The volume follows logaritmic curve (first half slowly goes up but later on smaller steps mean higher gain) so I would expect from there you will only need slight adjustments. Just out of curiosity - on low gain the 1266 does not go loud enough at all?

Great comparision. I think the whole chain has a lot to say about the end result. Lately I found out how much you can compensate on different aspects in different parts of the chain. Mentor's strength I believe is it can adapt and translate those changes into the end result quite well. Apart...

This might be even my case, maybe it has just different impact for me. The bass I instantly heard tighter and deeper at the same time. It was like until now my speakers were all the time working well under their real potential and now they finally revealed. Now I’m more used to this new...

sure :). For me the addition of PSM156 did a lot to the sound. Can't describe it perfectly but it's just more of everything (energy, bass, separation, details), and lack of nothing really. Especially the bass difference in my room is just like a slamp into face, you just know it happened. I...

I can only tell that I connected into PSM156 Dac, preamp, power amp, headamp and once I will have it also dedicated streamer (or DDC). If I would play music from the computer, I would connect the computer as well. It has 6 sockets which are supposed to be completely isolated, so if all of them...

Yea still the same buttons where only a half works with Mentor :), interesting take on the remote. The old one was more worthy of the rest, big and heavy. But agree, not necessary. That knob is really great. I rearranged my room just to have it handy even from the couch.

True, however I suspect this remote is programmable somehow. It contains some buttons you can't use with Mentor so it is generic in a way.. Besides that, every time you grab it, it feels like you have something very special in hand :) hard to describe. If somebody has the new "plastic" remote...

That is really unfortunate situation, can't explain this and certainly does not fit into my type of experience. I ordered "refurbished" version, just because in Europe there was no new available and I didn't want to go through the hassle of import from China. I ordered in the middle of 01/2024...

Of course, didn't mean that Mentor is for everybody better. After all I mentioned several times I consider them quite equal, but with different signature. It was more about that feeling when you don't chase for anything anymore. Still remember how much energy it took to finally pick and decide...

For those still undecided this shootout is good! For Mentor owners it’s already a solved problem :). It’s relaxing to be on the other side for a change.

Yes, however then the quality is lower. It's not full resolution hi-res like if I would stream it from iPhone directly into DAC over USB cable. This is what is possible with Holo Red or Eversolo A6/A8, but seems like it's not possible with Rive (or any other such streamer as far as I know)...

Curious why the DDC is needed here? I’d assume Rivo does the reclocking already, or whatever needed to serve clean digital output for DAC. Rivo does look interesting also for me, but it again does not solve Apple Music streaming. Seems like I can’t connect iPhone to Rivo and let it process the...

Quite encouraging reading. Given the fact the same ASR guys didn't have too many good words about my beloved Puritan PSM156 (which as well clearly brought a huge improvement to my whole system). So now for one we are in agreement :).

I'd say there will be no difference. Mentor is dual mono but unbalanced (there was discussion about it some time ago, you can find it here). I think the XLR output is for convenience but it is the same as from SE. I tried both outputs and if there is any sound difference, I didn't notice it.

If anybody brave enough to order with location reasonable close to west Slovakia - I'm in for comparative session with Mentor :). Sadly my yearly budget for headamp shopping experiments is gone. And next year this might not be available anymore.