Justin S

I was thinking about a switch to the Gungnir2 for space...buuuuut the bass. The last two tracks on the new Billy Eilish record are full-on epic with the LIM.

JBL 4305P or 4329P are also good and should be robust enough to survive teenagers. Or save some money on a Kanto Ren + sub. Just throwing out random suggestions for ya.

@Justin S I just had to make the same calculation with my downstairs, which was always envisioned as a home theater type listening setup with occasional music. Kids need it to be a safer playroom space though so said goodbye to my Zu DW6 and integrated. Swapped in some wall mounted Buchardt A10, which while not cheap, have been pretty incredible so far.

I went decidedly lower budget. I found a pair of mint Revel M16s which I quite like, moved my old Geshelli J2 4490 DAC with the nice opamps down, kept the Heed amp and the REL for now. It's actually very good for tv and movies and alright for music. I think the changes will serve their purpose well.

really, though, it's the Ken Rad to rule them all.

Love the earlier stuff. I think Protection Spells is still my fave. Darkness That Strong was the first song I ever heard from him and it floored me. @philipmorgan is also a Songs: Ohia fan.

“No incremental” is also what I love about deduplicated backup solutions like borg. If you backup the same file to the archive as yesterday, it’s only adding index data, but doesn’t use archive space. Every single backup is a full snapshot, but doesn’t take more space than an incremental backup. Deleting old backups only removes the data that isn’t also included in newer backups.

While it might not be as reliable as tar in this regard, borg is also good at recovering data from corrupted archives. But there’s a trade off there, of course.

Borg definitely looks amazing! I will read more about it. I can see this being very useful for certain projects where I rotate a couple "nearline" backup drives in case of calamity.

I also have the zmf suede Ori pads on these. These are great walk around and office headohones. For the price they're pretty great with these tweaks.

Wow. There is actual texture in the bass. The mids, while a touch thin, are more legible. Well done custom cans!

Just back from a nice dog walk with them. They're more "audiophile" in that I am drawn into the nuances of the recording and production, but they might be a little less fun. C Cans provides a couple options. I'll try these out.

Be sure to listen to its built in MOSFET tubeless circuit. Might not be what your looking for, but it is what I end up using most of the time - though I have a DNA when I'm going for the tooby sound

IMO - there's nothing quite like a big boy tube amp with the right tubes. It's enough to put up with the expense / hassle.

@crenca Yes. I quite like the Mosfet solid state circuit, too. It was a deciding factor in getting rid of my BHA-1. When putting it up against the Bryston, the Lyr+ presents more detail, cleaner bass, and definitely more fun. In tube mode it's really great with the right tubes....and fun even with the wrong ones :-)

So it's almost embarrassing how much of a difference this makes for the modest cost. I know all the bits-are-bit folks would be up-in-arms about it but currently, even when I'm not listening to this rig, I'm thinking about listening to this rig.

I hear nothing but great things about the Sparkos opamps.

I don't have a ton of experience other than comparing them to the stock opamps (TI 1656). The difference is there. Between the SS2590 and the 3602 the difference is more subtle, but on longer listening sessions, you get more into things with the 2590. I think it's staging and treble detail without any harshness.

I don't understand

Sorry @JK47 . This is a cross-nerd-domain post. I'm working on a film project that uses motion capture. Having a set without lighting, dolly track, or a surly photographer felt super civilized. There were no resets, where you have to reset everything back to the original position after every take and do makeup and hair retouches. The performers can stay in the zone. We finished the day early and stress free.

I love pad rolling, it helps keep impulse buying to a minimum for me.

Ahaha. I hear you..,I love a good surprise. I am eyeballing the ETA Ada right now. I've been holding back on picking up a pair of RS2Xs...ETA is making it hard to resist picking up something quick.

To be clear, when I jump back to the ZMF Auteur Classics, there is no contest here - the ZMFs do sooo much right. Sometime you just need a pallete refresh, though.

Oh, by classics, I mean Auteur Classics.

Lyr + is underrated. I tend to use its SS (bypassing tube) with Atrium, tube w/ Focals…

I agree. I've had a few things through here. The BHA-1 was my favorite for a long time, but the Lry+ added something special to the chain. I like being able to roll "tube", too. It keeps me from swapping out amps everytime I get itchy.

No external software or LUT box, the VT/ZT series has a real 6-axis CMS in the menu that gives you fine control over primaries in the gamut, 2-point & 10-point WB adjustment, and 10-point gamma adjustment.

It's the most difficult display to calibrate that I have ever owned, but it gives you enough control to get average dE scores below 1 in most areas and below 0.5 in others. I wouldn't use it for grading or anything professional, but for watching content, it's fantastic.

After wrestling with this for a month, I finally got a calibration working that tests well and looks "close enough" to my FSI montior. There's metameric failure to account for with the different display technologies, but I am more of a Trust the Scopes kind of guy than a perceptual matching kind of guy. With a ^10 verification cube I'm getting a dE of .5 and an EOTF of 2.39. Not bad.

And back into the vortex.

On headphones, the 4499 J2 is a tiny marvel. It's spacious, resolves treble is a strikingly beautiful way and is a party in the bass. A/Bing makes my MOTU Ultralite MK5 sound squished and dull. I preferred the MOTU over the J2 4493 in PCM. Geno programmed these for me to use DSD Direct mode, which I usually prefer for listening time. The J2 4499 makes PCM/DSDD more of a flavour choice now...it's very good.

I moved gear around and A/B'd the J2 4499/LIM. The J2 sounds more like modern R2R than DS. The J2 is a bit wider and really resolves treble information better. Slam is very close. The LIM is a tiny bit smoother, fatter and darker. LIM vs J2 preference depended on material. Jon Hopkins and Steve Albini recordings J2 4499 hands down, Brian Blade the LIM puts it together nicely. Kudos to Geshelli.

Disclosure: the J2 4499 is a loaner from Geno to test DSDD functionality. I have always preferred DSDD to PCM for focused listening, but the J2 4499 brings another flavour to the mix. DSDD is laser sharp, detailed, and deep sounding, but on the polite side of things. The 4499 in PCM is also sharp, detailed, but a total party at the same time.