After a VERY long absence, I'm back. Hey dudes.   I'm on my third listen of Opeth's Pale Communion. I've been following the hype behind the album; even with a few small missteps, I'm still enjoying it very much. Overall, it seems like an actually cohesive and well-executed version of what was...

I fixed it. For some reason in ASIO there was a problem with both the "In" and "Out" being turned on under the Device List for the uDAC2. I turned "In" off and it's fine now. Weird.

Hey all, I just upgraded the circuit in my uDAC to that of the uDAC2. All is working well, but I've noticed that when I start a song in Foobar2000, the first second of the song is silence - although the visualizations show that the song is playing and registers the signal, the actual sound...

I let my mom listen to Bob Seger's "Old Time Rock & Roll" after I had discovered that there were guitar tracks going on there which I had never noticed. She listened politely for about a minute, took them off, smiled, and said, "Oh, those sound really nice."   Meh.

I'm a senior at Morehead State University majoring in English Education. We're sort of outcast from both the Education department and the English department, haha. We're a strange breed; we're too rigid and academic for the Creative Writing majors but too "deep" for the Special Education majors...

Immortal - All Shall Fall       Gah, even with the hot mastering, it sounds great through Grado phones. :)

I searched for a related thread but only found one from several months ago which I didn't want to resurrect.   Anyway, is there any word on the new earphones from Maximo, the iM790? I've heard great things about the iM590 and considered buying a pair only to hear that the company was working...

I've discovered some good hardcore lately, I can't believe I've missed out on these bands for so long, haha. Mostly it's been Ruiner, Modern Life is War, With Honor, and several others. And of course Converge is constantly spinning on my playlist.

I haven't been to a ton of shows since I'm not big on the live circuit, but here's who I've seen:   Devin Townsend Band, Dark Tranquillity, Opeth, Keep of Kalessin, Behemoth, Dimmu Borgir, Valient Thorr, Baroness, Mastodon, Corpus Christi, Year of Desolation, Woe of Tyrants... and some...

I'm pretty excited about it. They haven't done a bad album in my opinion.   Hopefully the mastering on this new one will be a little more reasonable, though. Ashes Against the Grain had some pretty gnarly clipping in several places.

Probably one of the strangest moments I had was just the other night. I was up around 1 A.M. (and I'm never up that late) listening to Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring on my SR80i. The impact of the instruments, the dynamics, the primitive rhythms... all of converged together into a freakin'...

The track "Lead Me to the Rock" by Ricky Skaggs is probably one of my favorite vocal tracks, if you're into acapella bluegrass/gospel music. Listening to it through Grado SR80i is like a dream, haha. Check it out if you want, it's from the album Soldier of the Cross.

I got the email from David today that my Little Dot I+ shipped out. I'm so excited for my first tube experience!   Anyway, I may wait a while to try out new tubes, and I don't even know if I'll bother with opamps since I'm clumsy when it comes to dealing with small electronics parts.  ...

Stravinsky - "'Part I (Adoration of the Earth): Spring Rounds" from The Rite of Spring, conducted by Robert Craft.   Sounds incredible on Grado headphones. Gahh.

I agree that listening on flat response equipment should be a normal thing, but something else I forgot to mention: Because most listeners are used to alterations in EQ, most of them would find a flat or accurate rendering of the recordings to be "lifeless" or would feel like something is...

Another drummer here, and I can relate to what SP Wild is saying. Especially having played live shows and gone to shows for so long (with proper protection of course ), there is an urge to emulate that sensation of "feeling" the drums more than hearing them. And unfortunately most modern metal...

I listened to Mastodon's Blood Mountain last night, and while it's certainly a great album and well-recorded, there are a few sections where I can hear some pretty nasty distortion and clipping (for example, the guitar solo near the end of "The Wolf is Loose"). Maybe it's just my setup and I...

Another one here. :)   My Zune tag is BlueMiasma if you want to add me.      

Ihsahn - After Mastodon - Blood Mountain Satyricon - The Age of Nero Wes Montgomery Trio - A Dynamic New Sound Nachtmystium - Addicts: Black Meddle, Part II Thrice - The Alchemy Index, Vols. III & IV: Air & Earth

Part of the maintenance is a regular part of IEMs in general; they're in your ear, and if your ears aren't that clean, there will be gunk and ear wax all over them. It's gross, but that's how it goes.   The ER6i do isolate a lot of noise around you, so if you need to be aware of your...

I would stay away from the stuff by Monster, especially the Beats. The sound isn't that great and they're way overpriced; plus they won't give you nearly enough sound isolation from your drums.   If you're looking for less noise from your drums, look at in-ear monitors (IEM). They'll give...

Okay then. Thanks for your input!   I would go for the ER6i. The fit may be a little weird for someone who is new to the IEM world, but they're wonderful earphones. The wire is a little thin, so you don't want to abuse them, but there are some on here who have talked about their ER6i lasting...

I've used the Shure E2c's/SCL2's for stage monitoring purposes and have done some listening with them. The only difference between the two is that the SCL2 is the updated version and is supposed to be used primarily for monitoring rather than listening. As for sound, they're fairly neutral and...

Being an owner of a Zune 30 myself, this definitely peaks my interest. The headphone out on the Zune 30 is fairly good within itself, but after hearing it through a docking station I own, I know now that it's capable of much more. Thanks for posting this!

Thanks for your input, everyone. This combo is looking more likely as I read more.   @ s4one: My volume on Windows and Fubar2000 is set to max level; on the uDAC, the volume knob usually sits at 9 o'clock and is usually at a comfortable volume except for "hot" albums when I take the volume...