Hey, thanks everyone for the welcome's!
Glad to join in!
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I have had a lot of disappointed moments like you describe, but then, things tend to grow on me. Or not. You never know...
To answer your question, I have mostly been using HE500 with the Taurus mkI. And I love it =)
Thanks Ardilla. Your posts were actually partly "guilty" of my current combo!
)
Going back to my question, I was just wondering if you listened to your HE 500 balanced (of course, both source to amp as well as to the headphones) or SE.
Great and thorough impressions.
I have found Taurus being quite transparent amp, perhaps on par with Headamp offerings based on Gilmore Dynalo design, only more refined and giving that sense of ease with which it delivers the material.
Having said that, look into your source because the chances are this is what you hear.
NAD51 while a great DAC does not have the hottest USB and I see you feed it directly. Try coax out of CD transport or decent DDC like Audiophilleo.
From my experience burn in helps mostly with PRAT.
Thanks a lot Andrew for the tips. I did carry out some tests with the inputs from the M51 when I had some reasonalble burn-in on it and was pleasantly suprised to find them quite comparable and equal in most aspects. On the other hand, I did find considerable differences whenI tested the Bifrost with its first USB incarnation.
A real-decent CD transport is something that I might consider at some point, as it is something lacking in my system. I'm afraid I've only tried a SONY BDP-S780 player and an Oppo 95, both through S/PDIF (optical and coaxial). The "problem" with this type of setup, besides the obvious step back in confort of touching your music library, is that there's no EQ available when I wish to use it.
The Audiophilleo concept looks interesting indeed and I might consider it but my wallet needs to recover a little before that...
Might be onto something there, Andrew. If the Taurus is more transparent, and the Lyr more "dynamic", the Lyr might create a better space-sensation on poorer sources because it wont distract you with all the micro details. Or it might not. Worth trying, though.
Welcome to the great hunt for perfection,
LukeSena
Originally Posted by
Andrew_WOT /img/forum/go_quote.gif
All I know that I am getting lost in HD800 soundstage when it's paired with Vega
so ginormous it is, using balanced in/out expands it even more. Never heard Lyr, but out of the other amps I owned (all SS) Taurus is the most spacious.
I also know that Taurus did not floor me out of the box but in a day or two I started really digging its effortless and relaxed presentation, when nothing jumps on you but do not escape attention either, truly unique.
If I may elaborate a little on the "visual" experience and what differences I'm able to hear from both amps, I would like to use a real optical analogy. The closest reasonable example I can find is a 65-inch panel displaying a film in a traditional 2D mode and another one in 3D (please note I do not wish to start a debate about 3D on a TV
). A 2D image can certainly portray a very large lanscape, where our brain is taught to distinguish between farther objects through means such as apparent size comparison, perspective distortion, sharpness, etc.; but there is no stereoscopic image comparison of our left and right eye vision that our brain can use to establish their position in a 3 dimensional space.
What I'm able to perceive from the Auralic is a 2D image of a large landscape, while the Lyr does seem to separate the Z-axis or depth into distinct layers much more, therefore offering a more "tactile" presentation, if you will...
By the way, that is a gorgeuos DAC you have right there Andrew, I hope it gives you all kinds of satisfactions!
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thanks for sharing your impressions, and I must say I got the very same impressions the first time I've listened to my Taurus MKII.
but burn-in changed a lot some of the initial impressions (or maybe it's just my brain that adapted to the new sound, don't know), with particular regards to dynamics and treble air, but also bass extension and slam seem to be better than before.
I'm using a Vega-Taurus combo with an HE500, signal cables are silver UPOCC XLR, and I'm using the stock HE500 silver cable but with a 4 pin neutrik xlr (very simple DIY)
Hi Phaeton! Thanks a lot, I feel better now that you mention it.
By the way, I just purchased an original OFC copper XLR cable from Hifiman and also a pair of Sommer Cable Epilogue XLRs to connect the M51 to the Taurus and test the balanced mode. I hope I get them soon to post impressions!
