For those of us with multiple headphones, which ones are you listening with now?

[FreeWheelinAudioLuv2]

Thieaudio Elixir > Sony A17 > FiiO Q1 II > Lunashop P/G interconnect. The power of Beryllium drivers! May be the best tonality and timbre of any IEM I own? Supremely natural.

Junior Kelly - Urban Poet (2015). Not my favorite album, as I usually stick to his early albums from the 90's, but I decided to pull out this more "contemporary" album.

 

[JAnonymous5150]

Still on the ZMF Eikon(ic) 2024s and I'm loving them so far. That said, the regulars here know me well enough by now to know that I've got to start tweakin' the signal chain to find preferred pairings. For this next album I switched over to the Burson Soloist 3XGT which is currently paired with my Soekris 2541 being fed by the coax out from a Wiim Pro. My Burson Timekeeper 3i was my favorite pairing with the VCs in the past so it's time to see if the Soloist can work some Burson magic with the new addition to my ZMF family.

What about music choice, you ask? I went with the 20th Anniversary Edition of a venerable classic: Good News For People Who Love Bad News by Modest Mouse. First off, the fact that this album is 20 years old makes me feel super old. Second, the first time I heard Modest Mouse was when they were touring in support of this album and I saw them play the Greek Theater in Berkeley, CA with My Mourning Jacket which was who I went to see. MM absolutely crushed and totally stole the show while MMJ's singer was obviously high out of his mind and struggling to remember lyrics for much of the set. Isaac Brock (lead singer for Modest Mouse) showed how much of a class act he is and came out on stage with My Morning Jacket to sing along with Jim James (lead for MMJ), helping him remember the lyrics and timing and taking the lead when Jim couldn't. It ended up being a great show and it was cool to see someone go out of their way to be a stand-up guy and save the night like that.

Anyways, this album is packed with some of the most memorable indie tracks from that period in the genre. Absolutely classic!

 

[Hypops]

Still on the ZMF Eikon(ic) 2024s and I'm loving them so far. That said, the regulars here know me well enough by now to know that I've got to start tweakin' the signal chain to find preferred pairings. For this next album I switched over to the Burson Soloist 3XGT which is currently paired with my Soekris 2541 being fed by the coax out from a Wiim Pro. My Burson Timekeeper 3i was my favorite pairing with the VCs in the past so it's time to see if the Soloist can work some Burson magic with the new addition to my ZMF family.

What about music choice, you ask? I went with the 20th Anniversary Edition of a venerable classic: Good News For People Who Love Bad News by Modest Mouse. First off, the fact that this album is 20 years old makes me feel super old. Second, the first time I heard Modest Mouse was when they were touring in support of this album and I saw them play the Greek Theater in Berkeley, CA with My Mourning Jacket which was who I went to see. MM absolutely crushed and totally stole the show while MMJ's singer was obviously high out of his mind and struggling to remember lyrics for much of the set. Isaac Brock (lead singer for Modest Mouse) showed how much of a class act he is and came out on stage with My Morning Jacket to sing along with Jim James (lead for MMJ), helping him remember the lyrics and timing and taking the lead when Jim couldn't. It ended up being a great show and it was cool to see someone go out of their way to be a stand-up guy and save the night like that.

Anyways, this album is packed with some of the most memorable indie tracks from that period in the genre. Absolutely classic!

No way! I was at that show in Berkeley too. Saw Modest Mouse pass through again (the next year?) at Berkeley High. Saw MMJ come through the Greek Theater again (maybe the same next year?) as well as at the Filmore a couple times. Good memories.

 

[Hypops]

I've been having fun listening to all my full-size headphones and IEMs using balanced cables rather than single ended. Not persuaded there's much of a difference most of the time. But in some cases, like with the Symphonium Meteor, there's a real and distinct difference. The science side of my brain says that there shouldn't be any difference. But my ears hear otherwise.

Symphonium Meteor < Singxer SA-1 (4.4mm balanced) < Chord Mojo 2 < Intona Isolator < PC (Roon < Tidal)

Village Days (2020), Terrace Martin

Not only does this have one of the best album covers of all time, but this is also Martin's early low-key "statement" album. Yeah, it is smooooth AF. But it also is totally unafraid to find the "jazz" in everything retro-cool: 90s soul, bebop, hip hop, 80s dance, and lounge.

 

[JAnonymous5150]

No way! I was at that show in Berkeley too. Saw Modest Mouse pass through again (the next year?) at Berkeley High. Saw MMJ come through the Greek Theater again (maybe the same next year?) as well as at the Filmore a couple times. Good memories.

Dude, I saw MMJ at the Greek in 05 and again in 06 I believe so we were probably at both of those shows together. I was a brother in Fiji (Phi Gamma Delta) and our house was on Channing Circle so the Greek was just a short walk away. A few of the guys and I used to go to shows there on the regular.

I saw MMJ at the Fillmore in SF in 06 and then saw Third Eye Blind the next weekend and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers a couple weeks later so we might have been at the same Fillmore MMJ show too. What a small world!

 

[Hypops]

Dude, I saw MMJ at the Greek in 05 and again in 06 I believe so we were probably at both of those shows together. I was a brother in Fiji (Phi Gamma Delta) and our house was on Channing Circle so the Greek was just a short walk away. A few of the guys and I used to go to shows there on the regular.

I saw MMJ at the Fillmore in SF in 06 and then saw Third Eye Blind the next weekend and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers a couple weeks later so we might have been at the same Fillmore MMJ show too. What a small world!

Totally. Whoa. I lived in Berkeley and Oakland for a decade, so I ate up as much live music as I possibly could. And in those days, you could still pay $5-10 cover (maybe as much as $40 for a big event?). I was in grad school and even still could afford to go to a show every week. Sucks that the current generation doesn't have the same access we did. Damn good times.

 

[theintention]

Szalayi / DC-Elite / R4


really digging this experimental bass album

 

[Leonarfd]

ZMF Verite Open + Topping A90 Discrete + Denafrips Ares 12th-1

 

[JAnonymous5150]

Totally. Whoa. I lived in Berkeley and Oakland for a decade, so I ate up as much live music as I possibly could. And in those days, you could still pay $5-10 cover (maybe as much as $40 for a big event?). I was in grad school and even still could afford to go to a show every week. Sucks that the current generation doesn't have the same access we did. Damn good times.

I totally agree. I lived in Berkeley for three years while I was at Cal (I did two semesters abroad) and I lived for another three years in SF, Oakland, and Danville later on. The area has great venues and drew great artists all the time so it was a paradise for a big live music fan like me. There are also a ton of recording studios in the Bay Area so it was easy for me to pick up session gigs to make some cash, too. I have so many great memories from that period of my life. It's crazy that we were at those shows at the same time.

Topical Content:

I've switched over to my ZMF VCs for a little comparative listening with the Eikon(ic) 2024s and I've gone back to the Bottlehead Crack w/ Speedball and Gustard X26 signal chain. I have a friend who owns the VCs and is interested to know how the new additions compare to them so I'm gonna put together some impressions for him.

On deck in my queue is Retrospective's 2022 release, Introvert. This is just another sick prog album from a Polish prog scene that seems to be really prolific in turning out some killer artists in the genre. You can't go wrong with this one.

This is probably gonna be my last rec for the night so I will wish you all good night or good morning as the case may be.

 

[Leonarfd]

CFA Bonneville + HIBY R8 II

 

[JAnonymous5150]

CFA Bonneville + HIBY R8 II

BTW, I almost forgot to tell you thanks for the Black Hill & Silent Island rec. I had never heard of them before and I really dug that album. I've got to make some time to check out the other Black Hill stuff that's up on Bandcamp.

 

[rids57]

roon > HoloAudio Cyan II > Violectric V222 > HiFiMAN Arya Stealth

Playing House (2021) by Meer - Playing this to refresh my memory of just how much I like them before their new album, Wheels Within Wheels drops next Friday. Whether it's on Qobuz or if I have to go to Bandcamp no matter, I will have to hear it. The band is Norwegian and started out as a duo, dual vocalists Johanne and her younger brother Knut but have grown to an eight piece band at the latest count. The music is crossover prog-rock and is really well written and played. The album was a big step up from their debut but releasing it in 2021 made it very difficult to put a support tour together due to Covid, so it's impact was limited. Hopefully they will have better luck with the new one.
These Arya Stealths are a joy to use on long listening sessions, they are almost as comfortable as the HD800S, the only difference being a slightly stronger clamp force. Sound wise they are sublime, my 67yr old ears naturally filter out any nonsense in the upper highs (same goes for the HD800S) and everything I do hear sounds fantastic I may still save for the HE1000 Stealth one day but until then I am really happy with what I've got.

 

[Barnstormer13]

Yggy LIM -> Schiit Folkvangr -> Utopia 22



This combo doesn’t work on everything, but it sure does with this movie soundtrack version of a battle song.

The combo also works well with stringed instruments.

 

[Deadwax65]

DCA AEON CLOSED X

 

[ThEvil0nE]

Tago Studio T3-03 < Flux M-field < Zen DAC Signature v2 < mini media PC