[teknorob23]

I really love my Utopia with a yggy and a tube amp. (mj2 and Primaluna)
I'm a fan in R2R dacs in general and liked the yggy more than the Hugo 2 (i never tied the TT2)
(I also think Chord stuff looks really really dumb.. it might be worth it for the Dave, but not their other stuff. (But for the price point of the Dave i'd get something else.. which i did in the Rockna.)
For me tubes bring a lot to Utopia. That said, lets not fool ourselves, tubes are costly EQ - but i still like them.. and they look cool.

I agree the i found th yggy marginally better or more enjoyable overall to the H2, but it cant really hold a light to the TT2 in terms of low end definition, attack and control. I've had a Venus2 and terminator, both on the more energetic side of the R2R spectrum, and while the Terminator just best the tt2 on overall resolution, i still prefer the chords low-end, it's just faster and better defined. Horses for courses, i guess. I listen to a lot of electronica or that come under the horrid catch all IDM, but i'm not a bass head, i love bass definition over quantity anyday, which is why i find the tt2/ utopia and tt2/stellia to be two of my favourite combinations. Looks well thats your call as to what you like and how important it is in your choice, but the TT2 with Focal takes up very little space for pretty massive performance that my 20K+ 2 channel set has a tough time matching

 

[Thompsonkirk]

I still reading and subscribing Absolute Sound and Stereophile magazines for all the audio gears.
Looking at the Pathos family right now, expensive Shxx !!!

Is the Pathos Aurium still a good choice, if equipped with NOS Siemens or Telefunken tubes?
It's their hybrid, with tube input and MOSFET output.

 

[tajpapa]

This is just about near perfect for me.
I say near perfect, because it would be perfect if I didn't have my kids running around screaming in the background.

Luckily my kids are still sleeping at night every day so I could enjoy my Utopia peacefully at least at nighttime

 

[meomap]

Is the Pathos Aurium still a good choice, if equipped with NOS Siemens or Telefunken tubes?
It's their hybrid, with tube input and MOSFET output.

Thanks, but looking and saving $$$ for Inpol Ear model......

 

[Slim1970]

Thanks, but looking and saving $$$ for Inpol Ear model......

Yes, I’m looking into this amp myself.

 

[Slim1970]

Is the Pathos Aurium still a good choice, if equipped with NOS Siemens or Telefunken tubes?
It's their hybrid, with tube input and MOSFET output.

I owned this combo for a few month and thought it was great pairing with the Utopia’s. Honestly, there isn’t much the Utopia’s don’t sound good on.

 

[Thompsonkirk]

Thanks, but looking and saving $$$ for Inpol Ear model......

Vaguely considering the same thing....

In addition, I've read that Focal demos Utopias at shows with Feliks Euforia. This might not make Euforia, which isn't too expensive, TOTL; but it could make a most favorable combination.

Pathos, however, has balanced outputs, and Euforia, even on the Anniversary edition, doesn't have them.

 

[teknorob23]

Vaguely considering the same thing....

In addition, I've read that Focal demos Utopias at shows with Feliks Euforia. This might not make Euforia, which isn't too expensive, TOTL; but it could make a most favorable combination.

Pathos, however, has balanced outputs, and Euforia, even on the Anniversary edition, doesn't have them.

I owned both euforia standard and the ae version. I Demo’d with pathos and auris before buying the first one. The pathos is nice but isn’t anywhere near either feliks, it’s closer to their Elise model. The AE version is the best hp amp I’ve owned and pairs exceptionally well with utopia and stellias. It’s staging, separation, layering and texture are something else, it’s genuinely holographic and with the right tube combination it could resolve what ever source which was mainly Tt2 at the time, i through at it. Stock tubes are okay but to really hear it sing you need el11 drivers/ el39 powers, or for an even more powerful sound 4 genalex gold lion kt88 re-issues which are much easier to get. This amp while not cheap is super flexible, resolving and with none of the negative tubey traits I’d heard in other amps, I can’t recommend it more highly.
I miss mine a lot!

 

[dontfeedphils]

Well I've decided to move onto a new hobby, so my pair of Utopia are listed in the classifieds if anyone happens to be in the market.

 

[bfreedma]

Well I've decided to move onto a new hobby, so my pair of Utopia are listed in the classifieds if anyone happens to be in the market.

Sorry to see you go.
Is the warranty transferrable? How many years is it?

 

[Strayngs]

I really love my Utopia with a yggy and a tube amp. (mj2 and Primaluna)
I'm a fan in R2R dacs in general and liked the yggy more than the Hugo 2 (i never tied the TT2)
(I also think Chord stuff looks really really dumb.. it might be worth it for the Dave, but not their other stuff. (But for the price point of the Dave i'd get something else.. which i did in the Rockna.)
For me tubes bring a lot to Utopia. That said, lets not fool ourselves, tubes are costly EQ - but i still like them.. and they look cool.

Utopia was sensational on my PrimaLuna! I notice you have a Wavedream but mention the YGGy instead. Do you prefer it to your Rockna with the Utopia?

 

[Zurv]

@Strayngs The Rockna is on order. I just updated my sig in advance. I can answer (i hope) in about 2 weeks.

That said, i'll have the i2s and USB cards from Pain Faun (and upgraded clocks then too.) I'm super sure everything will be different .. even on the rockna. you know.. cause.. you change one minor things and that changes everything is a massive way!
haha.. no it doesn't Minor changes should have minor impacts (hopefully good ones)

But good point. I wasn't planning to play around with the Pink Faun cards will the Wavedream comes in.. but i should plan on doing that. Maybe the Pink Faun with OCXO will make Yggy stunning different... or likely not - but i should test.

I'm oddly going to start my Rockna test on my FS speaker setup. The NAD Master M28 is very transparent.. and the PL, which can also be RE: stock tubes, but not how it have it now.
I am expecting great things from the wavedream + PrimaLuna + Utopia!!!!! (shame the integrated PL didn't have XLR input and XLR HP output ... ugh.. maybe i don't want to think about that because if they ever did do release that i'd have to buy it... have toooooo!.)

I'm looking forward to you getting KT170s in your PL 300. I wonder if that would have any impact on the HP amp part? There should be no diff between the 400 and 300 when on headphones as power is limited (vs feeding speakers.)

But i'll be jelly anyway because KT170 will look cool. (.. and i got the Rockna after seeing your combo.. )
TEMPTRESS!

Question, on the Rockna. Which clock are you using? Rockna (local) or on the Lumin (streaming)? I can't find any info on quality of the Rockna clock vs something else (in my case the Pink Faun OCXO.)
What is "better" normally is what sound familiar not what is truer to the source. I'd love to know truer first.. then I want to tweak to.. then tweak it (or change.)

 

[Strayngs]

@Strayngs The Rockna is on order. I just updated my sig in advance. I can answer (i hope) in about 2 weeks.

That said, i'll have the i2s and USB cards from Pain Faun (and upgraded clocks then too.) I'm super everything will be different .. even on the rockna. you know.. cause.. you change one minor things and that changes everything is a massive way!
haha.. no it doesn't Minor changes should have minor impacts (hopefully good ones)

But good point. I wasn't planning to play around with the Pink Faun cards will the Wavedream comes in.. but i should plan on doing that. Maybe the Pink Faun with OCXO will make Yggy stunning different... or likely not - but i should test.

I'm oddly going to start my Rockna test on my FS speaker setup. The NAD Master M28 is very transparent.. and the PL, which can also be RE: stock tubes, but not how it have it now.
I am expecting great things from the wavedream + PrimaLuna + Utopia!!!!! (shame the integrated PL didn't have XLR input and XLR HP output ... ugh.. maybe i don't want to think about that because if they ever did do release that i'd have to buy it... have toooooo!.)

I'm looking forward to you getting KT170s in your PL 300. I wonder if that would have any impact on the HP amp part? There should be no diff between the 400 and 300 when on headphones as power is limited (vs feeding speakers.)

But i'll be jelly anyway because KT170 will look cool. (.. and i got the Rockna after seeing your combo.. )
TEMPTRESS!

Question, on the Rockna. Which clock are you using? Rockna (local) or on the Lumin (streaming)? I can't find any info on quality of the Rockna clock vs something else (in my case the Pink Faun OCXO.)
What is "better" normally is what sound familiar not what is truer to the source. I'd love to know truer first.. then I want to tweak to.. then tweak it (or change.)

I use the native Rockna. I am loving the sound of it all! I am very interested to here your thoughts of the Wavedream. Did you get the balanced version? If you did and would like to here it feeding your EVO 400, Ampsandsound makes a great XLR to SE transformer. I have a Rogue RH-5 which is balanced and I can feed it single ended back to my EVO 300. I have yet to try it to see if there are any differences in the XLR vs SE on the PrimaLuna because of lack of time as I have a newborn.

Your impressions with the Utopia will be welcomed!

I am looking forward to trying the KT170s too.

 

[Zurv]

I use the native Rockna. I am loving the sound of it all! I am very interested to here your thoughts of the Wavedream. Did you get the balanced version? If you did and would like to here it feeding your EVO 400, Ampsandsound makes a great XLR to SE transformer. I have a Rogue RH-5 which is balanced and I can feed it single ended back to my EVO 300. I have yet to try it to see if there are any differences in the XLR vs SE on the PrimaLuna because of lack of time as I have a newborn.

Your impressions with the Utopia will be welcomed!

I am looking forward to trying the KT170s too.

yeah, i got the XLR version. When i'm spending that much money i wasn't going to limit future options. I really hoping the Rockna is my end game dac (for me!)
Thanks for the suggestion of ampsandsound. I'll start off first with the moon-audio adaptor.

 

[up late]

Mine took over 150 hours to become consistently spectacular. Out-of-the-box, you can tell they are finding it hard to move/vibrate. So after 30 days of 5 hours listening each day, then see if they are any different. I am confident they will be. Headphones are moving parts and need to be run-in (I think USA says burn-in).

During that 150 hours, they will be both spectacular and rubbish sounding. One song might be edgy another smooth. They simply need "exercising" to get the moving parts moving freely.

Regards
GG

that's incredible!