[techboy]

   
Because if you haven't heard anything else, then you don;t know better.
 
AE doesn't even come close to Aktimates which cost just a bit more. AE are stomped by Hivi Swan speakers which cost half as much, and I am not even exaggerating but Swan are overperformers for their price while AE is a bit over rated. And I have owned multiple speakers from these brands, at least 1+ speaker from each brand.
 
There are lots of other lesser known speakers which are better than AE for the same price. AE isn't the worst out there, but for its price you can often do much better.

 
And I have owned:
 
AE5 for a few years
Swan H5
Aktimate Mini+
Aktimate Micro
Swan M50W
Swan M10
 
And also heard:
Swan M200MKII
 
And read extensively about:
Swan H4
Swan T200B
Swan MK200MKIII
Swan M1080MK IV
etc
 
And AE5 is a tad lower than the cheapest Swan bookshelf which costs around $200 in USA.

 

[i019791]

  Hello, this is my first post here, although I've done a lot of reading.  Here is my situation:
 
This is my first real foray into the hifi world.  I currently have no real equipment to speak of, other than a low/middle end home theater system, through which I play all of my music (mostly from the computer), watch all of my movies / TV, play the occasional video game, etc.  It's loud, but I want more.
 
I am, however, a college student.  I don't have tons of money to spend...  around $2500 - $3000 total.  Now, as this isn't enough to create a noteworthy hifi system (around which I could build my home theater system), I have decided to start with headphones.
 
My current plan is to buy a pair of Sennheiser HD 800 headphones, and a Woo Audio wa7 fireflies amp / dac.  I've researched both units fairly thoroughly, and feel that - based off of reviews - both are strong-performing and represent good values.  Here is the problem though...
 
As far as for use with the computer, I feel this setup would be perfect.  I could connect my laptop via USB cable to the wa7, utilize its DAC, and play lossless music files.  Great!
 
BUT!!!
 
I also watch a good deal of movies and TV shows, and play xbox occasionally.  Some of these are not connected in any way to my computer (xbox and blu ray discs, for example).  If I were to watch a Blu Ray movie, I would put it in my blu ray player, which is connected to my Denon AVR-790 receiver.  What I am trying to figure out, is HOW I could utilize my new headphone gear within this setup.  On the wa7 fireflies, the only inputs are USB, and rca L and R.  If I connected my receiver to the wa7 amp using rca L and R cables, that would mean I would be using the receivers DAC, correct?  So the audio would come through the blu ray player to the receiver over HDMI, go through the DAC, and be output in analogue to the amplifier, which would then be amplified and output to my headphones.  Now, wouldn't the audio be first amplified in the Denon receiver, and then amplified again in the wa7 amp?  If so, this is something to be avoided, right?  Is there any way around this?  Is there any way to send a direct, unamplified analogue signal from my denon receiver to the fireflies amp?  Or really, the question is: is there any way, based on the setup I've described, to achieve excellent sound quality through my blu ray player / xbox (basically anything not output from the USB of my computer)?
 
Any help with this would be much appreciated.  Even advice on other equipment options to consider.  Sorry this is such a long post.

If you use a dac/amp with usb, coax & optical inputs (e.g. Audio gd NFB-28) you will be able to feed it directly from all your sources having spdif output

 

[emsupial]

well here is what I've decided on...
-mytek stereo 192 dsd dac - this will be my dac and headphones amplifier, and also the preamp of my hifi setup
-emotiva xpa-2 power amplifier - this is the power amp for my hifi setup
-KEF q900 loudspeakers - my speakers
-sennheiser hd800 - headphones

The cost of all of this equipment is beyond my current range, however I can buy either the headphones setup first (was going to get the hd800 balanced model for sale at headphone.com and connect xlr to the mytek) and then save for the hifi pieces, or vice versa. I guess what remains now is, what should I get first!!!

As far as the headphone system goes, if I decide that the mytek is insufficient as an amp, I could always buy a woo headphone amp sometime in the future

My again-modified plan. does anything seem wrong with it??

 

[Dubstep Girl]

yes, the mytek 192 can output balanced, but into an amp.  however the headphone amp is single-ended, you can't plug xlr hd 800s like that, needs to be single-ended unless you're using a balanced amp and mytek 192 as a dac.
 
also the mytek 192 amp is decent, but for hd 800 there is better.

 

[emsupial]

dubstep, I was wondering about that (lot of googling). I remember finding (but frustratingly can't find now) a post from someone who claimed to be listening to headphones plugged directly into the mytek's xlr outputs. sorry, I'm new to this, but why wouldn't it work? Wouldn't you just be using the preamp part of the mytek (which is better than the dedicated headphone amp part) to drive the headphones? what WOULD happen if someone did this? hd800 balanced into mytek xlr?

it is actually good news though lol. Not having to buy the xlr mod/ cable will save some money : ). then later, I could always buy a balanced headphones amp I'm sure

 

[Dubstep Girl]

dubstep, I was wondering about that (lot of googling). I remember finding (but frustratingly can't find now) a post from someone who claimed to be listening to headphones plugged directly into the mytek's xlr outputs. sorry, I'm new to this, but why wouldn't it work? Wouldn't you just be using the preamp part of the mytek (which is better than the dedicated headphone amp part) to drive the headphones? what WOULD happen if someone did this? hd800 balanced into mytek xlr?

it is actually good news though lol. Not having to buy the xlr mod/ cable will save some money : ). then later, I could always buy a balanced headphones amp I'm sure

 
i've never tried it, i just don't see it working. 
 
the preamp would have the drive/gain of the amp would it? 

 

[Headzone]

well here is what I've decided on...
-mytek stereo 192 dsd dac - this will be my dac and headphones amplifier, and also the preamp of my hifi setup
-emotiva xpa-2 power amplifier - this is the power amp for my hifi setup
-KEF q900 loudspeakers - my speakers
-sennheiser hd800 - headphones

The cost of all of this equipment is beyond my current range, however I can buy either the headphones setup first (was going to get the hd800 balanced model for sale at headphone.com and connect xlr to the mytek) and then save for the hifi pieces, or vice versa. I guess what remains now is, what should I get first!!!

As far as the headphone system goes, if I decide that the mytek is insufficient as an amp, I could always buy a woo headphone amp sometime in the future

My again-modified plan. does anything seem wrong with it??

How big a room do you have for those speakers? 

 

[emsupial]

Headzone it's a bedroom that I use as a study / tv room. it's like 15 x 15 feet square

 

[stainless824]

Kef ls50 and a budget amp are great options

 

[emsupial]

would you recommend the ls50 over the q900 floor standing speakers? the price is basically the same. I would like something fairly loud, if that matters , and I have no experience with bookshelf / monitors

 

[stainless824]

On a really tight budget i would reccomend the adams without issue, but with a 3 grand budget you can easily afford the kef ls50 and a killer amp from audiogon such as plinius or any of the beautiful sub 2 grand amps the have on there. (Jealous of you americans)

The kefs are quite inefficient and work best in a small to moderate sized room and love a lot of current to play loud in any room larger than 20 feet by 20 feet. The ls50 is just so much better to my ears than the q series, where the only thing the q900 has going for it is larger scale and bass extension.

The ls50s do the disappearing act where you no longer can really tell there's a left and right speaker; at a very modest price too.

If you want volume, check out the dynaudio excite series. The bass is much more bombastic beyond the x16