio typically requires two amplifiers. However, I find it more likely that the SE uses half the balanced hardware (e.g. one of the two amps) like most balanced units rather than there being separate hardware for the two outputs which seems like a colossal waste. The pictures...

Power varies with the square of the voltage. If voltage is halved (i.e. you discard half the differential signal), the power is quartered (i.e. 200mW becomes 50mW). You'll notice this number matches the SE spec you provided; I think you can guess why. Maybe your assumption about the adapter is...

To be honest, I'm not even sure that is what the adapter does. I cannot say what the 3.5mm side pinout would even look like because the idea of this adapter is so silly. Secondly, assuming the adapter is actually as you specify, let me make sure this is right: You want to run the Walkman's...

The adapter you mention cannot convert cans wired for unbalanced into balanced. The R- and L- of your headphones are soldered together as GND and they cannot be decoupled by something like an adapter. You would have to rewire them. This is why balanced-to-unbalanced is fine, as it is just an...

Agreed with all of the above, best seal and sound for the Andros I've tried by far. There's really no comparison with the provided tips (Comply, Spinfits). My ears are on the small side so ordering 3 sets of small Symbio W was the right move, the fit is as good as it gets. It is worth the wait.

Man, lotta people saying nice things about the 2C over here. I'm not at all familiar with the sound (never owned anything Audeze), but as a satisfied longtime HD650 owner I don't see this purchase in the cards right now. Would love to give them a try at some point...

Posting the Korngold Concerto, NOT posting Heifetz... that does puzzle me. There's also a live performance from 1947 floating around on YT, recorded in Carnegie Hall only weeks after the concerto's world premiere (making it the first ever recording of the piece).

I sold my vanilla Micro iDSD on USAM just a few weeks ago, RIP... was a couple of years old but still in perfect condition. If only I had joined sooner, could have given you a good deal. I've owned both the Mojo and the iDSD and heard the Andros out of a few other sources. The iFi unit is the...

Apologies. I went and checked the STAX website because something seemed fishy about those specs, and I must correct the above. Here's the new rub: The SRM-252S is rated at 12V/4W, NOT 4A! P = IV so 4W = ~0.33A * 12V (important not to get this stuff mixed up). The iFi should do just fine.

Unfortunately that is correct. As a rough primer: Use a power supply that delivers the requisite voltage (otherwise unintended behavior/damage is possible) and at least as much current as the device draws (more is fine, less is... likely not fine). The iFi puts out the proper voltage but does...

AC is what's in your walls. Most devices typically run on DC power and require an AC-to-DC wall wart to do the conversion (your iFi iPower is such a device). However, the Eitr runs on AC 6V/1.5A and thus requires an AC-to-AC wall wart. Why not just use the one Schiit provides as suggested above?

Haha, I don't believe this is "correct" answer, but I somehow feel it's the truest. I was perfectly content and at peace as a starving student back in the day with cheap portable gear and IEMs on my desk, and I likely would have stayed that way if I remained poor.

Seems to be a lot of mixed experiences on this issue. I have owned and regularly used two Mojos (received the second one as replacement for the first which would not properly associate with my PC over USB), and the noise floor on both units was definitely audible through the IEMs I used...

Yeah, some headphones can scale up like mad depending on what you feed them. I don't see Utopia as being one of them though, at least not to any great degree; it tends to do really well assuming everything you put in front of it is complementary and isn't complete garbage. I spent a few weeks...

A non-STAX electrostatic headphone should pique the interest of many. Not keen to drop 3k USD on anything like this right now, but I will be monitoring listeners' impressions and experiences very attentively in the coming months. To my knowledge the higher-end STAX offerings typically feature...

Yeah, the Spring pinout is PS Audio spec or something very similar (I think the DSD L/R channels are swapped, but everything else is identical), so it shouldn't be an issue; might also be the same as the Audio-GD spec but if I recall correctly the DSD pin config is very different. Pink Faun...