Quote: That looks promising, thanks minimus. Which cable did you go for? Silver, Copper or Hybrid? I don't get what difference it would make, I don't really understand. I believe silver is the best conductor but mixing silver and copper just seems odd, I wonder what benefit it brings...

Quote: Can you recommend any 3m/10ft balanced cables around the £250 price range? Most of the ones I find are getting of for twice that.   Edit: there's this one at £300 but I can't find many...

Been looking for a balanced cable upgrade for a while now for my HD800 to use with my WA22, spotted this new official Sennheiser balanced cable which apparently is available in the next month or so: http://www.custom-cable.co.uk/sennheiser-hd800-xlr-connecting-cable.html Has anyone heard...

Since this post I've got some contact cleaner and a Woo Audio WA22... Might give them another go and see how they measure up! I'll let you know

Yeah it was the stock tube from Woo (Shuguang 274B) not even certain it's the culprit yet. Luckily I got a prompt reply from Jack via email so starting troubleshooting with his advice. Gonna stock up on 2A/250v fuses and hope for the best. I just can't wait to listen to the beast, was so excited...

WA22 arrived, tubes installed, powered on... *CRACK* I could actually cry. Hopefully just a blown fuse and a faulty tube. Just emailed Woo about it, waiting for a reply. Looking at the rectifier there seem to be some fractures at the top of the tube - I presume this would cause the tube to...

Just got async USB to the MDAC working from my Squeezebox Touch with the Enhanced Digital Output plugin and a high-speed USB hub - wow! To my knowledge this now completely eliminates jitter from the Squeezebox with the MDAC's clock as master, buffering data as needed. It would seem that it is...

Quote: Bugger, don't have a windows machine! Found the downloads though, thanks. I presume there's no easy way to update the firmware on a Mac? Analogue inputs on the PSU sounds awesome!   EDIT: One Windows XP VM and a few VC++ redistributables later and I'm running 0.99/0.97! Exciting...

Quote: Interesting stuff, I wonder if the Creek DAC will have balanced outputs? Not that I'd consider swapping the MDAC any time soon, but I've just rinsed a bundle on a WA22 so it'd have to be really. Is the new MDAC firmware stable? Do you have a link? Will the new MDAC PSU be an...

  Quote:   Hmm the Leben C300X looks hard to get hold of, and certainly at the higher end of my budget... Was reading that WA22/HD800 review, certainly comes off well in that review!

  Quote:   Certainly lots to think about before spending money. The M-DAC does have balanced XLR outputs and I doubt I'll be getting a new DAC any time soon, so that's all my digital sources covered as far as I can see. My only analogue source is my turntable/phono pre-amp neither of...

  Quote:   I did try tt -k, yes (not sure I tried without at all to be honest) It's certainly not startlingly different from the factory settings. So it seems either the M-DAC's jitter attenuation sounds pretty decent already with the factory SBT, or the M-DAC's built-in headphone...

Tried TT 3 (with Bruch's Violin Concerto No.1), probably too soon after switching to the M-DAC headphone-out so it's hard to know where the improvement has come from. Although I'm not sure I care, all I know is there's a salty tear soaked into the left ear cup of my HD800s. Definitely could be...

  Quote:   OK so after a couple of hours of giving it another chance I'm quite impressed! It certainly does seem to find some more detail, especially with classical recordings. I wonder if it sounds any different than when I first tried it now the M-DAC has some hours on it, or if I...

  Quote:   Interesting stuff, worth looking into by the sound of it. I have to say I'm skeptical that a software modification could have that much affect on the digital bitstream coming out of the SBT - surely the only possible effect it could have is reducing jitter? Which I suppose...

  Quote:   Very interesting point, I'd almost completely forgotten about the MDAC's headphone output to be honest! And I rather like the fact that I can try it out tonight (for free) and having remote control for volume will be a rare treat. I'll report back... Cheers

  Quote:   I haven't spent a huge amount of time listening to it to be honest, from what I can remember it was a bit flat and lifeless in comparison and I quickly gave up and switched back to the Creek. I'll have to try again to get a better idea, would it improve with more usage, ala...

I have been building up my headphone rig for a year or so now and currently have the following gear:   Squeezebox Touch Audiolab M-DAC Creek OBH-21 Sennheiser HD800   I'd love to get some opinions on possible upgrades - I get the feeling that the Creek OBH-21 has become a bit of a...

Hi All, I'm what you could call a 'noob' in the world of headphones and audiophillia so please excuse my ignorance on the subject, hopefully you nice people may help me out with that. I've had a pair of Sony DR-9 headphones, that I inherited, for quite a while and untill now I haven't given...

Thanks for your detailed reply. It seems I won't have to worry myself about opamp rolling quite yet - I'm just getting started with my headphone career at the moment, I have managed to pick up a Creek OBH 21 amplifier and a pair of Grado SR-60 phones, £40 for everything including postage, which...

Anyone? Cheers

Hi All, I was perusing portable headphone amps with the idea of making my iMac's output a bit more exciting (looking at the iBasso D12)   I noticed a lot of talk about 'Opamp Rolling'   'Rolling' appears to mean replacing, is this correct? Can anyone offer a brief explanation of Opamp...