jivers

A buck a week to help support this great site AND get some extra benefits and people are complaining? What do we talk about on this site? $5-10k DAC's and thousand dollar interconnects, right? It's entertainment and we pay for entertainment. For my part, I'm happy to pay for it as it gives me a great deal of information and enjoyment. Good for Chris. He should have done this a long time ago. Jeff

I'm using the HD-600's in my office using the Wavelength Proton DAC/Headphone amp. It's excellent for files up to 24/96 via asynchronous USB.

Chris- Do you find it in any way better than Mog? Jeff

You need the LCD-2's, Mr. CA-Man. They will make you a better person. No kidding! :-)

I'm sure many people find them comfortable, as they've been around and popular for many years. I've also read lots of comments like mine about discomfort. I've got several Sennheisers, Audeze, Beyer, Denon, JH, Ety, Shure, but only the Grado's are uncomfortable to me. YMMV, as they say.

I like them too, but they're just not comfortable!

For the money, I haven't heard anything better than the Etymotics that you can get from the Apple store. They come with or without the microphone. Very useful for phone use as well as having good SQ.

The used record stores are filled with cheap, clean LP's of all the great ones (if you don't already have them). Get yourself a turntable and a Korg MR-1000 or soundcard and Pure Vinyl/Amarra Vinyl and make your own. Every time I drop the needle on an LP, I hit the record button and make a 24/192 WAV (then I make a 24/96 FLAC for my HiFi Man portable and a 16/44 ALAC for the iPod). Filling up some hard drives, but thoroughly enjoying the ride. Never without audiophile quality versions of all my favorite records. Good CD's can sound good, but vinyl sounds better and my copies get reasonably close to the LP quality. I enjoy the high def downloads (mostly from HD Tracks), but I don't get the warmth and sense of depth of an LP.

Breathtakingly beautiful. Thanks, bachrocks.

Can you fill us in on what this does and why you were so impressed? Where did you demo it? Jeff

I use computer sources exclusively for home headphone listening and iPod for portable use. I listen to vinyl frequently, but via speakers as headphones seem to me to emphasize the imperfections and surface noise from LP's.

I think they sound great, but I just don't find them as comfortable as most other headphones I own.

The only headphone amps I've had with this feature were from Headroom. It didn't seem to do much, but I wasn't thrilled with those in general. My preferred amps from Woo, Ray Samuels, Benchmark, Musical Fidelity and ALO don't offer it and I don't feel like I'm missing anything.

The Audeze is at the top of the heap right now, in balanced mode with the ALO cable. The HD-800 (also with ALO balanced cable) would be next, but very close. Both of these through the Woo WA-22 are pretty spectacular, as they should be for that price. The Denon is more than a little bass heavy, but for rock I find them enjoyable. The Grado 325i is very nice for the money, but just plain uncomfortable after a short time. The HD-600 is a great headphone, my standard for years until I stepped up to the 800 and Audeze. Still use them as my favorite in single ended. For portable use and on an airplane the JH-13's are truly wonderful. Used with the Hi-Fi Man 801 and 24/96 FLAC they deliver audiophile sound wherever you are. I enjoy the little Beyer T-50p outside as well, though they're not in the same league as the Jerry Harvey's. I'd like to hear the Tesla one of these days. I keep trying the Stax because of all the discussion on Head-Fi and elsewhere, but to me the lack of weight on the bottom end isn't compensated for by the sweet mids and highs. Maybe I just haven't heard the right combination of headphone and amp. At those prices, people must be getting something great. Jeff

Sennheiser HD-600/HD-800, Audeze LCD-2, Denon AHD-7000, Beyer T-50p, Grado 325-i, JH-13, Etymotics ER-4P, Shure SE530. Woo WA-22, Ray Samuels Raptor and P-51, ALO Rx I also tried the B & W at the Apple store and couldn't like it, but wonder how much better they'd be with a better source and amplifier.