Firestone Products - Page 3

Woohoo, Big Joe is in da house!

Any impressions yet Smeggy?

I've owned a Fubar II USB DAC for quite a while, and it's served me quite well. It's a wonderful DAC for the price, and just so practical in my opinion. I replaced the internal op-amps (JRC072 and OPA2604) with two LM4562 op-amps. It makes the Fubar II sound cleaner and faster at the sacrifice of warmth. I personally think DACs sound sound as clean as possible (thus the LM4562s), but I know some would prefer a warmer sound out of their DACs (if for example they had a sterile sounding amp). Of course, you can opt for a warm sounding op-amp that can still be a substantial upgrade over the stock JRC072/OPA2604s (cleaner with less distortion, more control, and yet still warm sounding). You might wish to access the DIY forums to ask around for different op-amp ideas.

I've been listening to it for the last 5 hours with the K1000 and it's nice. Much better than the SI t-amp, much more body and bass though not as cage rattling as my big hafler MOSFET amp but still pretty good. Overall SQ is very pleasing. There's no sharpness or steeliness with the K1000 and is quite smooth. Only annoyance so far is a low volume channel imbalance that only evens out at about 9 o'clock so I have it on low gain to give a bigger volume sweep. It probably needs a pre-amp to get the most from it as a passive volume control is not always ideal.

I also gave it a blasting with the Stax SR-X Mk3 and it's all silky smooth and seductive. A very nice match for that smoother sound. I've been testing it with a Rio Karma DAP just for fun, and with an Adcom GCD-575 cd player. The old Adcom is a little glassy at the top end which gives the impression of hyper detail so I'm taking that into account. As a transpot though it's very good indeed.

I'll be taking the Joe to work tomorrow to hook up to the PC and Spitfire DAC and see how it does then. I'll be comparing both my K1000s with it to see which works best as one has bigger bass than the other. Once I figure out which combo sounds optimal I'll have a more prolonged listen. For now though, I'm very happy for my $210.

I'll be looking into swapping out the op amp for a AD827AQ as Firestone says it has more bass, well, If I can ever find out where the hell to buy them from, I had a quick look around but damned if I can find any for sale.

Ok, that's all for now but I'm pretty impressed given how reputedly picky the K1000 is. Sounds great to me

Oh wow, you're using the Big Joe to power the SRD-6 + SR-X MKIII? Sweet, I might need to get a Big Joe just for that purpose actually! Hmmmm...

Yeah, pretty damn nice. Ooodles of power too so it really drives them well. The x/Joe combo sounds very good indeed! I do intend to get a Trends TA-10 amp specifically for the Staxes as I like the t-amp sound with them but I can't complain about how Joe drives them

are the LM4562 op-amps a direct fit into the opamp sockets of the Fubar? any mods necessary? if there are mods, mind posting pix?

Thanks for your early impressions Smeggy. Seems like a good value amp for the K1000 on the lower end of the price scale! I need to get a dedicated amplifier for the AKG's to free my Naim amplifier for my speakers asap, but its so hard to unplug the K1000s

Heh, I imagine my old Naim amps would have done a nice job of running the K's, sadly left behind in England when I left along with my Roksan Xerxes table and Linn Karma cartridge etc. Oh well....

Yes the Naim works good with my K1000. But I haven't really tried out many alternatives, only an old Yamaha AV receiver which didn't work very well.

I think the Big Joe and maybe a Spitfire dac could be a good solution though.

Am I the only one in here with Little Country?
*Feeling Special*

Yes you are indeed special, just as your teacher told you
I'd like to try the little country myself but between the Joe and country it's edging into s/h Aleph 3 price territory. Still, nice looking little thing and I'm sure it sounds great too based on my other Firestones

I have iCute amp and spitfire DAC, they works well and I'm satisfied.
using them with my MS-Pros and some Beyer 770s/990s.

I've also tried the Supplier power supply but it did not sound any difference to my ears...

anyway, they are nice products and very affordable, personally recommended.

so which Cute amp do u own?? Battery II?? Beyond?? Encore??

if its NOT the Battery II then it looks like ill be feeling special just like ClieOS

EDIT: would also like to know ur thoughts on the amp + spitfire + 990 setup.