Slade01

And here I was kinda hoping they'll just parallel the outputs like proper madmen.

I'm only in if they ever decide to do a ESS/AKM/R2R hat trick. For people with complex musical palettes!

I want to see someone do the CS4398, one of my favourites even though it's practically a "vintage" chip at this point. Prism still uses it in their dacs, and they make the dScope!

Yeah pads can have a significant effect

Was getting too much of a good thing (warmth) on my Grado 225x/Flat Pads. Considered buying another amp to fix. Forgot I had ZMF Beyer+ pads. With these, sound came much more into focus by lifting the drivers just enough off my ears. I'm just glad I tried this first!

Great except for buttpounding music.

My knee jerk reaction when I listened to these again after quite a spell, they reminded me so much of the Grado Hemps that I had a while back. What you get for the money in the KPP and KSC75 is astounding.

I legit think Ksc75 is one of the best testers for sources. It's the clearest headphone I've ever heard. And don't get clarity mixed with technicalities.

To be fair the Hemps are more capable. But they’re also 10x the cost.

It’s easy to forget how unusual it actually is to live in a country where shipping (not always, but usually) works overnight. Germany simply is small enough for that. :)

I've had similar experiences. One package was making it's way through the country and went through the same hub 2 or 3 times. Moving closer to my home, then farther away. Mind boggling.

It just blows my mind with these kind of basic logistics errors that the package is near its target, and then gets routed back in the opposite direction! Another USPS fail is having signature required on package, but it still just got left on my doorstep not signed for at all. Sigh. Such fail.

I have 3 head shells one with ortofon cart and 2 with different AT bodies. I need to spin some slabs !

You need the right lube. I suggest a nice Belgian Tripel or perhaps an Imperial IPA. Once you have that in place, things will be much smoother.

@rott I think many people did. I didn't know any better back then either. Monster cable was THE brand to have in home AV. For me, and pre-internet, it was just one of the bigger named brands that was recognizable at a circuit city for me. Lol. Monster. Monster prices!

Gotham, Mogami, Canare, Belden - have these 4 RCA cables (among a few others) as well. Difference isn't night and day, maybe I need to spend way more to easily hear this... but I agree there are differences. Not enough of a difference for me to deal with exchanging out all my cables though.

The monster cables were at the time a lot more cosmetically attractive than the typical cheap interconnects of the time period, if nothing else.

I've started taking pictures of serial numbers in the items I sell off-site. But I mostly just avoid off-site sales anymore. It's not worth all the damn headaches.

@Cspirou this is exactly what happened. I ended up asking for a photo w/paper and their name and my name with the item, and he AI generated or quick photoshopped that with the item. So yeah, trust is getting harder these days. for sure.

@Qildail That is why I value and have the utmost respect for the peeps here within the SBAF community. Definitely less headache to deal with people you know or are very reputable.

Hi Slade01...
I managed to stay away from SBAF for a long time, just being happy with my setup. I started looking for a headphone for a friend, and am checking what´s been happening on the market lately. I also came across the SASH Tres SE.
It kindled sidegrade-itis... It seems it is your main headphone. Would you mind giving a small evaluation... or even post your impressions for everybody here on SBAF?

@sacredgates I only received the headphone early last month, so I am just getting used to it, but it definitely has become my primary driver. As my long saga of trying to "exit the hobby", I think I am finally near that end point-which I mean the gear churning merry go round part. But will plan to post impressions soon then if it helps.

Thanks!

A lot of OPAMP discussion in the Head-Fi thread: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/the-opamp-thread.432749/

But I would say the only winning move is not to play: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLJVLwB51LA

Thanks @Beefy. Yes the winning move is definitely not play the game at all for sure. But I am interested in elevating some older gear if possible. It is satisfying to a degree to be able to give new life to older or forgotten gear.

And it does both PCM and DSD!

Necro comment, but I just wanted to say Meier stuff passes the test of time. Criminally underexposed stuff!

@Failed Engineer agreed. All I know is I regret not buying that Corda Soul a year or two ago. I can’t imagine how good Meier gear is with a more no-holds barred approach!

all I could think of was not tubes but this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIzFg4eEvbQ

@caute Bon Iver is crazy good.

Yay for me. The last couple of months I owned my Line Magnetic LM805ia I ran a pair of the Linlai Elite 6SN7 and prefered them to any NOS pairs I had tried. Very vivid and holographic sounding without being thin

@Inoculator thank you - that is very high praise, I think I will give it a shot then. I was skeptical because I heard the non elite versions of the tube were more of a "meh". @Kernel Kurtz - I like the CV181-T also, one of the very few New Production tubes i like.

Not familiar with their 6SN7, but LinLai is a solid new prod manufacturer.

I remember rolling GEC 6080s (which are nice) and then trying out a random Fivre 6SN7 I purchased. It was one of the most deepest and holographic sound stages I heard. I loved this combination until I burned out the tube by having the amp set to the incorrect voltage. Sad day and sold the amp after since I was too clumsy and burned out several expensive tubes, lol.

Distortion Profiles are a great way to look at it. I'm more or less out of the game, and rolled a ton of tubes (us/eu made) for years. Honest to god, never got into japan tubes at all in this time. Am rolling 12AT7, and tried this Toshiba with triple mica, D getters, and its one of the clearest/holographic tubes I've heard for this variant. Also, realizing, its insanely hard to find. It's insanely good though.

@Phantaminum I would be sad too if I burned a Fivre tube. Those are certainly ones that live up to the hype of holographic sound staging, among the best I've every owned. A secret hack to get that sound (is rare but out there) is to get Sylvania 6J5 tubes that are marked made in Italy. Those are actually Fivre tubes, and could get those for cheap/reasonable prices if one has sharp eyes for those details.

NOS just means the smoothing of the stepwise signal is happening downstream in the amplification, transducers, or air.. instead of digitally inside the DAC. Maybe you have better stuff downstream than others?

@Woland not sure what happened, but all i know is that my ZMF Atticus has suddenly really come alive all of a sudden. I get what you're saying, im no stranger to NOS and R2R dac sounds. This is surprising for me, but the bass is really stronger like a surge in this region now. Going to see if on a SS and Planar will be same or not. Will probably post findings on the Bifrost thread soon.

Most things in audio measurements have weak correlation to what sounds good. Enjoy. It is very common to trade 'precision' to 'soul' or 'musicality' and the other way around as well.