[PhazeCrive]

I feel like in general separate components are better. Something built primarily as a dac (yet having an amplifier section) rarely beats a dedicated amp.

 

[walterboss]

Hum issue solved by getting a Chord DAVE instead and ditching TT2. Others might find cheaper solutions

 

[walterboss]

When I plug ZMF verite closed into the 6.35mm jack I get a low noisy hum. This happens when I cable swap as well, in either low or high gain mode. Does not happen when I use the TC via superconductor dual XLR.

Does anyone else experience this?

For anyone else's peace of mind, I've just tried (am trying) ZMF Atriums with the FS/P and there's no hum. I DID have a hum when I still had my TT2. When I moved to a DAVE all hums disappeared from the Formula S and Powerman stack. The hum was there even with Abyss cans too, btw.

But I was nearly put off trying the ZMFs because of this issue. Glad I got rid of the TT2 (for many reasons), because the Atriums absolutely SING on the XIAUDIO stack. It's a shame that Abyss headphones suck up all the oxygen in relation to this amp (as fantastic as the Abyss 1266 and Diana TCs are on it). I was all set on buying some tubes, but I'm happy to wait until much later in the year now knowing that the XIAUDIO can deliver this kind of beautiful sound via the ZMF Atrium.

Hope that helps someone.

 

[jlbrach]

I only used my formula s/powerman with my dave and never heard a hum of any kind

 

[M700LTR]

Went through the entire thread during my flight layover. Pretty cool that jibrach is still rocking the Formula S/ Powerman. True bummer a) that there are no threads dedicated to the respective DACs, especially the Sagra b) popularity for XI Audio products haven't picked up.

 

[deuter]

It’s not a cool amp combo anymore. The world including Abyss has moved on.

 

[jlbrach]

still outstanding whether cool or not

 

[eskamobob1]

Went through the entire thread during my flight layover. Pretty cool that jibrach is still rocking the Formula S/ Powerman. True bummer a) that there are no threads dedicated to the respective DACs, especially the Sagra b) popularity for XI Audio products haven't picked up.

I haven't heard the k dac, but I would skip the sagra at this point. It's simply a little long in the tooth and used prices haven't changed to reflect that as much as I think they should. It's a solid dac if you want a smoother (honestly quite smooth) presentation and can nab one ~1k though.

still outstanding whether cool or not

Honestly, with used prices slipping to where they are, it's way too slept on of an stack. I realy like that thing for sub 3k, much the less where they are now.

 

[walterboss]

Does anyone have impressions to share of Holo Audio Bliss Vs XIAUDIO Formula S and Powerman stack?

 

[deuter]

Does anyone have impressions to share of Holo Audio Bliss Vs XIAUDIO Formula S and Powerman stack?

Don’t have it but have recently and currently listening to my Formula S stack with Abyss 1266. I don’t have much experience with current TOTL headphone amps however did have it about 3 years back. I cannot imagine the quality can improve from what XIAUDIO is producing.

 

[M700LTR]

I went to demo the full stack. When it was just the Formula S, there was a constant buzzing sound. With the Powerman connected, it went away. Weird...

 

[walterboss]

I went to demo the full stack. When it was just the Formula S, there was a constant buzzing sound. With the Powerman connected, it went away. Weird...

What dac and headphones was it paired with?

 

[deuter]

I went to demo the full stack. When it was just the Formula S, there was a constant buzzing sound. With the Powerman connected, it went away. Weird...

Seems like something was wrong possibly a bad circuit.