[ezduzit2500]

CTH > Hersey for 6xx, and Hersey > CTH ananda, truth is i dont wanna plug my anandas in the cth again, that crackle and circuit break (turns red) didnt look healthy for the amp or for the headphone.

What is your source and may it be too low, voltage wise? Do you have a dedicated DAC feeding your system? DACs output around 2v signal as consumer amps output their rated power with at least 1.7v input. Many phones, tablets, and mobile devices don't have enough signal output to allow amps to reach their rated power. Hope I'm not making assumptions.

 

[Toby Joe]

@Toby Joe

I told ya

Now enjoy!

Yep, I think you actually told me three times that it would work, but whose counting? I really did enjoy your posts, thanks.......

 

[ezduzit2500]

Wow! $22! To order a replacement cable from HiFiMAN cost close to $200. I hate to come off as an audiophile elitist, but $22! Moon Audio's cheapest, the Blue Dragon, is $350.

I have that same NeoMusica cable. The it is a viable replacement for the stock cable. The Neo Musica sounds focused, nice detailed treble, tight bass, IMO. It has a nice feel to it, doesn't feel cheap. Braided jacket, decent connectors, lifetime guarantee I believe. Not bad, I'd buy it again if I needed to.

 

[MrMarc]

Chalk up another vote for Periapt. Custom cables of very good quality. Pick your length, colors, and connectors and away you go! Reasonably priced. What more can one ask?

 

[lalawilson168]

What is your source and may it be too low, voltage wise? Do you have a dedicated DAC feeding your system? DACs output around 2v signal as consumer amps output their rated power with at least 1.7v input. Many phones, tablets, and mobile devices don't have enough signal output to allow amps to reach their rated power. Hope I'm not making assumptions.

I have a DX160 3.5mm SPDIF out to a Modi 3 coaxial in, and RCA to RCA to the CTH, not sure what the voltage out is on the Modi3. I have since tried it again, think it works, may be its because i was switching headphones whilst the amp is still on? i see thats not recommended on the user manual but I do that all the time with other amps so i dont know...

Chalk up another vote for Periapt. Custom cables of very good quality. Pick your length, colors, and connectors and away you go! Reasonably priced. What more can one ask?

I ordered some XLR cables from them couple of weeks back, seems like their lead time is fairly long at the moment understandably given current situation...

 

[Dramlin]

I ordered some XLR cables from them couple of weeks back, seems like their lead time is fairly long at the moment understandably given current situation...

My first 2 orders (pre-covid) took 10-14 days before the cables shipped. My last order was about 2 months ago, and it took them about 21 days. Hopefully their lead time hasn't gotten much worse than that. Still though, well worth the wait for the price.

 

[yeboyi]

I will probably buy Ananda balanced XLR cable from Periapt soon.

My THX 789 is on the way. Let's see if it's gonna make a difference. My soundcard(sbx ae5) is quite good to be honest. It's a very good beast with Beyerdynamic headphones but i just felt it can't drive Ananda properly.

 

[animefreeks]

I will probably buy Ananda balanced XLR cable from Periapt soon.

My THX 789 is on the way. Let's see if it's gonna make a difference. My soundcard(sbx ae5) is quite good to be honest. It's a very good beast with Beyerdynamic headphones but i just felt it can't drive Ananda properly.

I have an Asus Essence STX that I still use every now and then since I can't be bothered to remove it from my PC . I haven't heard the SoundBlaster AE-5 (or the AE-9 which caught my curiosity and attention) yet. What I can describe the Asus vs an external DAC/Amp is that high end sound cards are very good all-in-all, but the Asus is "peaky" in some areas whereas the Schiit Lyr 3 MB presents a smoother presentation without sacrificing detail.

Moving from a $199 soundcard to a $699 external DAC/amp, I can say that I was not all that blown away. For most headphones I would call it more of a sidegrade than an upgrade, unless you have some crazy power hungry headphones like the HE-6.

 

[lalawilson168]

I will probably buy Ananda balanced XLR cable from Periapt soon.

My THX 789 is on the way. Let's see if it's gonna make a difference. My soundcard(sbx ae5) is quite good to be honest. It's a very good beast with Beyerdynamic headphones but i just felt it can't drive Ananda properly.

Just out of interest, where did you get your 789 from ? I see on drop currently estimate ship date is not till like october...

 

[bagwell359]

I have that same NeoMusica cable. The it is a viable replacement for the stock cable. The Neo Musica sounds focused, nice detailed treble, tight bass, IMO. It has a nice feel to it, doesn't feel cheap. Braided jacket, decent connectors, lifetime guarantee I believe. Not bad, I'd buy it again if I needed to.

I tend to chase away the objectivists - but with headphone cable, air tight OFC with nice quality connectors get you about 98.98% of the way. I make my own sometimes, but when I don't have the time - Custom Cans out of the UK does a great job, about $120 inc shipping for a 5'. I have one for my HE-6se and HD-600. No financial connection. I'm sure there are cheaper ones that do a similar job - Blue Jeans still doesn't do headphone cables - right? it's that I also like the the double stranded paracord look with about 200 color choices from Custom Cans. The CC has very impedance. It kills the junk they sent with the 6se, and also the 600 has more subtle and less harsh bits in the treble.

 

[yeboyi]

I have an Asus Essence STX that I still use every now and then since I can't be bothered to remove it from my PC . I haven't heard the SoundBlaster AE-5 (or the AE-9 which caught my curiosity and attention) yet. What I can describe the Asus vs an external DAC/Amp is that high end sound cards are very good all-in-all, but the Asus is "peaky" in some areas whereas the Schiit Lyr 3 MB presents a smoother presentation without sacrificing detail.

Moving from a $199 soundcard to a $699 external DAC/amp, I can say that I was not all that blown away. For most headphones I would call it more of a sidegrade than an upgrade, unless you have some crazy power hungry headphones like the HE-6.

Yeah that's also my expectation. I heard those Schiit stuff is actually coloring the sound. Lyr3 have tube. I wanted clean, resolving and achromatic referance grade dac amp. Which is probably even more similiar to my soundcard than Schiit products.

Just out of interest, where did you get your 789 from ? I see on drop currently estimate ship date is not till like october...

Amazon.com there was 1 in stock. You need to chase it. It comes and goes. Used ones are even expensive. I bought new $320.
Edit: It's funny amazon warehouse used ones are $340. So if i return it they will sell it for more lol.

 

[ezduzit2500]

I tend to chase away the objectivists - but with headphone cable, air tight OFC with nice quality connectors get you about 98.98% of the way. I make my own sometimes, but when I don't have the time - Custom Cans out of the UK does a great job, about $120 inc shipping for a 5'. I have one for my HE-6se and HD-600. No financial connection. I'm sure there are cheaper ones that do a similar job - Blue Jeans still doesn't do headphone cables - right? it's that I also like the the double stranded paracord look with about 200 color choices from Custom Cans. The CC has very impedance. It kills the junk they sent with the 6se, and also the 600 has more subtle and less harsh bits in the treble.

Agreed on the quality cable front. It's just that when I just wanted something to replace the stock Ananda cable quickly with something, anything, I jumped on that inexpensive cable and found it to be of decent quality and sound. A no problem cable that works well on the cheap. Ez Duz It...

 

[yellowbirdfly]

Hi,

Looking at the Ananda as my next potential headphone upgrade. Would a portable DAC/Amp do it justice? I'm thinking FiiO BTR5 or Dragonfly Cobalt. Or would I be better off with Ananda BT?

Appreciate any help!

 

[LoyK]

Fiio BTR5 is a good choice I think (considering it myself at the moment). I would choose this over Ananda-BT - you are more flexible and BTR5 + Ananda should sound a bit better.
At the moment I am quite impressed by the Meizu Hifi Audio Pro dongle which performs excellent for its price and drives the Ananda well. Only problem was it took nearly two months to ship it from china. But I would try it before buying some overpriced alternative like Dragonfly...
Kinda impressive how good such a small device can sound nowadays
(Also good options without bluetooth would be Hidizs S8, Tempotec Sonata HD Pro or E1DA 9038S.)

 

[animefreeks]

What's very interesting to me is that the stock short cable with the 2.5mm to 3.5mm adapter sounds significantly different than the stock long cable. Plugged into the same amp, the short cable sounds very claustrophobic and nasal compared to the long cable. Soundstage has been reduced drastically. I was experimenting around with using my Galaxy S10+ to drive the phones just to see what differences I can spot. I had to turn the volume up to 100% on my phone when streaming stuff from Google Play Music and Tidal to achieve an adequate volume which tells me that the Anandas do need power to drive properly despite the website and box saying that they are easy to drive. They technically CAN play through a cell phone but it will have to be in a quiet room, and any outside noise will mix in with the music since it isn't loud enough.

There is also a slight crackle or pop that's instantaneous and only happens to certain specific songs at the same moment in the song; not sure if this is a byproduct of the headphones still in the break-in period or the song itself since the crackle appears on the Galaxy phone, the Schiit amp, and the Asus soundcard. Slightly concerned because of the hair issues in the drivers that others have reported. edit: It's the song. Plugged in my HD 700's and the same crackle and pop is there although hard to hear and I had to be looking for it. Detail retrieval of the Anandas is simply amazing.