fuwen

Yes, Pentatone recordings are very smooth and easy to listen for long duration. The Kleiber Beethovens is a good buy, u got the SACD version? In fact Kleiber has very little recordings as he is a very 'picky' person, only good recording/performance to his standard then will release the records. And in fact there are about only 5 titles from him. You will not be wrong to get his recordings. Some the recordings may not be fantastic but the performance is unequal. He is able to make the orchestra to play in a very sincere and energitic way. His other recordings include Schubert symphonies (DG), Dvorak Piano concerto with Ritcher (EMI), Brahms Sym 4(DG) and I believe a Verdi. He is a very interesting conductor!

Some times the cracking is due to the limitation of the microphones. Even reputable label like Hugo where the boss is also a audiophile you do get occasional cracking at the highs.

I think SL CT 790 is considered old model already. Recently saw 1 at Jurong East Cash Converter but asthetic condition not very good. Saw 1 D777 at the same cash convertor also. I saw 1 CT790 at Jade gift shop. Saw 1 CT790 at causeway point metro also but price no good. Good luck!

Since you already have a old Technics PCDP and have bought the tube head/preamp, why not hook them up and try? I am quite sure there should be some difference on the HP890 by driving direct by the PCDP and via the tube headamp. Then you come back to this forum and decide later what direction to go....

Sound Devices HX-3. Semi-portable. Very close to your price bracket.

Besides connecting the headamp via the pre-out of the int amp you can also use the tape out of the int amp. In your case since your CDP has 2 output then not a issue already, unless you are connecting more than 1 source.

Hi! cmk, if you like Stravinsky the you can try the 'Paavo Jarvi Stravinsky' by the Pentatone. This one stands out after listening to the Pentatones so far. Very intesting pieces with lots of instruments solos. I think good for testing system set-up. Suite from the Soldier's Tale Concerto in E-flat 'Dumbarton oaks Concerto for string orchestra (in D) Ragtime for 11 instruments Petit Choral The CD cover is in bright red colour.

Saw your profile. You are using A3.2 as a CDP, and do you mean you want to put the PCDP on your main rig? I am using AX7201. So I do a brief comparison with Panasonic SL-CT790 (which one of our mods Mackie found it very good) and find that the AX7201 IMHO is comparable to the CT790. Clean, detailed sound. I used HD600, driven by my portable amp HX-3. Music is a classical piece with lots of instrument solo and a classical vocal. Just a brief comparison only. YMMV. As for construction, I prefer the Philips, which is using Magnesium casing and the wordings are emboss. Panasonic is not bad. The Philips does not have a line out, and the LCD remote does not have bad light function. Since no line out may be a bit troublesome if you are using a headphone amp on the move and since the headphone has to be connected to the LCD remote out soundwise deteriorate a bit. Both players are still almost functional without the LCD remote (some iRiver models has no vol control on the main player). The Philips has bigger buttons good for on-the-move but need to lift up the player if place on the table. Panasonics has small buttons but is at the side so easier for on-the-table use.

Hi! cmk, how to answer this question? It will take some time for me to gone through all the 20 SACDs. So far I would say the recordings are good and of course in SACD mode is very good. Generally recording are quite smooth, not sure they used tube mike or not. Quote from the CD booklet: 'Polyhymnia specialises in high-end recordings of .......most of Polyhymnia's recording equipment is built or substantially modified in-house .....emphasis is placed on the quality of the analogue signal path .... was founded in 1998 as a management buy-out by key personnel of the former Philips Classics Recording Center ....' I am not familiar with most of the artist. I still live in the 70s generation artists like Karajan, Abbado, Bohn, Heifetz, Ritcher, Mutter etc. Many of the Pentatone recordings are done recently in 2002, 2003 but they also have a series of remastered recordings. However there are some familar artists(to me) in the Pentatone label like ASMINT Sir Neville Marriner, Osawa(Tshaikovsky sym no. 6) etc. Many of the titles are not the commonly recorded ones like some of the Haydn early symphonies, Mozart Youth Symphonies (7a, 12, 18 ..) and some unfamilar composers. Generally I will buy those recordings I do not have, and if my pocket still OK then I will buy the familar ones (some of those I bought include Tchaikovsky String Serenade, Dorvak Sym 9, Beethoven Piano Sonatas). I also bought some recordings by the pianist Mari Kodama, according to Ernest of New Disc Village many of his customers order hers. I have heard her Beethoven Sonatas, not bad.

Hi! Headphonecrazy, confirmed, 1 unit. Thanks.

preamp is the component within the hifi system for controlling volumn and selection of components. That are the main functions. Others may vary like: mute, phase selection, mono/stereo, etc etc some preamp comes with headphone jack. If using preamp you need a power amp to amplify the signal further to drive the speakers. headamp is a component which receive signal from a source (CDP direct or preamp) and amplify the signal for the headphones. I will leave this part for the headamp experts to elaborate.

Another section on just software: i.e. CDs, latest albums, audiophile CDs etc?

I am actually quite surprise that people allow the trial of HD600/HD650. I thought in Singapore, either due to professionalism or market support you dun really have a chance to trial the really high end headphone products with no commitment to buy. Maybe RS1 is a special case where you are allow to try freely. My logic is for high end headphones they propably don't even stock a lot so how to get 1 to try? Unless the shop owner himself is crazy about headphones and thus is using one for himself in the shop. My few dealings with Hungs Brother I felt they are businesspeople rather than headphone enthusiast. Just my opinion. Anyway it seems I am lucky to get the HD650 at $550. But $550 to $800, don't make sense leh.

Just bought 20 Pentatone Label classical SACDs from New Disc village. Oh! I think my wallet cannot breathe already. Ernest is selling at a very good price. For those classical and SACD fan do go down and have a look. He did not order a lot. I think Grammophone is also selling the Pentatone label. Total catalogue about 40 titles, I think. I got to know Pentatone label via Towerrecords.com usa site. Unfortunately they are bankrupt already, and so sad I guess we will lose the local towerrecords shop soon and there goes another good place for classical CDs.

Hi! It is me Fuwen. The editor of Sight and Sound is my close friend. Actually the article is not really big deal as just an account of my experiences with headphones (and actually the fever started when Reccaflame told me to come to this forum, maybe it is a mistake to come here? LOL!! Play until broke already). I guess the article will be interesting to people new to headphones but may not be interesting to all the headphone experts here! Yes, the article is in Chinese. Hope those who have read it like it and please support my friend! I did memtion about this forum in the article and hope can draw some more people to this forum. Cheers!

When I bought mine from Hungs Brother was $550 and at point of time they said the price will not fluctuate much only depends on Euro and the quantity ordered. According to the person (I forgot the name but I think is one of the Hungs brother) the price will not be too high as market are aware about the price. Quite surprice they are going to sell $800, if really that is true. I thought they are selling the HD600 for about $400? The bass of the HD650 is tighter than the HD600. I actually dun quiote like the highs of the HD650 until I fix on my Clou Red after running in the HD650 for a while.

Hi! Blues, if you can convince somebody to loan u an amp then you are welcome to try out the K1000 at my place. The requirement of a power amp to drive the K1000 did bother me for quite a while when I was considering buying the K1000 but Jan Meier told me the HA-2 can drive the K1000 and so I felt relieved then and bought the K1000. However the cable supplied together with K1000 only have bare wires on the signal input end and so I soldered a TRS headphone jack myself. AT present I am using a DIY K1000 4-pin XLR to TRS cable using Sonicart, a silver coated copper speaker cable in a very short 1 ft length. Rameish may be coming to my place with his Cai Yin to test out the K1000. I am really curious to find out the synergy between a tube amp the K1000. I do own a NAD320BEE but no time to try out the K1000 with it. I managed to get the K1000 at a good price through the contacts of my hifi kaki and if you place order with the local agent Asia Sound it may take about a month to receive the headphone as they do not carry stock. Hungs Brother did quote me a good price but I not sure they get from Asia Sound or parallel import so I finally got from Asia Sound and they happened to have a unit in warehouse for some reasons and I got my in few days time.

Any body in the forum have a good knowledge on Technics PCDP? Any clues which website has info on the old and new models? Tried but can't get PCDP, mostly CDP, musical instruments etc

The long/short cable theory seems correct for most of the 'normal' system but I realised recently this theory may not work on Naim products in the 'normal' way. I have a hifi kaki who is a die-hard Naim fan. It is him that I realised Naim is one of a kind. They don't use conventional connectors (RCA, Balance) but instead use their very special DIN standard connectors. And apparently 3rd party cables may not work well with the Naim components. A very peculiar thing I know of is for Naim the longer the speaker cable the better is the performance (long, up to 5m as my friend has tested)! I have another hifi kaki who try to use a 3m Zeus II and is outperform by the very normal looking Naim OEM speaker cables. The Naim die-hard is trying to get a 7m Naim speaker cable to test. Naim salesmen also do not recommend contact/connector cleaner. Any body has any idea on Naim design philosophy? Is it that they include the physical properties of cable in their design and therefore as a system longer cables actually work better on their system.

Hi! Happy birthday Mackie! Hope one day can consult u on tubes stuff. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

<------- my favourate camera and photography work horse Rolleiflex SL2000F. Not the best I have but is sentimental as has gone through a lot with me ......

YGPM

.....still waiting for your pictures anyway.....your digital photos are really crispy sharp and I can tell even just by looking at them in this forum..... a Leica right?

Hey! 100k /picture should be still quite OK on the computer screen right?

Agreed with headphonecrazy. Har28 should be taken off the forum with immediate effect.