2/18/10– Tone Audio Reviews the LA7000!

We are proud to announce we have just been featured in Tone Audio’s new Issue 27. Full review is available HERE.

 

10/29/09– Christmas Deadlines Approaching Soon!

If you have been contemplating placing an order for a LA Series headphone (LA7000, LA2000, LA2000 “lite”), please be conscious of upcoming cut-off dates for ensuring Christmas delivery of your new toys. Be advised that due to our usual lead-times combined with typical Holiday shipping delays, the cut-off to place a Christmas order will be some time around the Thanksgiving holiday of NOVEMBER 26. If you are planning to send us a Denon headphone you already own for LA Series Mods, please make sure they are delivered to us before this deadline. If you do not need a re-cable for your headphones, are ordering a standard MD Series headphones, or having your own phones modified with only the basic markl Mod, turn-around will be much shorter, and your deadline for placing an order or for having your phones arrive here for mods is DECEMBER 11.

 

10/29/09– Enjoy The Music Reviews the LA7000!

We especially enjoy this quote: “I must say that among all the headphones I mentioned in the review, including the HE90 Orpheus, if I were forced to keep only a single pair of headphones, I would keep the LA7000s.”  Full review is available HERE.

 

09/02/09– Hard-Wire Your HD800 Adrenaline Cable

As great as the detachable Sennheiser connectors are, direct hard-wiring of your HD800 cable provides the best possible marriage of wire and headphone. Lawton Audio now offers direct hard-wiring of our amazing Adrenaline cable to your pair of HD800s for an additional $59 fee over the cost of the regular Adrenaline. Of course, you must send us your HD800 for this service. Turn-around time varies, please contact us for details.

 

8/03/09– Two New Standard Woods for Custom Cups: Silky Oak and Kalantus Cedar

In our never-ending quest to find beautiful (and good-sounding) woods for our custom cups, we are pleased to announce the addition of two new flavors to our Standard Wood selection. As Standard Woods, these are new staples that we intend to offer on an on-going basis, as opposed to our Special Woods which are limited edition or one-time only. You can see some pics of these amazing new woods here.

 

7/10/09– Sennheiser HD800 Adrenaline Cable

We are extremely excited about this major new product for us; we can’t wait to get it into the hands of owners of the new HD800. In our opinion, based on our experience with the Adrenaline, this is one phone that truly allows the quality of the cable attached to it to deeply affect the sound that comes out of it. Not only that, but the Sennheiser HD800 also seems to be particularly amenable to the benefits of going balanced. Whether you have a regular single-ended amplifier, or a balanced amplifier, we are confident that our new Adrenaline cable will take your enjoyment of these cans to a whole new level. The Adrenaline really complements the sound of the Senns; it is especially strong in exactly those places the HD800 could use some extra reinforcement. It also gets out of the way and lets the new Senn flagship truly shine in those areas it already does so well.

 

7/08/09– LA2000 “Lite”

There’s nothing “light-weight” about our new LA2000 Lite– except the price. The LA2000 Lite is a great solution for the customer who wants to experience all the benefits of all the mods we do the D2000, without spending a fortune on the cable. To be frank, the stock D2000 cable is poor; extremely poor. It must be replaced to get the most out of these phones. However, the stock cable from the D5000 and D7000 is surprisingly good for a stock cable. In fact, in our opinion, these stock cables were equivalent to or even out-performed several of the more popular (and more expensive) aftermarket cables. No, they don’t come close to our Jena-cabled confections, but they get the job done with some aplomb. These D5000/D7000 stock cables were in high demand from DIY-ers to attach to other headphones. Because demand is so high, and supply is so low, we now strictly reserve these cables for our customers getting our mods and custom cups as well (LA2000 ‘Lite”). Supplies are limited, so please contact us for availability.

 

7/05/09– V.4 Standard Custom Wood Cups Updated!

My apologies for being so tardy in updating the section regarding the Standard Woods we use in the construction of our Custom Wood Cups. What you see there now is what you can actually buy from Lawton Audio! We are picky about what woods we use for our custom cups. Once a wood makes its way into the stable of our Standard Woods, it has already proven itself to be a viable, musical wood that we have enough supply of to offer on an on-going basis. As we grow and expand, I expect we will continue to add new woods to our Standard selection. From time to time, we also come across some limited edition wood blanks that are just so incredible in looks, and also meet our standards in terms of weight, density, and hardness, that we can’t pass them up, so from time to time, we have some Special Woods with limited availability, and offered on our Sales & Specials page. More great photos of headphones adorned with our Standard Woods can be found in our new Gallery section.

 

7/03/09– Certificates of Authenticity

It turns out, there are more than a few people out there who are trying to pass off their “markl-Mods”, as original Lawton Audio product. Over the last several months, I’ve been asked to “fix” or “repair” a dozen or more, so-called “markl-Mods”. Frankly, I’ve been appalled at the weak attempts offered by some as full-fledged “markl Mods”. We’ve determined there has to be a way to combat these imposters.  As of now, every headphone touched by Lawton Audio gets a special Certificate of Authenticity. If you are a previous customer and in possession of authentic Lawton Audio product, please contact us; we are happy to provide you with documentation that proves your product is legitimate.

6/02/09– The Sennheiser HD800: The Only Headphone For Everyone?

Due to a number of customer requests/inquiries about the subject, we’d like to take a moment to offer some perspective on the new Sennheiser HD800 that was recently launched into a perfect storm of frenzied anticipation. 20 years after their last real attempt at a flagship headphone, followed by 15 years of incremental, largely cosmetic “upgrades” to their standard-issue mid-fi phones (HD580/HD600/HD650), finally Sennheiser announced something truly new– the HD800. Plus it would be offered at a price level that was a bit exclusive, but not totally unobtainable and still substantially less than what folks had become accustomed to paying for the great discontinued phones of yore (Sony R10, AKG K1000, Grado PS-1, Stax Omega plus amp, Senn HE60 and Orpheus).

 

The HD800 came with a few new bells and whistles, enticing many of the world’s biggest headphone geeks to plunk down their money on advance orders, sound unheard. Then came the delays. The anticipation among the headphone cognoscenti was palpable and growing daily. There was a tantalizing early preview at a major consumer electronics show, heard by an enthusiastic few, that further whet appetites for a phone no-one else could hear on their own rigs. Intentional or not, a sure recipe for sky-high expectations.
 

Then the deliveries of the elusive beast began, and real people began to weigh in on them. Yes, we got our own pair; after all, we want to see what the competition is up to, plus we are still extreme headphone geeks, and as lovers of the headphone arts, it was inevitable we would obtain our own pair.

 

After doing our burn-in and listening tests, we feel that after the initial rush dies down, and enough critical ears have heard them, the HD800 will prove to be exactly what it is– another fine choice for lovers of headphones, but not necessarily the best choice for everyone. As a rule and a principle, we never tell anyone that our headphones are the “best” ever. That’s ridiculous, there will never be one headphone that appeals the most to everyone everywhere at every time. However, we are confident, that when compared in a fair environment, our headphones will stack up handily against any challenger, and that in any fair analysis, regardless of outcome, our phones will show their worth as serious audiophile devices. Serious audiophile devices that very well may become your favorite headphone ever. They certainly are ours and remain so.

 

One size simply does not fit all in audio, let alone in the realm of headphones which are the most personal audio device there is.

 

We welcome your open minds and open ears. Cheers.

 

Mark