rhythmdevils

Christmas Day is mostly women now after some (not recent) deaths in the family. And I discovered an amazing store for skincare products https://cedarcreekessentials.net and bought everyone something from there. Great store if you need a present for a lady in your life! :)

Hope this is sorted. If still delayed, maybe make them present cards with pictures of items they are supposed to receive. Yeah, it’s a bit lame but the heart is there. Good luck.

The Santa Clarita office is usually pretty responsive, so they must have been absolutely overwhelmed to have not gotten the packages out.

With stock tubes, I can tell if something has potential or not, or if it sounds broken. Finding a good tube is a hassle. So I use ss as much as possible. To find a good tube, an easy start is figuring what's wrong with the stock tube or the headphone's FR. I do the hard part only if I can't connect emotionally with my ss amps—which happened for years after Dad died.

@rhythmdevils Strictly speaking, if every individual piece of equipment sounds neutral, synergy hasn't been a factor. At best, it's the cherry on top (which I always give my wife anyway). Synergy's an obsession here only because a good number of guys here enjoy colored headphones; they even keep a "stable" of varied headphones for whatever reason.

I always consider designers know the sound before it exists. Even after it exists as a product they know the sound. I’m sure a designer could suggest something’s to do or if it isn’t right for a specific person.

If you use Hifishark you would see “Auckland closes” all the time. And Wellington too. I don’t know wtf they are just noise

Never noticed that before (I don't search the NZ listings ;). Looks like all the 'closes' listings are from Trademe (local buy/sell site) and reflect fixed listing periods.

I live in Wellington, the Hifishark ones are all probably from TradeMe.

but Gold Planar doesn't exactly have the best track record. Lots of expensive headphones with esoteric tech that doesn't seem to wind up sounding good.

Whoa, I initially thought the price was in local dollars

I tested a million cheap IEMs with massdrop and learned this the hard way. There is a reason for it and I have notes from 2015 if you want me to dig them up. I always tested with a spare cable before using my nice ones after this same thing.

I’m still happy with my PeePee.

Better is in the ears of the beholder, but it is a different amp. See the new chapter here for more info: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/schiit-happened-the-story-of-the-worlds-most-improbable-start-up.701900/page-8726#post-17831390

Interesting! thank you @zonto!

Yeah, your best bet is just having a qualified tech used to working with tube amps look it over. There was word of Craig having a tech he worked with that might be willing to do work on his pieces still, but you would need to get that info, and I don't know from who. @Josh Schor?

Just sent you a PM about someone who may be able to help.

Thank you!

x2! It's been good to see you on the forum @rhythmdevils.

Thus the paucity of tubes in my audio life.

I kind of don't want to deal with tubes anymore myself.

First world problems right?

ALAC for me. I don’t see myself ever not using a Mac so it works. @joch makes a good point too: dbPowerAmp, for example, has a format converter.

@Gazny do AIFF files downloaded from Bandcamp come with metadata in the files?

ALAC and FLAC, generally at Redbook or higher bitdepth; I figure I can always find a player that supports and Room handles both.

98.6%

Those dummies. I just hold the iPhone speaker to my ear for full lossless bliss

@DigMe - Yea, why do people do that, do they not know there is a earpiece built into the top of the phone, like those old things people used to use in their homes?

I hear huge differences between headphone/iem cables and interconnects. I've got 2 different OCC copper interconnects here that sound very very different. And I prefer the cheaper one just based on sound.

I'm struggling to hear a difference with the BJC AES and the OCC coipper AES though. But my Pi2AES is in a tough place to get to and by the time I do the 5 jumping jacks required to change the cables it's' hard to tell anymore. So I'm not sure. If there is a difference it's more subtle than other cables.

When it comes to balanced cables, analog or digital, I have a VERY hard time hearing differences. My experience with unbalanced RCA is that it can be all over the place with analog, but digital is still pretty subtle.

then this random song plays and you immediately go "f**k you, no, stop" but then you realize you like it? Kind of awesome. It's like the internet version of random record store finds. Like I bought Sigur Ros's "Takk" because I simply thought the album cover was so awesome it must be good.

I just found this cool super weird folk album because Tidal didn't have what I was actually searching for in their catalog and I accidentally clicked on the one song that came up from my search.

No but I found good porn that way

What about late Amperex USA production? That always makes me scratch my head too

Amperex e88cc US production are very good on par with holland made philips e88cc.

Forgot about Amperex. I have 2 of those and they work perfectly well.

Can you pull shrink tubing over the connectors? You could make it stiffer if you split a piece of rubber/plastic tubing and put that on first.

sugru? very careful application of hot glue? swipe the spring from a cheap ballpoint pen?

Sugru and low temp hot glue have worked for me for other applications. Sugru is a bit easier to work with but messier to clean up. Hot glue is messier but very easily removed with rubbing alcohol.

thank you! <3

no doubt about it, the S12 with just micropore is already _really_ good.

I would like to hear a modded pair to justify the effort and costs (especially when living in another country, with shipping and customs on top). Until then, i'm happy enough as is

There were other brands that had their balanced out as well even prior to that. But it was AK’s 2.5mm Bal that really started the Balanced movement in the portable audio.

Reduce electrical noise for thermal noise

At least we got passed the RSA balanced connector :-0

Don't forget that vinyl goes click .... .... click ... ... click .... .... click ... ... click .... .... every time any album ends.

;)

Also sad! I’m not bothered by the noise itself, I’m just often wanting another song and that click is a definitive end to the album.

Just use a regular non-bit perfect OS mixer and force the signal lock into whatever sample rate/bit depth setting you choose and voila! No clicking. ;) (just kidding, of course…)