Well I actually watched it. Few interesting tidbids without being too cringe as marketing usually is. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: Not really in the market for open or wired headphones, but these were the first ones in a long time that peaked my interested due to extremely good looking design...

FYI, I had same popping, quite loud with my 99dB/W speakers, gave a nice DC thump to the 15" woofer. Sample rate or input switch, even without any inputs physically connected. Lots of mails back and forth, over one month away with Sonority, but they finally got a new motherboard installed...

With A8 you simply use your own external EQ to fix/boost the bass levels, rising boost from 100hz -> 20hz required anyway to emulate hearing / give a bit of body sensation. LCD2/LCD3 or HD800 (I've had all) can give a massive clean rumble, of course the headphone quality matters, there's no way...

It's well known that the HPEQ on A8 did not even touch bass frequencies and didn't handle HD800 6khz peak well etc. So the difference between headphones can vary a lot. But I believe A16 should have improved HPEQ.

  Most stuff is designed for a certain price point, not for ultimate sound. I think EVE Audio commented that pretty much nobody would actually use digital inputs even if they had them. I think there is some truth to that so why waste (their) money.   As EVE user, I have little bit of the...

Makes no sense getting from US, would end up easily 430€+ with all fees. I got mine 299€ from local Black Friday deal and it's 449€ currently anyway, so that should tell something about margins.. Audioquest is sold by classic hifi distributor model, so forget internet prices and try walking into...

  Obviously $49 Sys is the choice to feed budget monitors. Or Emotiva control freak. Or even software volume control.   When you can get a pair of LSR305 for under $300, it's pretty hard to justify going fancy schmancy class A/B for the same price and that's the amp only. Then you actually...

  There's no need for speaker amp to be located ON desktop, no matter the size. Just hide it somewhere. It would only need to be physically on desktop if it's integrated amp - having a volume control knob. They already have Sys and Saga for volume control (and source switching). It makes zero...

  No, it was not an analog preamp, it's a DAC. There's no analog inputs. It's stupidly dubbed "digital preamp".

  Yeah price is pretty much the only new stuff, but it seems many people downplay/forget the preamp feature. I imagine there are many people at home and studios with decend dac and speakers itching to get this in between. Show me another xlr in, xlr out active preamp under $400 (even without...

Sorry for little ad, but as it was discussed in this thread.. sold my phones so if someone wants to experiment with the polarity stuff, I can sell my 4-pin XLR->XLR adapter made by Forza (hybrid HPC). It has right channel polarity reversed. Feel free to PM..

  Matrix HPA-3B is ok.

  I'll keep on using my NFB-1AMP... tried a passive Khozmo but I felt it lost details. I also bought a Griffin Powermate to control windows master volume in case I go full ret..digital. 

Hehe actually I ditched my HD800 and headphones altogether and switched to monitors. I was so impressed with EVE Audio SC307's, super open smooth sound and really tight slammy bass. I had Genelec 8050's to try at the same time and they were just mehh, uninvolving and sloppy bass. I guess I need...

  It's just the 7-threaded cable solder connection on the gain boards.. no point continuing with this since it's human error, it wouldn't fault by itself thus nothing to blame Audio-GD for.