They have returned, and they are glorious. I used a bit of 2-part urethane to fill the cable/plug gap.
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I have no clue what I'm looking at right now but those colors are giving me a boner; I want it.
Those are my CIEMs. JHAudio JH13pros with a custom cable made by your's truly.
Cable - cryo stranded OCC copper, handbraided with white/orange/red mdpc-x sleeving. Yes, it's as pretentious as it sounds. Yes, I do sell these through mimic-cables.
I mostly bring this up because of Mad Lust Envy's recent comments that the MA900 is very similar in overall sound signature to the HD650, albeit with a much more vast soundstage.
The HD650 is not an HD600, I know; it's even considered worse in many ways due to the sound signature changes. But if the HD600 still has the soundstage deficiency, I'd consider that a major disadvantage against the SR-Lambda, especially for gaming. Binaural mixes need some space to do their thing well.
The HD800, on the other hand...I'll have to try that set out at some point, but being a set that costs $1,000+ by itself and is expected to be used with dedicated amplification, that puts it in the "too damn expensive" region for my tastes. Yes, I say this even as a Stax owner; it's what keeps me on Lambda-series sets instead of stepping up to Omega-series ones. (And if need be, I can learn to live with just the MA900.)
Check out thecableco.com if you want to demo high end gear without paying full price.
5% of retail gets you a two week rental, so those hd800s cost ~$100 (you pay shipping both ways). If you decide you don't want them, you send them back and can use that 5% as a credit for anything in their inventory (other headphones, amps (that you can rent, too), cables and the like.)
Had I not found a stellar deal on the lcd2 I'm waiting on, I'd have more first hand experience. I may still rent a pair of hd800s, lcd-3s and some high end grados (I know, not a fair comparison, but grado has done me extremely well recently as a company).
