Any old fart head-fi'ers still around?

[warubozu]

Still here every once in a while

 

[skippy]

I love that we've never changed our avatars kek

mine is still a mystery.

 

[skippy]

Checking in....I just remember i am member No. 46...

There are only 45 people who registered before me.

member #10 checking in. I wonder who the other 9 before me are.

 

[mrdeadfolx]

Not one of the old old-schoolers, but definitely piling on the years! I have my peaks and valleys as far as my participation here goes, but I'm so glad Head-fi is always there for me.

 

[erikzen]

Currently grooving on my RSA Predator hooked up to my laptop with Westone W60s.

 

[mrdeadfolx]

Currently grooving on my RSA Predator hooked up to my laptop with Westone W60s.

I have a set of Mach 80s along with a set of iFi GoPod wireless DAC/amps showing up (hopefully) this afternoon. I'm kid-on-Christmas excited about it lol.

 

[chesebert]

Currently grooving on my RSA Predator hooked up to my laptop with Westone W60s.

Chilling here with my M^3 and Grado HF-1.

 

[erikzen]

Chilling here with my M^3 and Grado HF-1.

Awesome. I have #97 and have the signed box here somewhere, too.

 

[erikzen]

So my wife just gave me back a Sony MD MZ-R70 that she stole from me about 15 years ago, but it's missing the battery. Anybody know what the replacement is? I'm finding contradictory info online.

 

[mulveling]

Chilling here with my M^3 and Grado HF-1.

Nice! I forget if I had #15 or #25. I think it was 15? I remember calling TTVJ to order them. When he told me the # I said "oh cool a nice even number" and he responded "yeah, for an odd number"

Almost got an M^3 but never ended up with one. Had a Maxed PPA that was quite nice.

 

[chesebert]

M^3 with some balls to the wall discrete class A opamp can sound powerful and very good. Okay, it doesn’t have dc servo so you have to keep it at a certain toasty temp

 

[lini]

So my wife just gave me back a Sony MD MZ-R70 that she stole from me about 15 years ago, but it's missing the battery. Anybody know what the replacement is?

Originally it came with a Sony-labelled NiCD AA rechargeable. Thought I might be able to tell you also the mAh rating, but apparently I've thrown that long-dead cell away and only kept its little plastic box - but I think it was 700 mAh. Standard alkaline would work, too - for battery-powered operation, that is. And of course for that purpose you could also use a NiMH cell instead. Whereas I'm not so sure, how well the integrated charger would work with a NiMH cell, but if you'd try one with a comparatively low capacity (e.g. Panasonic Eneloop Lite 950 mAh or GP ReCyko 1300 mAh (*)), chances might be not too bad. Nevertheless I'd suggest not to let it charge completely unobserved for too long, but rather check the temperature after a couple of hours as well as whether the charging stops by itself, before the cell gets too hot.

Problem is, that the user manual doesn't offer any detailed info regarding the integrated charger, and personally I've always preferred dedicated chargers - so I have no idea, which charge-stop method the integrated charger might use. Cells with significantly higher capacity would most likely not only be problematic in combination with timer-based, but also with minus-delta-U-based charge-stop. Whereas if you'd use a dedicated charger anyway, you could of course also use a cell with significantly higher capacity (like for example the regular Panasonic Eneloop or the GP ReCyko Pro....)

Old-fartish greetings from Munich!

Manfred / lini


*) Which both belong to the LSD/ready-2-use type NiMHs, with which portable audio equipment tends to sound better due to comparatively low inner resistance.

 

[Landis]

I don't think I count as an old fart (I'm still a young man... at heart!) but a little bit sad I don't see any activity from the guys I loved bantering off of like Erik, Doug and Progger... I believe a few of those fellas were on the older side, anyone know if they're okay?

 

[rlanger]

I joined when I was 40. I got my first IEMs for my 40th birthday from my wife. I don't remember exactly, but I think there were Shures.
Now, 17 years later, I guess I'm very close to becoming an old fart.

 

[tk3]

I don't think I count as an old fart yet, but I've been around for a while. I stopped reading Head-Fi regularly for some years because I was satisfied with the setup I had, among other reasons. Since COVID I've gotten more interested in some old hobbies again to fill the time, and shopping for new toys works well as a pick-me-up against all the stress from current world events.

Another thing that's very interesting to me is the current boom and innovation in the IEM scene. I still remember years back when the scene was mostly concentrated on a few western brands, and ergonomics were often bad as they were made of hard acrylic, and the price - performance ratio was relatively poor.
Nowadays you have 3D-printed ones made of resin with a pseudo-custom IEM shape and numerous different driver types, and all these brands competing with each other trying to offer the most attractive product to entice customers to buy from them. All that is only good for us as buyers.

What I'm not a fan of is the inflated and still increasing prices though. It seems that almost every brand is following the trend of charging megabucks for their new gear, and if it's not in the 4 digit range, it's too low. I'm saying this as someone who just bought a €1700 IEM so that might seem hypocritical, but I liked audio better when it was more affordable, and the ultra-expensive was limited to flagships and prestige models ("look at what our company can do" types such as the Sony MDR-R10), but expensive is more the norm nowadays.
Yeah, I know I don't need to buy things if I think they're too expensive, but it's just one of the trends in the evolution of the audio market that is not so cool.