I have the old Benchmark Dac, and it is the best piece of hifi equipment that I have bought. It is connected to my Fisher 500c, and I switch between speakers (vandersteen 1c's) and the headphone jack of the 500c. Sometimes I use the headphone jack of the Dac, and to tell the truth, I can't tell...

Pinchy: I think you should be alright with the card. You will merely be passing the digtal out to the outboard dac, and that dac will determine your sound quality. I am in the same postion as you, I have the m-audio 2496 but no vista drivers. I can still run my library through foobar, but i...

Just to answer myself....turned out the station was down on the day I tried it. Since I had just installed 9.3 I thought I had not set something right. In any case, radio streaming works fine in foobar 9.3. Noel

I am trying to stream radio through foobar, but I keep getting an error message. I copied the following playlist file: http://206.159.128.128:8100 Title1=WSHU FM STREAM Version=2 and pasted it into the add location dialog box. Why else do I have do? Thanks, Noel

If you have a 400 with a serial number between 10001 and 29,999 then tubes 9 and 10 are the preamp tubes, and changing these will alter the sound characteristics of the amp. You can find further discussions on Audio Asylum in the vintage section. I put two nos fishers in mine and it did make a...

I just bought an UHC Signature, and it doesn't work right out of the box. Everything is dead center, even when I use my speaker set up disk. Oh well, I am done with ASL and Upscale audio who sold me the UHC. We don't need their crap. Noel

I've used the headphone jack with the Nad c320bee and the c350, both with the Senn hd-650. I thought both sounded really nice. Currently, I use the headphone jack off my benchmark dac1, and I really don't notice any gain or loss with that amp. It is my understanding the nad headphone output...

I went from an audiophile 2496 card to the Benchmark dac1, and I was worried about the same thing. Once I got the dac1 it was no contest. It really opened my eyes to what makes a difference. Remember the upgrade path: Speakers/headphones, source, amp, then interconnects and cabling. Enjoy...

Just to throw out one more thought. Srajan Ebaen thinks the point of diminishing returns sets in with Channel Islands headphone amp with power supply. I think that is $350 for the headphone amp and $159 for the power supply. He has listened to a fair number of headphone amps, and you would do...

Quote: Rick Once that is out of the way yes.The UHC should pass on the harmonics of the amp pretty much intact allowing the nature of the amp/headphone mating to be heard.The ASL device adds zero noise so what you get out is what you put in and even with not the best amp will stick kick...

Quote: Originally Posted by rickcr42 kinda off topic (a specialty of mine ) I think it was part audio snobbery and no small amount of turf protection that added to that lack of availability. The ASL products as a group are not that hard to obtain and even reviews are plentiful but NOT...

Chizzler: I think the difference might be in the output tubes. A lot of people like the el84 and it's variations. Maybe that is the difference your are hearing. Noel

Hey Rickcr42 Mini-Rant : That is a real shame.Even though not applicable here with the AKG (you really have no need for it since the K1000 connects directly to an amp) it was only a matter of time since it was far too cheap and was not flashy enough.No Fanboy clubs. My personal...

What if you asked Michael Angelo to reproduce the Sistine Chapel a hundred times for a new string of cathedrals going in across the United States? I don't think he would be interested. Yeah, now I undersand what happened to Moth.

It’s hard to believe that Eddie Current amps aren't more sought after. These amps look quite interesting. Is there any one place that all the amps that Eddie Current makes are listed? Or do you just find one and ask Eddie how much it costs? I don't mean to be a smart-ass, but someone...

Jeff, great to hear you got it going. It's amazing we can sit there and tweak a system for a couple of days only to find out it's a volume slider or something. Enjoy! Noel

Jeff: Sorry to hear it is greyed out. Better call m-audio and see if they can help you. They may know of a simple fix. Sorry I couldn't help you. Noel

I have the 24/96, and at certain times I have to change the patchbay/router from waveout/spdif out to monitor mixer to hear sound. If you have not tried this you might. Noel

Quote: Originally Posted by Kurt Because every DAC has a digital and a analog part. And the DAC1 has a unbalanced as well as a fully balanced analog part. The headphone amp is connected only to the unbalanced circuit, but on the back there are 2 XLR connectors besides the RCAs. And...

Quote: Originally Posted by dip16amp Dual mono means two separate amplifier channels which includes separate return paths from the headphones. It is still unbalanced if the return paths are ground connections. Dual mono normally also extends back to two separate power supplies (one for...

Quote: Originally Posted by mulveling It's a balanced source, and they're talking about using the balanced line-outs to directly drive balanced headphones. There are 2 ways to control volume: 1) bypass the DAC1's pot and control volume with your transport (easy for PC transports) 2)...

Quote: Originally Posted by Jashugan Then get around to it if you have HD650s. The thing is, the balanced XLR outputs of the DAC give out 300 ohms each, which is exactly what the HD650s want, so synergy is there for sure. Using them balanced instead of using an adapter will simply give...

I may be wrong, but I think Solude wants to know how the Dac1 sounds with a truly balanced headphone. Not a pair of regular phones with balanced plugs. But again, I may be wrong here. And along these lines, I can't quite see why you want balanced for phones for what wouldn't be a truly...

Quote: Originally Posted by Solude From PMs with Kevin, the big difference between these with cans like the Senn 650 is power. The Lo tops out at about 1W while the Hi can put out 15W. Sound wise the differences are subtle. Different story with more difficult loads like the Qualia...

Quote: Originally Posted by PsychoZX Don't quote me on this but I think the dynahi is higher-end Kevin Gilmore design than what the gs1 is based upon. I haven't heard the GS1 though. Interesting Psycho. We won't hold you to it, but I thought the GS-1 module was the same as the...