evil-zen

I just want to clarify that I was gentlemanly in every way I could be. He was also very gentleman when he speaks. Maybe my term "farting" was too strong but I from the way we conversed, I sensed that he didn't believe most of the things I said. And I was there on a weekday afternoon so the shop was empty. Ok. Between the MS Pro and the Stax lambda series, Charismatic touched on most of the major points. As I have a 303, maybe I can emphasise more of it. Stax, due to the very thin membrane, moves very very fast. As such, they are highly detailed, being able to respond to signals much faster. Perfect if you are a detailed freak. Cymbals sounds the most realistic on a pair of electrostatic due to the same reason. Somehow electrostatics portray cymbals in a way that dynamics couldn't. Bass is extremely fast and taut. However, it loses to MS Pro in terms of bass impact. I feel that soundstage also contributes to bass. The lambdas, having a much larger soundstage than the MS Pro, diffuses the bass over a much larger area thus appearing to lose impact. It still extends as deep or maybe even deeper than the MS pro but the impact is lesser. Sibilance is hardly a problem unless the recording has them in spades. Somehow electrostatics are less fatiguing than dynamics and I couldn't find the reason why. To summarise, get the Alessandros if you listen to plenty of rock. For most of other genres, I might prefer the lambdas. Of course, their tonal balance is wildly different from one another so I suggest you try them out first. The difference between the 303 vs 404 is reportedly the cables. Technical specifications are exactly the same, the drivers look the same internally. The only visible difference are the better cables on 404 as well as the colour. I didn't manage to compare the 404 vs 303 on the same amp as I lent it to a friend for an extended period. Maybe a Classic System can offer much of the same sound for much less. A review on 6moons says that the Signature and Classic system sound almost exactly alike. Weird but true. Please try them before buying seriously. A few K is a lot to spend without auditioning. Oh and 1000 posts.

Well maybe it was his bad day or just the way I spoke. OK I'll go down soon to pay a deposit for my pads if he can quote me a reasonable price.

I hardly lie so I just spoke the truth. That is just my personal opinion. At first I thought he would give me explainations like headphone/amp/tube/cdp not burned in or different preference and I would have gladly accepted that. But he totally rejected the idea that 303 + 313 can be better than his 404 + 006t.... I think some people are too sensitive about their equipment. To me I would treat opinions as ways to further enhance my system. He also said I'm wasting his time when I used my CDr. I've been using that CDr for years ever since the first few SGH meet so that is my reference. Heard a lot of system using that disc so I'm pretty sure I heard what it should be in. But still, he still didn't call me back regarding the order of my pads after a long time. I went back to remind him but seems to have no effect. Ok no more Kingsley OT.

They are definitely very very different sounding. One on each extreme end. Grado with a small soundstage and Stax with a very big one. Beware of Kingsley... Less than ideal service to a young guy like me. Rather snobbish and didn't even bother to help me order the pads when i went more than a month ago. When i went to listen to their 404 + 006t + some high end Esoteric universal player with my own disc, I realised that it is rather muddy and flabby in the bottom end compared to my own 303 + 313 + my dac. I told him that and I think he treat me as farting... My recommendation is to buy the 404 + 313 amp if you like the electrostatic sound. The 006t tube amp is not that good according to my experience and Kevin Gilmore technical experience.

Do I see a 5 cent tweak on the Corda HA-2 ?

Roger Waters of Pink Floyd seems to use a Sony e888 with custom earmolds in the Live8 concert.

Reflectivity of silver vs gold. Silver is better than gold. http://www.mscience.com/faq54.html Taiyo Yuden is greenish because of the gold reflective layer + blue-green cyanine. I believe that's the reason why certain cdp can't read them. Verbatim with blue azo dye has silver reflective layer so it appears blue. Better reflectivity = better readability. Another weird thing I observed is that Taiyo Yuden burnt at 8x can't be read on a cdp while those from the same stack burnt at 16x can be read. So slower is not better according to my experience. Most of the time i burn at 16x now. Faster and better. Why not? Of course, different media differs in their ideal burning speed.

Contrary to the above posts, I suggest you do not buy Made in Japan (Taiyo Yuden with greenish colour) disc for your marantz player. I tried the same disc on CD17 as well as CD6000 and both doesn't read them although it reads fine on other cdp. Verbatim/Mitsubitshi with the AZO blue dye with silver reflective layer should work perfectly fine. For higher speed CDr, i suggest you burn at 16x or even 24x. I found less errors on 16x compared to 8x. Before you buy a stack of CDr, I suggest you try burning what you have at 24X to see if it solves the problem. My experience.

ahh thanks Mackie. Looks like it won't be successful. I'll depend on my MD player then.

Thanks Mackie. But what if I don't turn up the volume as much? Won't it be lesser gain then?

My Gilmore headamp has a preamp output but my soundcard doesn't have a mike preamp. I was wondering if i managed to connect a mike via mini to female mini cable to male rca into rca inputs, could the preamp essentially function as a mike preamp? Is the signal strong or clean enough? What is so special about mike preamp over the conventional 'hifi' preamps? I asked so that I wouldn't waste money making cables that didn't work. Thanks in advance.

output stage?

oh tell your missus to take care of the 888. very fragile in their build quality as well as drivers. if you blast the 888, the drivers will not sound the same afterwards.

for 1.6K, you seriously have a lot of choice available ie AT, grado, stax. You probably can buy a few top end cans ie Beyer 990, 880, AKG 701/601 or even the K1000. Seriously no headphones does it all. See razer and you should know.

adhoc, someone has more or less done it already but I doubt that has the sync'ed master clocks. I remember you can buy the usb-i2s board but I can't find it. http://didnt.doit.wisc.edu/audio/DDDAC16/dddac16usb.html Tell me when you've completed one with USB-to-I2S conversion with 8x TDA154X (either tube output or no opamps), battery operated with sync'ed master clocks. Meanwhile, I'll stick with my battery operated Ack dAck with its 8610 opamp output and a incoming RME digi 96/8 PAD soundcard.

what about your source?

Honestly, I haven't tried all of the Lamda series yet. Starting with the original Lamda, Nova and now numbered Lamda series, online reviews have more or less described minor improvements to the previous line. Changes in the thickness of diaphragm was made but I think the material remains mylar. Actually that was what I am trying to describe. Similar to DT880 with a thickness in the midrange and midbass. I've not heard the K1000. The reason why I said electrostatics are not totally free of colouration is due to the fact that the 2 electrostatic headphones I possess sound far from each other. In terms of tonality, one sounds like a Grado while the other sounds like a DT880 + midbass and both are driven from the same driver unit(SRM-313) source and cables. While I tried the 404 and 006t amp recently, I can say I didn't like the 'improvements' made. I didn't have the chance to compare the 303 and 404 directly but they should sound very very similar as the difference is said to be cables only. Yes indeed they impart more warmth and bass but I felt it wasn't controlled enough in the bass. Fat and sloppy. From Kevin Gilmore. http://headwize.com/ubb/showpost.php?fnum=...d=1220&pid=9043 Note the older T1, 006t and 006t-II are of the same design. I lucked out and bought the Classic system 2nd hand for much cheaper than what the local distributor sells. Pricejapan and eifl has better price but whether they allow native 230V amps to be sold, now with the stricter Stax rules, is another matter.

BTW the picture u posted is Qualia. The sony SA5000, 3000, 1000 all has similar construction and design. I believe the SA5000 also has the same stand as well. The SA5k is also rather similar to electrostatics but that is only a short test.

evil-zen once owned a HF1 and a MS2 but evil-zen sold them all. evil-zen prefers the MS2 as it is less coloured than HF1. this is wat evil-zen said in a PM a while ago.

I'm a proponent of Stax as I own 2 Stax ear speakers and sold most of my dynamics. As what Mackie suggested, they are extremely fast due to their extreme lightness. In terms of transient speed and bass quality, so far no dynamics I've heard can match them. Some examples of dynamics I've heard include the entire grado/alessandro series (gs1k, rs1, ms-2) AT(L3k, w5k,w100), sennheisers etc etc. Separation is another strong points of electrostats as well with each instrument being placed in a soundstage very well. In order to match their separation, you would need to invest heavily in dynamics. But in terms of tonality, electrostats differ from one model to another. I think the Lamda series(202,303,404) would sound highly similar while the other models like Omega, Sr-X etc sound very different from them. If electrostatics are free of colourations, then all electrostatic should sound similar but they don't. The Lamdas sound somewhere like in between Sennheiser 650 and Beyerdynamic 880 in terms of tonality. Slightly warm and with fantastic soundstage. My Sr-x on the other hand sound like grados. The closest one would be MS2. Small soundstage but extremely neutral. I always thought bass was the biggest disadvantage of electrostats until I heard the 404 and 006t tube amp. Bass was terrific and even too much for my taste! I have another Stax 003 coming my way. BTW, Stax are sold far too expensive in Singapore.

The biggest obstacle to replicating a cd is the copying to hdd. Burning is more or less perfect. 1X might not be the best depending on your media. Somehow I found that Taiyo Yuden media I have burns best at 16X.

cmk, as you should know, you can only rip the cd layer. I did the same thing as well and it is possible. As you said, the dvd might be confused with the sacd layer. Maybe you can try ripping in another computer and copy over.

MT-12 is about S$790 before GST. Anyone tried MT-12 and M6 via speakers?

CMK, sorry was overseas when you sms me. Hopefully you've solved your problem already. If not, the freedb is under Database, Get cd information from, remote freedb. Some of the rarer cds are not found in it. I also bought the Bailey cd and it was not found.

Rameish, Sorry to hear about your problem. Never expected it given how low you listen to headphones. Have you tried the Cayin MT-12? I heard the HA-1A vs the MT-12 recently. Both via headphones out were pretty similar but MT-12 was much silent even after adjusting the impedance on the HA-1A. Didn't try them via speakers.