I've very recently (I mean that literally) entered into possession of a O2-Odac and my experience with it is very brief, but I did make some comparative listening between it and the Xonar ST, which I've had for years.   In my experience the Xonar ST is a perfectly good source for music...

Yes, I was considering them, especially as a diy project, as the cost of building one was very little (at least compared to other projects or commercial units). I found, however, an assembled unit (dac + amp) in a classifieds ad, which is local to me. The asking price was fair so I decided to...

Compared to a basic EQ from a program like Windows Media player or Winamp - yes, that would be so. But compared to a high precision VST based equalizer I don't think that's the case. You can find free versions of the above that work with 32 bit or higher precision and offer minimal degradation...

Sennheiser PX-100II is such a headphone. Light weight, supremely comfortable and very good sound quality for the price. Koss Porta Pro is another example. Not sure about current pricing though, many affordable headphones seem to have gotten much more expensive than I remember. So might be...

The hiss from your preamp could be a grounding or an interference problem. If so, it will occur when you connect the preamp to another device too (power amp - speakers, or headphone amp - headphones). If you get the hiss only in the headphone out of your preamp it could be something localized...

I cannot answer your question because I don't know such dac/amps, but won't a software EQ help you more? They offer much higher flexibility and range of adjustments.

Sounds like you've got yourself a couple of very nice Naka's. Cd-players have better chances to perform well with low impedance headphones, because their headphone out is similar to a traditional amplifier circuit, typically based around an IC opamp, and their output impedances tend to be...

Ok. My main digital source is a Cambridge Audio 740C cd player/DAC connected through coax cable to an Asus Xonar ST soundcard.   A dac/amp + headphones would form basically a separate setup, around my PC, so I don't need to power on the rest of my gear. I'm not expecting a 400$ dac/amp to...

Why not buy a new replacement cable and fit it with a high quality Neutrik 4 pin XLR. The cable is eur 15 or less and the connector eur 5 , or less. Why spend 3-4 times more for the same thing?

I'm not surprised to read about your impressions. Nakamichi has always put a lot of solid engineering in their devices, not just the tape decks. Some of their power amps were based on designs from Nelson Pass himself, called Stasis. Wonderful pieces of kit.   As to headphone outs from...

Has any of you guys tried the O2 amp with AKG K501 headphones, or something else from that era (K400/K401/K500)?

I haven't been in touch with the latest developments and I would appreciate some input from you guys. My past experiences with various headphones amplifiers haven't been conclusive enough for me to own one. I auditioned a fair few but none was able to provide substantial improvements over the...

I can attest to the ease of use of the AKG K550. These are the headphone I use at the office, straight out of my laptop's soundcard They're extremely efficient headphones and are not ruthless in regards to source material. In terms of cup size they are similar to the K701, and larger than the...

I was hooping to find a general feedback thread so I won't have to create a new thread just to report a minor issue. And the issue is basically this: the text captcha on the registration page is very difficult to read properly, especially the letters which are at the edges of the black/white...