Oh yes, I experience variations in sound quality as well, depending on the time of day, night being best overall, in spite of my efforts to clean up the AC line here... All the sound qualities we are talking about can vary depending on the source you are using and the music itself. So what I...

Yeah, we're all learning in this black hole of a hobby. As not to hog this thread, maybe we should chat about all this in messaging? PM if interested... I'm confident someone else in this thread can offer a much better explanation, but by noise, I mean variances in the electrical AC wave, as...

I was comparing to AKM chips at the time, with external Dacs, but noise is the audio killer, fur sure. Good point. Until you clean up noise, it's hard to distinguish... It can manifest in various ways.

Cool, thanks for the tip, enjoyed that track very much, would make Al Di Meola proud, ha. Love the "shimmer" of the strings as his fingers move, if that's the right word. When I crave guitars, I usually fall back on two standbys... Pink Floyd's Money, for the amazing reverb and soundstage...

Here's my experience with Bliss, got one shortly after it was released... Soft, no. Vivid, dynamic, transparent, immersive, holographic, neutral without being sterile, engaging, pitch black background, yes. But I only achieved that fully after controlling AC line noise in my abode. Then I...

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll look into Roon at some point, as it gives you lots of options for tweaking. Many many moons ago, I compared volume normalization on and off and seemed to prefer off for streaming. Using ASIO, looks like the normalization option is removed anyway from Qobuz...

I think it's a very appropriate topic to discuss, volume level and tinnitus as well. Thank you for bringing it up. For me, it's balancing vocals as well, and that may be my choice of cans, the HD660S2. Vocals are a bit recessed or less forward, depending on how you hear it. Bliss slams...

The 650 I was enjoying is about 16 years old I believe, still going strong, ha. They certainly have a fantastic track record... Yeah, if you've already auditioned the 660S2, sounds like you've found the sweet spot in your system. I absolutely love the 660S2 with May/Bliss. It's absolutely...

I absolutely love the tonality of the HD650 as well, and it needs lots of clean power to get the best SQ. I was quite content with the 650 paired to a tube preamp, to Bliss, but when I heard the HD660S2, it was in a different league altogether, so you might want to audition the 660S2. I now...

I found the smear to be true when comparing different tubes. I settled on cryo Gold Lion tubes, which give me the euphoric soundstage that I crave without affecting clarity and transparency. The trick may be finding the right tube for your ear. Bliss is so transparent that I found it easy to...

Freya+ is a great option, because you can shut off the tubes easily and still pass through the signal to Bliss. With the MJ2 I have to be mindful of tube life, no pass through. I think I'll get a Freya+ in time... There are all kinds of tubes out there, some warm, some bright, cryo, non-cryo...

There are also many comments further back in history about using a tube preamp. The Schiit Freya+ is highly regarded. Search for "Freya" in this thread, and that will take you to the comments. I've been using a borrowed Schiit Mjolnir 2 as preamp to Bliss, and I am very happy with the sound...

Indeed. It appears I have caught the tube bug, and I am looking into a cure... A topic for a different thread. :-) There was a missing sense of deeper engagement or presence (being there) that I couldn't put my finger on with Bliss and other SS amps I've heard. I tried various headphones...

@newToAudio100 Welcome to the forum! If you like Bliss now, just wait until it goes through burn-in, somewhere around 200 hours... For me, it was not a subtle change. It went from, like this is very good, to like WOW. I'd like to suggest you try something... Try using your MJ2 as a preamp...

Glad you enjoyed! Delerium is good stuff, love their layering and vocals. Perhaps my favorite cut of theirs was on the original Poem CD, but then later it mysteriously got removed and placed on a secondary album, called "Poem (Bonus Track Version)". Go figure... The cut is called "Inner...