New headphone time

[Peter Korsten]

Hey Jay,

> The fact that I regularly have lunch with the service/support chief 
> means that if a music-bar member has an issue with AA headphones, I’ll 
> definitely know about it and can observe/participate repair if needed.
>
> I don’t have any financial stake - funding for my work is a result of 
> R&D initiatives that depend on other than retail sales.  I do also 
> just happen to have a responsibility for the continued development of 
> AA’s headphone firmware these days, among other things.
>
> I can tell you, as I literally walk through the assembly line and 
> production facility on a regular basis, that AA make some pretty 
> decent stuff, and have a high quality, superlative ethos vis a vis 
> repair/service.  That’s the key factor in my recommendation, to be frank.

No worries: I'm currently listening to the demo songs of my Micro Q 
through my newly acquired Hi-X65 headphones. (My setup is a bit 
complicated, and my audio interface doesn't have a headphones output.)

What I can say, comparing them to my old, decrepit and probably thrown 
away AKG K240M, is that they feel mechanically very solid, even down to 
the little "click" when you adjust the headband. They feel comfortable, 
although I should try them for several hours to make a definite assessment.

What the owner of the shop told me is that this is some former AKG staff 
that decided to start over after AKG was purchased by Samsung, and lost 
their edge. It sounds plausible enough.

As for comparing them to others, I've been listening through 
not-quite-studio-quality headphones for too long to know what I'm 
talking about. What I can tell you about these is that they can get 
loud, with deep bass, very quickly: just try a demo on a Novation Super 
Bass Station, which keeps resetting the volume. But they sound very 
detailed, and perhaps I shouldn't worry too much about my hearing 
degrading with age.

- Peter