Sounds like abyss would have been the headphone I always wanted-- too bad it's 5k.

I actually like a recession in the upper mid-lower treble area.  Finesse and speed of a stat with the muscle-bass of a planar magnetic and that tonal balance-- but it's 5k. 

I've now spent a little bit more time with them. I'm much closer to saying these are the headphones I've always wanted. Having dangerous thoughts of getting back into headphones (I'm a speaker guy now) and dipping into the HSA account (since the Un-Affordable Care Act will make my current HSA + catastrophic health insurance plan illegal in a few months.)

I know many of us have given JPS Labs a lot of shit, and frankly many of us expected it to sound like shit. But as I told Joe, prove me wrong. I think it's safe to say that he's proven me wrong. I don't think the AB-1266 takes top honors in many technicalities (HD800 is a better plankton extractor, distortion can be a little better, 007/009 have a more relaxed feel and smoother treble, a handful of headphones are more neutral, etc.) but the little things it does well add up to a complete package for me. I certainly believe it belongs in the Pirate's Booty. I'm not quite ready to say it's my favorite so far - mainly because I haven't spent too much time with TOTL headphones lately and need to re-acclimate myself. As Tyll implied in his review, it's one of those things where you don't think about the technicalities - they are "thrown out of the window" and "what really matters is the listening experience."

As to the noise in the mid-treble, the measurements would seem to indicate something there, but honestly I don't hear it with my regular set of test tracks (composed of a good mix of good recordings and many marginal recordings). The DAC I used was the PS Audio PWD2 (upgraded 1) running firmware 2.03 with filter 1. OR5 handed USB to I2S conversion duty. JRiver MC18 was used and all recordings up-sampled in MC to 176 or 192. PC was an earlier Core 2 based MacMini running Windows 7. Amps used were the Cavalli Liquid Gold and Schiit Mjolnir. The DAC hasn't been turned off since I don't know when. Both amps were turned on at 7am in the morning and have been left on all day. The treble peak is audible, the treble seems slightly rough, but these issues were minor to me (I'm probably used to the treble irregularities of my wide-bander speakers, despite super-tweeter help.)

Other tidbit: the frame allows us to swivel the drivers inward. This does change the staging. I angled the drivers in as much as possible. I wore the cups low and forward. The thickest part of the cushion was at the 8 o'clock position. The staging in excellent. Good center focus. Not as wide as HD800, which I do think is a bit on the diffuse side. Very open. An openness that goes on and on and on.

ultrabike came by. I'm sure he will add his 2 cents.