I'm interested too.  Was kicking myself for missing the last meet.  I've got a smattering of uncommon Japanese gear plus some modded crap I could show.

PriceJapan actually uses FedEx, not DHL.  I found them to be slower than EMS and I got hit with a duty bill on top of it.

Kenwood KH-K1000

  Quote: Amazon Japan + White Rabbit Express

I don't know that it is recommended by the manufacturer, but it is indeed sold by a reseller who has a good rep (though his OPA627s are suspiciously cheap).  OPA637 is a fast opamp and can have problems with oscillation, especially at unity gain.  I haven't used it in this application so I can't...

The OPA637AP isn't well suited for this circuit and coupled with the class A biasing I'm sure it runs quite hot.

  Quote: I had the same issue with the fit.  The angle is way off for the shape of my head.  Don't worry about bending them, the headband is tougher than it looks.  Just grab it by the base and apply even pressure like this: /  \  It'll probably take a few tries to get it right.

  Quote:   They're really nice cans, it's too bad the exchange rate sucks right now.  I did forget to check eBay.  Seems there's a seller (who I've never dealt with) offering them for $410 with free EMS shipping.

I've had my eye on the DAC-1000 for a while and finally broke down and picked one up.  The build quality is quite impressive.  You can see they paid a lot of attention to vibration control.  It still needs a little more break-in but I like what I'm hearing so far.  Unfortunately I won't be able...

Quote: I looked around and that's actually the best price going right now.  Only way you'll get them cheaper is to buy them in Japan.

Quote: I feel it's very worthwhile to upgrade the electrolytics.  I replaced the big caps with Mundorf MLPI, the power rail with Elna Cerafine and the opamp rail with Elna Silmic II (330uf/25V).  Be careful not to use super low ESR caps on the power rail as I guess it can cause...

I doubt you'll find a place to audition them outside of Japan, but the Kenwood KH-K1000 are a great pair of closed cans in that price range.  I didn't do an exhaustive comparison with the D5000s, but I felt they had a better balance.  Kinda like a more lively HD650.  Drums sound great; I was...

Quote:     $40 is not a good signup bonus. I wouldn't waste a credit inquiry on anything under $500.

  Quote: Yeah, I left those out.   Quote: I'm not familiar with Chemicon KZE.  Looks like Digikey has them really cheap so I'll throw some in on my next order.  Same for the Silmics.   Heh I'm new to opamp rolling.  I had put some class A biased (1K8) OPA627s in my Njoe...

Quote: I'm a big fan of Sonicaps, but they aren't particularly warm.  I had removed the input caps but decided to put something back for safety while I was modding my sources.  I had some 2uF Sonicaps laying around from another project so I threw them in.  Very balanced sound.  Obviously...