One thing I'd like to improve is the ability to distinguish between Tidal Master tracks and Spotify. I've done a bunch of side-by-side listening to see if I can distinguish the lossless tracks from the compressed audio from Spotify, and the differences are essentially zero to me. Perhaps my DAC...

Thanks for the useful feedback. I suppose it's not obvious to me what is left to improve, since I haven't listened to any other headphone systems. I had assumed that my amp was the weakest link in the chain, so that was where I started but that assumption may be false. I guess that's why I'm...

I'm interested in how you guys would recommend improving my setup. I would consider an upgrade budget of up to $1,500. Currently my headphone rig is: Macbook Tidal & Spotify --> Peachtree DAC ITx (USB) --> Schiit Asgard 2 --> Sennheiser HD650s Thanks for any and all recommendations and advice.

Thank you guys for all the great advice. I'm a little intimidated about assembling the Bottlehead Crack myself. From what I can tell: OTL tube amps are great for driving high impedance headphones like HD650s. Seems like a lot of people have tried the HD6xx and HD650s with the Schiit amps...

Oh man, thank you so much for the great reply! I'll check these out tonight and write back. In the past, I've had a Schiit Asgard 2, and I gets very hot. I'm wondering if all of these would get that hot? I've never used a tube amp, but I'm absolutely open to one (they look so cool!)...

Accidentally posted this in the wrong forum. I'm trying to delete the thread but don't see an option.

Hi, I'm looking for some recommendations for a desktop amp that would go well with the Sennheiser HD650s with a PeachTree DAC-ITx and a Macbook source. All suggestions are greatly appreciated. I don't really know how to distinguish a good amp from a bad one, and it's been many years since...

Hi, I'm looking for some recommendations for a desktop amp that would go well with the Sennheiser HD650s with a PeachTree DAC-ITx and a Macbook source. All suggestions are greatly appreciated. I don't really know how to distinguish a good amp from a bad one, so I'm hoping you guys can offer...

I figured out the issue:  I was using PulseAudio without realizing it. The only way I can figure out how to get Spotify to use ALSA is to run the windows version with wine and use winecfg to select the ALSA audio output.     Does anyone know how to get the native Linux Spotify client to use ALSA?

I have an Ubuntu desktop with an external Modi DAC that outputs into my headphone amplifier.  It works and plays music.  My question is:  If the computer is outputting music before amplification to the external DAC, why does the volume slider on the Spotify client change the volume?  Similarly...

I recently picked up a Modi and am running Ubuntu 12.04.  Did you do anything special to get the Modi to show up in your Sound->Output list?  I have only the built-in stuff showing.  Are you running PulseAudio?  Any suggestions or help would be greatly appreciated.

I am thinking about a very similar set up and MalVeauX makes a really interesting point about investing in better HP rather than a better DAC and Amp.  This brings up an interesting question about price ratios.  For a limited budget in the mid-tier or non-astronomically priced top-tier set of...

Unfortunately I didn't learn about that meet until after it was over.  I would like to attend the next one though.

That is definitely a good idea. I've been casually looking around the Chicago area but haven't come across a place that sells audiophile headphones.  I've seen some places that aren't too far if I take the train, just haven't had the time to get out there.

After some additional reading this weekend, I'm leaning towards the Sennheiser HD650s.  From what I can tell, they don't really do anything 'wrong', its just that some people prefer more emphasis in parts of the frequency curve. I don't know if these will have much bass impact, but I'm realizing...