Hi All,
Just want to add my .2c worth to the discussion as someone who bought a Jena-recabled D5000 with full mods from markl a few months ago.
First off, Mark handled the entire transaction very professionally from beginning to end and the recable work was top-notch. I also have a pair of ALO K701's with precisely the same type of recable and they are equally as good in this respect.
On to the sound. Initially I must confess to some disappointment, mainly the fact that the sound spectrum was skewed due to a lack of midrange. However, having read about the fact that these definitely require a good burn-in, I proceeded to go ahead with this using a mixture of music and the Isotek CD for this purpose. Still, it took a good 200+ hours before things started to gel for me, I felt there was a substantial improvement in sound around this time as the mids came into focus to join the party.
Now, the sound is very balanced across the spectrum. The best way I can sum them up is to say have a very "speaker-like" presentation; a full, rich-bodied signature with great macro and micro dynamic contrast. Bass can go extremely low indeed without being overblown - try the Nine Inch Nails latest release for evidence of that (it's available as a free download btw). Sibilance is generally well controlled and treble extended. I'm particularly getting a lot of enjoyment of my hi-rez stuff via the Benchmark DAC-1 - Ryan Adams' Gold and Steely Dan's Gaucho are permanent fixtures at the moment.
I'll be interested to see if there are further changes in sound over the coming months but overall I'd conclude that I'm now very happy indeed with the sound (I'm driving it with a Sugden Headmaster) and don't really envisage making further investment in a dynamic headphone set-up to be honest. Having owned stuff like the ATH-W5000, that's a reasonable endorsement I think.
Electrostatics are still intriguing and I'd like to hear an Stax Omega 2 driven by my front-ends at some point but I don't feel especially tempted. Something for the future, possibly.
Cheers.
Mark