Originally Posted by HeadphoneAddict
Dobro, are you using the Lyrix DAC? If so, your laptop headphone out out must be very good to drive 300 ohm headphones as well as the Lyrix.
If you are feeding the laptop headphone out into the Lyrix, I can see how it might sound similar, but it should still be slight improvement. But, given a good source (iMod, Apogee mini-dac) the amp section of the Lyrix is pretty darn close to the Pico's.
Originally Posted by Dobro
I have the Lyris pro without a DAC. I use it connected via the line out of my desktop PC (no laptop). In case you where wondering I've tried it powered with a battery and with the power supply Headphonia sells. Same difference.
Originally Posted by HeadphoneAddict
What I suspect is that you are using the stock headphone cable, and in my review of the stock HD600 cable it limited the ability past a certain level of resolution to discern changes in source and amplifier.
Originally Posted by Dobro
This doesn't add up on two counts. If I couldn't discern changes in source between the Lyris and my headphone-out due to the cable then how could I discern the difference between the Glite and the Lyris using the same cable? Also how come my system sounds so much better with the Glite when the only change is the amps? I find it very hard to believe that Sennheiser would put a cable on their number 2 Headphone and their former flagship that was so bad that it keeps you from hearing differences in sources. It makes no business sense. For the record, I have a 650 cable on my 580's.
Thanks for your concern but I know what the problem is and it was resolved by getting an amp with the voltage and synergy to drive the much closer to their potential.
Without all the info about your setup, it was hard for me to see what you were getting at, or experiencing. I assumed you were using a headphone out of the laptop to feed the Lyrix, not a line out from a desktop. My comments about the cable only applied if you were using the USB DAC version, and saying the DAC was no better than Lyrix connected to the headphone out. If the difference was subtle, it is hard to hear with the stock HD600 cable, I know, I've tried.
It appears that you have a good line out of the computer to feed an amp. The old saying "Garbage in, garbage out" doesn't apply here. In my case, the Macbook has NO line out, and the headphone out sounds just like my 5.5G iPod video headphone out. My iPod line out dock sounds better than HP out of my Macbook. But, the Lyrix DAC sounds at least as good as the line out dock, which is about 25% better than headphone out from either iPod or Macbook. So, I couldn't see how your PC and Lyrix could sound the same unless you were amping your headphone out. Sorry for the assumptions.
As for the cables, the HD650 cable is nice, and much better than the HD600 cable. I did a review here:
REVIEW: APureSound V3 Silver Cable with Copper Core for Sennheiser vs stock HD600 & HD650 cables
With a good amp I could discern the differences in sound between the cables, but the HD650 cable was well ahead of the HD600 cable, and close enough to being great except for that last bit of transparency and layering found in the $200 cable.
Originally Posted by dobro
What I'm talking about are not huge "OMG this sounds awful!" types of problems but rather pretty subtle differences. I think the problems I've mentioned are what people are talking about when they say Senns are "dull", "veiled", "boring" , "slow", etc. Like I said not huge, but significant enough that they bugged me. Getting the GLite ameliorated these problems enough to where they don't bug me any more.
Somehow I missed this. I agree - most of my desktop amps drive the HD600 better than my portables. But with good portables I didn't have too much to complain about when driving HD600, and I might not have known I needed something better had I not heard something better. When I started my journey into headphone amps, I was blown away by a $99 mint tin amp, and then my iBasso D1 blew that away (in some ways that one does sound like a desktop amp with the right opamps). Etc, etc...
Yet, when I take my HD600 and connect them to my Woo WA6 maxed with metal base GZ34 using an APS V3 cable, then yeah, with portable amps the HD600 is "veiled, dull, boring and slow". Then when I connect the HD600 to the balanced XLR out of my Apogee mini-DAC with an APS V3 balanced cable, that makes the Woo WA6 sound "veiled, dull, boring and slow" with the HD600. At this point the HD600 is almost sounding like a Grado with a big soundstage.
Heck, I thought my Stax were the cat's meow, making my best HD600 setup sound "veiled, dull, boring and slow" till I got my HE60 a week ago - they make the EVERYTHING sound "veiled, dull, boring and slow"
