Xonar U3 is not the blind choice to get in this battle.   The Xonar generally sounds a little better for music, but that's where the buck stops.  The X-Fi Go Pro! (not the 5.1 version) may be the bigger brother of the XFi Go Pro, but it is inferior in one very crucial aspect: lack of CMSS...

The M50s never sounded open to me, even after years of use. The M50s were also really bassy, even from the start.   I cannot reconcile our views of this headphone. This is using it both amped and unamped... and I've used the M50 with all sorts of sources.     Our experience with the...

The Asgard's treble is more rolled off than the M-Stage. If you aren't afraid of something brighter, the M-Stage might be one to consider, except it has even less bass than the Asgard. Mids are much better though than Asgard's rather veiled mids.    Are you okay using a portable amp? The C&C...

I have to ask, is this the Bass-heavy version of the Popo or the mid-centric Popo?   I've already received and reviewed a review copy of the bass-heavy version. If this is the mid-Popo I'd like to try that one out.     If it's the mid-centric I'll send an email over. Thanks

Frankly I find the Pure i20 to be far superior to the Wadia simply because of its added functionality, smaller footprint, and cheaper price. It does everything the Wadia does, and then some, for like half the price. You really can't argue with that.

Clarity. The Eterna is extremely lacking in clarity compared to the Popos. Some people say that any IEM with a lot of midbass is muddy. But there are different levels of muddiness. The Popo's, for all their midbass, have good clarity in the mids. The Eternas are also very bassy but have a very...

Quote: Project86, wasn't your Merlin a special prototype that had less bass?  

  For as long as I’ve been into audio, I’ve always appreciated a warm, natural sound and enveloping, comforting bass.  I’m always on the lookout for the next great warm and bassy piece of gear I’ll be putting on my ears, or in this case, in my ears. The HiSoundAudio Popo comes in two flavours...

My bad, you are right, I misunderstood your post. Having re-read it you are spot on. My apologies.    Anyway I've never been a fan of NuForce, I was pretty disappointed in their Icon Mobile and uDAC, and now I have the iDo. Well the iDo is actually not half bad as a transport. the iDo's DAC...

Quote:   There are only two portable DACs for the iPod in the world today. One is the HP-P1, the other is the CLAS.  There are currently no other options outside of rigging an iDo or i20 with something like an Energizer battery pack.    

You are absolutely incorrect, shrimants. It's not like an E9i. The E9i doesn't have a DAC.  This does. the entire point of the entire iPod transport branch of gadgets is that they bypass the iPod internal DAC by extracting digital data bit-perfect. Whatever that means. And feeds it to another...

I received this DAC earlier this week. Hooked it up to my Pure i20 as transport with iPod Nano as source, going into a Maverick A1 and a Marantz 1090.   All I can say is, this DAC is a piece of rubbish. I spent around $200 to get it and it is an absolute piece of crap. It actually sounds...

Quote: If the Android has USB OTG host capability you can technically use any USB DAC to plug into the Android and bypass its internal via USB.  This was confirmed to work with the E7 on the Nokia E9 but not yet on an Android device. Maybe I will buy a Samsung Galaxy Note and try. But I...

    Quote: I've found that the i20 has jitter issues if I turn on the crossfade feature of my Nano 6G.

Quote: Instead of modding it, you could have my R2, which has the sound sig you want, and I can have your creamy LCD3.  This is a mutually beneficial arrangement, I am sure!