If you are a classical music lover, you'll want to own these. I won't even attempt to put into words what I'm hearing but I prefer it over anything I've heard from any headphone in terms of replicating what I hear when classical music is performed in a concert hall. And somehow these earspeakers...

I received a notice from hifishark today about a HPA-1 listed on audiogon for $1,900 or best offer. I've enjoyed using a Pass preamp and Pass speaker amps with Magnepans for years and I was tempted to make an offer on the HPA-1 until I read this forum. I considered the comments by head-fi.org...

We hear what we hear, don't we? I have tried each of the solutions mentioned in this forum to eliminate ground loop noise when using my Decware ZTM3 headphone amp. But, the only product I have found that worked without appreciably degrading sound quality was this: Jensen Iso-Max CI-2RR RCA...

See PM.

My favorite: GUCraftsman 6N all copper on amazon. Well worth the price to me. No dullness or haze and no harshness. Big improvement over the stock cable. :)

Good tip. I switched to a lower sample size setting and the sound is definitely more to my liking now.

This worked with no driver installed for a while. I thought "cool" it is plug and play. Wrong! The U18 eventually lost its connection with my PC and I had to download the Windows driver.

The D300 with a Gustard U18 DDC is not that bad.

I enjoyed using the U18 with the Rohm dac chip SMSL D300 for a while then I switched to a TDA 1541 dac and things got a whole lot better.

Unlike a number of other dacs I've used in this price range, the D300 is not awful at all. But, once I started using a TDA 1541 dac, the D300 was retired.

I like the VI but I'd say they fall into the "acquired taste" category and may not appeal to that many listeners.

Try them with Final type B pads and an all tube, not a hybrid or solid state, amp.

Thank you for your tube recommendations. If you can manage to get one, the WE422A is even better than the Mullard CV593. For the input stage of the MK III, the Amperex 7308 tube is my current favorite. Also, I recently found a way to enjoy the beautiful sound of my Taboo MKIII with my low...

Solved the inadequate gain issue by connecting the amazingly transparent Topping PRE90 between my dac and my Decware headphone amp with 10audio Mogami cables.

Wanted: Decware ZSTAGE in perfect working order. 110/120 V version.

Yes, the VI are hard to find new. I bought pre-owned from Europe on eBay. The 6moons review seems to describe their sound pretty well.

I like the Sonorous III very much. Buy or build a better cable as a replacement for stock cable (a DIY Canare L4E5C is affordable and good), replace stock pads with Final B type pads and, if you really want to hear all of what they are capable of, use an all tube amp. For a more lush sound...

My new dac has an OG TDA 1541 chip. Beats the bricks off the ESS and AKM chip dacs I had been using.

As the guy used to say on Laugh In: "Very interesting."

Love me some Arctic grills and the GUCraftsman 6N single crystal copper cable at amazon.

Favorite pads for HE6SEV2: Verum perforated from Ukraine.