A great source with mediocre amp and headphone is like a very attractive girl in plain clothes. Very appealing despite the modest attire.
A mediocre source with great amp and headphone is like a mediocre looking girl with a great outfit. She looks great in the beginning but after a while, you notice her pimples and bad breath.
I hate the idea of spending money on a source - just because I feel so lost about what to buy, i feel it could all be an utter waste!
SS or Tube? NOS or OS or US? 20-bit or 24-bit? Brand A or Brand B or Brand C? What kind of output, what kind of input, etc., etc. There are so many options out there but so few head-to-head comparisons!
Originally Posted by Spareribs /img/forum/go_quote.gif A great source with mediocre amp and headphone is like a very attractive girl in plain clothes. Very appealing despite the modest attire.
A mediocre source with great amp and headphone is like a mediocre looking girl with a great outfit. She looks great in the beginning but after a while, you notice her pimples and bad breath.
Of course, the "personality" will remain the same regardless of the clothes & physical appearance, if you get what I'm saying
Yes, source play a major role in sounds quality. Garbage in = Garbage out. I recently just upgrade to a tube rectified PS for my Modwright 777ES and experience a drastic improvement with my headphone system, easily more than 10%.
Originally Posted by lan /img/forum/go_quote.gif Really? Aren't there more headphone amps and headphones announcements than sources?
I don't think that's the case at all. I mean how many headphones do we really talk about that entered production in the last year or two? Under 10 if you include IEMs and that's probably being a bit generous. I mean sure there are ton of random companies producing mass consumer options, but no one here seriously considers most of those. Compare that to the new source offerings and revisions over 300 dollars that have come out in the last year? It's not even really a contest for the very fact that sources serve more than just the high endish headphone market which can only be considered niche at best. Maybe head-fi doesnt really get a lot of new source buzz but its probably for the very reason this thread was created... not to mention the fact that you are simply going to hear more headphone announcements here than anything else because afterall its a headphone forum. I mean I can only think of 2-3 recent announcements and that's Westone 3's, UE11s and maybe some IEM Sennheiser offering.
As for amps, really the same phenomenon. We are a hugeee portion of market share for headphone amps so of course manufacturers come here to make their announcements and mail out samples to be auditioned/reviewed. Benchmark/Wadia (Well they sponsor us anyway I haven't seen them post before)/Lavry (Maybe he's posted before? No idea)/Empirical Audio are cool exceptions but they hardly represent a large percentage of source manufacturers. Again, to most decent source makers we are not the big fish.
Source should come first because it determines the absolute quality of your system.
A £50 mp3 player is going to sound crap and will sound worse the better the amp/phones.
I am also amazed at the number of people who buy a source,quite often a low/mid fi source then complain that their expensive headphones sound crap and then have the nerve to review it on this site.
I can`t take seriously a review from anybody on this site, or any other, that is using a crappy source because it would be worthless as to the merits of the component being reviewed.
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