AustinValentine

Good to hear from you, AV. Hope all is well.

Things are good! The wife and I & the in-laws had a couple months of alternating health crap just in time for the holiday and New Year, but that's resolved itself now. Finally getting a little time to relax again...and to listen to music!

AV, missed you man! Trust family health issues have been resolved.

Screw you, I was just about to come post this!

Though you may be limited in what you're allowed to listen to...

Pretty well! My PhD cohort is a fantastic group. Wife's work and my teaching is going well. Almost not broke again (still hunting for another position, but teaching has started back up again). Couple of extended family hiccups but nothing too awful. Hope things are going great with you too and thanks for checking!

Jesus! Double crunch time plus a missing thumb tip. That sucks! [Solidarity like]

@Koth - Going back for Library & Information Science research and it's a much better fit. This is my second go around. I was ABD in English Lit (20th Century)/Critical Theory, but I found that I hated the field.

The title of this song comes to mind. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AE5aKiJmw5Q

solidarity, my dude. life feels like a wooden rollercoaster that hasn't been properly maintained sometimes...rattles you and bruises your ribs and you're like "why'd I get on this thing?" But not always.

Cool, a good friend of mine does digital archiving for a university library.

I forgot to sacrifice a dozen freshman to the provost or something.

I want to like your status to show sympathy and solidarity, but it is so, so unlikeable. This is terrible.

Have you thought of taking your dark, arcane knowledge and using it for evil? Try it, I hear it's profitable!

The beans. Spill the beans! And, btw, what's your amp/headphone?

Some preliminary comments up in the Modi thread. Test setup is a Macbook USB > Modi Multibit > SWA M^3 build > Modded HD650s. Going to test with a Mutec 1.2 this evening/tomorrow morning and switch off to the Leckerton UHA-6S to hear what changes around.

PS. Thank you Schiit for making the Modi Multibit's output power 2.0V instead of 1.5V like the Uber. SRSLY.

Modded or stock HD650, @AustinValentine ?

Modded. I actually can't listen to a stock HD650 for very long.

Nice Jowls! That profile sure does have a shitload more sub-bass extension.

Me too :)

It is huge (f'ing 60 lbs shipped, 54 for just the amp). I had to put it on its own side table. Too early for too much comparison to the Marantz - plus, I need to let New Toy Syndrome wear down a bit.

Nice. Curious about your future impressions, even though I'm going to stick with this Marantz long term

Where did you buy from?

Marantz PM7001 - nothing fancy. I was actually surprised that the headphone out is competent sounding. (Lots of receiver HP outs I've heard sound like shit.). Still, would much rather be using the speaker outs >.<

That's funny. You may recall how I told you I preferred my amp headphone out to the Liquid Carbon for the Senn HD 600. It is a Marantz and I suspect the headphone out is very similar to what you have.

I actually called Marantz once and they confirmed it uses the main amps with resistors, not a separate op amp. They couldn't tell me impedance out but speculated about 120 ohms. May be why it sounds so good with the Senns.

:Looks at his Project Starlight III:

Would be interested in hearing what the sleep study is about if you care to share later. Have a good night.

Sweet dreams . . .

Apparently, "sleep study" is code for "many wires that they glue in your hair and beard". My sleep quality sucks. It's probably because of apnea. So I need a study that costs 4-5x the cost of a CPAP machine to let my insurance company know I need a CPAP machine, so they'll cover a CPAP machine.

And I *suppose* I can plug in my HD650s into it as well. If I want.

the moment you consider buying drfindley's EC Studio and go, "it's only 6,650 more, why not?"

The amplifier itself is great. As you'd expect, it sounds a lot like the BUDA (the same unit but with no DAC and Max amp modules). The BUDA is one of my favorite solid state amps - and if you need hardware crossfeed for your listening, IMO jumps to the top of the list.

(The hardware crossfeed warms things up a bit, but a small high-shelf filter boosting above 240hz fixes that while still keeping the improved sense of space.) Too bad these ever went out of production. I blame the casework. It's not a looker.

I have a Headroom Max and I always found the hardware crossfeed rather pleasing. It's not my favorite SS amp, but I still enjoy it occasionally.

The Riva S spanks the X. Unless the tonal balance of the X changes with a firmware update, the S (or two for a stereo pair) is the way to go for a bluetooth speaker. I'm really freaking impressed.

It does - the tonality of the X suffers at low volumes (i.e. volumes you'd generally want to listen to it at). The S's midrange is just great. Fremer mentioned that the S might get a firmware update that increases the max volume by 4db. That's the only missing thing from the S right now, a little more volume.

http://www.analogplanet.com/content/riva-audio%E2%80%99s-one-two-punch-turbo-x-and-new-s-bluetooth-speakers#slL3vyAQpT0hOPSD.97

Was that Shotgunshane's? Was it the new aluminum one?

yup and yup.

I'll have mine (Geek Out V2+Infinity) on Saturday. I backed this thing (as an early backer no less) when it was called the "Geek Stream."

I suggest the brownie chair surprise.

school is for fools!

Leave it to any bureaucracy to maximize returns for itself.

I suggest a frozen trout thrown through the office transom right before a long break. Not that I would know anything about that ;-)

I'm happy to know you like them! :)

So Merry Xmas!

Thanks Bill! Merry Xmas to you too. You're a f'ing artist man.

Haha, I hope this'll help you decide to keep the HD800. It is an excellent headphone once gears are matched right!