Quote:
Originally posted by Dusty Chalk
(Sorry for the delay, been working on my taxes.)
- Hirsch has way too many DVD's. (And no anime!) His collection of the ones he hasn't watched yet is bigger than my entire collection, I believe. |
No anime? OK, it's not the largest part of my collection, but I've got at least ten or twenty DVD's worth. Finding them buried in there is another matter. Hmph.
Quote:
- I need to either (a) have his job/income, or (b) be his credit card company. |
Definitely the latter.
Quote:
- Loki (?sp) has got to be the nicest cat I've met in a long time.
|
He was born feral, but decided he liked it here. He tried acting feral when I first got him, but he also found out that he liked having his belly rubbed. So, he gave up being feral in a hurry. He also has to be in the middle of anything going on in the apartment. His brothers are more reclusive.
Quote:
- I need to get a pair of those Silver Lace interconnects. They were easily some of the finest interconnects I've ever heard.
- The ART DI/O did not best the MSB. To my ears. However, at 1/3 the price, it comes pretty damn close. Close enough that, had I known about it at the time, I probably would have saved a few hundred dollars. But as it is, since it's money already spent, I'll stick with what I have. It's not a giant killer, but it is definitely a better bang for the buck. I would think of it as the Sony V6/7506 of DAC's -- I.E. a great entry-level upgrade (not the sound, mind you, just the frequency response).
|
The DI/O's are getting there. Next step is to rebias one into Class A operation, and upgrade all of the resistors in the signal path. If I'm up to it, I'm going to substitute output transformers for the entire analog output stage in another. Then we'll try again...
Quote:
- I finally know what people are talking about when they refer to the "Grado slam"! (I've only heard one set of Grado's in my life -- the 225's, I think -- and was too busy being distracted by the discomfort factor to enjoy them properly.)
- Those HP-1's are the only set of Grado's that I have ever actually liked, and there were a lot of them there! (I guess I'm just not a Grado man.)
- That RA-1 is nice. I take back everything I said about it.
- I'm deaf. A lot of things were very close, yet audibly different. But in a lot of cases, I could not immediately tell the difference. For example -- WRT (what, to me, were) the big three amp's -- the RKV, the MicroZOTL, and the Melos -- they're all very good. At this point, it's not a matter of one being better than the other, it's a matter of which character you prefer. I'm pretty sure I chose the right one, as I am really happy with the character of the RKV in the context of Saturday's meet. The character of the Melos is pretty close to the RKV, I have a hard time discerning the two. However, the MicroZOTL was very different.
- Another example of deafness -- could not tell the difference with the phase switches on the HP-1. |
The phase switches only seem to matter on rare recordings. I used them when I first got the HP-1, but I'm tending to forget about them more and more.
The RA-1 quietly goes about the business of playing music. It's easy to overlook just how well it can do that. Although I did some more listening to the HP-1 afterwards, and the RA-1 really didn't have the power to get bass out of them, IMO. I actually prefer the RA-1 with the HD-600 over the HP-1, for that reason. The RS-1 sounds good to me with the RA-1, but so does the SR-200, and the RS-1 IMO is not worth the extra money.
I guess I'm deaf too. There were a lot of things that should have sounded different, but didn't. It's all a matter of time, I think. An afternoon is way too short a period to get a handle on a good piece of equipment. I didn't spend time with the Melos on Sat (I can hear it anytime), but that RKV impressed me. It's a clearly different sound from the ZOTL, but it does indeed become a matter of preference. The "big three" all have very distinct personalities, and it's a matter of finding the one you like. There's no point in saying one is better than another...IMO they're all at a level where "better" is meaningless. The ZOTL has become my primary headphone amp, and I'm still learning its personality, long after I've stopped rolling tubes.
Quote:
- I need to remember not to forget anything next time. I didn't bring any tunes, other than my Keith Jarrett Sun Bear box. So, no dark music for Hirsch.
- I forgot my Cheesy Poofs. Oh, well, enjoy them Hirsch!Not likely -- the Headroom thing is in mid-June -- see you there! But we will have others. I know I'll be stopping by Hirsch's again at some point... |
And me doing Weight Watchers. I think I'm allowed to eat two Cheesy Poofs a day.
Once things got started, I didn't get a chance to go into my collection and find interesting things to listen to. Next time I'll be more prepared...