Here is an easy way of bending the head band so it will fit much better. Just over bend the factory bend to about 60 to 70 degrees. This will place the yoke at about the same as other headphones. Strip all parts off the head band down to the bare metal band. Place masking tape on both sides of...

The hype is real. It definitely needs to be burned-in like most planars. Sounds fantastic at 16 hour mark with my Monolith Desktop AAA amp/DAC.

My DCS43198 DSDs arrived. The sound character falls somewhere between the high-end Sabres and AKs. A winner in my books. A nice balance. Can't beat the price of $94USD. Definitely a buy, just to give it a try.

Renaming the album art to "cover.jpg" worked! Thanks.

Thanks for you help. I selected the album art in the menu. I am using WAV files. My JPG album art are placed inside album directories along with the songs. They are still not showing up. Just a generic place art. Are there any image size requirements, or any naming character restrictions...

Just got a ZiShan DSD AK4497EQ. Sounds great so far, breaking it in. :L3000: There is very little documentations out for this DAP. Still trying to figure out the UI. How does one get album art to display on the screen? Can't seem to get any .jpeg files to work. Any special size or format? What...

Quote: You will be appalled at the amount of compression and clipping in many of today's popular recordings. With better phones and systems you can clearly hear these issues. Just open the offending audio files in Audacity or any audio editing program and you will see the problems...

Quote: I have some heavy drapes behind my MMGs and they sounds perfectly fine. You don't want too much reflections, or they can sound bright. There is provision on the MMGs to attenuate the tweeter. I had to add a 0.18 ohm resistor to bring the highs down a tad. Until they are broken in...

I had my Magnepan MMGs for a year now, soon after I got the LCD-2 and digging the sound. After all, they are the same technology. The MMGs are unbelievable bargains. Like you said, they have that LCD-2 sound characteristic and easily exceeds it in overall sound quality, especially the highs...

Quote: It is reference to the HBO True Blood series as on the box of the V-80: http://www.hbo.com/true-blood/index.html

Quote: Thanks, but it is just a small crop from an Audeze ad image that was passed through the Photoshop neon filter.

I have both. There is the differences in the True Blood theme; but the V-80 package do no have the three button iPhone cord, nor the 1/8" to 1/4" adapter. Maybe that is where the differences in price lies.

You can start out with pre-assembled circuit boards. Here is a nice one with AK4396 DAC with R-core transformer. Great sounding DAC. Out-class some of my higher end DACs. Should be very easy to put together. The output opamp is on a DIP socket and can be swap out with a higher performance one...

Just received a pair of M-80. Out of the box they sound very good. Nicely balanced and non-fatiguing. Great construction and accessorized. The sharp looks doesn't hurt either.   Props to Val for getting rid of the UPS leeches for Canadian shipping. Close to $67 for brokerage. Second...

The LCD-2 has been out for awhile, yet I have not found anybody modding the sonics of the LCD-2. There are cable mods, headband mods, DIY LCD-2 stands and woody grills. With the appearance of the LCD-2 Rev2 and the LCD-3, there are lots of LCD-2 Rev1 owners out there that would like to give...

The HeadAmp GS-X is base on the Dynalo circuit. They can be DIY for less than the price of the Lyr.   There are also other production amps using the Dynalo circuit that retail for less then the Lyr.   Side by side critical comparisons are all good to weed out amps with major problems. Many...

Quote: I don't own the Lyr, but only heard it briefly. The sound stage is going to be determine by the headphone. Any improvements from the amp is subtle. If you are looking for sound stage, speakers are where they are at. If you like the LCD-2 sound, the Magnepans are the ticket, big...

Quote: The LME49720HA is a bit smoother than the LME49720NA. It is some where between a LME4920NA by itself and it class-A biased. I tried class-A biasing the LME49720HA. It is too warm for my taste with the LCD-2. The OPA627 sounds great also. Very dynamic, good bass, a bit...

  Quote:   From my experience the M-Stage, does a good job of driving the LCD-2. It is fairly neutral and detail enough to distinguish the differences between various DACs.I don't find it lacking in power with the LCD-2. The LCD-2 is already a bass heavy headphone. Its sound signature...

The slim profile of the M-Stage is the reason for using a small diameter knob. Otherwise, when turning the knob, your finger will be bumping and rubbing on the table. All it needs is some texture on the knob, sand, bead blasted or knurled, for better grip.

The name is from a DIY headphone chassis. You can buy one from eBay and put in many different DIY headphone amplifier boards. I have one, it is a pretty decent case for the price...

  Quote:   The nice thing about integrated PCB is that there are no chance of miss wire, it has happen to older hand wired M-Stages, and less variation from unit to unit. Hand routing, quality of the wire shielding, and solder joint quality can cause variation in noise level, maybe for...

Get the Matrix M-Stage if you want a proven finished product and simple opamp modding. It uses above average parts, nothing exotic. There isn't really any big improvement can be had by upgrading the passive components. Plug-n-play.   Get the Lovely Cube as a kit if you are a modder, where...

Quote: I also been into other budget DACs. Another gem is the AK4396 DAC. You can find them on eBay very inexpensive, as a board or fully assembled. It is easy to listen to like the MUSE.  It has all the 'air' and none of the 'glare' of OS DACs.   With all the noise about the...

Get tube sound by adding a simple tube buffer between you source and the amp. This one uses a single very common tube, and it operates on 12VDC. I use one on my speaker system to take the edge of the Class D amp. Great sounding buffer. Very little heat and real tube sound.  ...