[orkney]

Hi,

I just picked up one of these and am looking forward to giving it a listen. Managed to find one new for 395.00 in Canada, which may be the first time ever in my Headfi journey that I got a reasonable deal in my home country...

Can anyone comment on whether/how well the Duet's built-in amp can drive lower-impedance headphones (RS1/DX000)?

thanks and best,

o

 

[Tarkovsky]

Lucky for you, cheapest I could find in the UK was £295s which is near double that. And I'm still waiting for delivery.

 

[Jaska]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tarkovsky /img/forum/go_quote.gif Lucky for you, cheapest I could find in the UK was £295s which is near double that. And I'm still waiting for delivery.

If you think that's bad, they're €499 plus €20 shipping (~$815) here

 

[Tarkovsky]

Ouch. I think the high £ really helps. But you guys do have insane internet speeds and a very stable economy right?

 

[Jaska]

If I remember correctly, Al Gore invented the Internet here while on a trip many years ago. Let's call it a Finnish-American invention

 

[tfarney]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jaska /img/forum/go_quote.gif If I remember correctly, Al Gore invented the Internet here while on a trip many years ago. Let's call it a Finnish-American invention

Good recall of American current events Jaska! Yes, Al Gore invented the internet while on a diplomatic trip to Finland. Subsequently, George W. Bush paid Microsoft $100 billion to take it off of our hands while on a golf outting in the United Arab Emirates.

Tim

 

[grawk]

My first complaint about the duet, and it's more a complaint about my choice of external drive cases I think.

When I use the duet plugged into the drive chain (2 acomdata mini pal firewire drives), and time machine kicks off a backup, from that point on, I get awful digital noise on the duet. So what I've had to do is leave the backup drive off, and then when I'm ready to do a backup I stop itunes, turn on the backup drive, and then when the backup finishes, reboot and go back to itunes.

 

[Tarkovsky]

Firewire hub? Have you tried the duet on on a FW800 port with 400>800 cable?

 

[grawk]

My mini doesn't have a fw800 port

 

[feverfive]

^^I thought the Duet wasn't supposed to be daisy-chained w/ other fw devices? Or am I misunderstanding what you're doing?

 

[grawk]

whether it's supposed to be or not, it's what I have to do

 

[orkney]

Mine arrived yesterday and after a bit of fiddling I'm all set up with an iBook, Duet and DX1000 phones. Very clean, detailed sound direct from the Duet with terrific reproduction of spactial cues and a sweet top end. I'm not sure that the Victors are the ideal partner for the Duet but I plan on using it primarily as a DAC and luggable amp. I think it's an excellent product for Mac users and look forward to using it DAC-only once my amp returns. I'm very pleased with it.

best,

o

 

[Tarkovsky]

My this thing is pretty.

Initial notes listening through HD600s and GS Green Solo
1) Bass seems tighter and much more musical, drum and bass seems to have a greater dynamic range
2) Soundstage much wider
3) Detail like vocal vibrato noticable for music like the Decemberists
4) Output is quite hot
5) THE APPLE REMOTE CONTROLS THE VOLUME

6) The breakout cable is fine, on a lesser bit of kit no fuss would be made, but it stands out as the least pretty bit of the whole thing, otherwise it's a very sleek unit
7) It ways roughly the same as a canned drink
8) This set up sounds pretty good, in fact it's probably the best HP setup I've heard

Pretty happy so far. I'm going to post a review in comparison to a meridian dac where we'll blind test the DACs.

 

[Hopstretch]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tarkovsky /img/forum/go_quote.gif Pretty happy so far. I'm going to post a review in comparison to a meridian dac where we'll blind test the DACs.

I'm looking forward to that.

It struck me again today listening straight out of the Duet today how neutral it is and revealing of recording quality. (Perhaps not surprising given its intended purpose.) You certainly can do better with the help of an external amp, but it's also a perfectly feasible one-box setup.

I've been playing around with some more-elegant solutions for breakout cables. I'll post the results when they eventuate.

 

[grawk]

my cable has rca ins and outs. I'm pretty happy with it.