[Watchdog]

Sorry it has taken me so long to reply to this thread. I suppose I'm not spending much time with audio these days.

I hosted the mini-meet and due to some time constraints I had, I didn't get to listen to any piece of equipment for an extended period of time.

I was a bit disappointed in what I heard though. I was hoping to be blown away by something like Xtreme4099's extreme PPA with HP1s and a Meridian as the source. No such luck this time and I was disappointed that I wasn't blown away by the DAC1, Dynahi or anything else. Granted we didn't have headphones as nice as the HP1s at the meet, but nothing at the meet impressed me. Not even the vaunted DAC1.

Having said that I still might purchase the DAC1 down the road, just because it's such a versatile product and affordable.

Due to it's small size the DAC1 would be the cornerstone of a great bedroom system. It can be coupled with a CD or DVD player feeding a power amp and a pair of bookshelf speakers. You have a complete system and your headphone amp there as well. So although I wasn't blown away by it, I thought the DAC1 was nice and good value for the money.

 

[TrevorNetwork]

The DAC1 is the absolute best DAC at what it does. It acts as a DAC, and, being a studio DAC it reproduces the analogue signal very close to the original. Stereophile did give it the vaunted Class A/A+. As for the Dynahi, again, ultra-clean, ultra-pure. If you are interested in colouration / artificial warmth, neither of these components are designed to provide that. The Meridian 588 (At the last Burnaby meet), and Xtreme's PPA (50% bass boosted at your time of listening) would contribute to a coloured "fat" midrange, and significantly enhanced bass. The HP1 headphone is able to reproduce this quite well, and it is quite decent. I suspect that the DAC1 and Dynahi are not for, and that you may be better served by a artificially warm sound, and a fatter bass. I personally feel the DAC1+Dynahi is by far the most neutral source and amplification I have ever had. I also feel that the ATH-W2002 are better sounding than the HP1 on many levels, and offer a much more refined sound, not to mention vastly increased comfort. This, of course is very normal, as we all have different ears, and different preferences.

Happy listening!

Trevor

btw: One thing, Xtreme's PPA is quite good, however, when bass-boost is enabled it is far from neutral in its sound.

 

[xtreme4099]

ive vastly changed the specs of my amp since last your heard it trevor, added same value teflons on the buffer, making it very detailed and neutral, the bass is tighter, more realistic and thumping, i still do have variable bass, its fun i give that, use it mostly for techno, electronica, pcgaming, xbox gaming, otherwise i usually have it off. Seems like watchdog is down and out of it, methinks he needs the bass-monkeys to givem a swift kick in da pants. yeah the Meridian 507 it was pretty good, so was the rega jupiter, dang demolition, being MIA.

Edit : drag watchdog to our seattle super meet.

Another-Edit: Maybe you werent listening to blown-away type tye material, like paul van dyke - reflections or some ATB for that OMG TEH BASS!!! reaction.

 

[philodox]

I went to AOS' page to check out some info on the Piccolo and was greeted with the Flute... so I freaked out and read everything I could on it and did a google search. Found this thread... and there we are.

I cant believe how close it is to the custom dac and amp that I've been trying to have built for me. Its in one enclosure... but I think my shoulder will be very happy for the decreased weight.

kunwar - checked the site and it runs off of a 10xAA battery pack.

 

[zoboomofo]

Ahh, where are my manners? I want to thank Watchdog for hosting the meet. He's got a great venue for it - plenty of space. He makes scrumptious rainbow chip cookies, and has friends with lots of cool toys. I think Watchdog had my vote for sleeper system: Ipod - Headroom Little - Beyer DT931s. Natsuiro's trevornetwork built PPA - modded Toshiba - Sennheiser HD580 were a treat also - very clean, and tight. To me, the aos dac/amps have a warmth and sweetness to them. This was my impression at the May meet as well. They're similar to my source in that way, but cleaner, and detailed at the top.

The w2002s were surprising phones. I thought I could pigeonhole their sound, but they proved chameleon-like on each song. The W11r was lovely - like a light chocolate mousse of headphones. I like the dynahi staging a lot, and envy the clean and tight character of the DAC1. The meet has spurred me to rethink my source, and headphones (we all had a pair of Senn 580s zzz...). I've since replaced my amp tubes, and am expecting some Sony cd-3000s: I'll call them the nerdalizers because they look ridiculously huge. The source will be a difficult upgrade. I think the cost will prove deadly.


I'll be keeping the mpx3 despite not having optimized it yet. The 1xKenRad/2xSylvania VT-231s have gotten cozy in this amp. The floppy bass has become tight, and defined (but maybe not enough lowbass)There's more warmth, and plenty of weight to the sound - something that needed fixing in both meets. I have a feeling this amp will be happiest with a bit of power treatment. I'd say the sound is darker than before though, but it reminds me of my listening with the W2002 phones in the "whoa, where did that come from" factor.

I think I'll keep my Sennheisers. Now that I've broken the cable, I've got an excuse to modify it a la xtreme4099s homegrown silvers - that memory still lingers.

 

[Watchdog]

My PortaPros are missing and the last time I had them was the meet. Today for the first time since the meet, I wanted to use them and they're nowhere to be found.

By chance did anyone at the meet happen to take them with them? Could you please check? I know Trevor has PortaPros as well. He may have taken mine by mistake thinking they were his.

 

[zoboomofo]

Nope. Don't have em. Try pm's?

 

[TrevorNetwork]

Nopers, I only have mine. Also, my PortaPros were easily identifiable; I had torn holes in the foam part.