This amp is far too complex for someone without intimate knowledge of its inner workings to swap opamps. Just leave it be.

Thanks so much Dancing Sea and twrr, you've saved me $400! Those are the kind of answers I was looking for.

Sounds like sage advice. I'm currently using Daphile music server on a dedicated computer that does everything I need. Maybe I should stick with that? Upgrade-itis is a powerful disease.

I'm considering purchasing a Zen Stream, but I need to know some things that no one has addressed yet. I'd like to use it as a music server as well as a streamer by connecting a 2TB SSD drive which contains files in FLAC, MP3, OPUS, WAV, WMA, M4A, DSF, and OGG. With OPUS and FLAC the most...

More than likely the cable is defective. There is probably a miswiring so that the + and - are reversed on one channel. I don't buy that simple cable differences will yield that much of a difference in sound quality.

"...sound methodologies." I see what you did there...

The day my headphones smell like burnt nipple hair is the day I give up the hifi hobby.

I happened to have a 24v, 2.2A power supply with a plug that matched the RNHP's that came with an old Kodak photo printer. I also noticed an improvement.

You are not wrong. The amp will draw what it needs. I'm using mine with a 24v, 2.2A power supply and I can swear that it sounds better than the original supply...but I could be making that up. Try it with the iFi Elite.

I have the 2016 400i and the Sundara, and have a completely opposite opinion of them. To me, the Sundara is a more transparent headphone and superior in every way to the 400i. To each their own, I guess.

I used to have it, but it didn't work. It was buggy and would freeze up. Plus it only went to 48K. I uninstalled it and lost it in a computer upgrade.

That's quite the list of DACs. Mine includes the Modi Multibit also, as well as the SMSL SU8, Topping E30, 2 different iFi Zens, and the Peachtree mentioned. The Red just didn't cut it for me and is now in a suitcase as a travel DAC.

At this point the Red is a pretty low bar. A few years ago I compared it to a Peachtree DAC-IT which sounded much better. Since then I've compared it to numerous more modern DACs and the Red consistently falls on its face, and not just because of its limited sample rate support, but also in...

A quality turn on/off relay would be a negligible additional cost on a $500 or a $700 unit, and absolutely expected on something over $1000. There is no excuse for the headphone-damaging transients that come from this amp.

Sound wise it's just as good at 700 as it is at 500. But at 700 there are many more flexible options, i.e. buit in DACs, pre-amps, bluetooth.