[Monsterzero]

I suppose you don't remember the 3-headed dog or the clowns on stilts, either?

Man,I gotta start hanging out with you guys! I'll bring the peyote!

 

[mgivens]

ATTICUS update. ori suede pads are GREAT. really really good...couldn't be happier Zach made this recommendation.
I have a Z1R at home that UPS just dropped off so i will be spending the weekend comparing the atticus and the sony...should be fun!!

second, i had a fulla 2 returned to me today from a friend...im guessing no one is thinking about paring the atticus with a fulla 2, but if you are don't....the only way i can describe it is super flat. no space or dimension to the sound at all. everything sounds fake.

 

[heliosphann]

Did some listening with the Lyr 3 and Atticus today.

IMO it's a very good pairing. The Lyr 3 has great dynamics, plenty of power, decent soundstage, surprisingly extended highs, solid bass and great clarity. If you'd rather your Atticus have a little less mid-bass bloom, this is a good option to help rectify that. I'm using the NP Tung-Sol offered by Schiit and haven't got around to rolling anything else yet. I've heard by tube rolling on the Lyr 3 you can tweak the sound more than the MCTH. Speaking of which, I also did some comparisons with the MCTH and the Atticus. As some people have already said, it's another great amp choice (for half the price no less). However, it's a much different flavor than the Lyr 3. The MCTH is overall much warmer, softer and thicker sounding. I found this hit and miss on some tracks as the mid-bass can get somewhat bloated.

 

[Violent_Sneeze]

Would love to try the Atticus when I get my new setup

 

[givemetacos]

Did some listening with the Lyr 3 and Atticus today.

IMO it's a very good pairing. The Lyr 3 has great dynamics, plenty of power, decent soundstage, surprisingly extended highs, solid bass and great clarity. If you'd rather your Atticus have a little less mid-bass bloom, this is a good option to help rectify that. I'm using the NP Tung-Sol offered by Schiit and haven't got around to rolling anything else yet. I've heard by tube rolling on the Lyr 3 you can tweak the sound more than the MCTH. Speaking of which, I also did some comparisons with the MCTH and the Atticus. As some people have already said, it's another great amp choice (for half the price no less). However, it's a much different flavor than the Lyr 3. The MCTH is overall much warmer, softer and thicker sounding. I found this hit and miss on some tracks as the mid-bass can get somewhat bloated.

Thanks for the comparison impressions! It is great to hear that Atticus and Lyr 3 are a solid pairing. So far every comparison of MCTH vs Lyr 3 I have seen says both are great amps, but the Lyr 3 always wins out for every headphone pairing. Now I'm just waiting to see how Monolith Cavalli Liquid Platinum pans out and stacks up.

 

[mgivens]

update from weekend spent with the atticus and z1r

i did a blind swap with my wife Friday night. she listened to both not knowing which was which. after a couple hours of swapping she preferred the atticus on every genre she tried.

my dad came over Saturday and listened to both for a while, i was not involved but when he was done he said while he really was impressed with them both the winner was the atticus.

finally my friend who has his own recording studio and has a Grammy winning album he mastered came over. his main purpose was to help with the digital crossover tuning of my two channel system. however after hours messing with the 2 channel we switched to headphones. he strongly preferred the atticus over the sony. said something was off with the sony. thought the atticus was similar to his hd650(he admitted he rarely listens to them) and sounded very open for a closed headphone. his ears are 1000x better than mine

so everyone preferred the atticus. however i like the sony...the problem is i ONLY listen to headphones at work while i am focused on design projects and CAD(6-8 hours a day). the laid back sound of the sonys goes better with that for me, i want the music to be more in the background i guess. i found the atticus almost distracting when i'm not trying to critically listen. my stupid analogy is this: to me the atticus is like you're a couple beers deep and a bar listening to a band, happy, fun, intense. the sony is kinda drift off listening in a cloud in your bed.

so ya, that's where im at right now.

chain again was
tidal-gumby-a20-

-Michael

 

[JerryLeeds]

All of those are great sounding devices. I’d give you more in-depth thoughts about the Liberty, but I just started burning it in, so it is probably going to continue to open up a bit (it only has like 2hrs on it).

How is the burn in going with the Mytek Liberty?

 

[Hansotek]

How is the burn in going with the Mytek Liberty?

I’ve been 2,000 miles away for CanJam for the past week, so no progress. I’m going to leave it on for the rest of the week once I get home tomorrow though, I’ll report back!

 

[Raphael DeLaGhetto]

Did some listening with the Lyr 3 and Atticus today.

IMO it's a very good pairing. The Lyr 3 has great dynamics, plenty of power, decent soundstage, surprisingly extended highs, solid bass and great clarity. If you'd rather your Atticus have a little less mid-bass bloom, this is a good option to help rectify that. I'm using the NP Tung-Sol offered by Schiit and haven't got around to rolling anything else yet. I've heard by tube rolling on the Lyr 3 you can tweak the sound more than the MCTH. Speaking of which, I also did some comparisons with the MCTH and the Atticus. As some people have already said, it's another great amp choice (for half the price no less). However, it's a much different flavor than the Lyr 3. The MCTH is overall much warmer, softer and thicker sounding. I found this hit and miss on some tracks as the mid-bass can get somewhat bloated.

If there was a tube pairing with the Lyr 3 that made it sound like an improved CTH I'd be all over it. Honestly though I really dig the sound of the CTH anyway so I don't even know why I'm considering upgrading. This hobby man, always trying to convince myself to pursue more performance. Ugh.

 

[nocturaline]

This may not be the perfect place to ask the following question, but since all my listening is done with the Atticus, I figured it might still be okay.

I've had my new toy - the Woo WA2 - for a few days now, and so far I like what I hear with the Atticus a lot. The sound is warm, yes, but it's beautiful and lush. I've changed my setup a bit and have my CD player (Classé CDP-10) plugged directly into the amp, using its Burr-Brown PCM1738 two-channel DAC chips, instead of going through the Bifrost Multibit. Why? Because to my ears, it sounds better. However, I still use the Bifrost with Roon on a Mac and an Eitr.

I've compared albums that I both have on CDs and wave files. The wave files are directly downloaded from the record company, so in theory, they should be similar in quality to what's on the CDs. But the CDs played by the Classé plugged into the WA2 sound better than the files played by Roon through the Bifrost.

I don't believe Roon is the cause. I believe that the issue may be that I need a better DAC than the Bifrost Multibit, something that will at least match the Classé's quality. I'm looking for opinions on that, knowing that it's possible I could be wrong and the cause may lie elsewhere. Thanks!

PS: before somebody suggests buying the CDs instead of the wave files (that would be a perfect and simple solution), unfortunately, some albums are only available in digital, and some have more songs in digital vs. the CD. So the CD is not always the best solution.

 

[Pharmaboy]

This may not be the perfect place to ask the following question, but since all my listening is done with the Atticus, I figured it might still be okay.

I've had my new toy - the Woo WA2 - for a few days now, and so far I like what I hear with the Atticus a lot. The sound is warm, yes, but it's beautiful and lush. I've changed my setup a bit and have my CD player (Classé CDP-10) plugged directly into the amp, using its Burr-Brown PCM1738 two-channel DAC chips, instead of going through the Bifrost Multibit. Why? Because to my ears, it sounds better. However, I still use the Bifrost with Roon on a Mac and an Eitr.

I've compared albums that I both have on CDs and wave files. The wave files are directly downloaded from the record company, so in theory, they should be similar in quality to what's on the CDs. But the CDs played by the Classé plugged into the WA2 sound better than the files played by Roon through the Bifrost.

I don't believe Roon is the cause. I believe that the issue may be that I need a better DAC than the Bifrost Multibit, something that will at least match the Classé's quality. I'm looking for opinions on that, knowing that it's possible I could be wrong and the cause may lie elsewhere. Thanks!

PS: before somebody suggests buying the CDs instead of the wave files (that would be a perfect and simple solution), unfortunately, some albums are only available in digital, and some have more songs in digital vs. the CD. So the CD is not always the best solution.

Interesting post. This is not a DAC thread, but this post is all about DACs, the differences between which are often rather subtle.

Seems to me you're pitting a vintage 2003, $2000 list price (15 yrs ago!) delta-sigma DAC against probably the lowest price/biggest value multibit DAC around. I never heard the Classe, but I did hear the Schitt. It was in a 100% unfamiliar system & show conditions, so no conclusions possible.

Normally I'd back the multibit design over a delta-sigma. But here, the d-s has obviously bigger power supplies, probably a far better, more evolved analog section (ie, high-cost "audiophile" parts from 2003), larger case/better ventilation, etc. It was also said to sound laid back and relaxed even back in the day (just read several reviews)--so the Classe isn't exactly committing the typical d-s sins (ie, sharp transients, flat/2D soundstaging, "dry" bass).

Plus the Atticus has be viewed as a well-executed headphone design w/more than enough resolution & freedom from distortion to reveal subtle difference between these very different & unequal DACs...

It's no contest (winner: Class), and that's no surprise, really.

PS: there are some amazing multibit DACs out there--including my favorite multibits of all, the NOS kind--that don't cost as much as your Classe, but also aren't as cheap as your Bitfrost. One of those might well equal or exceed the sound of the Classe. But that's a post for another thread...

 

[heliosphann]

This may not be the perfect place to ask the following question, but since all my listening is done with the Atticus, I figured it might still be okay.

I've had my new toy - the Woo WA2 - for a few days now, and so far I like what I hear with the Atticus a lot. The sound is warm, yes, but it's beautiful and lush. I've changed my setup a bit and have my CD player (Classé CDP-10) plugged directly into the amp, using its Burr-Brown PCM1738 two-channel DAC chips, instead of going through the Bifrost Multibit. Why? Because to my ears, it sounds better. However, I still use the Bifrost with Roon on a Mac and an Eitr.

I've compared albums that I both have on CDs and wave files. The wave files are directly downloaded from the record company, so in theory, they should be similar in quality to what's on the CDs. But the CDs played by the Classé plugged into the WA2 sound better than the files played by Roon through the Bifrost.

I don't believe Roon is the cause. I believe that the issue may be that I need a better DAC than the Bifrost Multibit, something that will at least match the Classé's quality. I'm looking for opinions on that, knowing that it's possible I could be wrong and the cause may lie elsewhere. Thanks!

PS: before somebody suggests buying the CDs instead of the wave files (that would be a perfect and simple solution), unfortunately, some albums are only available in digital, and some have more songs in digital vs. the CD. So the CD is not always the best solution.

Atticus + WA2 is a sweet combo. A lot of those older Burr-Brown chips are really fantastic sounding, especially if implemented well. Not surprising it sounds better than the Bifrost (which I wasn't much of a fan of). I'd recommend picking up a used Bel Canto Dac 3. You can usually get them for $750-850. They have Burr-Brown PCM1792 implemented in a hybrid DS/multi-bit architecture, so you get the best of both worlds.

 

[nocturaline]

Interesting post. This is not a DAC thread, but this post is all about DACs, the differences between which are often rather subtle.

Seems to me you're pitting a vintage 2003, $2000 list price (15 yrs ago!) delta-sigma DAC against probably the lowest price/biggest value multibit DAC around. I never heard the Classe, but I did hear the Schitt. It was in a 100% unfamiliar system & show conditions, so no conclusions possible.

Normally I'd back the multibit design over a delta-sigma. But here, the d-s has obviously bigger power supplies, probably a far better, more evolved analog section (ie, high-cost "audiophile" parts from 2003), larger case/better ventilation, etc. It was also said to sound laid back and relaxed even back in the day (just read several reviews)--so the Classe isn't exactly committing the typical d-s sins (ie, sharp transients, flat/2D soundstaging, "dry" bass).

Plus the Atticus has be viewed as a well-executed headphone design w/more than enough resolution & freedom from distortion to reveal subtle difference between these very different & unequal DACs...

It's no contest (winner: Class), and that's no surprise, really.

PS: there are some amazing multibit DACs out there--including my favorite multibits of all, the NOS kind--that don't cost as much as your Classe, but also aren't as cheap as your Bitfrost. One of those might well equal or exceed the sound of the Classe. But that's a post for another thread...

I love the "vintage 2003" classification. For me "vintage" would have to be 60s or 70s I have more "vintage" gear actually - Jadis DA30, Meridian 207, and Stax Lamda (late 80s, early 90s), but those are in France for the time being.

Anyway, thank you for your help. That confirms what I thought. I need to look for a better DAC.

As for the Atticus, it is a fantastic headphone, and I don't see myself without it. Auteur would be a nice complement though; in a future not too distant hopefully.

 

[nocturaline]

Atticus + WA2 is a sweet combo. A lot of those older Burr-Brown chips are really fantastic sounding, especially if implemented well. Not surprising it sounds better than the Bifrost (which I wasn't much of a fan of). I'd recommend picking up a used Bel Canto Dac 3. You can usually get them for $750-850. They have Burr-Brown PCM1792 implemented in a hybrid DS/multi-bit architecture, so you get the best of both worlds.

I will look into the Bel Canto, as it sounds like an interesting option. And yes, Atticus + WA2 is really, really sweet; exactly the way I like my gear to sound like. Thanks for your help!

 

[dunkyboy]

If there was a tube pairing with the Lyr 3 that made it sound like an improved CTH I'd be all over it. Honestly though I really dig the sound of the CTH anyway so I don't even know why I'm considering upgrading. This hobby man, always trying to convince myself to pursue more performance. Ugh.

Literally the only way out is to buy equipment so damn expensive you can’t afford to ever upgrade it.