yashu
100+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Nov 1, 2009
- Posts
- 210
- Likes
- 20
I know not one person in my daily life that has more than, maybe 3 pairs of crappy phones. The ones that came with the ipod, the ones from bose (because bose is the best, and they cost THIS MUCH *holds hands out to misrepresent size of fish*, and the pair bought to use at work.
Most stop at the ones that came with the ipod/iphone
I am seen as very strange for owning, just a single pair of non-apple-monster(beats)-bose headphones, which I find interesting they are all 3 sold at the apple store... that is another thread rant I guess for some other time... I have a little e-mu 0202 connected to a single small triode amp/pre, nd so most phones under 100 ohms will be driven fairly well, so I am always brining one or another pair in, sometimes several, and sometimes in an oversized case (like DT880 pros, the case is very nice, and can often hold two pairs).
The e-mu by itself was thought to be strange because all PCs at work have an on-board sound card, but I did like keeping my personal extra x-fi in company property, so I bought the little guy, making it the second one I own. It mates very well with a tubed section, and I feel the 0202 sounds better than many more expensive interfaces, though it does not do much more than allow for overdubbing in production, so it really is almost JUST a USB DAC that can accept 32bit/192k, but winamp with the latest in_mad build and asio output plugin, plus the e-mu's suprisingly good native ASIO driver= amazing little solution. I bought the DAC09 with a tubed output buffer, but it can be used as an analog preamp, however, if you hook up the right cable to the tubed output RCA jacks that would normally go to an amp, so that it can accept headphones, and a so/so tube-dac becomes a really cool little triode amp. It handles some of my most finicky headphones without any of the EQ I use at home on my way more elaborate setup. My amp at home cost more than the entire setup at work, but both can tame the original AKG k271s, or bring more than just tonal accuracy to m50s, and holographic performance at low volumes, which is good at work, as well as on the XB700s. The bass is just staggaringly nice, much better than on a DAP and can compete with my setup at home. Over 100 ohms and it is a no go, so the DT770/80s are about as far as it goes... anyway, I sometimes bring in other goodies like tubes to roll, or a dual pentode tubed output buffer that I have a million different varieties of tubes for. I take that home at the end of the day, but people are not used to seeing tubes and a big power transformer on the office desk.
I am actually considering a 2nd pair of DT880s... so you can understand the state of my addiction... because while the Grace 901 just lets me melt away at home, a 32ohm pair wouled allow me some of that on the go. Then I am also thinking of a new set of sr325s to replace my original set I am tired of fixing/tweaking all the time.
I am even a member of some music groups/circles and they don't carry this into an obsession... they have their pair they like and end it there. One guy has a nice set of old-style 880s, but he has no innate need for more, but I cannot seem to quell the inner itch for, off the top of my head, about half a dozen pairs yet to add to my collection of far too many already. I was a nearfield monitor addict, so basically an audiophile that wanted to be closer to the speakers, mainly because it is easier to setup the nearfrield passive monitors around my computer monitor on my desk at home than to move the computer around, but then I had a personal issue that meant time in bed, much less time in the livingroom where my powerful, but ultra qiet computer sits, 2TB raid5 intact for albums. On went the radio of my router after the purchase of one of the first intel atom netbooks... At the time, core/amd laptops were not near this low price range so the choice was simple to me... it can run alll my audio software and some software for work, even AutoCAD and Inventor, it is a versitile machine. I broke the screen and another atom netbook was bought, because without my music... I can't relax after a hard day. Sometimes I cannot listen at work, but at home, on my laoptop and draft N network, I have my entire left wall to the window recess with heaqdphones proundly hung in two rows, a *good* interface from cakewalk, a monarchy DIP I stole from my main system, as I did my MHDT tubed DAC, as I have one sans tube, but the tubed dac w/ the tube buffer holding two Russian milspec pentodes into my Mackie mixer and out to the Grace 901... which is at my bedside for me to settle down and relieve my aching legs, sit back, and enjoy my share of all my music on that raid5 volume. The main PC is the one wired into the router with cat5, but I built a little home-made parabola to direct a solid signal in this direction so FLAC has no issue steaming. Using the same drive letters all around lets me share playlists, but the focus is placed on the fact that this was built as a shrine to headphones. I dissassembled a respectable audiophile system for components, as I went from wanting just enough to the best I had in a very short time. A couple pairs I used to use for production to a wall of hooks without one empty. Orignal boxes displayed proudly, rather than stuffed into closets. I remote into the main PC as if it were a big-iron mainframe, and all of this, not to obsess over cable, as I already had decent ICs, and notice little difference with cable upgrades on most phones, however other mods that are significant, have been done a few times, making my wife raise an eyebrow many times.
I am Yashu, I am addicted to headphone audiophilia, music, culture, technology, and the DIY spirit, as well, this site, our refuge, as AudioAsylum was previously. Over on the Asylum, they don't even bother to kid themselves, they joke about padded rooms and straight jackets, because they know spending a thousand dollars on a 3 ft. power cord is nuts, and I would not do such a thing, but I have done things that could be seen as nuts to most people on the street with regard to headphones, even the portable set I carry with me gets looks. (Sansa Fuze serving up portable audio... I would never purchase an apple product, which is seen as nuts by many as well), and if I am toting my laptop, the 2nd e-mu comes into play, as it is USB driven, so why not have it sitting next to me at a coffee shop or bookstore? I may be crazy to own 3 interfaces, but the 0202 has not a digital out, and the cakewalk does, so perfect for my little home bedroom studio. I can not just play 24/96 toslink, but record 24/96 analog, with a decent a/d section, making it nice to digitize vinyl and tape.
I keep a pecan sitting at my desk reminding me of the fact that, indeed, I am crazy, a bag of nuts, but happy to be, aren't we all? If we stick around here, we are well on our way, or already addicted. It is just the way it seems to me. That first cigarette never ends up well, but for some reason you want another the next day, and so it goes, sickness willingly and knowingly. The difference, of course, music reproduced pleasurably is not a dire health risk, besides, you can do it in-doors
Most stop at the ones that came with the ipod/iphone
I am seen as very strange for owning, just a single pair of non-apple-monster(beats)-bose headphones, which I find interesting they are all 3 sold at the apple store... that is another thread rant I guess for some other time... I have a little e-mu 0202 connected to a single small triode amp/pre, nd so most phones under 100 ohms will be driven fairly well, so I am always brining one or another pair in, sometimes several, and sometimes in an oversized case (like DT880 pros, the case is very nice, and can often hold two pairs).
The e-mu by itself was thought to be strange because all PCs at work have an on-board sound card, but I did like keeping my personal extra x-fi in company property, so I bought the little guy, making it the second one I own. It mates very well with a tubed section, and I feel the 0202 sounds better than many more expensive interfaces, though it does not do much more than allow for overdubbing in production, so it really is almost JUST a USB DAC that can accept 32bit/192k, but winamp with the latest in_mad build and asio output plugin, plus the e-mu's suprisingly good native ASIO driver= amazing little solution. I bought the DAC09 with a tubed output buffer, but it can be used as an analog preamp, however, if you hook up the right cable to the tubed output RCA jacks that would normally go to an amp, so that it can accept headphones, and a so/so tube-dac becomes a really cool little triode amp. It handles some of my most finicky headphones without any of the EQ I use at home on my way more elaborate setup. My amp at home cost more than the entire setup at work, but both can tame the original AKG k271s, or bring more than just tonal accuracy to m50s, and holographic performance at low volumes, which is good at work, as well as on the XB700s. The bass is just staggaringly nice, much better than on a DAP and can compete with my setup at home. Over 100 ohms and it is a no go, so the DT770/80s are about as far as it goes... anyway, I sometimes bring in other goodies like tubes to roll, or a dual pentode tubed output buffer that I have a million different varieties of tubes for. I take that home at the end of the day, but people are not used to seeing tubes and a big power transformer on the office desk.
I am actually considering a 2nd pair of DT880s... so you can understand the state of my addiction... because while the Grace 901 just lets me melt away at home, a 32ohm pair wouled allow me some of that on the go. Then I am also thinking of a new set of sr325s to replace my original set I am tired of fixing/tweaking all the time.
I am even a member of some music groups/circles and they don't carry this into an obsession... they have their pair they like and end it there. One guy has a nice set of old-style 880s, but he has no innate need for more, but I cannot seem to quell the inner itch for, off the top of my head, about half a dozen pairs yet to add to my collection of far too many already. I was a nearfield monitor addict, so basically an audiophile that wanted to be closer to the speakers, mainly because it is easier to setup the nearfrield passive monitors around my computer monitor on my desk at home than to move the computer around, but then I had a personal issue that meant time in bed, much less time in the livingroom where my powerful, but ultra qiet computer sits, 2TB raid5 intact for albums. On went the radio of my router after the purchase of one of the first intel atom netbooks... At the time, core/amd laptops were not near this low price range so the choice was simple to me... it can run alll my audio software and some software for work, even AutoCAD and Inventor, it is a versitile machine. I broke the screen and another atom netbook was bought, because without my music... I can't relax after a hard day. Sometimes I cannot listen at work, but at home, on my laoptop and draft N network, I have my entire left wall to the window recess with heaqdphones proundly hung in two rows, a *good* interface from cakewalk, a monarchy DIP I stole from my main system, as I did my MHDT tubed DAC, as I have one sans tube, but the tubed dac w/ the tube buffer holding two Russian milspec pentodes into my Mackie mixer and out to the Grace 901... which is at my bedside for me to settle down and relieve my aching legs, sit back, and enjoy my share of all my music on that raid5 volume. The main PC is the one wired into the router with cat5, but I built a little home-made parabola to direct a solid signal in this direction so FLAC has no issue steaming. Using the same drive letters all around lets me share playlists, but the focus is placed on the fact that this was built as a shrine to headphones. I dissassembled a respectable audiophile system for components, as I went from wanting just enough to the best I had in a very short time. A couple pairs I used to use for production to a wall of hooks without one empty. Orignal boxes displayed proudly, rather than stuffed into closets. I remote into the main PC as if it were a big-iron mainframe, and all of this, not to obsess over cable, as I already had decent ICs, and notice little difference with cable upgrades on most phones, however other mods that are significant, have been done a few times, making my wife raise an eyebrow many times.
I am Yashu, I am addicted to headphone audiophilia, music, culture, technology, and the DIY spirit, as well, this site, our refuge, as AudioAsylum was previously. Over on the Asylum, they don't even bother to kid themselves, they joke about padded rooms and straight jackets, because they know spending a thousand dollars on a 3 ft. power cord is nuts, and I would not do such a thing, but I have done things that could be seen as nuts to most people on the street with regard to headphones, even the portable set I carry with me gets looks. (Sansa Fuze serving up portable audio... I would never purchase an apple product, which is seen as nuts by many as well), and if I am toting my laptop, the 2nd e-mu comes into play, as it is USB driven, so why not have it sitting next to me at a coffee shop or bookstore? I may be crazy to own 3 interfaces, but the 0202 has not a digital out, and the cakewalk does, so perfect for my little home bedroom studio. I can not just play 24/96 toslink, but record 24/96 analog, with a decent a/d section, making it nice to digitize vinyl and tape.
I keep a pecan sitting at my desk reminding me of the fact that, indeed, I am crazy, a bag of nuts, but happy to be, aren't we all? If we stick around here, we are well on our way, or already addicted. It is just the way it seems to me. That first cigarette never ends up well, but for some reason you want another the next day, and so it goes, sickness willingly and knowingly. The difference, of course, music reproduced pleasurably is not a dire health risk, besides, you can do it in-doors
