Instead of worrying about the cable, I would seriously consider buying a new amp to compliment the HD800

Soundmatters foxl speakers. The best.

Was this announced October last year?

The beatles are in a class by itself; the Stones should be compared to bands like L. Zeppelin, the Who, and maybe U2.

The Beatles. No contest. Lennon & McCartney are much better songwriters than Jagger & Richard. The Stones were even singing Beatles' songs in the beginning.

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Is EC still taking orders for the current run?

I don't mean to hijack the thread, but does anyone have any experiences with Empirical Audio's expensive offerings? Do they bring about audible or significant improvements?

There are always more that you can try. For example, you can get more hardwares. If you really want to tweak the sound, you can get a USB to S/PDIF converter (eg, Trend UD10.1, off-ramp turbo2), connect it to another DAC which feeds the pico that is being used only as an amp!

The latest offering from Singlepower (ie. The Transparency) should be one of the best.

Quote: Originally Posted by grawk For $55 that probably uses a drv134 to balance the signal. I'd say that was a less than ideal solution. The cheapest good solution is probably a pair of cinemag cmli 15/15b transformers. I have a pair of those in my amp, and they work pretty well...

They are inexpensive solutions that allow one to convert an unbalanced source to a balanced one. One example is the Art Cleanbox. Do they really work without degrading the sound quality?

double post

The A5's have adequate bass, subwoofer is not necessary. I pair the A2's with the Velodyne microvee, which might be out of your budget.