I would also agree it is hot but not burn your fingers hot and certainly cooler than my integrated valve amp! Perhaps if you can site it with space around and nothing above it then it will have room to "breathe" and prevent the heat from building up?

This was my feeling on listening to the Utopias. I think they are excellent headphone and have a superb bass which is detailed and extended but not loose and wooly. The midrange feels natural and smooth. I wasn't quite so convinced about their treble and stage depth, but if these things are low...

Ok, time for part deux and I have been struggling to find a preference with the iTube 2 valve setting. The differences are there for sure but its a bit like moving around an auditorium and trying different seats to find the best sound at a concert. Right now with Shelby Lynne and "Just a little...

In your opinion, just as that is not the case in my opinion........... 

Finally I got the opportunity of listening to the Focal Utopias (and Elears briefly) today. I found the bass to be very well extended and organic but with none of the bloat which that can often result in. The mids were as neutral as I have heard on any headphone and the treble was smooth but a...

Finally I got the opportunity of listening to the Focal Utopias (and Elears briefly) today. I found the bass to be very well extended and organic but with none of the bloat which that can often result in. The mids were as neutral as I have heard on any headphone and the treble was smooth but a...

How about the ifi iCAN Pro then you can choose between Valve and SS depending on your mood...........

Let me start this interim review by saying that I am rather favourably disposed towards valves as they have been a permanent fixture in my main amplifiers at home since the mid 80’s. My ifi Audio stack which comprises an iUSB power , iDSD and iCAN SE runs in class A of course but it’s not quite...

  Yeah 490s sadly. They were good value and folded up neatly and into a small space so ideal for my briefcase when travelling. I think it would probably prevent me from buying any more AKG headphones in the future. Meantime the PXC 550s are excellent in sound quality noise cancellation and...

Sorry dont know anything about the MB660 except it looks like a call centre version of the PXC550. Oh and the carrying case is much better!

Got my pair of PXC550s a couple of weeks ago and have been trying them out in various locations from different sources. I am very pleased so far and I feel they are a better round headphone than the QC25s and AKGs I have had before. The QC25s and the PXC550s are very close on comfort and noise...

I use the ME2 as the dac but have an iCAN SE for amp duties as the ME2 couldn't provide enough power for my HD800s. So it goes Auralic Aries (or Laptop, but the Aries has less noise) to iP2 to iUSB power to ME2 (or iDSD) to iCAN SE to HD800. The Tidal input is controlled via the Auralic DS app...

I cant speak about the Hugo but I have compared the iDSD to the E2. I use these devices for Tidal streaming and I don't have any HD downloads. The iDSD sounds better then the E2 on Red book/ CD quality music. The E2 pulls ahead slightly on MQA music, but even there it's not a massive difference. 

The app for the Auralic Aries family integrates with Tidal and now Tidal Masters also and I think might be one of the first to do so outside of the Tidal desktop app for laptops. So maybe something to consider for the future? I dont know anything about the Moon but good luck.   

I don't know if the ME2 would draw too much power from your iPad but in principle it should work although you will need an adaptor from the CCK to the ME2 micro usb socket. The DAC that would work is the Audioquest Dragonfly (red or black) as they have been built to draw minimal power from...

Has anyone out there been using Tidal Masters (MQA) for streaming music. Just to say that the Lightning DS software for your Aries has been updated and now can see the Masters files and play them back via your MQA (or not ) DAC.   I have been waiting for weeks for this to happen and only...

Interesting stuff as there is almost nothing out there about the 480s.Actually I ordered the 550s as I got a voucher from my dealer for February and so it will take the price down very close to the 480s. I'm not too worried about bluetooth and I don't seem to be troubled by Sennheiser peaky...

The author clearly did not "cherry pick" his data but applied a scientific protocol to determine which studies to include that fell within that protocol and which were not. If you understood a meta analysis then you should know this. It is also noted in the reference section. So the author is...

  It seems that you require scientific proof absolute for anything to be true (or not).   Now that a published meta analysis is held up as such scientific proof the paper is immediately derided and the authors integrity called into question. If this paper was subject to peer review and given...

Just as a final summation for the defence and before I go back to listening to some music.   1. It's not what my answer "appears to be". It is my factual answer.   2. If the master is recorded at a higher fidelity then it should sound better than a lower fidelity copy. Or am I missing...

Perhaps if I had been asked in a "good manner" rather than being called a shill I might have been less dismayed.   Fair enough, although in my defence I didn't appreciate this was a sub forum as I was merely looking for an active MQA discussion thread and certainly not for one devoted to...

Well yes up until about an hour ago, thank you.

Thanks for your kind diatribe, and in answer to your questions........   1.Why can I not be very interested? I mentioned that I had been a Tidal user for a while so the prospect of Higher Fi for the same money seemed to me at least worth trying out.   2. Unlike yourself I am not an expert on...

I believe the nano iCAN has a battery and of course it is smaller then the iCAN SE so more transportable. Just a thought????

I have been a Tidal HiFi convert for a couple of years now to the point where it has become my main source of audio/music over my physical media sources of Vinyl and CD. It is just so easy to use and the choice is so much wider than my own collection of discs.   So then I was of course very...