nosracl
New Head-Fier
- Joined
- Jun 8, 2012
- Posts
- 8
- Likes
- 0
So, I recently bought some HD650's, and a Burson Audio HA-160DS Headphone amplifier / DAC to accompany them.
After a few days of on-and-off listening, I'm feeling a little disappointed. I've been listening through my iTunes Library, trying out all different types of genre, but I'm just not feeling the sound. It feels like it's slightly muffled, particularly in the mid-ranges. The strange thing is: most of my library is Apple Lossless. A few tracks are 256 and 320kbps, and I hoped (and expected) for these tracks to sound inferior. But these 900kbps+ songs are still feeling sluggish and muffled. Even the bass seems a bit distant.
The only time I'm feeling pleased is listening to FLAC or WAV files in foobar2000, ripped straight from a CD. Now, I know Apple Lossless files are still lossless, but they don't sound as good. I can't really tell if the WAV files sound any better to me played through iTunes, and obviously FLAC files won't play in iTunes without some fiddling about.
Is this purely a problem with iTunes playback? My laptop is a 6-7 year old Sony Vaio thing, but that's why I bought the amp/DAC - to avoid playback from the laptop's poor sound card. Perhaps I'm horrifically mistaken about what this DAC should be doing for me. Incidentally, I've just ordered the brand new MacBook Pro (Retina one released yesterday), so I'd be interested to see what the difference is.
Burson do say that the amp/DAC's quality will improve over time as it 'breaks in', and perhaps the HD650's will do the same? I don't know.
Any thoughts greatly appreciated. I've spent £887.62 in total on this kit; I don't feel I should be disappointed!
After a few days of on-and-off listening, I'm feeling a little disappointed. I've been listening through my iTunes Library, trying out all different types of genre, but I'm just not feeling the sound. It feels like it's slightly muffled, particularly in the mid-ranges. The strange thing is: most of my library is Apple Lossless. A few tracks are 256 and 320kbps, and I hoped (and expected) for these tracks to sound inferior. But these 900kbps+ songs are still feeling sluggish and muffled. Even the bass seems a bit distant.
The only time I'm feeling pleased is listening to FLAC or WAV files in foobar2000, ripped straight from a CD. Now, I know Apple Lossless files are still lossless, but they don't sound as good. I can't really tell if the WAV files sound any better to me played through iTunes, and obviously FLAC files won't play in iTunes without some fiddling about.
Is this purely a problem with iTunes playback? My laptop is a 6-7 year old Sony Vaio thing, but that's why I bought the amp/DAC - to avoid playback from the laptop's poor sound card. Perhaps I'm horrifically mistaken about what this DAC should be doing for me. Incidentally, I've just ordered the brand new MacBook Pro (Retina one released yesterday), so I'd be interested to see what the difference is.
Burson do say that the amp/DAC's quality will improve over time as it 'breaks in', and perhaps the HD650's will do the same? I don't know.
Any thoughts greatly appreciated. I've spent £887.62 in total on this kit; I don't feel I should be disappointed!