I have just bought a second hand KSE1500 from ebay. It sounds amazing, but the right channel has a very annoying constant noise. It's a squeaking sound like electric interference. It appears both in line and usb mode, with android, ios, and windows devices. I tried cutting the input level -10db...

I am recently in love with Sony XBA-Z5. I really like its high definition, transparent and lively sound. I also experienced PHA-3 amp in Sony store many times, and I do find Z5 truely shines in balanced mode. But I have to give up PHA-3 because it's way too clumsy. It so happens that I have a...

It's long been a strong conviction, especially in HIFI industry, that you get what you pay for. Yet once in a billion years, somebody breaks the rule.   When I was offered a chance to try a USB DAC made by a Chinese audio company that's little known to the world as well as in its own...

In my strenous pursuit for the ultimate amp for HD800, I searched Head-fi extensively for information. There seems to be a general consensus that tube amps are more suited to HD800, and there are quite a lot recommentations. Recently I bought a Weiss DAC202 and found its built-in amp very...

I've lived happily with the legendary Benchmark DAC1 and HD650 for over 4 years, until I married with an HD800 recently. Suddenly I felt the old DAC1 as the bottleneck. The Uber resolution of HD800 somehow magnifies the shortcomings of DAC1. I narrowed my path of upgrade to Weiss DAC2 and...

For those who are still searching for an amp beautifully matched to the all-conquering-yet-hard-to-conquer HD800, I've just got the breaking news that an HD800 edition of Little Dot headphone amplifier is being designed. It's a fully balanced OCL tube design. Two 12AT7 GOLD will be used as...

I always use caliberated mode when using DAC1's line out. It's easy to imagine it should have better sound for its more direct route than using the front volume control. Recently I tried the veriable mode out of curiosity. I definitely feel it's better than the caliberated mode, when the front...

I recently downloaded some 24bit/88khz lossless wma files. Now I got problem: foobar will play them in 44khz, so I guess foobar does some dirty down-sampling when playing wma files. So I am turning to Windows Media Player, and I have to use the Direct Sound instead of ASIO. Can anybody tell me...

I was sent a copper wire "fuse" for my Benchmark DAC1 as a gift. I boldly replace the original fuse with it. The result is astonishing. Much more tranparency. Much more details. Much better HF extension. I just can't believe it. I just want you to share my joy, but not encourage you to do the...

It's generally acknowledged DAC1 matches best with HD650, but do other good synergies exist? Today I plugged Shure E4C into the built-in headphone out of DAC1, and the result is... AMAZING! I just can't imagine how such a tiny phone could possibly sound so good! Big sound stage, punchy, very...

I'm hesitant between the two. My questions are: which has better high frequency extension? Which has more transparency? I don't like E5C's lack of high frequency and its rather muddy sound. ER4 series are sure much better in this aspect, but I can't bear ER4's killing ear tips. I heard both...

Would it be possible to send full resolution 24/96 or 24/196 DVD-Audio stream to DAC1, or other 24/196 DACs, through toslink or coaxial cable with non-copy-protected DAD-Audio discs? I know Windvd will only output 16/48 down sampled stream with CPPM encrypted DVD-A discs, but how about...

It seems a lot of people here prefer using Benchmark DAC1's balanced out directly with HD650. I am just curious to know how many of you prefer the headphone out to the balanced out? I remotely remember someone calling the balanced out unnatural and lacking in mid-range. Did some of you ever...

Anybody uses DAC1 with Supermacro V3? Do they have good synergy with HD650? How much better is SM3 compared with DAC1's built-in amp?

I have narrowed my choice down to DAC1 and Mini-DAC, but find it very difficulty to decide between the two having no chance to audition both. Since I have no plan to buy a decent headphone amp in the near future (my wallet would be quite exhausted with the purchase of one of them), my main...

I have narrowed my choice down to DAC1 and Mini-DAC, but find it very difficulty to decide between the two having no chance to audition both. Since I have no plan to buy a decent headphone amp in the near future (my wallet would be quite exhausted with the purchase of one of them), my main...