dubharmonic

My body is ready, @E_Schaaf

@E_Schaaf None of those are HM strengths or unique attributes.

only unique attributes to HFM I can think of would be 2khz dip, bad build quality, impossible to drive well?

You sir, are a badass

Hans Gruber is holding my favorite NOS DAC hostage... John McClane will save it!!!

I thought it would be more like this: https://gifimage.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/die-hard-christmas-gif-2018-2.gif

Haha that is awesome! SBAF’s world domination plan continues!!

But doez guy knowz SBAFs...?

He did some lurking, never made an account. He has a Schiit stack and some purple heart TH-X00!

Hope you get to try the Audeze EQ, I know you don't use Roon but it is built in.

@Ganzy initially, I was always using Audeze's EQ settings through SoundSource.

Unfortunately most of the music I find streaming isn't available on Bandcamp. Drives me nuts.

I put all new music in a single, long playlist and then, every few months, make hour-long playlists out of the best stuff I've found. Just doing this helps me keep track of new (to me) releases. And in the days of commuting, listening to the playlists on the go was a good way to figure out what I really liked and would want to listen to properly on my desktop setup.

Bandcamp is just a niche of what's available that I like. There is a whole world of music out there. At times even the little niche of Bandcamp can seem like too much. My Bandcamp wish list is 181 albums. Was 182 yesterday. Slow progress.

It’s pretty cool to see the government increase transparency. I hope the trend continues.

Nice! Is this frontend essentially an SPA hosted in S3?

@rott yes, it’s a React SPA on S3! Soon we’ll be working on reducing the bundle size!

you should try the beer style named after them, too. It's delicious in the summer!

@yotacowboy have done, will do again!

800 and 650 tick all 5 or, at least 4 of these aspects:
Reliability (R), Durability (D), Comfort (C), Timbre (T), Scaling (S). Now let's look at planars I've tried/owned:
Hfm HE1000 v1, v2 - C, T, S
Hfm Arya, Sundara - C, T
Audz LCD 4, 2C - T, S
MrSpkr Aeons, Ethers - R, D, C

I have never heard an LCD4, HE1000, or any other TOTL ortho outside of noisy show/dealer demo situations. When this class of ortho is properly fed, are they capable of the resolution/timbre realism/accuracy/fidelity that the TOTL dynamics? I think I always heard a "plasticky" tinge from mids on up, despite the bass being awesome.

I tried to ditch planars but couldn’t... so now have a great dynamic set up (starlett-HD800s, JAR650) and planar set up!(Mjo2 +Diana v2) Why choose? Variety is the way to go

Best leather pad?

Everything I've had from Focal, Audeze and ZMF have been great!

I've had decent luck with a few of the protein pads from aliexpress but in general it's not great. I've had more flaky headbands than pads. Protein leather often gives more treble than lambskin too. That being said, size, shape, perf arrangement, and internal foam are more important to SQ.

This was a good episode, but I'm bummed there's an obligatory section in every single podcast where John bitches about the tendencies or requests of his audience. I get his pet peeve and all, but dude could use that time with his guest in other ways.

Ah shit, I'm all turned around. This IS the one I was thinking of.

@Superexchanger you're absolutely right about that! He does it every time.

@fp627 thanks for the impressions. Do you ever use the Stellaris with planars?

No. I don't think it synergizes well with any of them other than Verum, which after what happened, I won't be buying anymore. Note that I'm not saying it's all bad or won't work, just that there was no synergy.

Good synergy - Verum
No/neutral synergy - MrS/DCA Ether and Aeon, newer HFM (soft-fi-man stuff), RAD-0
Bad synergy, probably due to not enough current - Audeze, older HFM

Haven't tried Meze Empyrean.

Note that Verum and RAD-0 were only in meet conditions. Newer HFM was briefly borrowed. Ether was EFO1.1 and the Aeon was a shorter listen.

In short, there are other amps out there for less $ (maybe way less), easier tubes or just SS, etc. if you want to use planars.

The curse of fairly neutral-ish or slightly bright headphones is that these differences will be more obvious.

I also had chronic ear infections when I was a kid. Not fun. Luckily my kids didn’t inherit that.

So much of how we perceive what we hear is dependent on mood. I also think power might have something to do with it. A lot of people underestimate how much quality of power going into the amp matters

https://youtu.be/zhCB4GR5Iis?t=30

@BenjaminBore You're getting the most out of the Auteur with Starlett. It's a great pairing. In terms of Utopia, you're leaving a bit on the table, but not that much.

@dubharmonic I had the same crossroads and ultimately picked the Utopia. Interested to see if you end up keeping both, or maybe perhaps try Verite at some time. Verite doesn't have any Be coloration, although timbre-wise it's clearly far from neutral.

@ChaChaRealSmooth to be clear, I don’t dislike the Utopia! When I visited Zach’s place I was able to try everything he makes (aside from Verite closed, which wasn’t released yet) and the Verite didn’t click with me like the Auteur did. Maybe when the world gets back to normal I’ll give them another listen!

Hopefully....

It’s the power and Ethernet slack that bother me!

Mine has an under-desk tray, and I mounted a power strip underneath, so the only attached cable is power.

I do have a long HDMI cable off to the left to connect the monitor to the tower though.

Oh yes, zip ties, velcro, and stick cable ties are my friend.

Coffee and alcohol can make my tinnitus worse. But I'm not going to give up either coffee or beer. So tinnitus be damned. I'm going to continue to listen wired and buzzed.

Here's an example of a type of recording and music that can trigger my tinnitus: https://www.soundliaison.com/index.php/612-landscape-of-sound-meditation

Not sure if I want to listen to that, for fear of triggering my tinnitus (actually, it's always there, just depends if I notice it or not).

At this rate it seems like half of SBAF if going to have one of these things before year end.

Jealous! Can't wait to hear impressions as I wait for mine to finish!

Time to work on those neck muscles!

@netforce my neck is fine, it's the pressure on the top of the head that's getting to me. First time I've had this happen!

Lol. So true. Grados were anathema for a while, and now I want a pair of the Hemps.

Never thought I'd see headphones with such high treble distortion make a comeback but I guess people like that speedy, prickly, 'lit' sound. My ears might just be too young for such things, and I like to turn it up too. I'd be curious to re-evaluate transient ability tho, which seemed like a strong suit for them.

@E_Schaaf I didn’t see this coming either!