i’m not bypassing anything max has to offer. it is my portable standalone setup, and i really enjoy what i’m hearing so far.Without any prejudice to anybody's preferences (incl. yours, of course), it looks to me like the DX320 Max is a high-end, desktop-level, DAC device at the very least. If anything might be wanting in performance, it would be the amp leg, where real estate constraints, despite the ingeniousness of iBasso's topology and high-quality of components used, might mean desktop amps have a clear edge (esp. for headphones where the extra amplification mile could make a difference). Connecting the DX320 Max, therefore, to a high-end, dedicated external amp makes good sense to me, but why would you want to bypass the Rohm DACs altogether?
i also find stepped attenuator very much fun to play with.
i read in one of the previous posts to try lowest gain with max volume but it’s gets too loud even with storm.
with the dedicated dac and amp and cables etc. i wanted to bring it all up to a summit level (for me) to see in my own comfort zone how much of a difference there will be. i might have bypassed some steps and leaped higher, but i believe this way i saved myself lots of unnecessary buy/sell and eventually money.
initially, i intend to use storm only as my monitors to see where it could go with a great desktop setup and if it was worth it. then i may add one and done type of hp on to the chain.
it is perhaps my character defect to take things to a point where i might regret. but hey, i am who i am (for the past half century) and that is that
![Man shrugging: light skin tone :man_shrugging_tone1: 🤷🏻♂️](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f937-1f3fb-2642.png)
Last edited: