I don't think they look all that bad. How much would these cans run for?

I personally think ATH AD700 is pretty ugly. They are big and some strange purple colour. Yuck.

How good of an amp are we talking about? I'm really interested in the 501's but not if they are as hard to drive as the 701's.

When connecting the Emu to a an amp such as the little dot mkiii, would using an RCA to (balanced) TRS produce better sound quality over an RCA to an (unbalanced) TS? Also, the emu site states that the 0404 usb is compatible with "24-bit/192kHz " but almost every other site I look at says it...

I've been searching for a DAC for my PC joint and stumbled upon the Adcom GDA-700 for a pretty low price. Would picking this piece up be a good investment? It's balanced, has relatively good reviews, and is drastically cheaper compared to when it was new. However, I don't plan on ever using...

I'm not trying to hyjack, my question is actually quite relavent. If a DAC supports high resolution (24 bit) audio through SPDIF but the soundcard being used as a transport doesn't, how will this affect my sound quality?

Quote: Originally Posted by Joelby It's like saying Voldemort in the Harry Potter series... I find this relationship between Beresford and head-fi to be very strange. While the evil magician from the children's book was a malevolent murderer who, in all probability, deserved to...

I'd sign up to be one of the first to try it out if I could.. This and a mkIII sounds like a great deal.

Emu 0404 is a common USB DAC for $200

After looking around for an Amp+DAC combo, I became really interested in the 0404+mkIII... I've heard that the emu can be very cold and even shrill. So, I wondered, "perhaps this DAC can really benefit from a tube amp". How is this combo working out for you? My other possibility was the...

Quote: Originally Posted by iareConfusE Got my first pair of headphones, came to this forum, then felt like I had to buy a better pair within the first week of owning my head headphones. Sigh... x2

I hear one downfall of this mod is a lack of dampening which causes a small reduction in bass. Haven't tried this on mine yet but would love to hear if this is true from someone who does.

Quote: Originally Posted by REB If you order the ad700 at Amazon, you'll get the a700. At least that's what's happened with other head-fi'ers who ordered a pair. You'd win $50 usd that way... I'm waiting for mine now and I'll let you know exactly what arrives. I got the...

Would this DAC be recommended for cans a couple of steps down from the hd650's? It seems like it's a pretty simple design at a good price. However, I don't know if it would be worth it for me to get the FubarIII if I won't even get much out of it due to the quality of my 'phones.

Quote: Originally Posted by Happy Camper A digital file can come from a variety of methods. All have to convert to an analog signal to be heard. I think this is the reason behind the categorization of a DAC as a source. All digital files have to be converted into analog signals...