I have both an SM3 (NOT recently upgraded, but "maxed out" as of about a year ago and an SM4 (maxed out and upgraded as of a week ago). Both are excellent. The main difference is soundstage: if you close your eyes and imagine an orchestra, the SM4 brings you much closer, four or five rows...

I started this thread, but got email yesterday that amp would be shipped today. I'm trying to be hopeful.

Have had two words of response by e-mail in past four months and no product. Has anyone had any luck getting anything through to him or from him?

What price range DAC is needed to produce useful improvement compared to simply using DAC in M-Audio card? Any recommendations? Am feeding powered Dynaudio BM5A speakers, and sound is good, but not like my McCormack UPD-1 CJ Edition, which left me poor and looking for moderate price DAC, but...

A bit over your price ( but below Esoteric). I replaced a Denon 5900 with it, and have had no regrets. Adequate video player, but awesome audio front end. Also, half the weight of the Denon.

Woo3, but SM is not far behind

Was using Woo3 with stock tubes. Based on suggestions above, I got NOS, a Chatham Jan 5998 and two Jan 7308 orange Amperex. Expensive. But, K701 now glorious. Bass not anemic, but hefty and well-controlled. Detail rivals the best I've heard, even at low level. High are present but very sweet...

Woo3 is excellent with senn 650 and 600, but much better than I initially thought with K701. Must have had 750 hours of break-in for K701 before I liked them. But Xin SM V3 (withOUT bass boost) holds its own with K701 and Gilmore lite.

Spent two unhappy weeks with K701 and Woo3, Woo3 was bested by GL lite and even Xin SM V3. Just when I thought K701 would not break in further, I tried it just now with Woo3. Wow!!! Everything is there, with so much more space than Senn650; and wider soundstage. No more anemic bass. Bass...

I wanted to buy an SM V4, but Xin's Website listed so many options/configurations I got frustrated and stopped. Can anyone help me? What is "best" combination/configuration to max out the amp for desktop use (don't need to worry about battery drain of different op amps). Thanks (The...

Appreciate advice so far. On a whim, I tried K701 with Xin Supermacro V3. Liked it better than GL Lite (SM has bass boost switch, and K701 benefited, much like Ety's, from it). SM had no difficulty whatsoever driving K701. Has anyone tried the above.

Let me preface this by making clear that I love my Woo3 with Sennheiser 580, 600, and 650. I've been listening to a K701 with about 500 hours on it, and some things are wonderful, but I am having trouble getting used to it: something that I can't put my finger on is not right. Last night...

The BM5A's were satisfying till this weekend, when I had a Martin Logan Dynamo subwoofer not otherwise employed. So, I set BM5A's for an 80 cycle hand-off to the subwoofer. Wow! Did not know what I was missing. What I had was superb and clean, and I was happy. Now, I have equivalent of my...

I had Woo3, sold it, missed it too much, and went and bought another. Hard to explain what is so captivating, but it gets things "right" from a musical, rather than electronic, perspective. It is not as fast as some amps, but neither is live music!

Quote: Originally Posted by Gradofan2 If you don't mind... how do you like your G&W 2.6? Did you buy it from knoxed-com on eBay? Did you have any problems with the distributor? Have you had any problems with the amp? Is it the 220 v version, so you have to use a transformer...

can compare G&W to XCan V3 w/XPSU, Woo3, Xin Supermacro V6, and Gilmore lite w/psu. All based on Senn 650 Cardas cable and Denon5900 Modwright upgrade. G&W is definitely a player in this league. Woo3 has warm soul, on other side of spectrum from Gilmore, which has cool perfection. XCan was in...

also, I did get the G&W, and it is very nice (and 220 v), but not better than Woo3, which is close in price when you figure in shipping cost of G&W to US. Woo3 has OUTSTANDING customer service, while ORNEC hides under a rock in a garbage dump when you need help

see my and others' bad experiences with ORNEC - be very careful - if you need help, you're out of luck; lots of nice and helpful vendors on this board, so no need to save a few bucks on the unhelpful ones

Have had several Woo3's, all excellent. Jack Wo is suggesting that Woo2 is significantly superior (and twice the price!) compared to Woo3. At $900 plus, Woo2 is in price range with many outstanding products. Woo3 at $500 is in competitive price range also, but I know much of the competieion...

Woo2 is about to be released (so is Woo4). I sold my Woo3 last week and already am in withdrawal from missing it. Woo states that Woo2 is actually two Woo3 circuits, one for each channel, on one chassis, with better power supply. Am tempted just to buy another Woo3 and put myself out of...

I typically use Xin Supermacro with Ety's, but it is very good with 650's. Xin's are the only portables I've used, so for comparisons I can only do my non-portables: not as good as GL Lite w/PSU, but only by a small amount, and about comparable when GL is without PSU; better detail and slam than...

I had one of the old ones a month ago (cosmetically clunky-looking; don't know if electronics were any different). Compared to M-Audio 192/Gilmore Lite w/GL PSU, the Jasmine had less detail, impact, and transparency, but was very euphonic: a nice, warm, adequately detailed experience, with no...

Can you characterize the change in sound when preamp is deleted? I too don't need preamp, but wonder about balance between resale issues and sound quality. Thanks for any opinions/experiences about this.

Sorry, I'm confused: which was preamp and which was amp? Also, I DON'T want to send my current V6 back to Xin, and it has buffer. Thanks for the help.

have had MF3 W/x-psu; sold it on this board, too. It is a fabulous product, cabaple of resolving inner detail and showing transparency from low bass to upper treble, and without grain. Reason I sold it, was impossible to define lack of soul: it did everything I could think of very well, but did...