I just got an esoteric x-01 for my headphone system, but it seems too good for a headphone system. I felt my headphone and amp combo can't handle the signals from the cd player. Has anybody has a good headphone system setup with esoteric digital source would share your setup?
Anybody have a set up with Esoteric CD players?
ProtegeManiac
Headphoneus Supremus
If people don't have an Esoteric CDP it's not because "headphones can't handle the signal" out of a good DAC circuit, but because:
1. They don't even have a CDP
2. Even if they have a CDP, it's not necessary to have one built like a tank, since on a purely headphone system, there are no soundwaves bombarding the whole room, and at worst a cheap mechanical source might impart those vibrations onto certain vacuum tubes might be vulnerable to those vibrations.
Neither excludes the use of a good DAC. At best, the idea that a headphone system can't "handle" the signal out of a good DAC is simply because of physics - the headphones aren't positioned in a way that is anywhere near as conducive to making the most out of the imaging that can be squeezed out by a good source and a good amp driving good speakers in a well-dampened room. But even then this has more to do with price efficiency - if I can have $10,000 CDP then I might as well just get a $5,000 speaker with a $2,000 amp and $1,000 CDP, then spend the change on renovating an entire spare room as an acoustically perfect listening room.
1. They don't even have a CDP
2. Even if they have a CDP, it's not necessary to have one built like a tank, since on a purely headphone system, there are no soundwaves bombarding the whole room, and at worst a cheap mechanical source might impart those vibrations onto certain vacuum tubes might be vulnerable to those vibrations.
Neither excludes the use of a good DAC. At best, the idea that a headphone system can't "handle" the signal out of a good DAC is simply because of physics - the headphones aren't positioned in a way that is anywhere near as conducive to making the most out of the imaging that can be squeezed out by a good source and a good amp driving good speakers in a well-dampened room. But even then this has more to do with price efficiency - if I can have $10,000 CDP then I might as well just get a $5,000 speaker with a $2,000 amp and $1,000 CDP, then spend the change on renovating an entire spare room as an acoustically perfect listening room.
Actually, I stupidly connected x-01 to perfectwave mkii DAC by PS audio to compare it with my old marantz universal CD player, but I used its built-in DAC, it sounds so good that I don't think I am listening to a headphone. Seems like Esoteric and PS audio are terrible together.
Well saw this earlier and didn’t think you could overpower most things so glad you got it figured out.
Users who are viewing this thread
