Hi Earfonia, thanks for the review, nice read.   I would love to know what your friends think, especially the one with the expensive setup or the sound engineer. How does it compare to other much much more expensive DACs. I guess if they like it's probably a good idea to sell and get the U2...

Wow, constant updates. Love this site for cutting edge stuff.   Seems you can now get the XMOS as a daughtercard for the DAC 1-9. So it's all in one box. From many reviews of his other gear, I can only imagine this with the 9018/4399 sounds much improved.   And if you have a soldering...

Would love to know your thoughts on sound quality preferably with some kind of comparison.

Seems people use taobao agents to buy phones and other stuff from china now, and I just stumbled across some very interesting kit. I'm skint/in-between houses but someone might feel like taking a jump. All prices excluding packaging, and may require usb daughtercard, I guess the agent sorts out...

When I use headphones (HD-681 which have amazingly low bass but annoying treble) and other non-critical listening I use: Foobar - VST wrapper for foobar, Electri-Q   I know you can get DIRAC but it seems expensive, maybe it's worth it? Let me know if you can try the eval, my main hifi...

Google is your friend. e.g. Found this page from many available.   Wow, talk about money to burn, buying something withouth even knowing whats inside. Shame you didn't get a weiliang DAC9 (little pricey if you don't speak chinese) and tell us all about if this is the one of the best dacs...

I think that's for diy people, a bit cheaper on ebay. MUCH MUCH cheaper if you know someone who car speak chinese $160+shipping. I emailed minishow0328 on ebay the chinese link and got a price, was a bit more but not a whole lot. Yeah, of course depends if you need USB or to upgrade the...

He's got a DAC 8 out now btw. ESS9018. Must by far be the cheapest ESS9018 out there. Weiliang told me in SQ terms, DAC8 is better than dac9.

It's clearly because headphones all sound much better than speakers ;) Although to be fair, they are a lot smaller and cheaper to produce.   But seriously, I would love to understand more about how headphones can do staging. Unless you are using binaural recordings headphones do not offer...

Thanks for the vlc alternative, will have a look :)   As for gain, I know in theory you are supposed to set windows output at 100% and use the amp/foobar volume BUT... I read somewhere and I Think experienced myself some clipping. So backed the main windows volume output down a little and...

There are TWO hifimediy usb DACs. one in a box, the other on a cable. UAE23, UAE23+ I would hope the isolated + one is better.   Not heard the others you mention, but have heard many sub £500 CD players sound worse. From how I hear DAC's, they seem to be steps in the SQ ladder.  ...

I just plugged the DAC into this Win XP laptop just to test so I could help you. :) It's not my normal setup (whatever that is).   Personally I run windows 7 on an HP N40L, 8GB, 4x2tb in raid 1. Foobar with wasapi and mostly FLAC / cue. As per my post here, The wasapi plugin is vital in...

I happen to just be setting up a Windows XP machine for a relative with a really old laptop. You should probably upgrade OS. but hey, I was surprised to see Pro uses 80mb of memory as well ;) and it sounds pretty good (even without PEQ for my HD-681 mk1's), no distortion or anything. In fact...

Quote:   Quote: It's impossible to discuss with people who don't listen to live acoustic music often, who haven't heard a well recorded 24/96 on a really good 2ch speaker hifi system but base their assumptions in science. :>   And to note, probably the simplest and best way to...

Quote:   I agree, just when you think you find a decent forum, people respond to posts only from their perspective. And don't give others any credit, why is the forum world so often closed minded, judgemental, pretentious.

Convert from 24-16-24 ??? Whats wrong with doing a recording straight from a desk 24bit and then 16 bit? Yeah, it's not going to sound identical cause it's hard to play completely the same piece twice, but will it sound different? Lot simpler. I guess you need good mikes etc.. 2 adcs...

I don't have time to read this thread. It's bollocks. 24 bit is an improvement over 16bit. There is more air around things, there is more description of the reverb of the room, things sound more lifelike and slightly more subtle. I know this 100% for sure, it's a fact. No matter of flawed...

Mid detail is great, bass detail (even with velour) is terrible. Is the bass guitar even there?   BTW, track was more likely - caught with a smile on my face - off same album, 2 tracks later. Sorry, said I wasn't sure.    New Jayhawks album - yeah, also very excited, shame i missed them...

Really, such a friendly forum despite my rather strong observations.   Anyhow... Track was from - The Jayhawks, Rainy Day Music. BUT.. It came as a limited edition with bonus CD called More Rain. The track is - Say Your Prayers. So I guess Disc 2, Track 2. It's like the sound engineer is...

I wasn't concentrating on the hifi side. Just working out if the band had 3 or 5 people in it.   Detail to generalise is something you get with 24bit and good electostatics (or decent sources with neutral system). It's not just a string being plucked, it's a string being plucked with a nail...

oops, double post, it's late  

Hi Electropop, thanks for the reply, excuse the writing style, stream of consciousness piece, ooh yeah, linn is hype, even the lp12, but I don't understand people who don't use hackintoshes either ;p Are the hifimans better than stax (e.g. lambada pros, not the interesting record company)...

Conclusion - really average headphones (imo).   I've been playing with these headphones all day. Playing different sources and now and again they seem OK if you get them to seal. But... I just switched back to my temporary hifi and it blew the headphones away. With the setup (speakers just...

Leakage ?? I have a QN.   OK, so I've changed the plastic for felt cup. Also, íf I squeeze the things to my head nice and tight I get bass and if I'm lucky they stay in a half decent position, so badd is better than at first, lets wait and see on that one.   But after pressing, I notice...