Great review!   I didn't spent long on the  lyr/bifrost but my initial feeling was my gungnir/mjolnir were no better than them. The Lyr used special tubes that you can tell from outside.   I really got dazzled at the Realizer, especially with 5.1 recording. AMAZING! And that doesn't pair...

Hi I'll bring my Schiit combo tmr afternoon. Not sure how early in the afternoon. Do I need to bring my own laptop? 

Any idea when and where will the next meet be?

Will do!

There's good news and bad news.   Good news is I received the gungnir so the gungnir/mjolnir stack is available.    Bad news is I'll lend my LCD2 to my friend and thus won't be able to bring it in the meet.    So do you guys still want me to bring the Schiit combo?

I am totally tempted!   I will bring LCD2 R2. I also have schiit gungnir/Mjolnir coming but I need to have Schiit installed the USB so not sure it'll be done in time.

Will definitely be there!

man you are rich! Without the chance of actually listening to them, I have to give it some serious thoughts before spending $1000+. don't know why Schiit doesn't have any dealer in big cities like Chicago.      There's definitely no problem in terms of powering.  I believe pdrm360's point...

I used LCD-2 as the headphone and,   1. Dragonfly alone 2. Dragonfly + Asguard amp 3. Dragonfly + Hifiman EF5 Tube amp   The difference is minimum. I doubt if my ears are insensitive. 

Quote: I followed your instruction and pair it with an Asguard amp. The SQ is much better! Still I don't understand why setting my system volume to 100% would disable the amp part of dragonfly.

Quote: It works pretty well for Rock and Pop. For others it feels lack of power/clarity

I've been to Audio Consultant. The owner allowed me to bring gears home to try them during Sunday and Monday, which is awesome!

Quote: Got u. Thanks!!

Quote: The reason to use another amp is that the amp inside DF is not good enough to drive HD 650 well. 

Quote: Please bear with me here... In my understanding the amp I use must have a volume control to offset part of the 100% system volume. What if I don't use 100% system volume, but still connect the DF with an external amp, and then my headphone? Will the DF still serve only as a DAC, or...

Quote: That's my plan... Looks like the DAC part of DF is better than the amp part..   BTW wonder if you know once I got an amp how can I disable the amp part of DF?

The Dragonfly+Hd 650 seems an OK combo, I am not impressed.

Quote: Thanks for the prompt reply man. I know there's cable like that to connect dragonfly and your awesome burson, but I am not sure how you can use only the DAC of the DF --- Is that because of the order?    If it goes this way,  Computer --> Dragonfly --> Burson -->headphone, then...

Quote: I am newbie and I am curious - DF and Burson are both amp/dac combo, how can you use DF as DAC and Burson as amplifier? 

I am using foobar 2000 and it's great. It supports almost all lossless formats but for ape you may need to do download some file first.

I think for easy-driven headphones, you will benefit more from a DAC. FiiO E17 is close to $100, and is a good one(DAC/AMP).   Not sure if you can benefit from the AMP or not for easy-driven gears. Anyone can shed some lights?

You definitely can. Check sth like AudioQuest Dragonfly. However, I m not sure Optical S/PDIF would make any difference than USB sound.

I am a newbie too but I know there's plenty of choices for DAC if money is not the issue. Just browse the summer buying guide.   However, if there's any weak point of your chain(lossless format, dac/amp, headphone/speaker), your SQ could suffer. 

Quote: Thanks for the prompt response!