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You have the ODAC now tdock? No hurry of course, but after a while please post some impressions vs the E10/HRT MS II.
Yep, but the first two days have been a major annoyance and pain. I'll try to keep this short, since I go overboard in my posts a lot.
First, my ODAC could not sound normal straight from my rear usb ports on my desktop. The ODAC was giving me majorly harsh treble. I was forced to use a usb powered hub.
It's even more picky than my HRT MSII which can't be used with my laptop.
Then when I was troubleshooting all this I connected my amp straight to the wall. I've found that this also degraded the sound I was getting too because I live in a really old house. My amp seems to sound slightly better with a surge protector with filtering etc.
Probably my imagination, but I don't care.
The ODAC turns the Q701 into some major detail monster. You think the HRT MSII is detailed? Wait until you try the ODAC. You know how with the DT-880 you can go from having songs sounds horrible to good despite them all being FLAC? Well, that's what I get with the ODAC, Micro Amp + q701. Song quality varies so much more with the ODAC compared to the HRT MSII. The MSII is fairly revealing, but not overkill. I'd say it's perhaps just slightly leaning towards being "musical" which is good.
Since owning the Q701 I never felt it was so detailed and revealing that i'd have to weed out my garbage tracks like I had to with my DT-880. I definitely do think I can now! There's even some FLAC files I have that sound like 128kbps files.
Based on memory, the HRT MSII gives the Q701 even fuller mids and a TINY bit of extra warmth. Not much. The Q701 is still warm and full sounding on any normal source/amp. It's treble never bothers me on my other setup. Of course as you know, the HRT MSII won't turn the Q701 into an HD-650
I'd say the soundstage is slightly larger, but the mids are weird. This thing is so revealing of the song that you feel like you're analyzing the recording studio's gear. The mids depending on the song can go from sounding nice and warm/full sounding to being really thin and annoying. It's 100% the recording.
For example, listen to Eddie Vedder's "Rise" (ukulele music). With the ODAC it sounds really, really bad. Thin and lifeless sounding and not fun to listen to. The E10 makes the mids (and vocals) sound a lot fuller and a little more fun to listen to. It's hard to say what it's supposed to REALLY sound like. It's not the headphone. There's so many recordings where it's almost as if my Q701 feels like it's transformed into an HD-600 or something. Never experienced this sort of thing before ever. There's a few Pearl Jam songs that are very warm sounding on the Q701. The "Buena Vista Social Club" CD is one that sounds great on the Q701 and never sounds too thin or lacking in any area.
The treble on the ODAC is definitely more extended and present. The ODAC won't smooth over any bad recordings (with harsh treble) and make it easier on the ears like the E10 does somewhat (for me). So yeah, the E10 and HRT MSII definitely have fuller mids than the ODAC. With the ODAC I think it's just trying to sound as accurate as possible with nothing added to make it sound better than it really is. The MSII seems like it has more forward sounding mids than the E10 (definitely more than the ODAC!), but I haven't compared them yet. The treble of the ODAC doesn't make garbage tracks sound really that much more fatiguing or worse. Maybe a tad on those where it sounds like the treble is cranked to max at the studio.
What's strange is that the HRT MSII seems like it has more treble than the E10 by far. The E10 doesn't sound like it lacks that much treble, but it's not a good match at all for my HD-598 and DJ100. The ODAC makes the HRT MSII and E10 seem almost dark. I don't think the MSII is exactly dark, just in comparison to the ODAC maybe.
I don't know if the ODAC would be a good match for those with just AKG type headphones. It seems to make them even MORE analytical, detailed and revealing. My impression of the ODAC is that it makes the Q701 almost sound like it has a silver plated copper cable attached. Just so much thinner sounding, but improvements in every area. Now for those that don't believe in slight differences in cables (in this case it's probably just due to capacitance)...I won't go there. I hate the Q701 with SXC.
ODAC and Q701 with a SXC cable would suck the life out of the Q701 I think. Probably nice for a studio.
One thing i've noticed lately is that my amp doesn't seem to be adding any coloration at all to my headphones. It seems that it's pretty transparent (more so than I thought) and you can quite easily "hear" what's connected to it. What's interesting is that with my E9 I have a harder time hearing the differences of what's connected. Not sure why. Tomorrow i'll try the ODAC with the E9. That might be a bit weird. I always felt like when I connected my HRT MSII to my E9 I wasn't hearing all the benefits of the DAC somehow. I know this makes no sense. Maybe some amps are less revealing of what's connected to them. Who knows. Maybe the Micro Amp is as transparent as the O2. Highly unlikely, but it's possible. For a year i've kept trying to describe the signature of my amp, but it's impossible. I can describe it completely different with whatever I connect to it
So far the best headphone for the ODAC has been the HD-580, followed by the DJ100. None of my headphones have really had their signature changed. The Q701 only sounds slightly different because i'm coming from the HRT MSII.