A bit of a necro but I saw a youtube channel "z reviews" review the new utopia with the black ice fusion F11 and he liked the utopia most out of the Black Ice fusion F11 amp. Since that's the first time I saw the amp and it looked interesting (and most of the other amps he used were relatively...

Hi - thanks for the impressions and info so far, just wondering what your experience has been with the sweet spot and practical considerations to comfortable listening in a chair or couch under normal listening sessions?

Is it too soon for the Focal Bathys to have a BF deal?

Anyone have a desktop THX amp like the drop 789 as a point of (subjective) comparison?

I've never heard the mini but spent some time with the GSX mk2 and without an HPA-4 to compare it to found it very neutral, not particularly warm. From memory (not that trustworthy for small audio differences) it did sound very similar the THX AAA 789 amp I have in my bedroom overall - i.e...

In the exhibitor list it says "Corsunus" not "Corsonus" but I can't find anything about them with either spelling, and that picture is cropped so I can't see any cards either :( I'm most interested, looks expensive but only 2 tubes, so it may be a hybrid?

I hope to be able to attend this year - anyone have suggestions of "must listen" new gear from this year and the last (didn't make it last year)? I am less interested in IEMs than full size, although I might listen to some of the electrostatic / planar in ears just out of curiosity.

Unlike the drop 789 analog on this amp goes through a a/d -> d/a conversion and the performance is not as good. DAC is not great either IMHO. The 789 is a standalone analog amp and better for that purpose, IMHO.

No I would say the 990 is worse. The 990 is not better in general, IMHO, but it is noticeably worse for gaming, IMHO. To be clear, I mean the DT990 is worse, not the DT1990.

There seems to be a lot of activity and interest in this amp, but it was produced for a short window on Massdrop/Drop - I'm surprised no one else in the headamp space (other than Monoprice) seems to be looking into making amps using this family of chips in the < $1k range.

Hi guys, tried doing some searches but wondering if in general the GS-X mini is considered an upgrade over the GS-X mk2. I understand the ability to convert unbalanced to balanced, but that is not a concern I have, so would one be better than the other with the HE-1000 v2 or SE, LCD-series...

Windows 10 has made this much easier - you can use the OS to set preferences for apps as to which device they use, even when the app doesnt support changing / remembering a preferred device. I used to use a utility for this purpose before, but now the OS does it really well.

I own a lot of headphones and have settled on dt880s with a modmic as my everyday gaming headphones due to soundstage/ positional audio cues and general comfort. A lot better for this purpose, IMHO, than sennheisera hd6xx line of which I own 3.

The original phonitor had several issues that turned out to be a deal killer after a lot of initial hype, which I think turned off a lot of people to the brand/model. I havent heard the recent models but I haven't heard anything bad about them either recently, other than they didnt usually come...

It’s possible that newer (or even different) receivers would perform significantly differently with regards to range and even when working the same protocol (4.2) - and something implementing 5.0 is likely to be a newer premium implementation. Think wifi devices and routers with 802.11ac - they...

Some balanced differential amps have significantly superior output on the XLR vs the TRSS for output - they are generally outputting higher voltage and current on those outputs and have a higher power rating, because they have separate amplifiers (generally 4) for XLR output + and - for each...

Hi @Torq, Thanks for all your input on DACs - I was wondering if you've spent much time with any of the TotalDACs and what you think of them vs. the Dave and Dave + M-Scaler

How much would you pay? I like the list of features - I would add mfi to the list for wider compatibility. No mention of sound quality or driving power, battery life. I would expect that it would take some serious engineering (and/or cost) to achieve good sq with all that in a small package...

Batteries still have residual DC noise and ripple - a high quality filtered linear power supply should sound better. But compared to a crappy switched wallwart (some switching supplies are better than others) a battery would be better...

There's several things that could be happening here - one is the Master version is sometimes a different pressing / mix of the audio - like "remastered" or remixed. Secondly, not all DACs sound the same at different bit-depth/frequencies, particularly if you are running the sound through the...

Are the Monoprice/Massdrop and Benchmark amps the only THX amps announced so far? I'm curious to see if anyone else will be making THX 888 amps in particular.

There's been plenty of refutation on this forum (with counter measurements) and elsewhere. ASR is Amirs site so you wouldn't go looking there for a counterpoint.

Could someone explain the analog stage on the DAC1541 for the balanced and SE line outs and the headphone out?

I occasionally listen to a AQ Firefly Red via official apple lightning USB adapter (CCK?) to my iPhone 6s plus, via Tidal (or Spotify for some albums not on Tidal). I haven't spent too much time listening in this format, but yes, I do remember it dropping a few times. Not constantly, but it...

The closest experience for me has been with an LCD-2 (pre-Fazor). When watching movies through it (non-Smyth of course), the bass has that visceral impact you expect with subs, in a way that let's say equalizing a HD800 cannot reproduce. I did listen to the Z1R at the NY Canjam, and it was great...