If I have Rockbox installed on my DX50, does the USB OTG work with a USB Dac? Or is it just for storage/charing?   Thanks!

You'd think, right? They could even partner with the current makers of electrostatic amps.   Ditto for Sony and the R10.

But again, I think that goes back to price. $2300 isn't cheap, but it's far less likely to cause buyer's remorse to someone who enjoys it but went overbudget than an $8000 DAC (base price). Their intelligent pricing is one reason Schitt is so far ahead of the game and gaining market share.  ...

Yup. That is the thing...Schitt sells a large volume of DAC's and amps, so it makes sense some will come up for sale or be returned. They are usually immediately snapped up too, when they're available.   As you said, MSB probably sells 25 DAC's a year and they aren't TOO hard to find on the...

http://www.usaudiomart.com/details/649204365-msb-analog-dac-full-stack-with-volume-control-umt-ethernet-input-black-with-analog-dac-power-base/   http://www.hifishark.com/search?q=msb+analog&region=&country_iso=US&site_id=&sold=on   I wouldn't say MSB Analogs are NEVER resold....   In any...

I think of the "fashion-conscious" headphones I've seen up to this point are butt-ugly. This is ever so slightly ahead of the Sony's and Beats headphones I see sitting around at Best Buy (and the Momentums, for that matter...I hated the headband on them), but that's not exactly a compliment.

Or just a more colored, fun HD800. :)

That FR graph is too weird for me. At that price, I'll happily stick with the Mad Dog.

*bump*   Not finding a lot of info on these. Has insane potential for a desktop source at work.

The upper mids/low treble on the HE-560 are very forward, that is what you are hearing. Some of us are very sensitive to spikes in that area and it can overpower the rest of the spectrums, as you describe. I ended up skipping this particular headphone for that reason.   Over time, I've...

If you can't own it, don't want to own it or if you do end up owning it but can never feel comfortable with it because of the price, does it really exist?

Also, one more thing about prices, especially in this hobby...Usually any audio review I read, someone is like, "When I hooked my Zideon DAC ($25000 base price with $10000 upgraded power supply and $15000 CD transport) up to my Blowhard Omega Speakers ($250,000 per pair) and they are powered by...

  What does the item matter if only 0.0001% of people who listen to music think enough of it to purchase it. For that matter, what does that tiny population matter?   "For what it does" means it plays music. If you're not even reaching 1% of potential music listeners, you're doing something...

Gah, you're right...Bad wording on my part. Okay, let's revamp this analogy:   If a great DAC is playing music and 99.9999% of the audience can't afford it or those of us that can view it as being spectacularly and laughably overpriced for what it does and feel that you're paying for the...

I repeat/reiterate   If a tree falls in the woods and no one is around, does it make a sound?   If a great DAC is playing music and 99.9999% of the audience can't afford it, is it really playing music?

Using the tree-in-the-woods analogy...   If an amazing DAC is priced out of range of 99.999% of potential buyers, is it really that amazing?   As much as I can **** on D-S people and their cost-cutting, the MSB's and dCS's of the world are on some mighty fine drugs with those prices. Yet...

It's a flavor of the month that has gone past the expiration date.   On the plus side, when someone chimes in and says, "This unit isn't any good...No DSD support", I know to stop listening to them. :)

For those of us that have no faith in DSD, it just gives Mike even more credibility. I can't quite wrap my head around the hype of such a limited selection of music, even if what I've heard does sound quite nice.   And yes, this thread does a fine job of "selling" the idea of R2R DAC's...

I think if he were doing the AD2000x, it would be somewhere slightly ahead of the Grado RS1/RS2. It's a pretty mid-forward headphone with some slight refinements and it tended to remind me of a Grado. Personally, I wasn't too impressed with them.

Only brought it up because it is an overlooked part of David's setup (which he states prior to going into the headphone breakdowns) and because it's something that has a trickle-down effect on how he views his amp/headphone pairings. Also because it's probably the thing that caused some of the...

"Validation It doesn’t really matter what we think if our customers can’t appreciate the difference. For validation we conducted customer focus groups with our customers who were using the higher priced power strips and conditioners. The results were eye-opening! Replacing these devices with...

It's the same one David uses in the review. :)   You can see it sitting all the way on the bottom of his rig in the picture. The DAC and the various amps are all plugged into it. I saw that and thought, "hey, if this guy's comfortable with plugging his $40,000 DAC and $5000+ headphone amps...

I paid $200 for the power conditioner used. At worst, it will protect the amp and the source (a Sony HAP-S1). At best, it cleaned up the power mess I had before and resulted in a cleaner sound in my overall rig. I'd be afraid to be without it now.   (I have a problem with pricy cables/power...

Probably a combination of noise floor with electrical interference. The other thing I did was I got my source as far away from my computer as possible (gave the Monster conditioner it's own private outlet and just plug my gear into it). That was another consistency with the hifi shop rigs...No...

It's trickier than people realize. I generally agree that a half decent DAC will present a good enough image. The problem is the noise floor and the noise that gets in the system and shows up in the headphone. I've heard the exact same rig at a Hifi shop and then would be surprised when it...