Quote:   1: Yep 2: Yep 3: Out of around 700 discs, 5% SACD, 2% DVD Audio, remainder CD or equivalent files. I'm not including analog material in these figures.  4: Nope 5: Not a lot, since it doesn't matter much to me - say $50.   

Oh man... I am seriously excited for this. I inherited an ampless pair of Stax 'phones a while back but haven't had the time / $$$ to get them up and running.   This opens up a whole new can of amp/cable worms - it's going to be fun to experiment with various combinations . I wonder how...

Quote:   Yeah I admit it's a bit of overkill. It cost around R18 000 here in South Africa, which works out to $2400.   I seriously love the dang thing - RGB LED backlighting makes for great eye candy and CRT-like black levels. So good for photos as well as gaming ;).   If you're...

Quote: At the original price of $1000 it was very good indeed, and at the current price of $500 it is a friggin' steal. Seriously. I also have HD650s and I find the combination to be hugely satisfying. Just be aware you will need to put at least 150 hours on it before the high frequencies...

Hmm I figured as much ^_^.   Strangely enough, when I plug the IE8s into the headphone out on my Mini-DAC there is only a tiny amount of noise (channel imbalance is a problem though)

Uh oh! My bad! Theft was not my intention, I found it elsewhere some time ago   But imitation is the sincerest form of flattery after all...

Hi all :)   I recently acquired some Sennheiser IE8s and thought I'd give them a whirl with my PS Audio GCHA. Since the GCHA uses gain cell tech there is no issue with channel imbalance at low volume unlike my other headamps.   The results were horrible - huge amounts of...

Night and day difference :)   In my office setup a while back I started with just an Essence feeding HD650s. Competent sound, but as you say, something was missing. After burning myself and making a mess I finally finished building a tube amp based on the Van Waarde OTL design, and the...

It's crucial that the cable maintains the requisite 75-ohm impedance - and since impedance is related to the diameter of conductor and shield as well as the composition of the dielectric (insulator), cable geometry is very important. Keeping the cable coaxial makes life a lot easier and avoids...

I just bought one of em at the reduced price - stupidly good value for money!   A bit harsh straight out of the box, but after 20 hours or so it's already sounding a whole lot better ^_^

I finally got my mitts on some Cohiba Behikes - they were launched in February at XII Habanos Festival, and I've only just managed to find them here in sunny South Africa :). They're made from the Medio Tiempo leaf and are a very limited release.   Both the 52 and 56 are seriously fine...

Ahhh yes, the conflict between having somewhere to stash your stuff and looking silly ^_^.   I see enough guys walking around with small bags these days that I no longer feel like a fool. If women can carry a bag to hold $500 worth of random junk us guys shouldn't get any hassle for one that...

I use my desktop for work and play, so it gets a fair bit of lovin' from my wallet (almost as much as the dang head-fi):   Intel i7 920 oc'ed to 3.6GHz Intel DX58SO motherboard 6GB Corsair Dominator DDR3 2 x MSi Radeon 5870 in Crossfire HP Dreamcolor 2480ZX monitor 3 x 2TB Western...

I love me some local (South African) fair-trade beans, which I grind myself.   What made a huge difference though was dumping my electric grinder and using a manual grinder from the 1940s that I found in my grampa's garage. It's a bit of a workout to get enough for a whole pot but damn does...

I use both a MacBook Pro and a PC as music sources, and as long as they're set up properly they both sound great. The Apple is simpler to operate though ;)   My first Apple audio experience was an unpleasant one - my previous MBP was one of the models that had the mouse and keyboard...

Not exactly a musical instrument, but: a few years ago I started an engineering project that aimed to use acoustic analysis to detect operational abnormalities in small jet engines. It was mostly for "fun" but I learned a lot about sound and its behaviour - the way air molecules act when they're...

I dunno, for me the final was unimpressive. Both teams seemed awkward compared with their previous matches...