[kiteki]

This sounds superb. What vanilla cigarettes do you use?

 
Actually I lied with the vanilla part, sorry.
 
 

I really dig the new avatar, kiteki.

 
I know, you like girls in outer-space.

 

[kiteki]

Originally Posted by MuppetFace /img/forum/go_quote.gif
 
I also really dig the look of the Vivid G1 Giya:
 
 

 
Reminds me of I-No's hat.

 
It reminds me of...

 
 
 
Plus when I have the money for the asking price I'd rather buy a 10x10 metre aquarium and giant squid.

 

[mosshorn]

Quote:

 
Actually I lied with the vanilla part, sorry.
 

 
 
No harm done, now I'm on the hunt for vanilla cigs of quality ^_^ It's odd, I swear even though I mainly just smoke cigars every once in a while, I can crave a cig in the most random times. Something about a cig on a cold night I guess.
 
Also, badass avatar.

 

[Magick Man]

a bit of a B&W Nautilus copy.

 

[DigitalFreak]

Quote:

 
I think I'm going to pick up the ORB Jade To Go soon. I'm also rather curious about the Sony PHA-1, which I've heard next-to-nothing about thus far:
 
 

 
I really don't need to start a portable amp collection. Sigh.

Very nice choices. I'm curious about the Orb, the Sony PHA1, the Apex Glacier, the Portaphile 627, the Triad Audio L3, and the ALO RX MKIII. Unlike you the idea of having a nice rounded collection of portable amps to pick from is quite appealing to me right now. Now if I could only find a nice portable DAC that would play nice with my new iPod Classic and my laptop I'd be a happy camper.

 

[Coq de Combat]

So, making this list is harder than I thought. At first I was all like "No problem.. a bit of AKG, then a pinch of Beyerdynamics with a smaller portion of Sennheisers. Add some Sony, another Ultrasone..." (and so on).
 
Now that I'm researching what headphone models to actually add, it seems as Beyerdynamics COPs seems to be better than any of the DTxx0-series, the K167 seems to be better than all the classic AKGs and while it would seem easy to swap out the old models to new models, it goes a bit against the whole idea and purpose behind the list. While I'm interested in having good stuff, I'm also interested in having some history as well. For example, now I don't know how old the Beyerdynamics DT 250 is, but it's going up on the list because it really seems more interesting than the COP in that it at least has some history written over it. At the same time, shouldn't I gun for what seems to be the better product?
 
I don't know, maybe I need to re-evaluate the spine of that list. Although, if I ask myself Do I want a collection of catch-all headphones or do I want a collection of historic yet robust headphones?, the answer would have to be the historic ones. I'm not really interested in getting a set of different headphones for the purpose of them doing it all well. Even if they do it all well, the purpose would have to be to explore, to discover and to get a sense of what some of those classics were all about. At the same time, I AM going to include some new ones as well, for example, I'm eagerly awaiting the arrival of the K267. I think I need to figure out what I want before moving on with the list, because while the results may not differ all that much depending on what I want -- some of those old ones seem to be great even in todays standards, for instance the Sennheiser HD600/650 -- but the thought behind pushing one of them into the array would, and if I don't know why I'm pushing it in, then what's the point?
 

Step 1: Figure out what it is that I actually want...

 

[DigitalFreak]

Coq if you want a good AKG I highly recommend you get a K240 Sextette. My buddy has one and when he pairs it with his Bottlehead Crack it sounds incredibly awesome. The trick is finding one which doesn't look like it's been through a war. You might have to buy one and find a dead K240 to scavenge for parts. A good replacement headband can especially be hard to find. I've been keeping an eye open trying to get one for myself with no luck so far. There was one guy who had a listing up on Audiogon but his price was absurd so I gave it a pass.

 

[Coq de Combat]

Quote:

Coq if you want a good AKG I highly recommend you get a K240 Sextette. My buddy has one and when he pairs it with his Bottlehead Crack it sounds incredibly awesome. The trick is finding one which doesn't look like it's been through a war. You might have to buy one and find a dead K240 to scavenge for parts. A good replacement headband can especially be hard to find. I've been keeping an eye open trying to get one for myself with no luck so far. There was one guy who had a listing up on Audiogon but his price was absurd so I gave it a pass.

Well, that's the thing - I don't really know what I want anymore. I've had my eyes on the sextette before, but it seems to be pretty elusive.

 

[DigitalFreak]

Quote:

Well, that's the thing - I don't really know what I want anymore. I've had my eyes on the sextette before, but it seems to be pretty elusive.

Yeah well I have to admit you have a point. The couple of times I've run across a minty pair the pricing was silly. All the others had damage which the sellers kept downplaying and in a few cases they outright lied by saying replacement parts could easily be sourced from AKG. I'm hoping one day my buddy gets tired of his AKG's and I can buy them off him.

 

[mosshorn]

Quote:

Well, that's the thing - I don't really know what I want anymore. I've had my eyes on the sextette before, but it seems to be pretty elusive.

Ebay, my friend. When I had my BHC, I searched up and down for a pair of Sextetts. Now that I don't have it
 
 
BOOM
 
Everywhere. 
 
In other news, I enjoyed the HD600 when I had it. You might also add the HE-400 to that list. I'm not sure how much of it is hype train, but unless you can afford the HE-500 it's probably a good buy. Oh and if you haven't messed around with T50RP's, do so. If you don't like DIY or tinkering, get a set of Mad Dogs, seems to be positive vibes all around about them.

 

[a_recording]

I really dig the new avatar, kiteki.
 
I also really dig the look of the Vivid G1 Giya:
 
 

 
Reminds me of I-No's hat.

 

 

 

[mosshorn]

Quote:

 
 

Spoiler: Warning%3A%20Spoiler!

 
 
 

 
 
Wasn't that a sequel of Zombies Ate My Neighbors? Love that game.

 

[a_recording]

Quote:

 
 
Wasn't that a sequel of Zombies Ate My Neighbors? Love that game.

 
No, but I loved that game too! Totally scared me as a kid, I don't even know why. I think it was the real feeling of danger in the later levels.

 

[jude]

Quote:

a bit of a B&W Nautilus copy.

 
I believe Laurence Dickie designed both the Giya and the Nautilus.
 
If you watch this video...
 

 
...you'll see that the principles in play are rather similar, except the Giya's tapered tubes for the three drivers above the woofers are internal (as opposed to the Nautilus, which makes show of them), and the woofers' tapered tube goes up to the top, including that visible curl.
 
So you're absolutely right that there's some stuff in common here between the Nautilus and the Giya.
 
 

....I'm also rather curious about the Sony PHA-1, which I've heard next-to-nothing about thus far...

 
I included the PHA-1 as one of the products in the Head-Fi Holiday Gift Guide. You can see its entry by clicking here. (We haven't posted links to the guide or promoted it yet, as we're still working on finishing it over the next day or so.)
 
As with most of the other products in the guide, it's not a comprehensive review, as space was limited. That said, I love the thing. It's not a drive-everything portable amp, but it is a drive-most-of-what-I-want-to-use-portably amp. In terms of background noise, it's dead quiet. And its band-and-rail system (that lashes one's iPod/iPhone to it) is simple, brilliant.

 

[Magick Man]

I believe Laurence Dickie designed both the Giya and the Nautilus.

If you watch this video...

...you'll see that the principles in play are rather similar, except the Giya's tapered tubes for the three drivers above the woofers are internal (as opposed to the Nautilus, which makes show of them), and the woofers' tapered tube goes up to the top, including that visible curl.

So you're absolutely right that there's some stuff in common here between the Nautilus and the Giya.

I've always loved the Nautilus design, it reminds me of why I'm fond of Detroit cars from the 50s. It's a beautiful natural shape and brilliant implementation of a Fibonacci sequence. In terms of pure performance, there are speakers that I prefer for similar money, Wilson MAXX come to mind. But as a whole, including aesthetics, Nautilus are near the top for me.