A cautionary tale.

I have a ton of headphones, including the HD800s, HE-6s, D7000s, Ultrasone Pros, etc., but I continue to be amazed by the AKG K1000s. Properly amped, they deliver a unique experience that really has no parallel. Anyone who has written these gems off as outdated relics is missing out...    ...

I'm trying to communicate with Audio-Gd regarding an issue that has popped up when using my Reference 5.32 with my Roc SA. I've gone back and forth with Kingwa a couple of times, but I think we're having trouble understanding each other.   To be clear, there is nothing wrong with either...

I have several headphone amps that I am confident will be able to drive my soon-to-arrive K1000s with ease. But in the past I have had good results driving my HiFiMAN HE-6s off a Tripath chip-based speaker amp (a Trends TA-10.2SE) and my Emotiva mini-x a-100 (I have a speaker-tap to 4-pin XLR...

I've been trying to update my Head-Fi profile for most of the morning. Every time I make my changes, and then hit "Save", the screen turns dark and I get a "Please wait" message or something like that, but it never stops and never saves.   With the latest updates, the "Headphone" section of...

I am building a balanced M^3 with 4 inputs:   2 unbalanced (RCA - with two cables for left and right signals for each of the two unbalanced sources) and 2 balanced (3-pin XLRs - two cables for the left and right signals for each of the two balanced sources). First off, am I correct that...

My brother works long hours, lives in a small(ish) apartment and likes to watch TV and movies. As a result, it is often late before he can watch TV or movies, and his TV has absolutely terrible speakers, that make it impossible to understand dialogue, even if turned up loud. He has a good pair...

I'd like to build a premium balanced M^3 with power supply. I'd like it to also be usable as a preamp. Unfortunately, I'm a fairly busy guy, and I want to do it right the first time, so I am looking for someone who can review my parts list and give advice during the actual build. I'm willing to...

I've been a Head-Fi member for years. This morning I wake up to find that "I've exceeded my 15 PM per day limit". What's that about? I've never had a limit before, I haven't done anything wrong, what gives? I did get a new headphone e amp yesterday and contacted three people with my impressions...

I'm considering building a no-holds-barred M^3. A couple of quick questions:   1. Has anyone here ever built a fully balanced M^3? Any opinions on whether it was worthwhile?   2. Has anyone here built both an M^3 with variable gain, and an M^3 with a bass boost, or else converted from...

Headphone XLR connectors are great...nice, solid, good connection, locking, etc. The only problem is: they are heavy and solid and I'm worried they will scratch my desk/table/etc. as they are constantly banging around and being both loud and annoying. Are there any rubberized XLR connectors out...

I'll be traveling to Europe with my twin 4-year old daughters soon. They are, like most kids their age, a couple of squirmy, fidgety, curious, adorable, impatient, playful, perpetual-motion machines. Fortunately, they can be distracted with an ipad, IF they can hear the sound. My wife and I...

For the last day or two, the number of new messages indicator has been going crazy. It will show 12 or 15 or 8 new messages even if I only have one or two. When I read a message, it will drop to zero or 5 or something, but there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason for it. This is new...

Has anyone here tried out the Senn Woodies from Headphile.com? I have a pair of HD600s that I absolutely love, and I've been considering getting a pair of wooden cups for them, but I want to be sure it will result in an improvement in sound. I'm looking at the closed cups (either standard or...

Has anyone here tried out the Senn Woodies from Headphile.com? I have a pair of HD600s that I absolutely love, and I've been considering getting a pair of wooden cups for them, but I want to be sure it will result in an improvement in sound. I'm looking at the closed cups (either standard or...

I'm looking to build a tube-based headphone amp, as I already have enough solid state amps. The Beta 22 is often cited as the "best" DIY solid-state amp, is there any sort of consensus as to the "best" tube amp?   Right now I'm looking at the Bottlehead Smack WOT. I also saw the Mapletree...

I currently have a number of solid state amps and recently picked up an Eddie Current Laconic EC-01, which I quite like. It piqued my interest in tube amps and ... down the rabbit hole I went.   Does anyone have experience with the below that can give advice?   Woo Audio WA6 - $620...

Quick question: is there some reason why tube amps don't need balanced inputs in order to be "truly" or "fully" balanced, whereas solid state do require balanced inputs?   I was looking at the Smack WOT from Bottlehead (see here). It is a DIY tube amp with balanced and single-ended outputs...

So....I seem to be piling up headphone amps at a prodigious pace. I've got 4 right now, with at least one or two more to come. I am running them of a Burson HA-160D, which I am very happy with. The Burson only has a single pair of RCA outputs. I'm trying to find a way hook up all of my amps to...

While I listen to some opera and jazz, most of my music is hip-hop, rock, folk and electronica.   When I was shopping for my DAC and reading reviews, a lot of the reviews focused on whether DACs were capable of reproducing music recorded at above standard CD resolution (44/16), and in...

My Burson HA-160D only has 1 USB input and 1 coaxial input. It doesn't have an optical/TOSlink input.   I have two non-USB digital sources that I want to use with the Burson, so I am looking for a suitable switch that won't cost me a fortune, but also won't break, be unreliable or degrade...

Is there any sort of consensus on what is currently the best CD-Rom/DVD/Blu-ray drive for ripping audio CDs? By best, I mean as measured by the following three factors:   1) Speed when ripping CDs 2) Error correction (or lack of errors in the first place) 3) Ability to rip copy-protected...

I have been looking for a list of "budget" balanced amps. I say "budget", because it seems that balanced amps that cost less than $1,000 are few and far between. Even those that exist generally cost around $800. I wasn't able to find a list of balanced amps, much less a list of budget balanced...

Has anyone here ever undertaken any upgrades on their Graham Slee Novo (other than buying the PSU1)? If so, what did you do?   Regards, Adam

Has anyone here ever undertaken any upgrades on their Graham Slee Novo (other than buying the PSU1)? If so, what did you do?   Regards, Adam