Roon is just as snappy as ever for me (which has never been perfect, but I haven’t noticed any changes). ARC is wonderful for long-distance train rides and road trips and planes. Roon still powers Sonos plus my 2 headphone rigs and my main listening room. Fabulous kit, running on a NUC/ROCK.

Or, we could refer to it all as lignin and be done with such silly abstract distinctions. As in, “he sure does have a great collection of corrugated lignin.”

Short answer: personally, I think definitely not. And I also think not a fantastic pairing. The FV is much like an antique car. It has strong preferences in how you drive it, what gas you put in it. Both line signal and transducers. That’s my experience.

I run my FV with Focal Clear OGs, Audeze LCD-3s, HD-800s, ZMF Verite Opens. Tried my Yggy OG, didn't love it (though I might have had motivated reasoning - it wants to live in my primary 2-channel rig). Have settled with Gungnir MB, but I'm going to rotate my Bifrost 2 OG in and see if I like...

I bought a dozen 6n6p's off a ukrainian dude (they came from Kiev, in the last month, which is crazy to me) on ebay for a song, and had a friend test them. 1 was bad, threw it away. The rest are there in case I need 'em.

I would warn against the Aegirs monoblock into rough loads like the Denton’s. I ran the KLH model 5’s (modem update). Thought they were lovely out of the dual Aegirs. But man, they had no grip, because there is a tough impedance minimum - they are nominal 4, but dip to around 3. It was too...

I love them, and wear them for hours. I have three friends I've recommended them to, and lent them to in order to try out. One thought it was agony and couldn't last five minutes. One thinks they're fabulous, but she can't wear them for more than an hour and certainly can't wear them out, but...

Just set the Monarch MkII’s up through my Jotunheim/Bifrost 2 OG stack for the first time. Holy crap. What was better is miles better yet.

Um, yes, since the information is accurate though it might have assumed some knowledge of the used market (and as many posts on this forum as a matter of form or convention expect others to have context, ask polite questions and do research), I find your tone a bit obnoxious, but you do you...

Ok, gosh golly gee. I keep finding reasons to try my other IEMs - tracks I think will sound better, nostalgia, the desire to go fit a walk with slightly less big IEMs. Timeless, Kato, Variations, Andomeda, N5005, CRA+, Titan. Love them all a bit. But then I am listening to a recording I love...

Sorry to hear this. When I first bought a F+, I had a click/pop/burning smell in the first ten minutes I owned it, and they took it right back and sent me a new one and no issues since. My FN has never had issues. I wish I was a more talented electrical engineer and could take an educated...

Hmm. I bought CA Andromeda 2020 off the CA marketplace for sub-$600 last month. Their “good” quality has the same inviting unboxing experience as new stock. Sorry if they don’t have what you’re looking for right now - but they do a great job with used. MMii has been holding price like crazy in...

Definitely excited for this. Despite hating the form factor, my “good on the go source” is my Fiio Q3, which I know isn’t great compared to my Schiit Piety/Modi+ as a comparison but which doesn’t travel obviously. For more forgiving phones I use the BTR3k, which I think is a much better form...

I will say this… despite loving my MMii’s a great deal, people ask me all the time where they can get that magic for less $. To which I always say “You can’t really, I wouldn’t tell you that they are magic and then try to tell you that you can buy 50% of magical”. But… when pressed, I usually...

Vent diagram of those who have three bathroom Reno’s going simultaneously with those who drunkenly chuck pee-filled water bottles about neighborwards or otherwise may have more significant overlap than I may have previously considered.

But where will you pee?

I own both an N and a +. They have never been in the same system - they live in two separate houses with different speakers, turntables, DACs and power amplification. The different tube types are going to create different opportunities for rolling. I bought the + long before the N came out and I...

Note that Spotify does not, and almost certainly never will, work with Roon. You will have only Qobuz. That said, it depends on what you value. There are many components to the value proposition. Among them are: Curation & discovery - find more music more easily that you would like to listen...

Now do the Ass-ociative property of amps.

Actually, they are a wonderful all-rounder for me. It's just that the discomfort is real enough for me that I only reach for them for certain kinds of music. That may seem like splitting hairs, but I'd listen to them all the time over all else if they didn't bug me after a while. As it is, I...

But that is Freya+ / Freya N - you can select fully passive, JFET solid-state gain, or tube. Takes 15 seconds to engage the tubes while they warm, but that's exactly how it works. I listen to JFET all day in background mode, kick in the tubes for serious listening for a couple hours. When you...

Man oh man oh man. Just dropped my 1959 Amperex Bugle Boys into the right side of my Freya N, and my Genelex Gold Lion 6922s into the left side, and this is what is meant by tube glory. Schiit. Roon -> Pi2AES -> Yggdrasil OG -> Freya N -> 2 * Vidar 1's -> KLH Model 5s. Playing The Band, CCR...

For me the Monarch Mk2 is both of (a) slightly uncomfortable after 90 minutes, and (b) the most remarkable reproducer of symphonic rock and acoustic folk that I've ever heard. Arcade Fire, Pink Floyd, Ian Bostridge, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Treepeople, The Band, Creedence Clearwater Revival...

Yep. So much of this sport is enjoying the journey. Buy an amazing value-for-money headphone, live with it for 3 months, enjoy it, love it. If you feel like it, get the other one (in this case the Monarch). Monarch is surreal, hard to imagine that it's actually coming from an iem. But, and...

Very cool. I'm still glad I picked up a venerable Vidar 1 on BF (which turned out to be closeout), but that's awesome. It's also kind of wild to see price(Vidar 2)=price(Aegir).