Quote:
Originally Posted by
kiteki 
I'd get the Breeze Audio CS4398 DAC to start with, then later you can get an external amplifier (of your choice, such as the objective2) for more power for your DT880 / 600 Ω's.
I don't know what the internal headphone amp in the breeze is like, but you should be able to utilize the CS4398 via line-out at least, which sounds better to me than the ESS ES9023.
Sorry but , it was the same implantation ? and even if it was , this two dacs don't have the same needs to perform optimally . You prefered an implantation of CS4393 than sounded better than other implantation of ESS9023 but you could aslo prefer an another implantation of ESS9023 to your current CS4398 or even something that sound the same .
Well Built DAC tend to sound the same (at least from the few that i experienced , ) . (One PCM1754 +4580 on a DVD player) , HA Info U2 Plus (AD1852+OPA2134)) , ODAC (ESS 9023) , NFB-17.2(Dual WM8741 with filter that don't roll of highs) at level matched they sounded exactly the same ... (not the same story if level matched by "hear" , had to use a decibel meter etc to correctly match all them) .
We are no more in 80's , DACs are now a very mature technology . Their is Differents DACs from different manufactures for differents need , with differents specs , because it's what market wants and need ...
I don't tryed all DACs and theirs differents implantations so peraphs differences can exist ,( my motherboard desktop integrated sound chip don't sounded as good as the others soo , same for laptop integrated sound chip , but i think that integrated sound chips have progressed a lot peraphs in some years it will be enough )
Improve ? time to swapp opamp etc ... and your memory audio is gone , just if one say that their is an improvement is not a fact , if he had two O2 ones with standard Opamp and one with "improved" opamp , i would be a bit more tolerent to a sentence like "o2 can be improved" . swaping headphone to amp to another amp don't took to much time in comparison to swapping opamp .
FIY i also did some opamp swapping in soundcards and really though that their was an "improvement" . But it was placebo and biased tests ... Until i had the opportunity to have two piece of the same card borrowed by a friend ( Xonar ESsence STX , and it was the end of the belief in opamp swapping... again it's just for one piece of hardware i am open mind so peraphs i will try it again with others stuff , but now i am very doubtfull in opamp thing) . It's just my own experience don't mean that you will experience the same thing .
Edited by HaVoC-28 - 11/8/12 at 12:29am
, and Used OPA627BP on m-stage and Firestone Audio sptifire MK2 , and i always had the impression that OPA627 improved things, but hey no level matching was done . Peraphs OPA627 as an influence in output volume ... don't know not a tech . 
