[Orcin]

I've read the stickie, but I still don't get it. So I will just ask for opinions. Please answer honestly. This is not about flexing my hi-fi muscle and you won't hurt my feelings. I've been to meets, so I know there are much better rigs out there. My question is really to understand where the dividing line is...

Is this a "high-end" system?

Sennheiser HD800 headphones with Moon Audio Blue Dragon cable
Woo Audio WA6SE amplifier with Sophia Princess rectifier tube
MHDT Paradisea+ DAC with 1953 WE396A tube
Grover SC RCA interconnects between DAC & amp
Zu Birth power cables on both DAC and amp
PC Audio Duet power conditioner

Source:
FLAC files ripped with EAC played via Foobar2000 using Vista WASAPI
output to DAC via optical cable from motherboard

It synergizes very well and sounds awesome to me relative to comparable, and even more expensive, systems that I have experienced at meets. But it is not balanced and it is not legendary and it is not really expensive when you consider people have spent more than I did for cables alone.

 

[AdamWysokinski]

I doubt that you will receive a satisfying answer to your question as there is no generally accepted definition of "high-end". As a result "high-endedness" in the eye of the beholder. And BTW, I find no correlation between price and hi-end. There are many brilliant inexpensive components and hundreds of costing a fortune which sound like s**t. After all, music is all that matters. If it sounds good, the setup is good, no matter how much it costs and what other people say.

 

[kostalex]

I believe this is high-end system. The only possible weak link I see is optical output from motherboard, which may (or may not) be jittery.

 

[wantmyf1]

High-end compared to what I have. But who cares? If you have it, and it presents the music in a way you enjoy, that's all that would matter to me. Does the labelling really matter?

 

[nikongod]

I would get a different DAC, although I cant recommend which. I found the MDHT stuff to have a particular smear & generally dull details.

An ironic statement from a self declared "tube guy", and a helpful hint: unless you have a LOT of money to throw at the problem dont get a tube DAC. your dollar may take you further with an SS DAC even if you do have a lot of money to throw at the problem.

What does being balanced or not have to do with the system fitting in here? Very "top down" I would say. I thought sounding good was what it was all about in this forum, regardless of the methods taken to make good sound. I have heard some truly awful balanced amps and really nice single ended ones. on that note, IME balanced amps have a better chance of sounding good than single ended amps, but there is no guarantee of that. I think its slightly easier to make a better balanced amp than SE (which makes me really curious about what kind of speshul idiot designed the bad ones) but balanced is not guaranteed superior by any stretch of the word.

 

[ecclesand]

I would guess that to the "Haves", your system is mid-fi. But to the "Have-Nots", your system is hi-fi. You can see where I fall by looking at my profile.

 

[ruknd]

No, you need silver dragon cables.

Seriously though it sounds like you have a very nice system and the way I look at it anything better than mass produced consumer components is certainly high end...so I would say yes.

 

[skiflyer]

You can run the HD800's right from the headphone out on one of those old yellow sony walkman (the cassette kind) and I think a lot of people would still call it high end

 

[omigawsh_lollercoaster]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Orcin /img/forum/go_quote.gif HD800 cable tube tube interconnects power cables power conditioner sounds awesome to me

Attention to detail + sounds awesome = high end in my opinion.

 

[Orcin]

There are some really interesting comments so far. Thanks for giving me some opinions.


Quote:

Originally Posted by wantmyf1 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Does the labelling really matter?

No, it doesn't matter at all. This is more of a curiosity on my part than a request for validation. I just sincerely wonder what other people here consider to be high-end. I understand that it is a matter of perspective and certainly many people will say it is better than what they have and therefore high-end to them.


Quote:

Originally Posted by nikongod /img/forum/go_quote.gif I would get a different DAC, although I cant recommend which. I found the MDHT stuff to have a particular smear & generally dull details. An ironic statement from a self declared "tube guy", and a helpful hint: unless you have a LOT of money to throw at the problem dont get a tube DAC. your dollar may take you further with an SS DAC even if you do have a lot of money to throw at the problem.

This is really interesting. I never thought to ask about what the weak link might be, so I am really glad you gave this opinion. It definitely gives me a new direction in which to experiment. Upgraditis is inevitable.

 

[Drag0n]

Its a highend system.....but not particularly esoteric.
Its not a Nagra, or Halcro,.....but yet again, if all we talked about here was the truly esoteric equipment we owned, there may only be a few posts here because most people dont have stuff thats quite that high end.

Id say anything a decent cut above what you see in BestBuy and other consumer shoppes, would be considered high end.

 

[Asr]

High-end equipment as defined by most audiophiles usually consists of equipment not designed to a particular price or a specific compromise. Invariably, most high-end equipment is expensive, but this is where the caveats come in: not all expensive equipment is necessarily high-end, and not all high-end equipment is necessarily expensive. That said, most high-end equipment does tend to be ambitiously designed for performance in one way or another, which dictates that there's an inherent cost relation to high-end, therefore high-end equipment is not cheap. I think you can extrapolate from there.

 

[donunus]

Quote:

Originally Posted by nikongod /img/forum/go_quote.gif I would get a different DAC, although I cant recommend which. I found the MDHT stuff to have a particular smear & generally dull details.

I agree with the mhdt being dull. Ive heard two havanas. My old one and my cousins modded one. They were both lacking in leading edge transients and were dry and too warm. The modded one was less dry but still too warm sounding IMO

 

[DarKu]

maybe some people likes a warm source

frankly i find Havana to be full bodied and warm/lush sounding compared to a friends Benchmark dac1 and Lavry DA10 which are bright and fatiguing to listen IMO
Orcin in my humble opinion you do have an high-end system if you love it and don't want to upgrade anymore like me, it sounds just what i was hopping for and a little more

 

[donunus]

yah thats true, some like it warm. It was just my opinion on the setup if it was mine; the mhdt would be the first thing I would change.