Quote:
Originally Posted by ianp  It will likely come down to personal tastes and what other kit is involved. I have the ZERO feeding a Cayin tube amp and haven't yet found the best overall DAC opamp for my varied musical tastes. Add to that the ability to roll preamp and power tubes and I have quite some combinations to try out. I'm taking my time swapping the opamps and it is very interesting to hear the differences.
On one hand $40 is not a lot compared to some of the tube prices, but on the other it is $40 that you may not wish to spend if you are happy with the sound that you are hearing.
-- sorry, should have multo-quoted oatmeal769 and not just penchum
|
I completely agree with what you have said. So many variables!
I can share what I've run into so far, just to try and add some "general" thoughts. I tested my first Zero with every combination of Opamps I could get my hands on. So many choices were great, but lacked the proper sound for output to a separate amp. I ended up putting the most neutral sounding tubes I had in my tube amps, and testing the different Opamps in the DAC all over again, to see if I could come up with the "best known" total output.
No matter how I arranged things, or which amp I was driving, it always came back to the OPA627's in the DAC. Part of this I can attribute to the Senn HD-650 (or so I thought), until others with different headphones chimed in that they had come to the same conclusion.
This all bothered me greatly, because it was making my life difficult (or more easy) to recommend a decent DAC Opamp! So, I hooked my Zero up to my MKV Solid State Dual Mono headphone amp, to see how I would end up this time. To further change the situation, I used my HD-600's instead of the HD-650s. After several days of swapping Opamps, I ended up back at the OPA627's in the DAC. DAMN! Well, at this point, I ordered my second set of OPA627's on another adapter and gave in.
Understand that this was all about using the Zero as a DAC for other amps. It is very possible to end up with different Opamp combinations, if using the Zero as a DAC and AMP for your headphones. One Opamp stands out in the crowd as a positive force for the DAC, when using the internal headphone amp, the LT1364. There was something very right about putting the LT1364 in the DAC and either the LT1469's or LT1361's in the internal Headphone Amp. Very nice indeed.
If you were to optimize the DAC output to another amp, lets say the OPA627's on an adapter in the DAC, then figuring out which internal headphone amp Opamps to use becomes much easier. I found that for the HD-600 and HD-650, the LT1364's in the internal headphone amp, worked the best with the OPA627's in the DAC.
YMMV. IMHO, it is a bunch of testing to take this from ground up to solution.
I've very burnt out on swapping Opamps, but that wasn't the reason for the solution I came up with. It was all about the best SQ I could find for my amps and setup.
Hopefully, what I found out will help others narrow the field a little, so they can find the best for their rigs.
PS: Another aspect of the OPA627's I really liked in the DAC, was the sound stage. It is big and beautiful. I'm listeining to some of my fav tunes right now, using the X-Fi optical out to Zero with OPA627's in the DAC, driving my MKV Solid State Dual Mono Headphone Amp, with my HD-650's. The sound stage is wide and 3D, proper in positioning and very, very dynamic! I just love it!!
