Hi Iron,
I had a link to a diffuser supplier, I will try and find it and forward it.
HarryO
much appreciated…thank you!!
Here is one of the sites still looking for the other one.
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this is interesting…thanks for the lead and your time.
Headphone Rig that I just can’t Shut Up about :
STAX Japanese Edition (100VAC) SRM-007tA driving Koss Drop ESP/95X. Came with a 120VAC —> 100VAC Step Down Transformer. Source is a PS Audio DirectStream Sr. DAC using both the PSA & STAX XLR connections.
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I’ve always seen headphones as a necessary evil, but only ever used cheapish headphones, plus tinnitus issues make them a bad idea, however this looks like a very nice setup, I bet it is highly non-fatiguing too 
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Joe,
Thanks for the link. I enjoyed the video very much. It’s good to see that Roger is well and sharp as ever.
Kurt
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Headphone listening can be a spectacular experience with the right equipment.
My listening is 90% headphones / 10% percent speakers at this point in time.
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Planar Magnetic, or if you can afford them, electrostatic headphones are where it’s at for me, marked improvement over normal drivers.
I would love to hear those Stax headphones, they’re simply the best.
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I don’t own any electrostatics, only planars and dynamics. The only electrostatics I’ve tried for more than a minute were Voce from Dan Clark Audio with a Headamp Blue Hawaii. It was a demo session at a dealer event. They were nice sounding headphones. I ended up buying Ether2s that day.
Friday experimentation night. With the rack finally off to the side, I can move speakers, as well as some trapping and diffusion in and out to see if I can improve my soundstage.
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That’s gonna be nice!!
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@ Senna1a… Are those the original NHT 3.3’s? H had a pair of those years ago and they were wonderful!
@Tinears1 yes, still original. At some point I will pull the crossovers and recap.
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I love my old original NHT 2.9’s. I’ll probably never get rid of them. The thing is though, no matter what room I have them in, I just can’t seem to get the imaging and sound staging that I know I could from them.
And speaking of speakers, I’ve changed mine out… Again.
I’ve been playing around with these little guys the past few days and am really surprisingly impressed with these things. The mighty JBL Studio 530. I say these easily outperform the Monitor Audio Silver 3i and Sonus Faber Venere 1.5’s that I had.
Luckily, there’s no real difference in sound with the grills on or off, so I keep them on as these speakers are sort of ugly with the grills removed.
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Those look like a pretty awesome set!
Did you rotate the X-Statik’s out, or you still using them as well?
As for the NHTs, I totally agree finding the holographic soundstage is not easy and for me, still very much relies a mixture of almost perfect setup (I’m talking 1/16-1/8 inch increments for me both from side walls and rear), and seating position. It’s crazy how just a little movement muddies it all up.
I’m also somewhat surprised moving my gear to the side has opened it up top to bottom - when I moved from a full rack to the “1/2 rack” ikea based cellulose, it helped some, so I shouldn’t be surprised that getting it out of the way helps even more.
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When I had my stand mounted Kef’s, as good as they were, I had a terrible time trying to find the correct position to create a viable sound stage. I think that they may just be more demanding. I always started with the rule of 1/3’s and worked from there. In comparison, my floor standing speakers were easy to set up.
Unlike most, I really like the looks of these JBL’s, as long as the grills are on. With them off, not so much.
The X-Statik’s are rotated out, safely resting in the spare room/office.
With the NHT’s, this is the only room where I was able to get them close, but still no cigar. Stage width still remained within the boundaries of the speakers, and even stage depth wasn’t all that great. Maybe a larger room is required that what I have ever had them in. I don’t know. I will say, they do sound great tonally though along with pretty satisfying bass detail and extension.
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Listening to this album right now via Qobuz…
![[IMG]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61TzTf2WyfL.jpg)
Some of her more “odd” music, but the sound quality is there in strides, and makes these JBL’s sound even more impressive. I’ve listened to this album several times lately and in recent years, and it never sounded this good even with my beloved X-Statik’s! Now that’s saying something! Obviously, the Sonus Faber Venere 1.5’s and Monitor Audio Silver 3i’s don’t even come close to what these JBL’s are doing.
Yes, I know, totally different gear, totally different room… Still, those speakers couldn’t get anything near this level of sound.
Very convincing reproduction of vocals and piano with weight and body, detailed, silky smooth treble that has space and air, and the fact that they completely disappear in the room. Finally for the first time in years, I’ve got a pair of speakers in a room that are capable of vanishing, leaving only the music behind. For the past couple of days, I’ve been tweaking their placement as well as crossover points and gains on the subs.
In short, there were plenty of super high dollar systems at that Florida Audio Expo show that I went to earlier this year that didn’t even come close to this kind of sound. There were some of those smaller systems that were priced up to the $70k mark that didn’t sound anywhere near this good. They were either way too shrilly or dull, and drastically recessed mids, and either no bass or way too much.
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