Most likely the 2nd one, I seriously doubt they're pulling a true 124 dB SNR. 

  Yea that's no problem, I've got an entire desk full of test equipment. Thanks for the info! 

Happy Birthday wje! Hope it's fantastic for you!    Onto an unrelated topic, does anyone know if the HE-400 cable is a 4 conductor down to the TRS jack? If I cut it off could I then put an XLR jack on it?  I was considering picking up an upgrade NFB-10ES2 upgrade or NFB-28 and I'd like to...

First, Mini ITX boards pretty much have a PCI-e x16, if the OPs card is traditional PCI it won't work at all. If it's PCI-e then it depends on if he uses a GPU or not. Doesn't the Mixamp do Dolby Headphone itself from a digital input? As long as you wired up digital audio to it, it'll do that...

I think you guys mean the Mjolnir, the Gungnir is the DAC.

Shelden N, what do you think of that Wadia 151? I was thinking of pairing that with a pair of KEF Q300s for a PC sound system like yours. EDIT: And now I've researched your speakers a bit and I'd love to hear impressions on those as well! (Ahh budget inflation)

Around $300-ish you've got the Matrix Mini-i, Audinst HUD-MX1/MX2, Audio-gd NFB-11.32 or Audioengine D1 off the top of my head. All of these should offer both a good DAC, headphone amp and volume controlled DAC outputs.

You know, I wonder if it's a similar effect to what happens when you write the same word a ton of times and it stops seeming correct or the same as it was before. I wish I knew the actual name but I can't for the life of me recall at the moment. I wish I could fall asleep with headphones on...

Ahh okay, I somehow misread that. My bad! You could look at the Audinst HUD MX1, Audioengine D1 or the Audio-gd NFB-15.32

Well optical will be be isolated from any electrical noise in the computer, but it's also got some fairly high jitter IIRC. You could also try a USB to S/PDIF converter as well if you want to still use USB but have an S/PDIF connect to Gungnir.

Careful, if you're going to use S/PDIF out and the LIne out of the X-Fi then you WILL need to go into Windows and switch default output devices. X-Fi S/PDIF out shows up as a separate output device in Windows 7/8.

Quote:   I think that's all the fun! Although I would know, since I've only got solid states. I agree with you most of the time, I like my amp to be invisible but at the same time it's cool to have a tube amp around for the unique (even if a high end SS is technically superior) sound...

You could use the E17 as a DAC or you could sell the E17 and get a Schiit Modi or ODAC + amp.  Another amp that I personally liked was my friends Project Sunrise II amp, which sounded great with my HE-500s. Don't get me wrong, it's not quite as good as the Lyr but it still sounds pretty...

Quote:   I agree with you completely, I have no idea what the heck they were trying to say in that whole review and then going "Monoprice cables sounded like garbage, so it'll be closer to $250-300 after good cables" really made me realize that Headfonia still writes terrible component...

Quote:   Well while you laugh at us, we'll continue to spend our money on new cans/amps/DACs/DIY/Beer rather than exorbitantly overpriced cables. 

Quote:   I'm not sure this is the case, I believe the wall wart is just an AC transformer isn't it?

Quote:   Either or should be fine, I'd personally say go with the Magni because it's cheaper and you can have it looks slick with power and input at the back.  

Quote:   Super clean, I love the setup! Is that by any chance a rocket ship lamp?

Quote:   Yup! I agree, it seems either way you get a great combo that's got a very nice quality/$ ratio. 

Quote:   Well assuming he has a halfway decent laptop it won't be too bad, the only laptop I have that's particularly terrible is a HP Pavilion DV6T 6100 Quad which has an impressively large amount of hiss at all times on the line out/headphone out, while the rMBP really sounds quite good. 

Quote:   Interestingly, I agree with you on the fact that people are more open to expressing opinions that they're really not qualified to be voicing and the fact that many people my age don't understand what good audio is.    However, it seems like you disagree with the whole...

Quote:   I've got a FiiO E17 and I'm looking to make the upgrade to the ODAC/O2, so if anyone has those impressions I'd love to hear them. It's either this or the Magni/Modi combo. 

And it looks like I get to sell the E17 and get something a little nicer sooner than I thought. I don't think I'm going to be able to resist buying a Magni/Modi stack.

I'm not sure how much cheaper it could be, it seems so far these are honestly pretty damn cheap for what you get especially being made in the US mostly. The Magni already has some (while not necessarily perfect) positive feedback on it over in that thread comparing it to much more expensive amps.

I'd choose the O2/ODAC followed by the Matrix M-Stage, though I haven't heard that last combo myself.