[Larryonfire]

Nice impressions, will be interesting to hear what you think after 30-100 hours of burn in Andrew. What does the Fox say ?

 

 

[ardilla]

You can run unbalanced mode from the XLR too

 

[Andrew_WOT]

   
Have fun messing with balanced. To my ears, balanced is different, but not always better. IMO planars and other power hungry low impedance models do best from the SE jack, while less sensitive stuff (Audio Technica, Ultrasone) and higher impedance Sennheiser or beyerdynamic is better in balanced mode. Very nice to have both options. 

Very interesting, here are Wang Xuanqian's recommendations
http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/auralic2/2.html

 Originally Posted by Wang Xuanqian
 
Experiment with either mode for different headphones. The largest power transfer does not automatically imply the best sonics. We for example prefer BAL mode for the HifiMan HE6 even though STD delivers more power into their impedance. While the Grado RS1 and PS1000 also operate at 32ohm, with them STD is better as it is with the now discontinued AKG K100. For the Sennheiser HD600 and HD800 meanwhile BAL is much better.

 
And it's always nice to have a choice.

 

 

[Andrew_WOT]

Hmm, seems like GS-1 has tighter and harder hitting bass, Taurus is a bit on a loose side with extra "bloom" there which makes it sound "slower".
Hopefully longer burn in will take care of that. Other than that they are incredibly close, much closer than Soloist and GS-1.
BTW, Taurus passed W5000 exam with flying colors, not a lot of amps can make them sound properly.

 

[Norway]

  Have fun messing with balanced. To my ears, balanced is different, but not always better. IMO planars and other power hungry low impedance models do best from the SE jack, while less sensitive stuff (Audio Technica, Ultrasone) and higher impedance Sennheiser or beyerdynamic is better in balanced mode. Very nice to have both options. 

 
I agree that balanced is not always best. I ran HD 650 both balanced and unbalanced and actually prefered single ended mode. The smooth charm of HD 650 was replaced with more definition and control when running it balanced with MKI. Definition and control is all nice and dandy, but I love the smoothness of HD 650, so I ran it mostly in single ended mode.
 
As for planars I felt the two outputs were both good. Not sure if you know this, but when I started this thread I made the following chart based on the specifications of MKI.
 

 
It can be quite helpful to use this chart to see how the amp predictably should behave with different loads. I say predictably, as this chart is made by regressing on the few number of data points offered by AURALiC.

 

[Andrew_WOT]

  Hmm, seems like GS-1 has tighter and harder hitting bass, Taurus is a bit on a loose side with extra "bloom" there which makes it sound "slower".
Hopefully longer burn in will take care of that. Other than that they are incredibly close, much closer than Soloist and GS-1.
BTW, Taurus passed W5000 exam with flying colors, not a lot of amps can make them sound properly.

Happy to report that the bass significantly tightened up and now just as tight as on GS-1.
More impressions comparing two:
- The voicing is almost identical now, I know, shocking, wondering if there is Dynalo hiding somewhere in these ORFEO modules.

- If looking for differences, the Taurus seems to deliver everything with more ease, almost relaxed, when GS-1 while doing a terrific job, struggles to keep up. Not sure if that description makes quite sense, guess it's just more powerful (or feels this way).
- Soundstage feels wider and deeper on Taurus, with more room to breathe for individual instruments, on GS-1 notes can run into each other when things get busy.
- GS-1 is slightly more forward sounding and a pinch drier, just a bit
 
 
All these impressions apply to GS-1 with Dynalo+ modules, latest upgrade offered by Headamp, same modules featured in the newest GS-X MKII.
I still didn't get to balanced out, need to do some cable hunting. Is BTG-Audio the best budgetary choice?
 
Does anyone know output impedance on that thing?

 

[Asr]

Just had MKII delivered. It just barely warmed up, still needs a lot of burn in. But initial impression is that voicing is extremely close to Headamp GS-1 with new modules (same as used in GS-X MKII).

 
Where did you buy from? I haven't found any good dealers for Auralic in the USA yet.

 

[ardilla]

.........
Does anyone know output impedance on that thing?

Auralic Taurus Output Impedance:

In BAL or STD mode 1 or 4 ohm respectively

QUOTE:
...........................
About the output impedance, we didn't make any official test, approximately in STD mode it should be less than 1ohm, and in BAL mode it should be less than 4ohm.
..........................

 

[ardilla]

Found an old email, no impedance but might be interesting anyway

Quote:
...................
The power in chart are continous RMS.

For your first question, there are four output sections in each Taurus amp. In STD mode, each two of them are in parallel driving one channel. It will well suite low impedance as the output current is plenty but the output power driving high impedance is limited by maximum swing voltage. In BAL mode, two section are in bridged connection(BTL), it will offering 2x maximum swing voltage so the output  power at high impedance is four times higher, but at low impedance, since each section is bear half load which equal to 16ohm, the output is limited by output current.  I hope this will help.
................

 

[Andrew_WOT]

Found an old email, no impedance but might be interesting anyway

Quote:
...................
The power in chart are continous RMS.

For your first question, there are four output sections in each Taurus amp. In STD mode, each two of them are in parallel driving one channel. It will well suite low impedance as the output current is plenty but the output power driving high impedance is limited by maximum swing voltage. In BAL mode, two section are in bridged connection(BTL), it will offering 2x maximum swing voltage so the output  power at high impedance is four times higher, but at low impedance, since each section is bear half load which equal to 16ohm, the output is limited by output current.  I hope this will help.
................

Thanks Ardilla, very helpful.

 

[santacore]

I purchased mine from Echo Audio in Portland, Oregon. http://echohifi.com/
 
Excellent service from Kurt at Echo. Give him a ring and tell him I sent you.
 
John

 

[Andrew_WOT]

  I purchased mine from Echo Audio in Portland, Oregon. http://echohifi.com/
 
Excellent service from Kurt at Echo. Give him a ring and tell him I sent you.
 
John

This is the one, I've tried to work with them, Third Coast Audio and HiFi Heaven.
Ended up getting it from Third Coast Audio, my recommendation is to call/email to each and work with whoever can give you the best deal.

 

[Andrew_WOT]

Some AURALiC Taurus/Vega impressions from RMAF 2013 thread

 

[project86]

  Some AURALiC Taurus/Vega impressions from RMA2013 thread

 
Gotta agree with ASR on those Auralic impressions. I'm pretty much opposite of him when it comes to HiFiMAN and the Shure 1840 though. But that's OK. 

 

[eaglejo]

Vega owner here.  I'm toying with the idea of trying the Taurus-pre and also using it's headphone out.  My listening has tilted more towards my stereo rig lately.  The Taurus pre supposedly has a more illuminated top-end compared to the headphone-specific Taurus. I don't suppose anyone here has had a chance to compare the two.  I'm a big fan of my Vega and am about to digitize my vinyl to DSD.