DAC Performance
For the most part, I've been concentrating on the Opera's performance as an amp, but I did do some experimenting with the DAC (USB input) yesterday. The VDA-2 sounds much better to my ears -- not really a close call. Illustration of that: I'd forgotten that I'd switched inputs and after about a half-an-hour, I was growing increasingly worried that my earlier praise of the Opera was overblown. It sounded flatter, with conspicuously less nuance. When I realized, I immediately switched back to the VDA-2 and the improvement was pronounced.
On the other hand, the Opera DAC seems on a par with my modded Adcom, which I prefer over the DAC-AH and Micro DAC. I'll test that some more over the next couple days and report back.
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Headphones: Audio-Technica ATH-W5000 (Balanced - Enigma Oracle) & AD2000 (Balanced - Enigma Oracle), Sennheiser HD-600 (Balanced - APS, Version 3), Ultrasone Edition 9 (SE), Beyerdynamic DT-880 (SE), STAX 404
Amps: Singlepower Harmony XLR (coming soon), Singlepower Extreme Platinum, STAX 006t, Headroom BitHead (2006)
DACs: Channel Islands VDA-2 + VAC-1, Modded Adcom GDA-600
Previously Owned: Headphones: Grado RS-1 and SR-60, AKG K-701, Sennheiser HD-555 and HD-570 // Amps & DACS: Headamp GS-1, Singlepower MPX Slam, Headroom Micro Amp and Micro Dac, Lite DAC-AH, Rega Ear, and Meier Opera (extended loan)
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