If the Oppo HA-2 were a great match, that would be good news. I'd be happy to have iPhone compatibility. If I could save $50-$100 by getting a desktop amp, the cost savings are more important to me right now, unless the newer HA-2 is driving the price down on the used market. Does anyone have...

Could anyone recommend a powered DAC/amp that matches well with a gen1 H6? After > 100 hours of listening, my H6 seems to output a higher volume but less bass, using an iPhone 6. I didn't expect that much change. Day to day I'm listening to lossless 16/44.1 files through an Arcam rPAC...

Amazon is now listing 2nd generation H6 headphones, with this description: Sound Design - Enhanced sound so you can hear all the details of your music when you're on the move A more industrial, robust shape to the arms and housing that has clear visual reference to H7 and H8 Adjusted the...

I wouldn't recommend either one over what you hear yourself. :) I also thought the MH40 had a punchy dynamic sound, it just wasn't a sound signature I liked. To me, the PM3 was not punchy, in comparison. Lots of detail, but not the kind of energetic presentation that made me want to get moving...

Here's the TL;DR version of my review. I agree with what others have said about the clarity of sound. I really enjoyed listening to the details in familiar recordings, though I had to turn up my USB-powered DAC (Arcam rPAC) up fairly loud. Bass tones didn't get muddy, and with the right...

I'd like to join the loaner program, please and thank you. I agree to the terms and I'm in the U.S.

I've found Airport Express units for around $50 on eBay, which may help a bit. There are lots of newer DACs with USB, but there are lots and lots of slightly older DACs that have optical/coax only. An AE could open up options lost by Apple not including toslink in the MBAir. 

Can you be any more specific? Company or web site?

Or buy an Airport Express and stream the music to it's toslink-out port (same as a MacBook's). It's very handy if you don't want to be cabled to the stereo while listening. I bought an REL Q201E subwoofer off eBay for ~$300. It allows you to set a crossover point as well as volume, and it...

I've owned UE Triple Fi 10s for a couple years now and really enjoyed them. I bought a few sets of Comply foam eartips, which work okay. They generally fit well enough, but as they wear they loosen, which weakens the sound. This happens more frequently when I'm doing something active. Like...

FWIW, a line-out dock (LOD) is a full-volume analog signal, not a digital signal that you can run into a DAC. I have an iPhone and TF10s and I'm sticking with it for the time being, piping ALAC, though admittedly I haven't heard them paired with an amp to do a comparison.

Hi HeadphoneAddict, I'm considering the Livewire Duals. Reading your Synergy thread and your notes in this thread, would the D10 compare well against the Predator for IEMs? I'm listening to ALAC files on a MacBook, looking for a DAC/amp. Cheers

This is all fine for when you're in the house. Yes, you could drop your catalog on a NAS and stream it to your Mac or to your system via an Airport Express (which pretty much works as you'd hope, except for a little lag and the annoyance of selecting the correct "speaker" for output). What...

We've got a lossy library on another computer for my wife's iPod. A lossy copy for the laptop would be yet another to maintain, plus I've been working on annotating the comments section to build playlists for months and months, hardcoding everything from star-ratings to instruments played...

True KingStyles, true, but the 750GB and 1TB WD drives are 12.5mm high and won't fit, besides being very spendy at the moment.

I know, I know, iTunes. I'm a Mac guy, but I used EAC and the iTunesEncode plugin to rip my collection of ~1200 discs to Apple Lossless. That's in the neighborhood of 333GB. I recently bought a new Mac laptop and installed a 500GB drive. After formatting and a Windows partition, that leaves me...

Has anyone taken the plunge and tried to get molded earphones to fit their SRM-001? My poor earlobes are taking a beating. What substance could I use as a test case? Silly Putty? Sticky tack? Some kind of wax?

Buy a powered speaker (computer speakers). Stream audio from the MacBook on your iPhone using simplify media or the like. Or stream using an Airport Express--the one shaped like a power brick.

If you're connecting to a receiver via optical, your receiver is doing the work, not your soundcard. Upgrading your sound card is unlikely to make any difference.

Tivoli's PAL radios are weather resistant and sound good for a small box. Don't put it in the tub, but it could sit happily on the counter. Add the streamer of your choice--Slim, Roku, iPod touch + Simplify Media and push play. No remodeling required.

You aren't limited to USB units. Your MacBook has a digital out via optical, so you can do some hunting through the external DAC threads for recommendations. Nothing Mac-specific about your seup if you go optical.

Sloga's right on, they should be the same size. Is 320kbps your normal encoding rate? I'd expect LAME to have a bigger impact on lower bitrate files. That said, I'm not sure I'd ditch 160kbps iTunes mp3 files for 160kbps LAME encodes if it means reripping an entire library.

Oh, and Simplify Media does pretty solid streaming outside of the home. Easy enough to set up just out of curiosity. Especially if you already have an iPod Touch in the mix. New apps are about all iTunes gift cards are worth, in my book.

Headless=screenless, yes. Do you want it to turn into an HTPC, is where I'm headed? That would need to be capable of some heavy lifting. If you just want it for audio playback, one of these Atom-based net-tops should do. That's still in the $300-$500, especially once you add on some storage...

AudioCats said, regarding the SRM-001: Quote: The thin ribbon cable is not that big a problem, it is not super robust but not necessary worse than a lot of IEM cables. Plus, it is user replacable. Replaceable with the same cable, or is someone doing upgrades? I'd only look this way...