Continued my Questyle adventure today, spent 1.5hrs trying all the permutations with the LCD4.
Here are the results...
CMA600i balanced with inbuilt dac:
Volume about 11 o'clock, easily drives the LCD4.
It is immediately obvious this is a lesser model, not up to the level of the 800 series.
Has a more smooth less resolving, less open, thicker sound, vocals slightly recessed.
Still very good for its price, better than my current Burson Conductor.
CMA800i with inbuilt dac:
Volume at about 2 o'clock, easily drives the LCD4.
Volume does nothing till about 12 o'clock then increases quickly, has a different taper to the rest (for iems maybe).
Sound is far superior to the CMA600i, extremely balanced, vocals a lot more clear.
A bargain at its price, probably the best I have heard the LCD4 sound so far (other than the higher Questyle models).
Audeze King amp had a larger 3D sound but was slightly thicker sounding.
Hard to pick between them in a demo at different times with different LCD4/dac but CMA800i is a lot better priced.
1x CMA800r (non gold) with CAS192D (non gold):
:Volume about 11 o'clock, easily drives the LCD4.
Seems to have quite a lot more power than the CMA800i but power specs for the two are the same (???).
A step up from the CMA800i but not by much, the only way I can pick them apart easily is that the CMA800i is smoother sounding.
There is increased separation, dynamics, airiness, bigger sound stage, but otherwise has the same sound signature as the CMA800i.
1x CMA800r golden with CAS192D golden:
Volume about 11 o'clock, easily drives the LCD4.
Very small improvement but detectable. Better dynamics, clearer more open, easier to hear everything.
FULL Gold Stack, 2x CMA800r golden, CAS192D golden, CMA800P golden:
Volume about 11 o'clock on the pre-amp with 2x CMA800r on max volume, easily drives the LCD4.
Well into diminishing returns but still detectable, better dynamics, better refinement.
To give them all a score it would be...
CMA600i balanced with inbuilt dac: 45%
CMA800i with inbuilt dac: 85%
1x CMA800r (non gold) with CAS192D (non gold): 92%
1x CMA800r golden with CAS192D golden: 95%
FULL Gold Stack: 100%
The 800 components have the most balanced sound I have ever heard, like a goldilocks sound.. just right.
Some components have been around for about 4 years now so they are probably due for an update, might wait to see what turns up at CES.
In the meantime, I will have to work out which combination to get and if to replace the CAS192D with a Hugo 2 (without stuffing things up).