I'm highly suspicious of claims that vintage amplifiers are all that wonderful. The simple fact is, circuit components are better than what they were in the 80s and 70s. Testing and design tools are vastly superior today. I can't help but notice that the majority of -- if not all -- glowing...

It should be noted that the very fact that much of the audio experience cannot be measured, and so much remains unknown, should be a signal flare that basic knowledge of electrical engineering only leads to very basic understanding of audio reproduction. For example, what are the measurements on...

DSD much better matches the dynamic resolution of real audio. Indeed, it is much higher in terms of total resolution as compared to PCM. Early DSD (64x) on SA-CDs aren't THAT much better because much of its bandwidth is "wasted" on noise shaping. DSDx128 and above addresses that shortcoming, and...

After a lengthy wait, I finally got my DIY builder's DAC from China based on the 9018. It's got dual transformers for analog and digital circuits, high-end op-amps, WIMA, ELNA and Nichicon caps, 0.5 ppm clock. XMOS board. Listening to it right now via WASAPI push through a Wyrd. My initial...

I thought it was clear that the modded HD800 does NOT reach the level of the Abyss (which, I might add, was not amped to its abilities).

It sucks because many people can't afford it.   DSD is intrinsically superior to PCM for sound quality. That is simply a fact.   BUT: besides classic re-releases using analog master sources, there is only ONE record label (Channel Classics) that I know of that produces NATIVE DSD releases...

I would say it's still true BUT there is a minimum level every component in the chain must satisfy before they drag down everything else. In my current case, while in an equipment transition, I am using a Pioneer VSX-816, which has poor noise performance, making my HE-6 (when using speaker taps)...

So guys, I'm putting together a list of items for the HE-6 endgame.   First of all, I want to make sure the amp is NOT the limiting factor. Options I've identified so far include:   Odyssey Audio Hybrid Integrated Kismet: http://www.odysseyaudio.com/products-kismet-hybrid-int-amp.html -...

So, the main take-away I'm gathering from this thread is that the Abyss sounds the best. Great hopes were had for a modded HD800, but planars still beat dynamics, and nothing changes that fact.

Wow. I said I don't think there is anything better at the Yggdrasil's price point. But to say that it is competitive with better DACs is not very logical. The DACs I listed range from 5-7k, I'm not even talking about a Diamond V or Zodiac with atomic clock. Or the Dave. 

So I'm looking at this thing....   True balanced AK4490 Native DSD decoding FPGA-based DSD oversampling Non-oversampling option?? High quality single-ended output Preamp section CLOCK INPUT DOP over coax AND optical?? Transistor-based volume control Discreet headphone amp section...

Right now I'm driving them off of the speaker taps from a Pioneer VSX-816. Just a stop gap for now, sound quality is pretty bad at volume. It's rated for 110wpc, and I find that -23 dB provides a good listening volume, and if I want to crank it for certain tracks, I will go to -17 dB. It goes...

Is there room for other upgrades in the H10? Transformers, caps, fuses, etc?

It doesn't do native DSD, no. It must convert DSD streams into a multibit format first.   I'll also point out that the ONLY way for your typical commercial D/A chip to handle native DSD is to completely bypass ALL of its internal filters and volume control modules, as those manipulations are...

So the Abyss completely obliterates the HD800, as expected.