[Zoom25]

   
You won't regret it.

 
Yea, more likely now to get a DC-1 and save some money, since it'll be used as a DAC only. Although the headamp still concerns me for use with my D2000.

 

[subsonic1050]

WOW! That was fast! You must have bought it locally? I'm glad that it worked out so well for you!

 

[Zoom25]

  WOW! That was fast! You must have bought it locally? I'm glad that it worked out so well for you!

LOL yea, it was one of those impulse buys. For the last 2 weeks I was here with you guys looking at DC-1 and other DACS (Thanks a bunch Gary!!!) and boom today I think of that Marantz idea and just happened to find a PM6004 in the market today for a good price. Done.
 
I sold my HE-500 of 1 year and LCD-2 of 5 months in less than 12 hours apart to fund LCD-3 randomly. I love and hate this. Although it worked out nicely for me.
 

 

[monkeyxx]

that's a sick rig, mannnnn, looks awesome

 

[Zoom25]

  that's a sick rig, mannnnn, looks awesome

 
Thanks. LOL now I absolutely can't get a Gungnir. There's way too much black in there. The Emotiva has mini silver panels at the front, but everything else is black. Guess the NAD M51 is out too 

 

[daerron]

   
Thanks. LOL now I absolutely can't get a Gungnir. There's way too much black in there. The Emotiva has mini silver panels at the front, but everything else is black. Guess the NAD M51 is out too 

 
Get a hex key and remove those silver panels. I remember at a time that Emotiva sold black panels as well for their power amplifiers.
 
Love your new headphone rig! I am going to try the PM6005 at our local hifi retailer when I get a chance. Curious to see how its onboard DAC performs in comparison to the Concero and I have a feeling its going to sound much smoother at the top than the Emotiva.

 

[Zoom25]

   
Get a hex key and remove those silver panels. I remember at a time that Emotiva sold black panels as well for their power amplifiers.
 
Love your new headphone rig! I am going to try the PM6005 at our local hifi retailer when I get a chance. Curious to see how its onboard DAC performs in comparison to the Concero and I have a feeling its going to sound much smoother at the top than the Emotiva.

 
I don't mind a bit of silver. It matches my Imac and Macbook pro decently. Also, don't know what's happening with the Emotiva at this point. I'm also quite interested in the PM6005. My plan is to use to the PM6004 for a few days and get used to the sound and then compare the digital inputs on the PM6005. If that sounds reasonably well, then that could easily be a one piece unit. I have yet to try the headphone amp on the PM6004. It's supposedly better than the CD5004. So who knows, the PM6005 can be the one piece stop for D2000, LCD-3, DAC, headphone amp, Speaker amp.

 

[boatheelmusic]

New review up.....

http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/dacs/dacs-reviews/emotiva-stealth-dac.html

 

[buson160man]

Gary (or anyone), have you had any experience with the peachtree NovaPre? Given its price and feature set it fits right along with the dacs discussed here. At the moment I think I've narrowed my search down to the dc1 and peachtree but it's only based on second hand accounts of press reviews.

 I have not heard the nova pre but I do have a decco 2 integrated. I also have the lcd 2 v2s and I have to say that as a headphone amp the pairing does not work all that great. With the lcd2 v2s you need a amp with more horsepower than the one in the decco 2. The nova may be better being that it does not have to share the power supply with a integrated amp. But the headphone amp is supposed to be similar to the deccos and it just sounds taxed when asked to power the lcd2s. I do not use the power amp at all so I can not comment on how it sounds. But as a dac I have to say even though it is limited to 96khz bandwidth the dac section of the decco 2 sounds very good and it has decent soundstage reproduction and a analog like presentation that is free of digital harshness found in a lot of lower priced dacs..
   I have a burson ha-160 that works ok with the lcd2s but I will be looking for a balanced amp in future to get the most out of lcd2s. I will probably be moving on from the burson ha-160. At the time it was a pretty decent amp but even burson has upped the anty on the amp sections of their later amps.I have heard the bryston balanced amp and it sounds very good if a bit analytic sounding with the lcd2 v2s. But I do hear the advantages of a more powerful and balanced amp for driving the lcd2 s.

 

[buson160man]

  So, I received the Dangerous Source today. I should mention that in between the Emotiva DC-1 and the Dangerous, I tried a Burson HA-160DS amp/dac combo that I bought off of this site. I also got a pair of Audeze LCD-2 cans and some HD800's. For the past few weeks I was listening to these headphones on the Emotiva and then the Burson (primarily the Burson). I always felt as if they never sounded quite right - not the way they had when I auditioned them in the store. Good - but not great.
 
Well as I mentioned - I got the Dangerous Source today. HOLY CRAP ON A CRACKER!!! This thing is seriously amazing. I know in Gary's test, he determined that the DC-1 and the Source were "indistinguishable" - and I believe him, because he was using the DAC only, NOT the built in amp. He did mention that he much preferred the headphone output of the source to the DC-1, but I can't overstate how huge the difference is here. Not just between the DC-1 and the source, but the Burson as well. This thing completely eclipses both of them. Clarity is about the same, but the depth of the sound, the fullness of the sound across the spectrum is vastly improved. Most surprisingly to me - the soundstage is at LEAST double what it was on either of the other two units with the LCD-2's, and a bit wider with the HD800 as well. This is contrary to what Gary experienced (he said he felt the soundstage was smaller) - but he must have been using a better separate amp) 
 
It even tamed the highs of the HD800, which were previously so shrill that I noticed I would physically cringe while listening to them. I could only handle a song or two on them before my ears were hurting, even at modest volumes.
 
Neddless to say - I am sold!

 The burson 160 amps are voiced a bit towards the warmer side. If I may suggest if you want to tighten things up a bit try replacing the stock fuse with a hifi tuning supreme fuse. I have done so in my amp and I got a noticeable bump up in amp performance all around. The investment is a bit steep for a fuse but the improvement it brings is far beyond what it costs.

 

[subsonic1050]

Burson160man - for what it is worth, I had an HA-160DS. It is the same amp as the HA-160, but with a DAC built in as well. I went from the Emotiva XDA-2, to the Emotiva DC-1, to the Burson HA-160DS, and now to the Dangerous Source.
 
I have tried the HE-400, HD800, and LCD-2 on the Burson - and didn't care for the sound at all - especially with the HD800, (but it was not a pleasant sound from any of them). I know Gary didn't care for the pairing of the Audeze headphones with the Burson either. All of them sounded better on the DC-1, apart from the USB noise that is. Now, based on Gary's recommendation I tried the Dangerous Source. I have also switched headphones around, but I did hear the HD800's, LCD-2's and HE-400's on it before I sold them off. The LCD-2's paired EXTREMELY well with the Dangerous Source, and the HE-400's sounded good as well. The HD800's were never my cup of tea, and I felt they were so bright that I occasionally cringed while listening to them, but they did sound better on the Source than on either the DC-1 or the Burson.
 
Now I have LCD-3's, HE-500's, and HD650's. All sound fantastic with the Source. If you are looking for a good Amp/DAC combo, that would be my recommendation. It sounds far better than the other 3 I tried. According to Gary, the DAC was indistinguishable between the Emotiva and the Source - I have never had a separate amp to try that. I can tell you that the Source's amp is far superior to the ones in the Burson or the DC-1 (at least in my opinion). I know that Gary much preferred the amp in the source over the DC-1 as well (He and I were PM'ing each other on the subject for awhile). However, I also know that Gary's personal favorite amp is the Odyssey Cyclops, which is actually a speaker amp. He says the pairing with the LCD-3 is the best he has ever heard, but I have no experience with it. Having owned the LCD-2 and the LCD-3, I can say that the sound is similar enough that I would imagine that the Cyclops amp would pair well with the LCD-2 as well. Interestingly, it's only about $1300, which isn't bad considering the competition.

 

[subsonic1050]

Wow, that is strange that you say that the Burson was on the warmer side - that was not my experience at all. To me the Burson was the brightest of the 4 amp/dac combos I have tried - and by a considerable margin. It was bright enough that it made listening not enjoyable - it made the HD800 intolerable for me. After one song at mid range volume my ears would literally be physically hurting with that combo. For me, the DC-1 was the most neutral of the four, and I actually think the source is slightly (very slightly) on the warm side. However, the DC-1 didn't have the punch or the soundstage that the Source does, and I think I actually prefer the slight warmth.
 
I guess that is why this is a subjective hobby!

 

[Gary in MD]

Folks"
 
For the record, Subsonic correctly stated my views on all of the equipment he mentioned.  I was not a fan of the Burson HA160, or the Conductor, for that matter.  I felt the Emo Stealth DC-1 and DM Source DACs sounded pretty much the same, but the HP amp in the DM Source was much better.  And I much prefer the Odyssey Cyclops amp to any of the others, I've heard.  But these are just my personal preferences.  I strongly encourage everybody to take advantage of the free trials available on all of this hardware -- at least for folks in the US, but also in many other countries.  My ears and brain are not the same as anybody else's, so it is important that everybody use their own ears and brains in choosing the hardware that they like best.

 

[monkeyxx]

Thanks for the feedback on the Emotiva DC-1 headphone amp, Gary.  I now want to continue with experimentation in that area... I am looking at AMB Labs and Bottlehead currently as ideas... not quite sure which way to head first...

 

[Gary in MD]

Monkey:
 
I haven't heard any of the AMB or Bottlehead stuff, so can't offer an opinion on them.  However, the good thing with DIY is that you can almost always get your money out (assuming you do a decent building job... which I wouldn't be able to do, but that's just my own incompetence), and might even get paid some for your time.  Or not.  In any case, start with whichever one interests you the most, and if you don't like it, you can sell it to fund the next one.  Eventually you either find something you like or go into the amp building business, and both outcomes can be rewarding...  

or frustrating

.