Colorado Springs 7/13/08 Mini-Meet Report! Apogee mini-DAC vs Duet shootout, HE60/HEV70 vs HP-1000 vs PS-1 and more!

[HeadphoneAddict]

Originally Posted by the_eleven

Apologies for the lame question (screaming deal?) in the other thread. Your comments here are quite clear.

What were the results of the Apogee comparo with the diffferent PSU's?

Searching for info on the Sigma 11, I find that it is a DIY power supply. Did you DIY? Is it possible to purchase one pre-assembled?

I could give it a go, but haven't made anything since I built my analog Heathkit VOM in high school.... back in the last century.

n_maher built the PSU for Iron_Dreamer a while back. He is doing a lot of stuff with the Millett Starving Student Amp these days.

The Apogee stock PSU and Radio Shack $89 laptop PSU sounded about the same, maybe a 1-2% improvement in space between instruments or ambience, but not enough to guess which PSU was being used consistently. The Sigma 11 smoothes out the highs, and improves the blackness in the background so the ambience and space can be appreciated more. It also seems to improve the bass a little to my ears. I'm guessing a 10% improvement overall or more. I am in the camp that feels the Apogee is better than the Pico, but my Pico as a DAC only (feeding another amp) is close.

Iron_Dreamer has a thread where he mentions this: Compared: Headamp Pico, Ray Samuels Hornet, Apogee MiniDAC

Where he says "When the MiniDAC is powered by its' standard switching power supply, it has a bit of grain or grit to the high end, reminiscent of the Benchmark DAC1 I once owned. By comparison, the Pico is perhaps the smoothest sounding of sub-$2K DACs that I have heard. However, when powered by the Sigma-11 discrete linear power supply, the MiniDAC is substantially smoother sounding in the highs, and much closer to the Pico in this regard."

[tako_tsubo]

ethereal...visceral
nice and informative read.
Thanks

[Golden Ears]

I would also like to add my thanks to you for doing this review.

Sometimes I try to read threads that are 30 or 40 pages long, it is tiresome to see so many people making comments that do not give raw information about the product because it takes longer to find the information.

So here I am being hypocritical, and yet having another post, to thank you for what you did. I am so glad that both of you are members of this community, because otherwise it would be very hard for me to figure things out. Your exposure to some many products helps out greatly. In fact even the components that you do not praise as highly as others, probably sell in greater numbers just because people know what they are getting. These type of reviews helped drive all sales, not just the sales of the most expensive or best sounding units.

For instance that new $59 amplifier is going to be a gift I will buy for someone. Without your reviewing experience I would've had no interest in buying this item for myself -- or for others. And even though it is not the best sounding item you reviewed or even in the top 20%, I will still buy it because of your review.

It's just something that I think the manufacturers have to realize is to their benefit.

I also listened to the apogee Mini digital to analog converter, as well as to the apogee duet, but once again -- I'm not sure of my results, because likely I listen to a lower bit rate on your unit as opposed to the apogee duet.

Going into a store to test one against the other might not be conclusive because items need to be burned in before the listening results are valid.

That is why -- I now have to wait until I can get both burned in units in the same room at the same time with the same source. lol.... MEET #2!

When will that happen?

Thanks again to both of you, what you do is a great help for others and helps us spend our dollars faster. Ha ha ha ha -- keep it up!

[HeadphoneAddict]

Originally Posted by Golden Ears

I would also like to add my thanks to you for doing this review.

Sometimes I try to read threads that are 30 or 40 pages long, it is tiresome to see so many people making comments that do not give raw information about the product because it takes longer to find the information.

So here I am being hypocritical, and yet having another post, to thank you for what you did. I am so glad that both of you are members of this community, because otherwise it would be very hard for me to figure things out. Your exposure to some many products helps out greatly. In fact even the components that you do not praise as highly as others, probably sell in greater numbers just because people know what they are getting. These type of reviews helped drive all sales, not just the sales of the most expensive or best sounding units.

For instance that new $59 amplifier is going to be a gift I will buy for someone. Without your reviewing experience I would've had no interest in buying this item for myself -- or for others. And even though it is not the best sounding item you reviewed or even in the top 20%, I will still buy it because of your review.

It's just something that I think the manufacturers have to realize is to their benefit.

I also listened to the apogee Mini digital to analog converter, as well as to the apogee duet, but once again -- I'm not sure of my results, because likely I listen to a lower bit rate on your unit as opposed to the apogee duet.

Going into a store to test one against the other might not be conclusive because items need to be burned in before the listening results are valid.

That is why -- I now have to wait until I can get both burned in units in the same room at the same time with the same source. lol.... MEET #2!

When will that happen?

Thanks again to both of you, what you do is a great help for others and helps us spend our dollars faster. Ha ha ha ha -- keep it up!

I did try to keep my Macbook on the lossless playlist most of the time at the 7/26/08 meet. But, that matters not because we both have done the work for you with comparing the mini-DAC vs Duet. They are hard to distinguish from each other in terms of sound quality and sound signature, whether via line out to an amp or headphone out to headphones.

They each have unique features that separate them - with the extra digital inputs and outputs of the mini-DAC making up the doubling in the price:

1) The mini-DAC has optical, coax, USB and AES digital input, the Duet is firewire only.
2) The mini-DAC has balanced outputs, as well as 1/8" line out and 1/4" headphone out, while the Duet has a line-out umbilical and 1/4" headphone out (line out is with a plug used for active powered near field monitors).
3) The Duet also includes analog inputs and an analog to digital converter to act like a mini recording studio. You need to add the mini-me to the mini-DAC for that feature.
4) The mini-DAC can be used as a stand alone DAC/Preamp/headphone amp, the Duet requires a Mac computer.
5) The mini-DAC with firewire or USB is Windows compatible with the right firewire chip onboard, Duet is not.
6) However Duet Firewire is a 24/96 DAC and the mini-DAC usb is only a 16/44.1 DAC, but with upconversion so it sounds the same as the Duet firewire or mini-DAC optical.
7) mini-DAC is a 24/192 DAC with coax, and 24/96 with optical toslink

As a DAC feeding a desktop amp, I like these better than the Pico feeding a desktop amp, and I like the Duet just about as much as the mini-DAC. As a headphone amp with DAC I think they soundly beat the portables like the Pico. The Pico is better as a DAC than it is a headphone amp, to my ears.

[Blutarsky]

I say we plan another mini-meet soon. Maybe October? How does that sound to front range folks - folks?

[vcoheda]

nice impressions.

the PS-1 has me very interested. may have to pick up a pair.

[HeadphoneAddict]

We had our mini-meet two days ago (if you call 4PM - 10:30PM mini), and will have a new post by next week with all our findings

[Blackmore]

You guys ROCK, nice write up

[Blutarsky]

Originally Posted by Blackmore

You guys ROCK, nice write up

Hi Sergei! You're going to have to tell me what your listening to these days w/o the Zana Deux.

Pm me with an update when you get a chance...

[penger]

Originally Posted by HeadphoneAddict

We had our mini-meet two days ago (if you call 4PM - 10:30PM mini), and will have a new post by next week with all our findings

What a tease.

[HeadphoneAddict]

Originally Posted by penger

What a tease.

I've already sent off my rough draft of this Tuesday's meet to Blutarsky for his dialog.

[HeadphoneAddict]

Episode #2 of "The Headphone Guys"

Colorado Springs 8/12/08 Mini-Meet Report! Single Power Square Wave XL vs Melos SHA Gold shootout! Balanced HD600 vs HP-1000

[HeadphoneAddict]

Part #3 of The Headphone Guys: Colorado Springs 8/19/08 Mini-Meet Report! Woo WA6 maxed vs Single Power and Melos! Also more on Stello DA100 DAC

[Solan]

Thank you very much for the comparison. It confirms my choice this summer, when I followed Larry's advice and bought the mini-DAC (plus a sigma-11 PSU). Another thing to note, which tipped the scale as a "maybe" this summer and which has been a blessing this autumn: If your Mac goes belly-up, and you are stuck with a PC, the mini-DAC will still work just as well, whereas the Duet will go into storage. My laptop has been "to repair" for 2 months now, so thanks to my wonderfully wise choice of the mini-DAC, I have been able to listen to music for all that time.

Do I have any minuses to mention? Yes: If I use the computer (whether Mac or PC) for other things than music enjoyment while listening, I often get a scratching sound indicating that the FireWire cable is not transferring data fast enough. Typically happens when I'm using Firefox or Opera (I use both, and with multiple tabs).

[smuh]

Great read, but please keep cookies out of your pictures... damn, need to go to the store now and get some!