[sheldaze]

I am so easily distracted by, well, everything. Hence the username...
 
I cannot get over how dang good the ODAC rev B sounds (in The Element) now that I know it is sourced from USB. I never would have sourced it straight from my laptop and called it a day. This is God's music coming through my Wyrd. Yes, I know the Gungnir Multibit and Yggdrasil sound better. But I'm still just appreciating how good the sound is from it, now that I've cleaned up the source. Amazed...
 
And there's also the fact that I have no amplifiers at home (at the moment) to make real use of the other DACs. So I'm just happy to be, right now!

 

[Billheiser]

  ...
And there's also the fact that I have no amplifiers at home (at the moment) to make real use of the other DACs. So I'm just happy to be, right now!

No other amps currently?*  Where'd they go?
 
 
 
* pun intended.

 

[sheldaze]

  No other amps currently?*  Where'd they go?
 
 
 
* pun intended.

Yep, it's the inevitable slow purge...
 
Trying to go through each USB DAC/AMP now - probably keep Apogee Groove only long enough to hear with @gandhisfist HD800 at the next meet. In fact, I'm getting the urge to only bring things to the next meet that I have read could pair with the HD800. How's this list sound:

1. Apogee Groove
2. Chord Mojo
3. Eddie Current Black Widow

 
And I'll still bring Grace Design m9xx, because at least one person asked, and I'd like to hear it against the Aune.

 

[Psalmanazar]

I'd love to hear the HD 650 and maybe the 800 on a Black Widow.
 
The ODAC and O2 are very good for the price if you build them yourself on clean USB power. They just don't compare to more discrete, manufactured solutions with regards to price and functionality but they do sound good on clean power.

 

[gandhisfist]

sheldaze Oo, i really want to check out the EC Black Widow.

 

[yage]

@sheldaze Oo, i really want to check out the EC Black Widow.

 
Yes I second that. Ever since that Big Sound series at InnerFidelity I've been stalking the Eddie Current website. I bet the network intrusion detection system at work has flagged it as unusual activity...

 

[Psalmanazar]

Guys if the O2 + HD 650 > Speedball Crack + HD 650 for what I listen to, will I hate the Vali? I'm looking to upgrade from my Objective combo this week so I can list it before Black Friday.

 

[sheldaze]

  Guys if the O2 + HD 650 > Speedball Crack + HD 650 for what I listen to, will I hate the Vali? I'm looking to upgrade from my Objective combo this week so I can list it before Black Friday.

Not sure I'm following you completely...
 
I know I personally found the Schiit Vali to be a little "dull" in comparison with The Element. I was trying to recommend it to a friend who had K702 headphones, but he simply hated the microphonics - that ring that happens when you first turn on the amplifier, and basically do anything other than sit perfectly still with it. I did not find the ring bothersome. I just tried and tried and tried, but did not find anything I liked with the Vali. High output impedance meant it would only work with my Q701 or HD650 - it did not make my Q701 headphones more palatable, or work better than The Element with my HD650.

 

[Psalmanazar]

 
Not sure I'm following you completely...
 
I know I personally found the Schiit Vali to be a little "dull" in comparison with The Element. I was trying to recommend it to a friend who had K702 headphones, but he simply hated the microphonics - that ring that happens when you first turn on the amplifier, and basically do anything other than sit perfectly still with it. I did not find the ring bothersome. I just tried and tried and tried, but did not find anything I liked with the Vali. High output impedance meant it would only work with my Q701 or HD650 - it did not make my Q701 headphones more palatable, or work better than The Element with my HD650.

At the meet, the Speedball Crack was way too ooey and gooey for distorted rock and metal guitars. Way less resolving of the recordings compared to the O2. It made my HD 650s almost feel like they had the old black drivers in them.

My older but huge desk wobbles a tiny bit so maybe the microphonics will be very annoying to me.

 

[sheldaze]

  At the meet, the Speedball Crack was way too ooey and gooey for distorted rock and metal guitars. Way less resolving of the recordings compared to the O2. It made my HD 650s almost feel like they had the old black drivers in them.

My older but huge desk wobbles a tiny bit so maybe the microphonics will be very annoying to me.

Not sure which side of the Beltway you're on - you and I might need to find a smaller meeting room at the library (Arlington Central has some nice meeting rooms), and let you listen to the Meier-Audio Corda Rock. It makes The Element sound ooey and gooey!

 

[gandhisfist]

I find the Vali very "ooey gooey" personally and so I don't think it would be a good fit for what you're looking for. I actually find the Crack with speedball has less of that quality than the Vali does.

 

[ScottFW]

I've only had brief listening time on those two amps with my HD650 so this might not be worth much, but the Vali didn't really do anything for me. If you follow the logic that a tube preamp combined with a SS amp can provide the rich and lifelike midrange and sparkly yet non-fatiguing treble of tubes with the bass authority of transistors, then the idea of a tube hybrid amp is good on paper. But that's not how the Vali sounded to me. Maybe it's the choice of tubes used (and rolling them in the Vali isn't going to be a simple plug-and-play operation) but I agree with @sheldaze that it sounded a little dull, and perhaps somewhat congested. I did enjoy listening to your O2 back at CAF (though brief and in a noisy room) and I don't think the Vali is a sonic upgrade over it.

 

[ScottFW]

I find the Vali very "ooey gooey" personally and so I don't think it would be a good fit for what you're looking for. I actually find the Crack with speedball has less of that quality than the Vali does.

I agree with this.
@Psalmanazar given your death metal upper bass to lower midrange crunchy guitar obsessiveness you are probably looking for an SS amp rather than a tube or tube hybrid. SS amps that I recall sounding flat-out better than the O2 with HD650s include the Alo Audio Pan Am (out of production I believe but I saw one posted in the classifieds a week or two ago), of course the Liquid Carbon (did you get a chance to listen to it and if so what did you think?) but off the top of my head I can't think of anything on the really inexpensive side.

 

[sheldaze]

 
I agree with this.
@Psalmanazar given your death metal upper bass to lower midrange crunchy guitar obsessiveness you are probably looking for an SS amp rather than a tube or tube hybrid. SS amps that I recall sounding flat-out better than the O2 with HD650s include the Alo Audio Pan Am (out of production I believe but I saw one posted in the classifieds a week or two ago), of course the Liquid Carbon (did you get a chance to listen to it and if so what did you think?) but off the top of my head I can't think of anything on the really inexpensive side.

Liquid Carbon is warmer, more mellow than Meier-Audio Corda Rock

Perhaps there is something to the name

 

[Psalmanazar]

@gandhisfist @ScottFW
I'm just super picky with accurate to the recording guitar tones. If the Vali is that much more gooey in the upper bass and lower mids than the Crack, I think I would hate it. Thanks for the heads up!
I'm not really looking to upgrade directly in sound quality/resolution though that would be nice. I'm just sort of at my breaking point with regard for the Objective combo's lack of a muting relay for sensitive headphones (the click with HD 25s and IEMs when turning it on...), need for clean USB power, driver issues, and clipping.

@sheldaze
That's interesting as Jan Meier himself in the thread said the Rock was warm for not so great recordings (what I listen to) and others said "neutral-warm" compared to the Magni's "neutral neutral to neutral bright". He also said that the warm Rock + the 600 (warm mids, ever so slightly bright treble) is still warm and relaxed. If the Element is much warmer than that  who knows what nwavguy and JDS Labs mean by "a wire with gain" or "objectively neutral"! I'm going to order the Schiit ubers as I already think the HD 650 + O2 is dark enough/needs ever so slightly more high end air but not enough to do a mod.

A "mid-fi" (If stuff like the yggy/rag is truly hi-fi...) dac/amp mini-meet after I get the Schiit stack but before I get rid of the ODAC rev A + O2 would be fun to see how all of these "good/neutral enough" rigs really compare to each other. I'm very curious about the ODAC rev A vs B given one is Sabre and the other is a TI PCM chip.