I received a replacement PCB from the good guys at Firestone Audio in Taiwan this morning which solved the problem. Distortion gone! [Now the Buddah-Bar music almost sounds good ] I am happy! Can highly recommend the Cute products with this kind of customer service. Thanks, Steen

Thank you, both. I am primary interested in whether a stand-alone DAC works with Dolby Headphone as implemented in PowerDVD (software based DSP) and I guess that it will work fine based on your feedback. But my motherboard (Intel D975XBX with very nice on-board audio) supports Dolby...

Can anyone tell this soon-to-be DAC owner if the digital output signal from the computer is provided before or after the DSP? In other words; will any Dolby Headphone or crossfeed plugins and/or drivers work on a standalone DAC? (This should be a straight forward question, but I seem to have...

Yesterday I had - in all modesty - a brilliant insight, that shoved why I personally didn't like the HD650 sound: Being brand new, they had a far too tight fit on my head, which resulted in me almost hearing my blood circulate! (The effect is similar to being in a boiler room of a large...

Thanks - I agree; the Bauer stereophonic-to-binaural DSP sounds great. How does crossfeed on Meier amps (Opera, Arietta, etc) sound in comparison, anyone?

ADD - Are you sure that you have not been listening to a faulty pair of HD595s? I agree that the tonality of individual instruments are inferior to that presented by the HD650s, but to suggest that HD595 responds poorly to Dolby Headphone is very strange. I find a huge sound stage depth with...

I do not hope that I need a $3000 amp to truly appreciate the sound of the HD650. If that is the case then most HD650owners are screwed...? Surly a less expensive alternative can be found.

Thanks for letting me know that crossfeed is also available on the computer in form of plug-ins for various media players. I have now tried a crossfeed plug-in for foobar2000: Naive Software and find that it alliveates the "in-the-head-experience" a bit, but it doesn't provide better sound...

Dolby Headphone on the computer can be obtained in a number of ways, i.e. through the audio drivers (I had Intel High Definition Sound drivers for my D975XBX motherboard with XP - no such luck with Vista) or in individual applications such as PowerDVD. It has a tremendous effect on music that...

I used to be in heaven. Musical heaven that is. Blissful sound from HD595 directly from computer or from CD/DVD via Cute Battery amp. Very natural sound and a sound stage similar to opera nights in Sydney Opera. Then evil reared its ugly head: I started wondering what could possibly be...

I LOVE Dolby Headphone when listening to music from the computer. It is pure bliss for acoustical instruments and natural sound. And I would like to have a similar experience when listening to opera DVDs and music CDs directly from the DVD player via a headphone amp. I suspect that crossfeed...

Howdy All I have experienced a weird problem that I hope you good people can help me understand and possibly rectify: When playing a particular CD [Buddha-Bar IV Disk 2] on my DVD player connected to Cute Battery II via Audio Out (RCA) I experience tremendous distortion of loud passages -...