Well, some would argue that 1999 should be remembered as HP's "horrible year", they spun off Agilent (which is very healthy and profitable now) and appointed the wrong person to lead the "newly refocused" HP. 

Just wondering if there are any iFi Retro buyers who also have a HD800, how does the highs (i.e. treble) sound like through the headphone output?

  This. I would like to see a review of the Retro, especially how it performs as a headphone amp. 

Just reviewed the digital board picture - if I am not wrong, the DAC portion of the Retro only has a single PCM1793 chip? Just wondering what effect does this have compared to say the micro which has 2 PCM1793? 

I just placed my order - #100000547. I guess the order number is just that, an identification number for the order and the last three numbers mean nothing?    Barring a notification that I missed the boat, I guess this will round off my amps with its solid-state / balanced connections...

Dang.  It would be 1am where I am when the pre-orders open and I probably can't stay up that late to place the order. Let's hope not that many orders go in... 

  Have you auditioned the TH900? It might suit your tastes. 

Chiming in on the MrSpeakers line, I didn't find the Dogs or Primes to be particularly outstanding in comparison to the other phones in the price-range I have auditioned in the past.    To be honest, the only planar that has really impressed me thus far has been the LCD-3f - no chance to hear...

  As someone who has the Valhalla 2 on backorder (purely on the recommendations of headfi-ers) and intending to pair it with the ifi micro DSD, just want to ask did you listen to the micro's headphone amp out as well? If so, what was your opinion of the Valhalla 2 against the micro's amp? 

  Pretty good. This is the iDSD micro, so at normal mode and with ie match turned off, there's plenty of power for the HD800 and the HD650 before it. I do have to state up front that for me, the volume pot stays between 9 and 10 o'clock for most of the modern pop stuff and 12 o'clock for...

A picture of my current setup with the new Draug v2 cable. I do most of my listening at my desk, so the basic, default length is more than sufficient for me.   

For aftermarket cables for the HD800, I have the Draug v2 terminating in 4-pin XLR with 6.35mm adaptor - which I bought - and APureSound v3 cable terminating in 6.35mm - which I received for free as part of the HD800 promo I got. As far as I know, the former is pure copper while the latter is...

  Well, if all the speculation in the HE-1000 is true, that's unlikely since it is going to be 2500++ USD and one of the reasons why I chose the HD800 was that it was much more comfortable and well, less costly than the LCD-3f. And at this level, the flagships don't really have glaring flaws -...

  To be honest, the HD800 has its flaws. Then again, some say Sennheiser intended it to have that FR characteristic for the treble range. 

Well, Sennheiser actually has plenty of reasons to concentrate on the consumer audio market since they can maintain both volume and healthy margins. And going by the serial number on my recently purchased HD800 (345xx) and that it was out of stock and I had to wait patiently for the shop to...

  Judging by how much prices has increased since it's release, the new flagship (if there is one) will be more expensive, not less.