I had heard a rumor that a few STAX guys actually walked out after a visit from the Chinese delegation.

I hear all future Stax will be produced on Senkaku.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senkaku_Islands

A revamp would be a good thing for them. I hope they can pull it off. The SRS-002 was impressive in some ways, but I never got the feeling the product was really "together". Quite a few people here had issues with the amp. I think a lot of people ended up returning it. The thing is, there is so much competition.

It sounds much better with better amping. I was under the impression that they were releasing an improved portable and desktop amp for the SR-002.

I still use my SRS-002 sometimes for what it's worth.

I've made land at Canjam every year for the last four years.  I use my compass and astrolabe to freehand a map of the strange movements and shifting coastline of this mysterious island. I am haunted by the suspicion that this island itself may be no more than a mirage, as the conflict between viewing it flat-on (anechoic first-arrival response) and viewing it peripherally (room power response) create an un-resolvable interference when attempting to view it with binoculars (headphones with no processing).

(At risk of a stint in the brig.) How a swabbie sees some of the strange creatures on this island (apologies to Darwin):

Schiit Rag/Yggy:
I've heard the Mjolnir/Gungnir stack several times previously. Each time my eyes glazed over and I felt boredom as an immediate emotion. It did not let up after time. Pasteurized/Homogenized/Flat/Lifeless; beyond 'no-character of itself', it was aggressively drab (the embodiment of the glassy/muted sheen of clichéd solid state, with an extra helping of drab.) Now I state this because, for the first 30 seconds of listening to the Rag/Yggy stack I experienced a grave fear that I was in for a repeat. But unlike the Mo/Gun stack, with the Rag/Yggy it quickly became possible to listen-in to the inner life of the individual sounds. I *think* I began to see what the recent R2R DAC talk has been about: texture. Hammer struck strings, air and spit in brass, rosin: the full character of wet reeds, metal, polymer, varnished wood, and flesh: I felt like I was experiencing my tracks in the time-domain, a rare experience lately... and it reminded me of the experiences I had in the mid/late-90s when I was first getting excited about the possibilities of Hi-Fi. Ultimately, I did sense the presentation was a bit flat and slightly dry. This isn't an amp that ends the argument for tubes. My feelings distilled to: possibly great DAC and fully competent solid-state amplifier.

MrSpeakers Alpha Prime:
I think Dan may have taken the criticism of the early Alpha Dogs too much to heart: the Prime is a neutered lapdog on medication. Can't even call it dog. Sure you can kick it all the way up to the ceiling without it biting your ears off, but at normal levels this thing has no life; leaving it easy to focus on the slightly wooden bass and the t50rp ortho driver rasp.

Fostex T500RP:
All I could hear was the wooden bass of the driver, seemingly nutty 4k+ response, and the rasp... I can't un-hear the rasp.

oBRAVO AMT/1;
One could probably make a project of designing a crossover to make it respectable.  As awful as it was, MANY of the 2-channel setups upstairs at RMAF were worse.

Sony MDRZ7:
Distorted low bass, no sub-bass itself but lots of chuff. The rest of the bass is satisfyingly full without being big. Otherwise, it has a pleasant balance with enough presence and treble to keep it exciting. However, it ends up sounding a bit gritty and blatty. Except for the unsatisfying low-bass situation, this is what a normal person would think a $200 headphone should sound like.

Oppo PM-3:
The one prototype I heard was very forward sounding, and seemed rolled off at the ends. There is no resemblance to the character of the PM-1/2 with its laid back, open sound. Maybe they can hammer it out before launch: distortion performance seemed very good so it's just a matter of response shaping.

Blue Microphone Mo-Fi.
Pushed bass that leaves the lower midrange alone mostly. Impression of a ski-jump shaped response. Popular balance and generally satisfying. Some 2k+ peaking kinda killed it for me. Nothing funky about the amp. Seems to do the job. Ugly headband/yoke doesn't actually work well.

Hifiman HE-560/400i
400i never sounded good: "We added 4 extra 1/2" AMT tweeters spaced 5 inches apart, for extra sparkle!" HE-560 sounded fine, but I hear some HE-6 grit and splash, a chaos or micr o-rasp in upper range. Some systems seemed better at controlling this than others. But it's one of those "hard to un-hear" problems.

McIntosh MHP1000
Pushed bass, this has a very warm balance, and it bleeds into the upper bass and lowest midrange somewhat. It reminded me a bit of the Fidelio X1 down there, except that the MHP1000 retains good low and sub-bass performance. U shaped probably. Presence region and treble seemed tastefully balanced(shelved) but not particularly smooth (I didn't notice any nasty peaks either). Good closed dynamic headphone. Apple should buy this design out, paint it red, call it Beats Ultimate and sell it for $500-$800.

Pendulumic Stance S1.
Some showstopping resonance issues. (A hoot with some pierce to it, it was odd.) Good popular full balance. Metallic electronic hash in the signal. Never call your product S, you are just asking for it.

Anyway, so that's just one rum-soaked swabbie's notebook on some recently washed up specimens.
Usual disclaimers: lead poisoning, periodic scurvy, and sunstroke.

Yes, I think the HD-560 can be a little splashy depending on your frame of reference. Relative to the PM-1/2, it is definitively a more forward can. Interesting to hear the PM-3 is sort of voiced forward sounding as well.

Interesting stuff on Rag/Yggy. Will check this combo out at the next meet. Thanks Thune!