purk
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Sep 26, 2001
- Posts
- 11,079
- Likes
- 3,990
SP amps were the holy grail to me and unfortunately I never did get the funds together before SP imploded. You guys were lucky to get your hands on good versions of Mikhail's amps and that they're still in good working condition. It's the same with the R10 for me. A holy grail headphone that I wasn't able to afford. I was also into PCDP's for a while with my favorite being the Sony D66. That and the CD3k were two of my biggest regrets for selling. That and far too many other cans that I regret selling as well but it was all for the sake of trying something else.
I'd have to agree with the both of you Purk and Warubozu, Beats pretty much caused everything to get more expensive and superficial and in effect also causing audiophile headphones to skyrocket. That probably also drove membership here as headphones became more popular for the mainstream user. Not that it's a bad thing but suddenly the voices of those with more experience were downed out by an influx of newer inexperienced members.
Yes, I was quite lucky to get my hand on the first SDS-XLR ever made. This amp used to belong to Tom Hankins and Hirsch. Hirsch sold it to me for a good price when he ran out of space to store the SDS-XLR. I fell victim to Mikhail as well so didn't quite willing to enjoy this amp and has left it unused for nearly a year. Now I feel incredibly lucky to own this amp b/c it propels my R10 to Stax SR009+BHSE level.
MDR-CD3000 - the one headphone that I truly wanted, that always eluded me...
That being said, had two pairs of CD1700s, loved them, sold them, regretted it - Old school Sony is definitely better than new school
You should have jumped in on the CD3000 Duncan. I tried to convince you many many times and you were just too in love with your RS1. I still have the CD1700 and I completely agree with you that the old school Sony were way better than new ones. Can you believe that folks were unloading the CD3000 on the FS forum to get their hand on the SA5000 for around $300 many years ago? Heck, the CD3000 price has now skyrocketed to nearly $800 a pair while the SA5000 still only worth about $350 in a used market. I should have kept a pair of the CD3k as well. Man the two of us were super crazy with our legendary discmen though.
I've been reeled back in to headphones again, this time by my longtime buddy Purk and his love for the SR-009, which I now share. We both kicked off "for serious" into this hobby back in 2004 when we first met up and decided that my L3000 plus Purk's Singlepower SDS was way-seriously big-time sound that we each couldn't live without. At the time I was running a '97 vintage Headroom Max that was no match for the SDS, and Purk had a nice HD650/Zu that was no match for the L3000. It progressed from there. Purk got an L3000 from Japan when they were still in-stock and "cheap"; I lucked out with a snag of Wayne's toaster SDS (the only other of that kind). I still love the L3000, but sold off my collection and left headphones for Tannoy speakers.
Hearing Purk's SR-009 w/ BHSE this past month was the first time I've heard a headphone setup that's competitive with (and even exceeds, in many ways) the resolution and refinement of the best speaker setups I've heard. So now I'm building back up, with an SR-009, Mjolnir KGSShv, L3000, SDS (wait, how did I end up with those again?), etc. Strangely, I have a hard time adapting to digital sources with my Tannoys, but I'm kinda liking digital with headphones -- so now I'll need a good high-res capable DAC. The "sorry about your wallet" thing is 12 years running, ugh...
Yeah, I remember Eggos; I joined when those were hot portables and an HD600+Cardas was the big deal (especially with an HR Max or Blockhead), and there were "Team <anything>" signatures everywhere. Then came the Headamp Gilmore V2, PPA, "amp wars" etc. I got into the vintage Sony PCDP thing only a little (fortunately not too crazy); this was driven by the realization that their built-in amps sounded better than the Headroom Total Airhead & Little (which, as it turns out, is more a knock on the old lower-end HR amps than a praise of the old PCDP's). I still think of the M^3 and Dynahi as "new" amps, haha. And what the hell ever happened to Xin and those bazillion versions of his portable amps? Thankfully I never went portable crazy, at least.
Edit: I see I have a custom title now. very nice, thank you!
Mike and I are great great friends and we are a very bad influence to each others wallets. Recently, I invited him over to listen to my system after not able to get together for over 18 months...and Mike came away really really impressed with both the SDS-XLR & the SR009. It is not fair for him to get a custom title! I deserve one too for dragging him back in!