I stuck with the 4ai but ordered the rendition. I might feed it with an iPod nano of all things (square touch screen). Should look ridiculous. My guess is I will start upgrading the chain, since merciless clarity sounds extremely appealing.
I suppose there is a thread here for digital music fies and encoding and their pros and cons I should find and read. This hobby is going to get real expensive real fast...
4 years ago I really spluged when I spent $150 on a used pair of Ultrasones... Now, after a loooong series of small, incremental upgrades my rig consists of the Ibasso DX100 and Heir 8.A as well as a O2/HD650 for my desk at home.
There's a reason that the standard greeting to new members is "Welcome to Head-Fi, sorry about your wallet!"
Back to the Tzar: I just listened to the song "Down To The River To Pray" performed by Allison Krauss and some choir whose name escapes me, from the "O Brother Where Art Thou" soundtrack... Goosebumps, literally goosebumps. The 350 will make poorly mastered and/or compressed files feel like aural rape with an ice pick, but feed them the good stuff and you will reap the rewards. I will need more listening time and a load of comparisons before doing a review, but we have something very special here I believe. Not for everyone tho, but then again, neither is the ER4 or the HD800.
