OK, I finally got around to posting some impressions [if you look back in the thread, I bought the OP's K701s] I have had the K701s for a couple of months now. Definitely prefer them to my Sennheiser HD650s. To sum it up briefly, the K701s sound like the HD650s with the "veil" removed...

I highly recommend J-River Media Centre. You have to pay for it, but only something like $30, which is money well spent. Basically does everything Foobar does and more. But it does it straight away, with no tweaking required and a nice interface. Plays all common formats, supports...

Thought I'd chime in with my 2 cents worth. I have had my 8Gb Clip for about 3 weeks. Bought it off Ebay from a guy in Israel - had no problems with the transaction. I am very happy with the player. It is easy to use. I have never read any instructions, everything is very intuitive if you...

I have owned both and honestly can't tell any difference between them. In my experience sound quality with soundcards and DACs reaches a ceiling above which I can't hear any improvement. To me, both of these cards are above this ceiling. If you're going to do some gaming, or you're...

Quote: I am sort of a skeptic, so I am mainly looking for opinions of like-minded people who have done direct comparisons with some doubt. I guess I am sort of a "like minded person". My experience is that source does make a difference, up to a ceiling. I can definitely hear a...

Quote: The soundstage and detail is what won me over after a 5 minute audition in a shop in Melbourne Just wondering what shop in Melbourne that was ? I am going there in a few days for the Melbourne cup and I would love to demo some of these. How much did you pay for them ?

Quote: The K701's are on trademe now btw for a KEEERAAAZY cheap price Just bought them. I have had been thinking of trying these for ages. Seemed like a good opportunity. Will post my impressions vs my current sennheiser HD650s

OK well now I can answer my own question. Just picked up one of these in Hong Kong. The answer is YES. It works very well as a preamp. Connected directly to a power amp, there are no loud noises on powering on or off, the sound quality is good and the volume control works well. In fact I...

anyone (please) ? Or does anyone have any suggestions for something better that can act as a DAC and a preamp and has a remote ?

Wondering if anyone has any experience using the Citypulse 2.03 DAC as a preamp for a speaker setup ? I am trying to simplify + improve my current living room setup: PC --> Zhaolu 1.3 DAC --> Acurus preamp --> Acurus power amp --> Infinity alpha 40 (large tower) speakers The idea is to...

I am using that exact setup. The P to S adaptor cured the hiss problem that I had before (My setup is EMU 1212m --- PPA --- E500). Unfortunately I do think that there is a slight difference in SQ. The best I can describe it is that the sound loses a bit of its "sparkle" and sounds very slightly...

Quote: QUESTION: what is the most ironclad bullet-proof way to get absolutely bit-perfect 192Khz / 24-bit S/PDIF output from both my desktop and laptop (playing Apple Lossless files, hopefully some day in 24-bit tracks) to my external HeadRoom DAC? I want zero...

I own both the EMU 1212m and the stock Zhaolu 1.3 DAC. To my ears they sound virtually identical, I struggled to hear any difference at all.

Quote: I don't think we've come even close to plumbing the full depths of "audiophile" gullibility. Check this link if you want proof. Brilliant Do you think all those "customer comments" are real ? Almost beyond belief.

Hello Freakzilla My advice to you is basically to clarify what your goals are - ie what kind of system you want to end up with - and do some more research and planning. You need to decide: Do you want 5.1 surround or is plain old stereo for music more important. Do you want better speakers ...