Just bought a pair of T1's. What part of my rig should I look at next? - Page 2

Wyred 4 Sound DAC2 is what I would look at.  Then an amp.

IMO, upgrading a headphone is the quickest way to improve sound quality.  You have already picked an excellent headphone.  Your current amp isn't bad, but if you want to move up I recommend you next upgrade your amp.  However, I don't think you will get as much improvement in sound quality as you did with the headphone upgrade.  I agree with Uncle Erik that the Beta 22 is an excellent choice for an amp.  I love mine.  However, there are many other great amps available as well. 

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Originally Posted by Icenine2 

Wyred 4 Sound DAC2 is what I would look at.  Then an amp.

That does look like a killer DAC no doubt. The Cary Xciter DAC is also a great choice, but I would recommend an amp first. Ideally a really good OTL tube amp for the T1s. I found the differences between amps more pronounced.

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Originally Posted by khaos974 

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Originally Posted by khaos974 

Well cables always had measurable differences, but whether you could hear them is another matter since the differences are ridiculously insignificant in the audio range.
 

Actually, considering we can detect neutrinos (which is a particle that goes through the entire Earth without interacting all all 99.999999999999999...% of the time), I'd say that the precision of measuring instruments has reached such a level that whatever we measure we will always find a measurable difference with a reasonable degree of certainty provided we invest sufficiently in the measuring gear and procedure.

 

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Originally Posted by HeadCred 

Um... yea, they pumped thousands of liters of heavy water into an abandoned mine and may have found a couple.

I didn't say the contrary, cf. what is bolded.

I don't want to start somekind of capselocked duel, but I have no idea what your saying. You said better cables have to make a difference (which makes sense) and you said that the difference could very well be inaudible (which makes sense). From these two premises you almost come to a conclusion, you actually come really really close. You say something about the scientific method, almost nothing about headphones, you brought up neutrinos (hooray you read a brief history of time), and didn't help this good man pick a DAC or an amp. Besides that your argument lacked deductive validity and I'm having some problems with it's pertinence. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by HeadCred 

I don't want to start somekind of capselocked duel, but I have no idea what your saying. You said better cables have to make a difference (which makes sense) and you said that the difference could very well be inaudible (which makes sense). From these two premises you almost come to a conclusion, you actually come really really close. You say something about the scientific method, almost nothing about headphones, you brought up neutrinos (hooray you read a brief history of time), and didn't help this good man pick a DAC or an amp. Besides that your argument lacked deductive validity and I'm having some problems with it's pertinence. 

The neutrino reference was not a conclusion of the previous statements, it was intended as an illustration.

The logic goes like this: Shunyata claims that there are measurable differences between power cords, however, measurable differences are not always audible, indeed even neutrinos can be detected/measured, thus simply claiming that there was a measurable difference is not enough to claim the audibility of that measure.

I've thought about it before, and wondered how the last meter of cable before your headphones, being silver, changes the sound in any way when the signal just took 5 meters through who knows what mashup of metals.

The power that makes it through that meter of silver cord has traveled say 10 meters over old, questionable-purity copper from your fuse box. Before that, upwards of hundreds of kilometers from the source.

The way silver sounds has to somehow be from something introduced within the cable itself. Not to say there isn't benefit from pure silver signal paths all way from the DAC, but if it takes a path through 1 millimeter of copper, that must negate most of the clarity or whatever the silver was able to preserve.

Perhaps the ghosts of your ancestors who share the same passion for tunes are able to induce their high-frequency brain waves much easier in silver, conveniently right before the emitters spanning your head :)

On topic, I would also say DIY it. It is a bit of work, but considering you're going to spend upwards of 1k per component, you will be able to get the parts in $5k devices within your budget and assemble it yourself. It will sound better too. Fruits of your labor are the sweetest.

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Originally Posted by rgs9200m 

Well, I didn't mean to start WW III here, but, just to my ears, Shunyata vs. Stealth vs. Kimber vs. TG vs. Telwire are like night and day and span from unlistenable to great in various parts of the sound profile.

Beware, some of the expensive cords can sound very bright/brittle/nervous or have boomy/opaque bass. I just know what my ears tell me, and I've been doing this with careful

A/B tests for 15 years now. Try putting an all-silver power cable or interconnect on your source and see what happens if you don't think it matters (Audioquest made some of

these back in the 90s).

 

As far a measurements go, Consumer Reports has maintained for decades that the way a loudspeaker sounds is mainly determined my it's "accuracy" measurements

in an anechoic chamber. They would probably say the same for headphones. Maybe measurements can find frequency spikes or decay profile, but your ears

hear way more than some graph shows. Give your own ears and sensory perceptions some credit; your ears are many million years in the making.

Actually they hear much less by most metrics - but that is another matter for another thread. Also, if you are using/testing your ears, why do you need your eyes? That is like putting various brands of sugar in capsuls for suppository use in order to "taste" for which sugar you like best - Wrong body part. If you consider what is out there to be perceived, and what we actually perceive (even using all of our senses) you will start to see how our fist hand experience of the universe is "See Jane Run" compared to "Peace and War"... or a dollar store toy car vs an F1... etc.

They say if you were to take movie film and cover the circumference of the earth, human perception would only cover 1 frame.

20hz to 20khz compared to ->

OP I would say go with a nice beefy amp first. Beyers seem to really like amps with "balls".

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Originally Posted by rgs9200m 

Try different power cords on your source first, the different ones on your amp. It makes  a big difference, especially in the bass and highs.

you know you're not allow to talk cable on cable forum so don't even bring it here at the headphone(amp) forum