[thatguychad]

Hello all 
 
I am brand new to this hobby and decided to jump right in and get myself the Audeze LCD-3's and a Bryston BHA-1 Amp.
 
I have two issues I could really use your experience on:
 
The first is that I use almost all cloud based music services now, like Rdio, Songza etc through my sonos in the house as the source.  I don't even own a CD player anymore.  I have begun purchasing songs from HDtracks but their selection is still a little smaller than I would like.  I would like to improve my sources, get a CD player perhaps, to get the best out of these great headphones, but I literally do not own CD's anymore.  
 
My second issue is my setup.  I currently have all of my sources; my computer, several keyboards, guitars, sonos and a turntable all connected through a Mackie 1202 mixer.  The main outs go to powered monitors and the control room 1/4" outs goto my Bryston headphone amp.  I have the headphones connected with stock XLR 4 pin and also have Q audio cable.
 
In a space where the cables, the tubes, the amps and everything seems to warrant very large expenditure I wanted to ask the head-fi community if this kind of setup through a mixer is insane to start with and perhaps defeating the very purpose of high end headphones to begin with.
 
If you have any experience with either my source issues or with a setup including a mixer your feedback would be greatly appreciated.
 
Thanks

 

[SP Wild]

  Hello all 
 
I am brand new to this hobby and decided to jump right in and get myself the Audeze LCD-3's and a Bryston BHA-1 Amp.
 
I have two issues I could really use your experience on:
 
The first is that I use almost all cloud based music services now, like Rdio, Songza etc through my sonos in the house as the source.  I don't even own a CD player anymore.  I have begun purchasing songs from HDtracks but their selection is still a little smaller than I would like.  I would like to improve my sources, get a CD player perhaps, to get the best out of these great headphones, but I literally do not own CD's anymore.  
 
My second issue is my setup.  I currently have all of my sources; my computer, several keyboards, guitars, sonos and a turntable all connected through a Mackie 1202 mixer.  The main outs go to powered monitors and the control room 1/4" outs goto my Bryston headphone amp.  I have the headphones connected with stock XLR 4 pin and also have Q audio cable.
 
In a space where the cables, the tubes, the amps and everything seems to warrant very large expenditure I wanted to ask the head-fi community if this kind of setup through a mixer is insane to start with and perhaps defeating the very purpose of high end headphones to begin with.
 
If you have any experience with either my source issues or with a setup including a mixer your feedback would be greatly appreciated.
 
Thanks

 
You might wanna separate your playback system from your monitoring system if using headphones for both purposes.  Get a balanced DAC connect that to your computer and balanced into the amp - you can play music at the highest quality.
 
Your amp has 2 inputs - 1 is single ended the other is balanced.
 
You can wire the control room single ended and input that into your amp and flick a switch to change inputs for listening to the dac or monitoring.  Or you can wire the control room balanced and switch out the XLR input into the dac everytime you want to change from mixing to listening.  I'm inclined to go with the first option.
 
I simply would not waste a fine headphone for listening to music and make it travel through the mixer.  For mixing it should be OK.

 

[thatguychad]

I had a feeling I was doing this wrong
 
Do you have a suggestion for a great balanced DAC?
 
Any thoughts on the need for a CD player or improving the source?

 

[SP Wild]

CD's are yesterday.  I'd look for a DAC with a good USB implementation...I'd take a look into the Schiit Audio range - the prices are good for excellent circuit philosophies.  The Gungnir DAC is balanced and has a good USB I believe.

 

[thatguychad]

Thanks so much for your help.  I will do some Balanced DAC research and see what I can find.