Justin S

It's like burn-in. It took a bunch of hours and now everything sounds great again. Grrr brain/love amazing brain.

Yep. I can't tell the difference between Qobuz and local files through Roon. I just stream everything now.

My understanding is that Tidal's Redbook has also gone through MQA conversion. I had only been listening to their "hifi" tier not their "masters" tier.

Listening to some older Brian Blade (Friends Call Her Dot) and the differences are quite pronounced. All the brush work is more pronounced as is the purr of the reeds. After 7+ years of Tidal, call me impressed.

The RCA is very good - I have one of these I bought a while ago for $100 CAD (grrr). The PSVANE is surprisingly good. It's their "Classic Series" 6SN7. It's resolving, deep and delicate sounding which is working really nicely with solo piano right now.

KenRad was my preferred tube the 2 years I had a Lyr 3. Couldn't get enough of them.

Also what @Armaegis said. Apparently it can make you more prone to long-covid if you try and come back too early which has apparently hurt a lot of high-level athletes.

Totally, point taken. Right now, my principal symptoms are severe fatigue and very very runny sinuses. Pretty light in comparison to many of my friends, a couple of whom were pretty fucked up by it. Rest, fluids, no Rye. Count myself lucky so far.

I'm a week in now and finally feel like myself again. It was seemingly not worse than memories of bad flus, but weirder - high heart rate, very disrupted sleep, weird fatigue. Glad to be on the other side of it. Thanks for the advice and well wishes, gents.

Totally. He's really knowledgeable - I told him what I have been digging (NOS Syl and Tung Sol GTBs) and what I thought would be a good next step (the Syl WGTA). He agreed and also suggested the Ken Rad. Early days with them, but so far they're really good choices for my chain and tastes.

Have any of you guys tried Andy @ Vintage Tube Services? He seemed very knowledgeable to me, but I'm gullible :)

His site is interesting and I dig the "bespoke" approach. It looks like he is months behind in his ordering, which would be a problem for me and my short attention span. How are the tubes you got from him? What kind of amp are you running?

Totally @rlow . I had a MapleTree Audio Design amp with ton of tubes a while ago and loved it. I regret selling it (though I sold it for a Yggdrasil LIM). This Lry+ is really something else. Yes @Ash1412, it is resolution without the shitty sharp lines of peakyness. The finer points change with the tube, which really suits me well as the difference is enough that it is like a different capable amp with each tube.

@Justin S The weird thing to me is despite the HD800's persistent peak and more closed in damped design vs Utopia, when comparing them (HD800SDR) on EC Af at a meet, I still found its resolve and timbre better in the treble, while Utopia of course wins in contrast and sharpness. That driver is quite special.

I love them. I have limited exposure to Focal headphones - after an RMA on the Clear OGs, I grew concerned that they were too nice and delicate for my use-case. I moved to the HD800Ss and disliked them initially. I have come to really love them - over the Clears and over the LCD-Xs. There is something really fetching about them - but it takes a while to habituate. The Lyr+ with tubes seals the deal for me.

Tung Sols are a really balanced tube with a bit more life up top than the equally great but a bit more smoove Sylvanias.

As an indie pro artist, I feel optimistic about it. I have been incorporating it in my workflow for years as an effective but imperfect assistant (aren't they all). For the discerning reader, viewer, it will never replace the blood and guts of people making good things. But yah...there is a shit storm of lazy noise building.

Its fine, you just keep awareness. It can help get to some relevant conclusions faster. I am not benefiting more from a tech blog ran on ads and getting lost there insted of following the thought process. I can then fact check it with real articles and facts. It makes mistakes.. But I'd say most of the internet is realtively usless information. Its not like a well written book or an article

If AI can filter out relatively uselss information, then it would be great.

The stock pads are more balanced sounding with the kit.

Going back and forth between the HD800Ss and the modded DT770s, the limitations of the 770s are really in tone. This is not a fair fight really, but I like the 770s a bunch for what they are. The 800Ss are more mid forward, as well as having more spit, breath and spank (technically :-). The DT770s sound harmonically thinner to me. Everything is there with them - just less yummy.

I found the fake staging got old pretty quickly, and got in the way of binaural recordings. Now I do acoustics properly with DSP, not in a headphone.

I really like the HD800(S). I guess I understand that some people find them unnaturally wide, but, then, I find staging in all HPs a little artificial. I appreciate the wideness, b/c it lessens the kind of relentless, music beamed into my brain feeling that I find fatiguing with all HPs and IEMs. More speaker-like the better, IMO.

I have the ZMF lambskin pads on them which tighten the bass up and bring the stage in a bit. They sound very natural in this configuration. I went back and forth with the 600s last night and was really stuck by how much I like the 800Ss with the Lyr+ and new the ZMF pads.

is solid state mode tubier than tube?

Tube mode is not really "tube-y", per se. It brings out more staging effects, a focused sense of bloom and changes to dynamics. SS mode is actually a bit more phat, slamming and bloomy than many of the tubes I have - not sure I would associate this with "tubey", but it's a difference.

Hairy non deathstroking anime men haha

That guy used to be the “Budget Audiophile”. 2 words: Wing nut

Maybe he increased the budget and lost his shirt.

I'll leave it on until the weekend and then dig into a little comparison.

This chain is sick good...though currently the modest Tung Sol GTB is my favourite.

How is the fitment of the ZMF pads? Do they go on/off easily, securely?

They are a touch fussy to put on, but nothing too difficult. It took me a few minutes each to get them on. They fit the 800s like a glove and feel perfectly secure. A dumb and not sound related observation: they look nice and I like how beefy they make the HD800Ss feel.

Listening to The Books, Lemon of Pink 1. It feels like even more of a feast with the Lambskin ZMF pads. It's not subtle. Trying to figure out if I like the reduced, but tighter bass of if I want MOAR.

How do they affect the stage?

It makes it all feel a bit more open and convincing. It's a bit brighter, though. I like the different sound.

I wonder if these pads bring the 800S more in line with the HD800. Is anyone else running these pads?