[Tassie Devil]

Sorry to hear about your Utopia. I would like to hear your impressions of them when they come back. I'm learning that lesson now about DACs versus amps. And I just discovered that lesson about interconnects and power cords making a difference. I wish I had heard your words of wisdom sooner

Well I'm still a bit uncertain about the situation with cords, particularly relative to power. I'm guessing it depends on your location and in this respect I'm particularly lucky with a clean 240V supply and only 3 others on the same line transformer.

And I do stuggle to justify expensive interconnects although have splurged on some.

The final worry can be the headphone cord and I'm forced to admit that it can make a suble difference. Just this month I imported some cable touted as AudioPhile Grade Pro Acoustics System special--Professionally High Detinion Stereo Earphone Cable--High Purity PCOCC (Pure Crystal by Ohno Continuous Casting) Japanese Conductors & PEP Insulated-Designed In The Switzerland and assembled in China. You can see the bulk cable listed here:

http://www.lunashops.com/goods.php?id=4782 - although note they mean 1metre, not 100cm.

The built up cable is here on e-bay http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Pure-PCO...-For-Sennheiser-HD800-Headphone-/251872384871 I made the mistake of not reading the ad carefully enough so the imported cable was only 1 meter long. But I changed the plug and silver soldered in a balanced AES/BSU 5 pin plug and was delighted with the AQ, but annoyed with the cable length so have a longer cable on its way. I would make the cable up myself except for the rotten little Sennheiser plugs which leave very little room for soldering error for old duffers like me!

Bottom line discussion here appears to be currently focussing on the Taurus vs V281. From what I read it is a swings and roundabouts situation. However I must comment on the ventillation needed for the Taurus. The little beast can run hot and really does need adequate clearance around it. I did not have enough on my shelf so had to install a quiet 120mm PC fan to move the air around it. I understand the V281 also gets up to 45C inside but is not quite a demanding for ventillation as the Taurus.

 

[Anjolie]

Well I'm still a bit uncertain about the situation with cords, particularly relative to power. I'm guessing it depends on your location and in this respect I'm particularly lucky with a clean 240V supply and only 3 others on the same line transformer.

And I do stuggle to justify expensive interconnects although have splurged on some.

The final worry can be the headphone cord and I'm forced to admit that it can make a suble difference. Just this month I imported some cable touted as AudioPhile Grade Pro Acoustics System special--Professionally High Detinion Stereo Earphone Cable--High Purity PCOCC (Pure Crystal by Ohno Continuous Casting) Japanese Conductors & PEP Insulated-Designed In The Switzerland and assembled in China. You can see the bulk cable listed here:

http://www.lunashops.com/goods.php?id=4782 - although note they mean 1metre, not 100cm.

The built up cable is here on e-bay http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Pure-PCO...-For-Sennheiser-HD800-Headphone-/251872384871 I made the mistake of not reading the ad carefully enough so the imported cable was only 1 meter long. But I changed the plug and silver soldered in a balanced AES/BSU 5 pin plug and was delighted with the AQ, but annoyed with the cable length so have a longer cable on its way. I would make the cable up myself except for the rotten little Sennheiser plugs which leave very little room for soldering error for old duffers like me!

Bottom line discussion here appears to be currently focussing on the Taurus vs V281. From what I read it is a swings and roundabouts situation. However I must comment on the ventillation needed for the Taurus. The little beast can run hot and really does need adequate clearance around it. I did not have enough on my shelf so had to install a quiet 120mm PC fan to move the air around it. I understand the V281 also gets up to 45C inside but is not quite a demanding for ventillation as the Taurus.

I was switching power cords between the Liquid Carbon and the HifiMan EF-6 when I noted something surprising. I had a regular black generic power cord that would come with any electronic gear. The sound was congested and with no depth and made anything I plugged into it lackluster. When I changed out the cord with a Pangea, the sound opened up. There was separation, drive and depth. It really made the EF-6 come alive and involving plugged into my LCD-2F. It was a night and day difference

I would have been very skeptical had I not experienced it myself. It helped a lot and made my purchase of the somewhat maligned EF-6 a good buy in retrospect

I don't know if a upgraded power cord will help someone else's audio experience with their particular gear, but it certainly helped mine. I must have some crappy power coming out of the wall

As for interconnects, I just tried a quickie experiment with some RCAs. I took the Furutech RCAs between my DAC and EF-6 out and swapped them for a pair of gold plated shielded vintage Radio Shack. The Radio Shack made the music less involving and flatter dimensionally. It sounded a bit lifeless. If I didn't have the Furutechs I probably would've been happy, thinking that's as good as it's going to get with what I got

I was just curious and had those Radio Shacks on hand

 

[Tassie Devil]

And I think you exemplify the problem each of us are facing - our gear is located in different situations so we cannot necessarily extrapolate what one person finds to generalise that we will all experience that same result. That said however, if a lot of people and a lot of reviews praise e.g. the Taurus as one of the best head amps you can buy, then you would be unlucky not to like it.

But there is no guarantee of that and reason why it might not be preferred in a system could be due to any number of synergy factors -

1. Not a good match with the DAC
2. Not a good match with the headfphones
3. Something odd with the feed in to the DAC, i.e, the source could be less than optimal so the Taurus is amplifying that oddity
4. Our taste in the music reproduction differs from what other people like and that could be due to genetics, conditioning over the years, or even the actual structure of our ear and of course that final receptor, the brain.

Which all means our judgement of any audio item is a very personal and subjective one. But then we all have different tastes and wouldn't it be a dull world if we all liked exactly the same type of sound, the same music, the same ....... ?

But of course these personal differences of subjective judgement keep forums like this interesting. And who knows, one day we might achieve something close to audio Nirvana!! I've often felt I was there but ........ Such is the disease of audiophobia.

 

[Anjolie]

And I think you exemplify the problem each of us are facing - our gear is located in different situations so we cannot necessarily extrapolate what one person finds to generalise that we will all experience that same result. That said however, if a lot of people and a lot of reviews praise e.g. the Taurus as one of the best head amps you can buy, then you would be unlucky not to like it.

But there is no guarantee of that and reason why it might not be preferred in a system could be due to any number of synergy factors -

1. Not a good match with the DAC
2. Not a good match with the headfphones
3. Something odd with the feed in to the DAC, i.e, the source could be less than optimal so the Taurus is amplifying that oddity
4. Our taste in the music reproduction differs from what other people like and that could be due to genetics, conditioning over the years, or even the actual structure of our ear and of course that final receptor, the brain.

Which all means our judgement of any audio item is a very personal and subjective one. But then we all have different tastes and wouldn't it be a dull world if we all liked exactly the same type of sound, the same music, the same ....... ?

But of course these personal differences of subjective judgement keep forums like this interesting. And who knows, one day we might achieve something close to audio Nirvana!! I've often felt I was there but ........ Such is the disease of audiophobia.

+1....so very true

 

[Anjolie]

Well, I finally finished reading through this whole thread and discovered that it's best to warm up the Taurus MKII for at least hour. After letting it warm up for about 2 hours, the sound has improved, but it still doesn't match the EF-6. Perhaps if my DAC was balanced that might bring it up a few more notches, but that's going to have to wait for now until I can afford one. Which, isn't such a bad thing. It'll give me time to do some more research on possible pairings. In the mean time, I have my lovely EF-6/Audio-gd DAC-19 with my LCD-2F to keep me company

 

[CoLdAsSauLt]

Thank you all guys for chiming in on the Taurus, V281 and LCD-4 matter.

I got an answer to my question about the Taurus' power output at 200 Ohm:

Hi Stijn:

We finished a physical test this week. Here is the test result, (it may various from machine to machine)

SE output: 0.7Watt
BAL output: 2.8Watt

When work in SE mode, the maximum output power rate is limited by maximum voltage swing range which is so the output power is 0.7Watt. When in balanced mode, the power rate is limited by maximum current deliver ability so the output power is 2.8Watt


Xuanqian Wang

Looks quite good to me on paper for the LCD-4. And great service
Now I'm waiting until the latter arrives, probably today

 

[Matez]

Thank you all guys for chiming in on the Taurus, V281 and LCD-4 matter.

I got an answer to my question about the Taurus' power output at 200 Ohm:



Looks quite good to me on paper for the LCD-4. And great service
Now I'm waiting until the latter arrives, probably today

Do let us here know how it went. I enjoyed Taurus a good while ago.

 

[CoLdAsSauLt]

@project86 Auralic's answer makes sense: you (and I ftm) hear 2 different amps SE vs balanced... apparently their modes have different ways of amplifying (current mode vs voltage mode?? Or has this nothing to do with one being limited by its voltage, the other by the current...)

Do let us here know how it went. I enjoyed Taurus a good while ago.

Enjoyed... past tense. What did you replace it with?

 

[Matez]

@project86 Auralic's answer makes sense: you (and I ftm) hear 2 different amps SE vs balanced... apparently their modes have different ways of amplifying (current mode vs voltage mode?? Or has this nothing to do with one being limited by its voltage, the other by the current...)



Enjoyed... past tense. What did you replace it with?

I was fortunate enough to use the Taurus loaner to test some headphones on it. I never actually bought one, but the deck from Auralic really made me smile for more than a month and oddly enough I recently was thinking about it. These days I use Pro iCAN by iFi audio and recently I almost pulled a trigger on Pass HPA-1.

 

[T Bone]

I just bought an Auralic Altair streaming DAC and I haven't read all 135 pages of this thread, so please forgive me if this has been covered before.

I was disappointed to learn that the Altair doesn't have some sort of "home theater bypass" mode for the RCA jacks. I have my Auralic Altair connected to a pre-amp which has its own volume control. Therefore, I don't need the volume knob on the unit to work. ...nor do I need to control volume from the Lightning DS app. I wish there was a setting on the Altair that let me fix the volume at a constant output so that my external pre-amp can take on that role instead.

I called Auralic and they're best suggestion was to turn the volume to 100% in the Lightning DS app and leave it alone.
That will work, but its not optimal.

 

[lcasadonte]

I just bought an Auralic Altair streaming DAC and I haven't read all 135 pages of this thread, so please forgive me if this has been covered before.

I was disappointed to learn that the Altair doesn't have some sort of "home theater bypass" mode for the RCA jacks. I have my Auralic Altair connected to a pre-amp which has its own volume control. Therefore, I don't need the volume knob on the unit to work. ...nor do I need to control volume from the Lightning DS app. I wish there was a setting on the Altair that let me fix the volume at a constant output so that my external pre-amp can take on that role instead.

I called Auralic and they're best suggestion was to turn the volume to 100% in the Lightning DS app and leave it alone.
That will work, but its not optimal.

I have the same issue in general going from the altair to the vega to the taurus, both the altair and vega are set to 100 and I manually mess with the taurus. The other way to do this would be to set your output to your highest desired level with altair set at 100 and then use the altairs volume to control the output. I think that would work also. Your pre would be set to the max volume you would listen to.

 

[Vu Chau]

What does everyone say about the HD 800 / 800S pairing with the Taurus? I'm currently using a HD 650 and am looking for the ultimate pairing for my classical recordings.

 

[Tassie Devil]

IMHO the Sennie 800S hits the right note for quality of reproduction and comfort and, to answer your question it mates to the Taurus II beautifully, particularly with aftermarket cables like this.
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Pur...er-HD800-Headphone-LN004846/32812114938.html?

And please igore the 800 as the 800S is so much better - you should be able to pick up a new or used 800S set for 70% of full retail price. Some "audiophiles" sell them because they do not judge the sound good enough for them and, to me, the reason is they are putting in a garbage signal that the Sennies repropduce far too accurately for comfort!! I have owned the 650 and the 800S is miles better.

Go for it!!

 

[ardilla]

What does everyone say about the HD 800 / 800S pairing with the Taurus? I'm currently using a HD 650 and am looking for the ultimate pairing for my classical recordings.

The Taurus is a great amp for the HD800's - but to get the best of it, make sure you run out in balanced mode (with a balanced cable, which HD800S has in the box)

 

[lcasadonte]

Question for Altair users. I bought a 2tb ssd to put in it and pulled it apart yesterday but there is obviously a kit necessary to install the drive. Anyone done this before? Words of advice on where to get the kit as my dealer is playing dumb.