[Sean H]

Hey, guys. I think I responded to this thread a while back. Amazing how many names I still remember. I opened my account here in 2001. I went through many headphones and amps back in the day and in about 2006 or so I got a pair of the limited edition Grado HF-1's, a Mapletree Audio Ear+ HD tube headphone amp with a heralded Sylvania 5751 tube and a Zhaolu DAC modded with a Zapfilter II analog stage and have had the same system since, which I love! I get the itch now and then. Good to see everyone!

 

[bangraman]

Yeah that's what I figured. This place got huge, as did the headphone selection in recent years. Is it just me or had the standards of affordable gear gone up loads? With respect to headphones in particular, I wonder if manufacturing advances are the cause, or simply a question of more consumer demand.

 
I think the usability of relatively affordable (but I'd note, much more expensive than what used to be quoted as affordable... e.g. V6) gear has significantly improved, because of increased competition and obviously we have far more headsets instead of headphones.
 
 
Take when I joined: I was bereft of socially acceptable headphones but now I have every choice possible. As much as we rag on Beats they made headphones socially acceptable through the force of design and marketing, and paved the way for others to concentrate more on the wearability and style.
 
 
Sound... not so sure. Except for the lower end of Beats and other style-first products, which have gone from "I'm standing in the aural equivalent of a lake of poo, directly under a poofall, in the shadow of poo mountain on planet poo" to "Quite sucky". Generally though the consumer bassheads have won and we have seen the weeding out of the more scratchy sounding phones which used to be more typical, with more wooly sounding phones which emphasise the bass. Phones which used to be derided as Fart Cannons back when we weren't decrepit are now comparatively speaking pretty tame to even anaemic.

 

[Mercuttio]

Is there any gear you guys really miss, or stuff that you let slip through your hands that you miss?
 
For me:
 
I miss my MELOS SHA-1. That was an incredible sounding machine. 
 
I wish I'd closed the deal on a pair of HP1000s that had RS1 (early production) drivers that someone had circa 2006. I came so close to buying them but didn't.

 

[Mortalcoil]

  Is there any gear you guys really miss, or stuff that you let slip through your hands that you miss?

 
 
 Always lusted for a pair of PS-1

 

[Skylab]

I kinda miss the days when I thought the Singlepower MPX-3 was the greatest thing I had ever heard in my life. As badly as that whole thing blew up, I sure did love that amp when I first got it.

 

[fiddler]

Remember those Sony pocket FM radios that Xin dude used to mod and publish info for? I remember modding one of those, it was an awesome radio. Coupled with KSC-35, it was just awesome. I don't have either any more. Dont' know what happened to the radio, I gave the Koss to one of my best friends.

 

[Mortalcoil]

I kinda miss the days when I thought the Singlepower MPX-3 was the greatest thing I had ever heard in my life. As badly as that whole thing blew up, I sure did love that amp when I first got it.

 Singlepower was all the rage for sure and Mikhail could do no wrong

 

[Mercuttio]

 
 Singlepower was all the rage for sure and Mikhail could do no wrong

What a horror show. Did anyone ever get anything back from him, or was some sort of action taken?

 

[purk]

I kinda miss the days when I thought the Singlepower MPX-3 was the greatest thing I had ever heard in my life. As badly as that whole thing blew up, I sure did love that amp when I first got it.

 
I bet that MPX-3 is still sound quite good compared to other amps today. My SDS-XLR still is the best dynamic amplifier that I have and I owned the Headamp GS-X MKII at one point.  I luck out and didn't pay full price for my unit (more like less than 1/3 of retailed).
 
 

 
 Singlepower was all the rage for sure and Mikhail could do no wrong

 
Yes, he couldn't at one point.  The thing is his amps do sound really really good so people keep going back for more and more.  Tom Hankins and I were one of the last few people who met him before he disappeared.  I remembered picking him up from the airport and noticing that he is no longer the same.  He was high on drug or something and had very hard time concentrating and always shifting to something else.  He stopped by at Tom's to repair his amp and he couldn't finish it.  Sadly he took the amp back with him and that was the last any of seeing that $7000 amplifier.  His first request after I picked him up from the airport was constantly wanting to stop by the closest gas station to buy a cigarette.   

  What a horror show. Did anyone ever get anything back from him, or was some sort of action taken?

Not really.  I was one of the lucky few who didn't loose much in term of money.  But our amps resale value are next to nothing now.

 

[bangraman]

  Is there any gear you guys really miss, or stuff that you let slip through your hands that you miss?
 
For me:
 
I miss my MELOS SHA-1. That was an incredible sounding machine. 
 
I wish I'd closed the deal on a pair of HP1000s that had RS1 (early production) drivers that someone had circa 2006. I came so close to buying them but didn't.

Ooooo
 
 
I think the only one I miss selling is also a tube amp, the World Audio HD83. It didn't try to look like a tube amp and I liked that it didn't try to sound overtly like a tube amp (so many crap ones that were highly rated on HF did, because they were crap: people were equating a difference as "good") either... it could be relocated without much trouble and generally was easy to live with. At that time I had too much stuff lying around, so yeah.
 
 
And those I might miss due to some aspect of them would inevitably be as bad to live with as I found them the first time, so not worth missing. e.g. the SR-003 Mk II is still probably one of the best IEM's I've heard in a narrow context, but it's mired in both physical and even sonic compromises.
 
 
There are on the other hand *so many* I was very happy to get rid of and also wish I'd never bought... Including so many forum favourites, heh.

 

[Duncan]

What I miss most, which I bought twice if not three times was the Sony MDR-CD1700, probably poop by today's standards, but still...

Worst mistake which Bangraman may remember, buying Shure E5C from TCR, pretty much literally the next day, the SE500 coming out, and buying them too... Haha, even to this day I still have a habit of burning through money - some thugs just do not change!

 

[lextek]

Is there any gear you guys really miss, or stuff that you let slip through your hands that you miss?

For me:

I miss my MELOS SHA-1. That was an incredible sounding machine. 

I wish I'd closed the deal on a pair of HP1000s that had RS1 (early production) drivers that someone had circa 2006. I came so close to buying them but didn't.

I'm so,sorry I ever sold my Melos SHA-1 and any one of my MGHeads

 

[lextek]

I'd also so love to have the big ol Headroom Max.

 

[bozebuttons]

I still have my Melos maestrobater & 4 HP1000s ,HP1 ,HP2 x2 ,HP3,to compliment it.

 

[purk]

What I miss most, which I bought twice if not three times was the Sony MDR-CD1700, probably poop by today's standards, but still...

Worst mistake which Bangraman may remember, buying Shure E5C from TCR, pretty much literally the next day, the SE500 coming out, and buying them too... Haha, even to this day I still have a habit of burning through money - some thugs just do not change!

 
Actually the CD1700 is still very good by today's standard.  We are now living in an overpriced world of headphones.  I don't think you can buy a good closed headphones as good as the CD1700 for $300.

I'd also so love to have the big ol Headroom Max.

Yes, that was a great amp but superseded by a top end DIY such as the M3 & PPA.  However Headroom best stuffs really came in under their full-sized Balanced Max & Home with Max Module lines.  Those gigantic amplifiers are competitive today even compared to the GS-X MKII.  Sadly their asking price of $4000 was too expensive in 2006-9.  If you guys run into one of these today for under $1500, don't hesitate to buy it.  Their Ultra Desktop line was/is very good as well.  The Ultra Desktop Amp/DAC combo (last revision of Headroom Max) is quite nice too.