[money4me247]

Quote:

At the next meet I'm going to set up a rig with closed back phones and blind test everyone willing (starting with myself) between Flac and Spotify. It should be a very interesting experiment! I'd love to see how Head-fiers make out. I think you're onto something with the subjective portion but to my ears the flac files have warmth and thickness that Spotify lacks. Not substantial but definitely heard. Could it be a Spotify player VS Foobar? Maybe...but Spotify player is all there is for Spotify.

That would be a really interesting & fun experiment IMO can the spotify player play flac files?
 
Quote:

  MOG FTW

yo, mog is frickin terrible. (as of 2011). the user interface is terrible. there is like a 300ish song limit per playlist. there is like a 250song favorite limit. your favorites get overwritten & randomly lost... omg don't even get me started. it was sucha terrible service. also, they false advertise that their whole library is 320kbps. it's not. no streaming service has all 320kbps for their entire library. (personal experience ymmv hahah)

 

[Tristan944]

http://www.head-fi.org/t/698831/fresh-outta-ces-the-hifiman-he-400i-and-he-560
 
I'm glad I returned the HE400 for two reasons: I didn't like the sound and the rumors of an updated or new Hickman headphone. The HE-400i looks beautiful, comes with velour pads, and possibly has a sound signature I will like. Very excited to hear these!!

 

[Soundsgoodtome]

It can not but I could you have both players running and manually A/B the two while the listener faces the other direction.

 

[Soundsgoodtome]

I heard everything sounded twang-y on those.

http://www.head-fi.org/t/698831/fresh-outta-ces-the-hifiman-he-400i-and-he-560

I'm glad I returned the HE400 for two reasons: I didn't like the sound and the rumors of an updated or new Hickman headphone. The HE-400i looks beautiful, comes with velour pads, and possibly has a sound signature I will like. Very excited to hear these!!

 

[Saraguie]

  It uses 2x WM8741 
 
It sounds greaaat. As for as synergy, people usually prefer hybrid amps like the Lyr but I think that the 10.2 synergizes great with the HE-400 being a SS amp. I'm actually only running single ended at the moment (I'm getting a cable made at the moment) but it still sounds much better than not having an amp at all.
 
If you don't plan on going balanced or if you don't have any other headphones, then this might be slightly overkill but if you plan on upgrading or have multiple headphones, this is great amp for the price. The 10.2 is the outdated version now, I think they're selling the 10ES3 or something like that? It should only be better than the 10.2 though (same price). As far as combos go, it's hard to beat a 24 bit 10wpc SS amp for this price. The NFB-10 should be a decent upgrade from the 11 if you have a bit of spare money. I wouldn't recommend it just for the HE-400 because the amp costs more than the headphones do though lo
 
Edit: Looks like the 10ES3 is $630, not $550 like the 10.2 used to cost. 

Thanks for the info. The idea of two 8741s sounds very good to me. I think the 8741 is the best Wolfson makes.
 
My home rig is LCD3s > PWD II > Mjolnir , I am not expecting my office rig will come close.  I already have the 11.32 and with the Sabre being more analytical than Wolfson, it made the LCDs sound pretty good being a warmer than neutral HF.
 
I really do not want to spend more $$ for the office and I already own these. So my choices are: computer > 11.32 > 400s or  AK120 (which has 2 8740s) > RSA Hornet > 400s.  BTW, I think at $319. the 11.32 upgraded is one of the best deals around.

 

[nabwong]

What Purrin said in the Vali thread is absolutely true.The Vali sounds as good as the DAC .Though I did not spend a ton of time with it, my friend brought it to our three person "meet", and I was very impressed with the Modi/Vali combo(first chance to hear the Modi as well). I tried it with my Benchmark DAC 2 and was in awe of how fantastic it sounds. I was blown away.  I did not try it with the HE-400, but I would imagine it does the job. I would take the O2 over the Magni (a bit more natural sounding IMHO), but not the Vali, it had wonderful dynamics.

Curious cos I just got my o2+odac and I prefer it to the modi-vali by a lot.

 

[TMRaven]

What do you prefer on it?

 

[nabwong]

I'll probably do a detailed comparison at some point but to sum, the o2+odac helps what the he400 do best better; I.e. Speed and separation. I guess it's bit fair to compare a solid state and tube that way. The match is just better to me. And it's not only the amps. I found that just comparing the dacs (using o2 as amp), that the odac had more air. The modi is slightly more congested.

I mean, by itself, the modi-vali is a great budget setup. I found it lush but not too lush. After listening to the odac, lush became sluggish and congested. Part of that is personal taste. I know neutral is all relative but that's where I would put the o2. It does a good job of taming the highs of the he400 too. I listened to 3 hours of music last night without feeling fatigued, something I couldn't do with the e17.

I have to say that the 2.5x gain sounds way better than the 6.5x. Maybe if the vali had its gain reduced, it could sound better. Anyone wanna experiment?

 

[MrMateoHead]

I'll probably do a detailed comparison at some point but to sum, the o2+odac helps what the he400 do best better; I.e. Speed and separation. I guess it's bit fair to compare a solid state and tube that way. The match is just better to me. And it's not only the amps. I found that just comparing the dacs (using o2 as amp), that the odac had more air. The modi is slightly more congested.

I mean, by itself, the modi-vali is a great budget setup. I found it lush but not too lush. After listening to the odac, lush became sluggish and congested. Part of that is personal taste. I know neutral is all relative but that's where I would put the o2. It does a good job of taming the highs of the he400 too. I listened to 3 hours of music last night without feeling fatigued, something I couldn't do with the e17.

I have to say that the 2.5x gain sounds way better than the 6.5x. Maybe if the vali had its gain reduced, it could sound better. Anyone wanna experiment?

Nice - great to hear the O2 vindicated by someone else.
 
Gain is more for source-matching than 'sound quality' so it shouldn't really affect SQ. That said, a high-gain setting should provide better listening on say, a 1V source (laptop, phone), than it would on a 2V source (like the ODAC). The main reason being, you are more likely to get the volume level outside of channel-imbalance positions which seem to plague some headphone amps operating at very low volumes.

 

[Fearless1]

I have to say that the 2.5x gain sounds way better than the 6.5x. Maybe if the vali had its gain reduced, it could sound better. Anyone wanna experiment?

Again I reiterate, the DAC made the biggest improvement on the Vali.  It was "ok" off the Modi/Odac, but it was fantastic with a better DAC. I was also testing it with the HD800 so the dynamic driver may have come in to play, but the HD800 hides nothing.

 

[nabwong]

Again I reiterate, the DAC made the biggest improvement on the Vali.  It was "ok" off the Modi/Odac, but it was fantastic with a better DAC. I was also testing it with the HD800 so the dynamic driver may have come in to play, but the HD800 hides nothing.

I will have to experiment with other dacs with the vali then. The odac to me is superior to the modi. I wish I had the rca outs for the odac

 

[Fearless1]

 I wish I had the rca outs for the odac

JDS labs have them, mine was homemade(not by me).

 

[infernoRS]

Hmm, there's a used Lehmann Rhinelander for sale for pretty cheap... Hard to find any info on how these cans and that amp would pair up. Guess I'll buy the O2+ODAC combo, unless I can find something better used.
 
Edit: yeah, I sure could go and take a listen, but I really don't want to drive 160 miles for that...
 
Edit2: and a Lead Audio LA-200... Same situation. Looks like a nice package. However, no info on would it be any good with the HE-400's..."Yes, the headphone out is certainly not the most powerful thing out there. I did try it with the LCD-2 and and HE-500, and it did an acceptable job, but was not ideal. You end up running the volume maxed out and even then it isn't as loud or authoritative as I'd like at times. Don't even think of trying an HE-6."
 
Edit5728357: and I found a used O2+ODAC combo! Guess I'll go for that. If I can get it for a reasonable price, that is.

 

[Zalgorithm]

 
 
Edit5728357: and I found a used O2+ODAC combo! Guess I'll go for that. If I can get it for a reasonable price, that is.

I'm playing around with an Aune T1 and an O2+ODAC combo and I really like the latter. I am currently rolling tubes with T1 at the moment, but I feel the O2+ODAC pairs well with the he-400

 

[manbear]

IMO, solid state works well with the HE-400. Though the only tube amp I tried was rather underpowered. I'm curious about the Vali, but trying to resist the urge to buy schiit I don't really need.