"Drill All" drill bits

[Saracen]

I've had those Stax's for about 40 years.,The design, manufacturing standards and sound, has IMHO well and truly stood the test of time.

Unfortunately, I can't say the same for either the design or manufacturing standards of my ears. I wouldn't pay that sort of money for cans now. It'd be a waste. The most I'd go to is around £100-£150 and probably for whatever Sennheiser hsd in that range .... provided I liked the sound and comfort. But truthfully, even that would probably be overkill. Fortunately I already have a decent set of Senn's I bought as standby. I don't offhand renember the number but HD500 or HD550 rings familiar.

Oh, and some very nice Shure in-ear buds too.

[Saracen]

Oh tried that Audiobacon site but it doesn't like my adblocker, greys/fades out the site and puts a "please consider removing" message over about 80% of my screen.

Sadly, the "close" button doesn't work either, so it's add them to blocker whitelist, or beggar off. I beggar'd off.

They're, of course, entitled to prevent adblockers. But I use one by default, everywhere, and I'm entitled to decline to use their site, as I do elsewhere when this happens, rather than change my principles.

I do not want adverts, period. It'd have to be a site I desperately wanted, or needed to get me to unblock, and it hasn't happened yet. I even pre-record any and all TV I want on ad-carrying channels, and either skip ads, or more likely delete then entirely, before watching. That's how much I loathe adverts.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I've had those Stax's for about 40 years.,The design, manufacturing standards and sound, has IMHO well and truly stood the test of time.

Unfortunately, I can't say the same for either the design or manufacturing standards of my ears. I wouldn't pay that sort of money for cans now. It'd be a waste. The most I'd go to is around £100-£150 and probably for whatever Sennheiser hsd in that range .... provided I liked the sound and comfort. But truthfully, even that would probably be overkill. Fortunately I already have a decent set of Senn's I bought as standby. I don't offhand renember the number but HD500 or HD550 rings familiar.

Oh, and some very nice Shure in-ear buds too.

The Stax SR-L700 I listened to sounded excellent,so I am seriously considering listening to the L300 and L500. My Grados are in the £100 to £150 range you mention and I have had them 12 years,and I like the sound from them. I even modded them a bit,so I might just strart tweaking them some more.

I did kick myself for not getting the Senn HD600 for only £100 over a decade ago though.

However,the HD598 series are sub £150 and really comfy.

Oh tried that Audiobacon site but it doesn't like my adblocker, greys/fades out the site and puts a "please consider removing" message over about 80% of my screen.

Sadly, the "close" button doesn't work either, so it's add them to blocker whitelist, or beggar off. I beggar'd off.

They're, of course, entitled to prevent adblockers. But I use one by default, everywhere, and I'm entitled to decline to use their site, as I do elsewhere when this happens, rather than change my principles.

I do not want adverts, period. It'd have to be a site I desperately wanted, or needed to get me to unblock, and it hasn't happened yet. I even pre-record any and all TV I want on ad-carrying channels, and either skip ads, or more likely delete then entirely, before watching. That's how much I loathe adverts.

Oops!

I was trying to find this picture:

https://audiobacon.net/wp-content/up...osion-copy.jpg



They were impressive,but I wouldn't pay the price,but was more interested in the tech filtering down to more affordable headphones. Very neutral sounding - can't believe it is based on old Soviet tech!!

BTW,I heard a talk from Ken Ishikawa in the weekend - he is one of the main chaps at Marantz(for 40 years),ie,stuff like the KI Signature series.

Interestingly he said he didn't go and tell you what is the "best" and what the "best sound" for you is a personal preference. However,he did point out the recording was VERY important as was the mastering of the source material.

Really nice bloke and reminds me of what a relative said about how things used to be decades ago when it came to hifi(less PR bumpf and more hands-on).

[Saracen]

@Cat

I meant to say I really liked tge Grado sound. The reason I went Sennheiser was about comfort. I used to use them for late night TV after the wife was in bed, so as to not disturb her, and "over-ear" were far more comfy than on-ear.

As for Ken, yup, know him. Not personally, but I know who you mean. I have a KI-Sig CD player, and nearly went for their amp, too.

I also entirely agree about sound being subjective, both to the ear of the beholder/belistener, and very much to the type of music.

When I'm buying hifi gear (not that I much do, these days) I have a series of tracks I use. My start is a soprano called Emma Kirkby, in Bach's Jauchett Gott in Allen Landen (Praise God in All Lands). There's one section where she hits some impressively high notes, and with impressive power. The purity of that sound is breath-taking .... on good equipment. Conversely, there's a Dire Straits drum sequence, and the opening storm sequence in an Acoustic Alchemy disc. They're great for getting really sharp, tight drums.

And so on.

I've often had sales guys suggest I listen to this or that, but I wanr to listen to stuff I both really like, and know well. It works for me, and what others lime to listen to, especially sales staff, doesn't matter.

[Saracen]

Also, we seem to have drifted off drill bits just a tad.

But what the heck, it's my thread and I think that subject is exhausted anyway.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

@Cat

I meant to say I really liked tge Grado sound. The reason I went Sennheiser was about comfort. I used to use them for late night TV after the wife was in bed, so as to not disturb her, and "over-ear" were far more comfy than on-ear.

As for Ken, yup, know him. Not personally, but I know who you mean. I have a KI-Sig CD player, and nearly went for their amp, too.

I also entirely agree about sound being subjective, both to the ear of the beholder/belistener, and very much to the type of music.

Grados are deffo not as comfortable as Senns,and they leak sound like a sieve!!

I did find using a headphone amp actually did help a lot for the Grados,even though they sound good even run off the phone(they are quite low impedence) - luckily you don't need to spend too much on a fancy one either.

When I'm buying hifi gear (not that I much do, these days) I have a series of tracks I use. My start is a soprano called Emma Kirkby, in Bach's Jauchett Gott in Allen Landen (Praise God in All Lands). There's one section where she hits some impressively high notes, and with impressive power. The purity of that sound is breath-taking .... on good equipment. Conversely, there's a Dire Straits drum sequence, and the opening storm sequence in an Acoustic Alchemy disc. They're great for getting really sharp, tight drums.

And so on.

I've often had sales guys suggest I listen to this or that, but I wanr to listen to stuff I both really like, and know well. It works for me, and what others lime to listen to, especially sales staff, doesn't matter.

The sales people usually use simpler pieces to try and mask any potential issues with their systems,and some of them will sound good on lots of systems. I tend to have a mixture of tracks I know will test a system in different ways,so try to listen to those. Ended up coming away from some demos of expensive systems and not being that impressed TBH!!

Also, we seem to have drifted off drill bits just a tad.

But what the heck, it's my thread and I think that subject is exhausted anyway.

Oops!! I kind of get carried away at times.

[Saracen]

Grados are deffo not as comfortable as Senns,and they leak sound like a sieve!!

I did find using a headphone amp actually did help a lot for the Grados,even though they sound good even run off the phone(they are quite low impedence) - luckily you don't need to spend too much on a fancy one either.





The sales people usually use simpler pieces to try and mask any potential issues with their systems,and some of them will sound good on lots of systems. I tend to have a mixture of tracks I know will test a system in different ways,so try to listen to those. Ended up coming away from some demos of expensive systems and not being that impressed TBH!!



Oops!! I kind of get carried away at times.

I kinda invited it with car, cameracand hifi analogies.

Besides, it's interesting.

[philehidiot]

Bit late to this but I have three sets of headphones. One is a half decent set of in ear jobbies for taking to work which is driven well by the phone. The others are Senny HD280 pro and Grado SR80s. These latter two are both around 10 years old and still utterly fantastic. Totally different sound quality and use - if I want to listen to something and not annoy anyone, it's the closed back but if you want music that sounds... open, then it's the open backed ones all the way. I'm really quite doubtful about buying anything more expensive than these as I think once you breach the £120 mark you're really into the realm of diminishing returns. The other issue is that the bigger ones, whilst lowish impedence are clearly limited by the oomph of the amp in a phone or tablet. This limits them to use from the PC and that's about it as nothing else I own really has quality hardware to drive it (I have a decent sound card).

So, back to drilling holes in a Rasberry Pi server....

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Bit late to this but I have three sets of headphones. One is a half decent set of in ear jobbies for taking to work which is driven well by the phone. The others are Senny HD280 pro and Grado SR80s. These latter two are both around 10 years old and still utterly fantastic. Totally different sound quality and use - if I want to listen to something and not annoy anyone, it's the closed back but if you want music that sounds... open, then it's the open backed ones all the way. I'm really quite doubtful about buying anything more expensive than these as I think once you breach the £120 mark you're really into the realm of diminishing returns. The other issue is that the bigger ones, whilst lowish impedence are clearly limited by the oomph of the amp in a phone or tablet. This limits them to use from the PC and that's about it as nothing else I own really has quality hardware to drive it (I have a decent sound card).

So, back to drilling holes in a Rasberry Pi server....

I managed to get a decentish headphone amp for £100,and it makes my SR125 headphones sound better as it can provide more current. Having said that some of the decent soundcards can also have dedicated headphone sections though.

I have listened to headphones costing up to £10000,and from my experience only two or three sounded significantly better to my ears,and none of them were the £3000 to £10000 ones which mostly were dissapointment. But then I heard a pair of SR60s through a very good headphone amp,and they sounded great. Hence,I think your SR80s or my SR125s with a reasonably solid headphone amp will probably be fine for another decade!!

[GoNz0]

I gave up reading this thread as it has gone well off topic.

Anyway, after deciding to have another go at removing the snapped ball of an allen key that I broke in my wife's shock absorber when torquing up the top mount I tried a tn bit, cobalt bit and finally pulled out the Bosch multi construction bit, it was the only one that managed to drill into it and I had it out within 10 minutes.

[philehidiot]

I managed to get a decentish headphone amp for £100,and it makes my SR125 headphones sound better as it can provide more current. Having said that some of the decent soundcards can also have dedicated headphone sections though.

I have listened to headphones costing up to £10000,and from my experience only two or three sounded significantly better to my ears,and none of them were the £3000 to £10000 ones which mostly were dissapointment. But then I heard a pair of SR60s through a very good headphone amp,and they sounded great. Hence,I think your SR80s or my SR125s with a reasonably solid headphone amp will probably be fine for another decade!!

Yeh I use an X-Fi Elite Pro sound card which obviously can provide the oomph.... the floppy connector on the board is falling apart now though and I expect this poor card has little time left. It'll either die due to a lack of power or a lack of driver support as Windows 10 upgrades me out of another functional component. I have considered a headphone amp but to be honest I don't tend to take the beefy headphones out anywhere and I just don't think I could justify the expenditure.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Yeh I use an X-Fi Elite Pro sound card which obviously can provide the oomph.... the floppy connector on the board is falling apart now though and I expect this poor card has little time left. It'll either die due to a lack of power or a lack of driver support as Windows 10 upgrades me out of another functional component. I have considered a headphone amp but to be honest I don't tend to take the beefy headphones out anywhere and I just don't think I could justify the expenditure.

Well the latest Windows updates this years caused issues with the onboard sound for some reason,and also the audio interface changed and I couldn't access the optical out to the cheapo DAC I was using to get around it(fail). TBH,combined headphone amp/DACs can be had for under £100 now,especially some of the Chinese ones. The funniest thing is that the Sennheiser headset I use generally requires more power to drive it than the Grados - LOL.

[peterb]

From all-in-one drills to headphones (via ad blocking devices)

Priceless! (For everything else there is Mastercard)

[Ttaskmaster]

Also, we seem to have drifted off drill bits just a tad.
But what the heck, it's my thread and I think that subject is exhausted anyway.

This isn't a Matt Damon film - You still have to give that story an ending, by reporting on your findings if/when you buy them...!!