[jr41]

Those Woo amps certainly are nice, and if I had more funds available for this hobby that's what I'd go for. As it stands, I made a compromise and I went for the MK IV SE and I've been very pleased with it. The MK III is also a well regarded budget choice for the HD 6XX. I believe that's a MK II in your photo, upstateguy? To be fair, I think the MK III is meant to be a good step up from the MK II - which is a very budget tube amp. The M^3 is a very well regarded amp but many HD 6XX users report a 'special' synergy with OTL tube amps (i.e. MK III), as opposed to solid state, but this is purely a matter of sound signature preference.
 
As for DACs, I have the Nuforce UDAC II in addition to the Little Dot DAC_I, and to my ears there's really not much in it (though I've not done a critical comparison) - the UDAC II is an excellent DAC for the money and a very popular choice. Both are a SIGNIFICANT improvement over my PCs on-board sound card. I see you've already got an external soundcard osmoldo, as such you may find the UDAC II/another budget DAC doesn't offer much over the Creative USB X-FI  device you've already got, I don't know. Having said all that, in my experience a DAC is of limited value unless you're playing lossless CD quality and above audio files. If you're using lossly formats - such as MP3 - at less than a certain kps (~320?) - you won't get the benefit of the extra detail a DAC is able to retrieve from your music, and compression artifacts will be exaggerated.

 

[osmoldo]

Thx jr41, my thoughts exactly regarding pairing HD6XX with tube amps (at least from what I've read). DHL tried to deliver the MKlll friday but I was working, wont get it untill tuesday now. Love the anticipation.
 
Most of my music is in 320kbps mp3, some FLAC, some crappy bitrate stuff. Would love to be able to test a high quality DAC after using my X-FI to see if theres much difference.
 

 

[upstateguy]

 
Quote:

To upstateguy: If you have a DAC without USB, i'm guessing theres not much chance connecting it to a PC. It would be from a dedicated CD player, right? which is great if ALL your music is on CD, but about 50% of mine isnt (CDs borrowed from friends mostly, odd MP3 from download (very few from P2P)). PC connectivity is very convenient for me.
And I'm getting a LD tube as they seem to be great value for a starting amp, and I guess its partly luck if it should die a couple of years down the line through failure. Hard to say if a Woo wouldnt too! If I dislike the tube sound I can sell it I guess, but I'll live with it for a bit untill my ears become accustomed to its signiture. And I've read about many who are satisfied with the Mklll even after hearing/owning more expensive amps, am I right?

Hi osmoldo
 
I am completely computer based.  All my music is on a dedicated music computer with a secondary laptop rig in another room.  I have 2 full size DACs with built in USB and 3 without. When I set up the laptop rig, I had to buy an external USB transport (Blue Circle Thingee) to bring the sound quality of the USB DACs up to the same level of performance as the optical connection from the music computer.  (I also bought a HiFace transport but found it to have a, bright treble tilted sound signature and don't use it)
 
After the Little Dot failures, I bought a Woo3 and it has worked flawlessly ever since.  LD's are attractive because they're cheap.  I fell into that trap too, and all I'm doing is passing on my experience to you. 
 
Remember I told you about the  Woo3 and the M^3.

 
 
Quote:

Those Woo amps certainly are nice, and if I had more funds available for this hobby that's what I'd go for. As it stands, I made a compromise and I went for the MK IV SE and I've been very pleased with it. The MK III is also a well regarded budget choice for the HD 6XX. I believe that's a MK II in your photo, upstateguy? To be fair, I think the MK III is meant to be a good step up from the MK II - which is a very budget tube amp. The M^3 is a very well regarded amp but many HD 6XX users report a 'special' synergy with OTL tube amps (i.e. MK III), as opposed to solid state, but this is purely a matter of sound signature preference.
 
As for DACs, I have the Nuforce UDAC II in addition to the Little Dot DAC_I, and to my ears there's really not much in it (though I've not done a critical comparison) - the UDAC II is an excellent DAC for the money and a very popular choice. Both are a SIGNIFICANT improvement over my PCs on-board sound card. I see you've already got an external soundcard osmoldo, as such you may find the UDAC II/another budget DAC doesn't offer much over the Creative USB X-FI  device you've already got, I don't know. Having said all that, in my experience a DAC is of limited value unless you're playing lossless CD quality and above audio files. If you're using lossly formats - such as MP3 - at less than a certain kps (~320?) - you won't get the benefit of the extra detail a DAC is able to retrieve from your music, and compression artifacts will be exaggerated.

IMHO the report that 6XX users find a special synergy with OTL tube amps is highly over rated.  I like my 650s with my Woo3, but the truth is that I'm hard pressed to be able to tell the difference between my Cetron tubed Woo3 and my 637/627 M^3, where as  I can easily tell the difference between either of them and my GS-1, which is noticeably better in terms of resolution, articulation and sense of space.
 
RE:  The value of a DAC.
 
I find the DAC (and associaed transport) to be the most important part of the chain regardless of what quality format you're listening to.  There is a big difference between my Constantine and my NorthStar 192 MKII even when listening to streamed internet radio. <--- just my experience
 
And if anyone is interested, here is a link to lossless streaming -->  http://radiobit.50webs.com/
 
Just drag each of the  Ogg flacs into a foobar play list and you're good to go.  I find there is a bit of buffering with wireless connections so you might have to raise the buffer level until it stops.

 

[jr41]

I would love to listen to the HD 650 through a Woo amp and any of the AMB amps (i.e. M^3, B22).