Review: ZERO 24 BIT/192KHz DAC/Headphone Amp/Pre-Amp - Page 170

I know several members who love the K701s. I also know more members that are up against the wall, trying to find a way to improve the bass in their K701s. I find this distressing. The old school approach was to buy your equipment and buy headphones for your equipment, not the other way around.

I get PM's every day from folks looking for a solution to the K701. When I tell them that they might be better off finding a headphone that has no frequency issues, they get a little testy. Some have come back and told me they sold their K701s and bought Senns or other AKG phones and others, and that they couldn't be happier.

To put this into perspective: If a person buys equipment to accommodate the K701's and is happy, it is a good thing, at least until they want to try another type of headphones, and find out they have a bass heavy system. What do they do then? More equipment? I may love inexpensive audio, but I like it much better if I pay for it once.

Of course YMMV, always IMHO.

I haven't emailed him to ask specifically if he is running bad 627's. The ones I got from him seem proper, and more importantly, sound proper. By all means, email him through ebay, if you think it better to do so.

Yes, I like the MKV way better than the built in headphone amp in the Zero. This comes down to refinement. The Zero's headphone amp, while very nice for this type of application, is more of a "hold over" until you can get another amp to be driven by the Zero. For students, small apartment dwellers and the like, the Zero offers some pretty good sounds for little space and money.

The MKV is extremely revealing and accurate. Every time I listen to it (daily), I am amazed at it's "purity" of sound. Now, if the house catches on fire, I'll have to grab my MKIVse and my MKV as I head out the door.

Ya, it's kinda interesting. My X-FI Extreme Music's I/O Drive (5 1/4 bay) in my PC has both Optical and Coaxial outputs (both active at the same time), so I have Coaxial running up the shelving unit to my first Zero, which drives my MKIVse or my mini-system. At the same time, the Optical out is ran around the outside of the room to another Zero, next to my Vintage Pioneer SPEC system. There, I have it driving the SPEC1 pre-amplifier on AUX1. I have the MKV hooked to one of the pre-amp's record outs. This way, I don't have to have the pre-amp powered up to dub the signal out to the MKV.

What is really cool is when I have everything running, playing the same source. This comes in handy when doing comparisons and such. I've been testing a pure tube pre-amp sold on eBay called the Zigma 5687. It has one input and two outputs, using a 5687 Philips tube as driver. So far, it has been a fun little test that I haven't been too serious with yet, but I will in the near future. I'm going to hook it up driven by the first Zero and one output to my mini-system and one output to a tube headphone amp, probably the MKIII.

The first test of the Zigma 5687 was between the second Zero and my Vintage Pioneer equipment. There, it really did nice things to the Zero's output. Only a slight warmth to the mids is added and nothing else. This made the old analog sound become smoother and warmer! It is a very nice thing for that system, so in the end, that is where it will assume full time duties (I think). Now you know why I call my home office a lab. 500 pounds of stuff in a 100 pound room. I can vary the amount of "tube" sound by changing to different 5687 tubes. I can't wait to hear the Zigma 5687 hooked up to my mini-system. The thought of a warm sounding T-amp is very exciting! If it works real well, I'll have to share that with others, who have a mini-system built and wish theirs was warmer.

Well, the MK1 is the portable LD amp. One of my recommended upgrades for it is to simply remove the LM4562 it comes with and put in an LT1364. It really makes the MK1 sound three times it's asking price. I did test the MK1 as a desktop amp and it will operate off of the wall wart charging plug without side effects. It does a reasonable job at this because it is higher voltage than most portable amps and can handle the voltage swings associated with better dynamics. It is very impressive for a small portable, but I really believe it belongs in the portable use category. Driven with my Zune80 (very clean MP4 player), it sounds excellent for on the go music.
The Zune80 is only limited by the on-board sound chip and WMA lossless.

When push comes to shove though, the Zero's built-in headphone amp is going to do a better job. It has much more power at the ready than a portable has (so far too date) and the ability to change Opamps to a better one like the LT1364 just adds to the overall package. Plus, just having the Zero for it's amp right now, gives you an upgrade path for a separate amplifier later. This makes it logical to purchase and practical as well. I said this a long time ago, "everyone deserves to have a Zero in their rig." and I still believe that.

I was wondering if a set of those impedance adapters would help this situation at all? I heard they are fairly cheap? Thanks!