And the saga continues....
Thursday I packed up my mpx3 to send back to Mikhail as I am upgrading to a Supra. Which I figured would give me plenty of time to compare the headphone outs on my stock and modded dac1's.
Well, I have had time to compare the headphone outs. And the results are quite disappointing. There definitely is a difference b/n the two headphone outs, but it is nowhere near the difference I noted using my mpx3. So I listened a bit, switching back and forth b/n the modded and stock unit via disconnecting and reconnecting the cardas coax out from my marantz cdp used as a transport. In comparison to the mpx3, I find the headphone out on the dac1 to be rather stale and uninvolving in comparison. I listened long enough to compare the headphone outs b/n the stock and modded and have come to the conclusion that while there is a small difference, this is not the intended use for this unit. Neither in stock nor in modified form.
Listening through the head-outs was actually so uninvolving that I actually stopped out of relative boredom - I felt as if though I were listening to my now sold _relatively_ low end SS head amps.
Now, after acquiring my mpx3, I had become so enamored with its sound, that I have basically neglected my speaker setup for months. But now that the mpx3 is gone, and I found myself not enjoying the head-outs on either dac1 to any significant degree, I thought, well, might as well hook up both the stock & hot-rod dac1 to the speakers and see what happens. After all, a few people here have alluded to the benefit of the modded dac1 w/ speakers.
So here's my setup:
Toshiba 4900 dvdp -> Straightwire 1.5-2.0m digital coax -> BNC adaptor -> Stock & Empirical Audio modded DAC1 (manually switched) -> Outlaw Audio 0.5m PCA IC -> NAD S100 Preamp -> Outlaw Audio 0.5m PCA IC -> NAD S200 Amplifier -> DH Labs Silver Sonic T-14 Speaker Cable -> Madisound Cygnet Mark 1 Speakers (Utilizing Peerless 8" Driver and Peerless Fabric Dome tweeter). Simultaneous output from preamp goes to NHT X-2 crossover to Rotel RB-870 BX (one channel) amplifier to Madisound NHT1259 Subwoofer and cabinet via Straighwire IC.
I sat in the sweet spot on my couch and used Feist's cd Let It Die as my source disc. I was immediately reminded of the results I obtained when using the rca outs with the Singepower. High frequency extension was much better. Sense of air surrounding instruments was much better. Textural detail of vocals was much, much better. Bass extension and control was much better. But the biggest difference I noticed with my speaker setup is that overall musical enjoyment and involvement was significantly better with the modded dac1. My speaker rig doesn't have the greatest soundstaging, so I can't comment on that too much, but overall dynamics and sense of realism/live performance-in-front-of-you were basically in a different league than the stock box. As a matter of fact, it has added such new life to my speaker setup that I'm considering having my 2nd dac1 modded as well.
In summary, I must say that the headphone output mod, while providing a slight difference, is not really worth the extra cash. At least according to my ears and my 650s.
Alternatively, utilizing the rca outs to both my Singlepower mpx3 setup and my speaker rig, there is basically no comparison and the more I listen, the more I am thrilled with my mod investment. My original plan was to sell my 2nd dac1 to pay for the mods on the 1st one, but after listening to this extent, I am seriously considering sending my 2nd dac1 in to be modded as well so I can throw it into my speaker rig, as it has really provided a kick-in-the-pants that has been missing over the last few months.
