[Maxvla]

Thank you for posting.
I have an M Stage and was going to keep it and use it with my M-DAC when I buy my M-DAC.
Guess I may as well sell it now to raise money for the M-DAC.

I've never compared the M-DAC side by side with the M Stage, so I never had a very soild or well informed opinion.
When I heard the M-DAC it was using the DAC and amp  in the M-DAC.

I've used my M Stage with various DACs, but never together with an M-DAC.

I did think that my DT880 headphones sounded better thru the M-DAC headphone jack than thru the M Stage.

You aren't going to lose anything other than time by holding onto the M-Stage until you have the MDAC. As viable as zting's opinion is, yours may differ and you may prefer using the MDAC with the M-Stage. No reason to sell it now.

@zting

You'll find with better upstream gear the HD800 scales far far higher than the Q701. The M-Stage and MDAC amps are what I would consider minimum for HD800 sounding like an HD800. It gets much better, while the Q701 is pretty much done scaling with something like an M-Stage.

 

[Maxvla]

You're welcome Chris.

I bought it because I had the impression that mstage dedicated amp is slightly better than the mdac from reading on the forums. Apparently not...

It might be worth your while to order an opamp or two to swap and see if it betters the sound for you. Opamps are usually just a few dollars. The one included with the HPA-2 is the OPA2134, which is alright, but not great. I like the LT1364, myself.

 

[Dexon]

I can't even imagine how bad Mstage HPA2 must be then. When I bought Mdac I thought somethings wrong with it. HP out was terrible. Very dull, sparkless, slow sound with dynamics of a 10$ table radio. K702 sounded so bad that I wouldn't call that HiFi even in today's broad meaning of the word

 

[Chris J]

You aren't going to lose anything other than time by holding onto the M-Stage until you have the MDAC. As viable as zting's opinion is, yours may differ and you may prefer using the MDAC with the M-Stage. No reason to sell it now.

@zting

You'll find with better upstream gear the HD800 scales far far higher than the Q701. The M-Stage and MDAC amps are what I would consider minimum for HD800 sounding like an HD800. It gets much better, while the Q701 is pretty much done scaling with something like an M-Stage.

It might be worth your while to order an opamp or two to swap and see if it betters the sound for you. Opamps are usually just a few dollars. The one included with the HPA-2 is the OPA2134, which is alright, but not great. I like the LT1364, myself.

Why do I want to sell the M Stage now?
Read my post again.
Ummmmm, money?
I don't really need a slightly worse headphone amp laying around doing nothing.

Swapping Op Amps will not improve the M Stage much, it will still sound like an m Stage. The effect of swapping Op Amps is pretty subtle.

 

[Maxvla]

I can't even imagine how bad Mstage HPA2 must be then. When I bought Mdac I thought somethings wrong with it. HP out was terrible. Very dull, sparkless, slow sound with dynamics of a 10$ table radio. K702 sounded so bad that I wouldn't call that HiFi even in today's broad meaning of the word

Just one person's opinion.

@Chris J

Time is money.

 

[Chris J]

I can't even imagine how bad Mstage HPA2 must be then. When I bought Mdac I thought somethings wrong with it. HP out was terrible. Very dull, sparkless, slow sound with dynamics of a 10$ table radio. K702 sounded so bad that I wouldn't call that HiFi even in today's broad meaning of the word

 


Wow!
When I heard an M-DAC with a pair of DT880/600 I thought I had never heard the DT880s sound better!

The M Stage is renown for working very well with K70x and Q701s.
I must confess that I have never heard the M-DAC with K70x or Q701.

 

[vian]

 

  I can't even imagine how bad Mstage HPA2 must be then. When I bought Mdac I thought somethings wrong with it. HP out was terrible. Very dull, sparkless, slow sound with dynamics of a 10$ table radio. K702 sounded so bad that I wouldn't call that HiFi even in today's broad meaning of the word

 


Wow!
When I heard an M-DAC with a pair of DT880/600 I thought I had never heard the DT880s sound better!

The M Stage is renown for working very well with K70x and Q701s.
I must confess that I have never heard the M-DAC with K70x or Q701.

I own the usb version of the hpa-2 and it sounds really great with my Q701s. An excellent match IMHO.
The amp needs a bit of burning in though, about 100 hours.
And I strongly suggest to replace the stock power cord with a decent one, because it's greatly improves the sound!

 

[Maxvla]

Upgraded cosmetics and usability of the HPA-2 the same way I did the HPA-1. Had a spare from when I ordered the first time. I'm not a fan of the shiny, but mostly I'm not a fan of the small knob, it makes it harder to turn precisely. Slight gap around the edge, but it sits down in the cavity unlike the HPA-1 where there was no gap on the sides, but it didn't sit flush with the panel face.

Also, got the LT1364 in it now and it's sounding even better. Full-er review coming soon.

Stock:

 

[Maxvla]

My view of the HPA-1 and the recently updated HPA-2, both USB DAC versions.

http://www.head-fi.org/products/matrix-m-stage-hpa-2-w-usb-dac/reviews/10470
http://www.head-fi.org/products/matrix-m-stage/reviews/10471

Same review contents and ratings, different pros/cons.

 

[Bert]

Upgraded cosmetics and usability of the HPA-2 the same way I did the HPA-1. Had a spare from when I ordered the first time. I'm not a fan of the shiny, but mostly I'm not a fan of the small knob, it makes it harder to turn precisely. Slight gap around the edge, but it sits down in the cavity unlike the HPA-1 where there was no gap on the sides, but it didn't sit flush with the panel face.

Also, got the LT1364 in it now and it's sounding even better. Full-er review coming soon.

Stock:

Could you point me to the knob you bought?

Thanks!

 

[ostewart]

Well they have updated the HPA-2, new model is the HPA-2C Classic : http://www.head-fi.org/t/801601/new-matrix-audio-hpa-2c-classic-amp-dac