I would love to see this proven as well. I guess I wouldn't be surprised to see it be true, but it seems like a lot of money to lay down to improve the power supply for what is basically a SPDIF funnel to my DAC... I've been sorely tempted to buy one of these and try it with my own ears, but as...

I've been curious about this myself. Being able to sculpt the frequency response of your system would be a great benefit from time to time, so long as it didn't deteriorate the SQ. This, I expect, will be the rub though. I've had bad luck with various preamps in my main stereo before I settled...

Quote: Originally Posted by elwappo99 Glad to see another UC here! I hope budget cuts haven't affected your head-fi budget too much. My hikes brought my budget to a near standstill I take it you're a student then. I'm both student and staff, so I got the fee hikes and the pay...

Quote: Originally Posted by elwappo99 My dac_I came in today. I really like the XLR out instead of a cheaper amp. Running it to my MKV all I can say is..... Wow I'm really impressed. Agreed! This is my work setup (at UC Berkeley by the way) and it sounds way better than it...

It'd be great to meet some of you folks! I'll plan on attending, but it's a little early for me to know that I won't have work or school obligations on the 27th. I'll try to keep the calendar free... As for gear, my stuff's rather vanilla but I'd be glad to haul it down there if people are...

Well, Little Dot has a new one that fits the bill coming out soon. I have the DAC_I which sounds great to my ears, and the new one will be the same dac section with a built-in solid state headphone amplifier. Their website has been on the fritz lately, but you can see pics on this thread...

I've had good luck with the Class D amplifiers. Myself, I have a truly cheapo Sonic Impact which, quite frankly, sounds great for nearfield which I picked up for like $25 back in the day, but the cheapo controls are just too painful to deal with. After a few months I picked up a Trends Audio...

Congrats -- Sounds like a nice setup. And Love Supreme is both awesome and made to be played on vinyl.

Amen to that -- It's a handy feature for sure...

Quote: Originally Posted by Redo Rerip everything in FLAC and get a nice Dac =b I'm with Redo here. The DAC is just much more flexible. If you're really not into re-ripping your CD's for the moment, just run any old disc spinner as a transport for the CD's into the new DAC until...

Actually, my suspicion would be that the sound would be better this way if your card is outputting a bit perfect digital stream. It sounds like the Benchmark's USB input is pretty good quality, but I don't think anyone would argue that it's better than the coaxial input. I suppose that future...

I've been checking out these "Super Heirloom Restoration"s on Audiogon lately... These sure are gorgeous tables, but the price aint cheap...

Quote: Originally Posted by ford2 If available SPDIF/Coax is a better choice than usb. Yah, I imagine you're right but USB is awfully convenient and I haven't felt like springing for something to get Coax out of my PC. If I heard a big difference between the USB and Coax inputs...

Quote: Originally Posted by oatmeal769 I'm doing so now, and since I received it. Works perfectly via USB, (no driver needed) TosLink, or my current preference - coaxial cable.Not likely - at least not something anyone can hear. I have not yet objectively tested it however. Yah...

I'd be excited to come check out the meet! I'm new to the head-fi scene, leaving me all the more eager to meet some people and hear some new gear. If someone needed a ride from Berkeley I could probably help out...

Hey Oatmeal. Glad to hear that you picked this thing up. I'll definitely be curious to see what your battery of impressive testing will produce... My own subjective tests showed up a pretty small difference between the Bechmark Dac 1 and the LD. I'm also glad to hear your impressions from...

Quote: Originally Posted by Mehve Bear in mind that the MKVII rating is while in balanced mode, which is good for nearly twice the voltage swing, and by extension, almost four times the power. I don't believe I've ever seen its rating for single-ended output, but it's possible that it...

Thanks for the tips on the MK VII also, guys. I'm wondering how different it would really be from the MKV though. They look almost identical... What about the circuits? I'm sure that the balanced connection would make some difference (after buying a new cable of course), but I'm feeling a pull...

Quote: Originally Posted by CapQ Hi Lantis, Yes I did own a LD DAC_1 before and it's my first DAC unit actually. DAC_1 let me know how important a DAC (or source) is to the whole headphones/speakers system. That's why I upgraded my DAC from DAC_1 to Apogee Minidac and then to...

Quote: Originally Posted by Lantis Ditto on that-- I think I'll play with my DAC_I first before moving up then A little question for the other owners though as I haven't received mine yet. I will be using DAC_I via USB on my PC, but I saw the limitations that the sampling rate for...

Quote: Originally Posted by Currawong Interesting review. The MKV isn't a very detailed headphone amp, so the lack of a great difference between the LD DAC and Benchmark isn't a surprise in that case. I think if you used a high-end headphone amp you'd notice the differences more...

Quote: Originally Posted by ford2 Took 9 days for mine,they seem to be testing them for a few days before sending. Yah, it was the same for me. Just over a week to the West Coast...

Quote: Originally Posted by oatmeal769 Good Review. I'll be doing a comparison between the LD DAC 1 and the PS Audio DLIII using time synchronized level matched neutral bias recordings with double blind listening tests pretty soon... I would love to hear your thoughts on this...

Thanks guys -- You make a good point. In fact, I did do extensive testing of both the LD and Benchmark DACs feeding the MKV headphone amp. I didn't talk about it much, but realize that I should have done so. Allow me to correct this oversight... Feeding both dacs into the MKV, I was able to...