Ah hell I'll put this here because I have a new-ish discovery...I have a Black Ice Audio Aries all-in-one dac/pre/headamp in for review. Few pieces of audio gear have impressed me in the way that it has...more on that in the upcoming review (fingers crossed that will drop Saturday 8 June). It...

I'm glad you like it! It remains my favorite all around closed back. DCA E3 and Meze Liric 2 have come close to it. E3 can best it on detail retrieval (marginally) and holography but it lacks the lushness and organic timbre the Radiance has. Plus it's a bit harder to drive and less thus less...

I honestly don't know. Focal caught lightning in a bottle with this one. I can't name a clear upgrade from it either open or closed.

Stick with rca. Converting b/w the 2 adds several variables not worth dealing with, IMO.

As promised from my review video, here are some additional thoughts on Liric 2’s signal chain pairings. A few notes to set this up… Clearly it’s unusual for me to make a supplemental post like this in addition to a 45 minute review video on YouTube. I was quite positive about the Liric 2 in...

No worries. I'm just making sure we're understanding each other. I appreciate your support. Enjoy the music, my friend! :beerchug:

I use the opening segment of every video to talk about how I sourced the unit at hand. If it's a loan from a manufacturer, retailer, or private individual, I say so. If I know I get to keep it before I film the review (I don't always) I say that too. If I buy it, I say so. To me the key is...

I'm not going to make a habit of answering these questions here but I'll drop a free sample... Erzetich Perfidus. No joke. It's single ended only though so you'll have to put more thought into dac matching than something that has balanced in. I'd look at Chord Hugo 2 or Qutest.

Hi, all. I really want to thank everyone for watching and commenting. I value community feedback. After all, I do this review work to (hopefully) benefit potential buyers of all of this stuff...and NOT just because playing with all this audio gear is buckets of fun (as I'm sure I don't have to...

Congrats! Lake People's amps have been consistently excellent IME. I agree with @Fegefeuer that your next move should likely be a DAC upgrade. Depending on your budget even something like the Schiit Bifrost 2 is a pretty good match to the G111 and will be a noticeably step up from the Element's...

Pm

I don't buy the premise that we're lacking observation. We have lots of reports - granted anecdotes from individuals - claiming audible differences in DACs, amps, and cables (since that's the impetus for this thread). We have over a century of electromagnetic signal transmission theory that...

That's a big claim to make in light of the lack of well defined thresholds for phase audibility in various contexts in the literature combined with the staggering range of music on this planet and the nigh limitless combinations of gear that can be assembled to play it back. Can we really...

Poking around on the REW website a bit, I haven't been able to confirm how the REW software suite performs the frequency-response test. I assume it is similar to how the FR sweep tests from miniDSP and others works, but I want to confirm. Could you give me a description, as step by step as...

Found it! I came looking for this after seeing your comment on YT. Thanks for putting this work in. I appreciate your efforts. I have not had a chance to go over this in detail yet but rest assured I will take the time to analyze your argument and data. A quick note of response on one...