[khaine1711]

Chances are once you get hit by upgrade-titus, you'll probably be moving up to hd800/he6/lcd3/Staxes before you upgrade your source 

 

[M-13]

Quote:

 
Looking to do the same in the future. Only reason I'm not selling/upgrading my HE-500s.

You might be shocked when you do. Coming from soneone who was using Fiio as the source and then moved to the Schiit Bifrost. All of a sudden the HE-500 had much more soundstage depth and much better imaging, layers and layers deep, Not to mention clarity across the board. And the people just consider the Bifrost as "okay". I know a lot of people focus on headphones then amps, but once you hear what a good source can do for you. It's hard to forget. I'm personally looking at the Concero as the best bang for the buck under a $1000 right now. Although I do drool at that X-Sabre.

 

[khaine1711]

Quote:

You might be shocked when you do. Coming from soneone who was using Fiio as the source and then moved to the Schiit Bifrost. All of a sudden the HE-500 had much more soundstage depth and much better imaging, layers and layers deep, Not to mention clarity across the board. And the people just consider the Bifrost as "okay". I know a lot of people focus on headphones then amps, but once you hear what a good source can do for you. It's hard to forget. I'm personally looking at the Concero as the best bang for the buck under a $1000 right now. Although I do drool at that X-Sabre.

I'm gonna say best bang for the bucks under $1k would be a Metrum Octave + a stello U3/Kingrex cheapo transport - or an used Electrocompaniet ECD1. Or an MDHT Havana with modded cap and NOS tube/used Neko D100 mk2 if you prefer a warmer sound. Then you sort of hit a brickwall and need to spend 2-3x amount on dac to clearly beat those performance 

 

[hifimanrookie]

I'm gonna say best bang for the bucks under $1k would be a Metrum Octave + a stello U3/Kingrex cheapo transport - or an used Electrocompaniet ECD1. Or an MDHT Havana with modded cap and NOS tube/used Neko D100 mk2 if you prefer a warmer sound. Then you sort of hit a brickwall and need to spend 2-3x amount on dac to clearly beat those performance 

I have a feeling The excellent octave doesnt need the stello anymore..as the octave Mk2 version now has the same topquality usb input just like his bigger sister..the hex..and its no longer a two box product

 

[khaine1711]

Quote:

I have a feeling The excellent octave doesnt need the stello anymore..as the octave Mk2 version now has the same topquality usb input just like his bigger sister..the hex..and its no longer a two box product

 
Just my observation/experience with various transport, an OEM hiface board w/o heavy modification can't really match the performance of a well-implemented XMOS 

.
 
Dealer ran out of Octave mk1, so I cant really do the MK1 vs MK2 comparison. I've also gotten over my "octave crush" anyway =p.

 

[knwtmsyn]

What is the best way to make sure the leads are connected? The hole in the headphones is a bit recessed so it's hard to tighten them just by turning the screw part. What I do is turn the screw as much as I can, then turn the metal piece directly underneath, this has given me a good tight fit but is it damaging overall with repetition?

 

[Zoom25]

You might be shocked when you do. Coming from soneone who was using Fiio as the source and then moved to the Schiit Bifrost. All of a sudden the HE-500 had much more soundstage depth and much better imaging, layers and layers deep, Not to mention clarity across the board. And the people just consider the Bifrost as "okay". I know a lot of people focus on headphones then amps, but once you hear what a good source can do for you. It's hard to forget. I'm personally looking at the Concero as the best bang for the buck under a $1000 right now. Although I do drool at that X-Sabre. :evil:

Yea same thing happened to me when i upgraded from fiio e10 to marantz. When i'm going to upgrade it'll definitely be over the $500 mark. One of my criteria is balanced outputs. I was looking at gungnir, ps audio nuwave, and the bryston bh-1. Where does the concero stack up in the mix?

I would love to hear some input on this. Also any other suggestions?

 

[Zoom25]

Chances are once you get hit by upgrade-titus, you'll probably be moving up to hd800/he6/lcd3/Staxes before you upgrade your source 

So many options. Regarding Stax I promised myself to not go over something like a SR-007. The 009 at that price with good amp - for $10,000 I'll go for speakers any day. Everything else is fair game I suppose.

 

[khaine1711]

Quote:

Yea same thing happened to me when i upgraded from fiio e10 to marantz. When i'm going to upgrade it'll definitely be over the $500 mark. One of my criteria is balanced outputs. I was looking at gungnir, ps audio nuwave, and the bryston bh-1. Where does the concero stack up in the mix?

I would love to hear some input on this. Also any other suggestions?

And used Metrum Quad with the separate PS; used PS Audio DL3 with the highest cullen mods I think is the best 500 bucks performer money could buy. Decent balance out is hard to get for cheap (part cost/transformer etc etc). Depends on your budget also, the concero is 600 bucks, while the Bryston bda1 is like 3k so I'm not sure what your budget is 

 

[Dubstep Girl]

i use a PS Audio DLIII as well! 
 
i use a vlink USB/SPDIF converter which i think improves it quite a bit and doesn't leave it too far off from the 1k competition these days.
 
i am looking at a W4S DAC as an upgrade someday though.

 

[khaine1711]

Quote:

i use a PS Audio DLIII as well! 
 
i use a vlink USB/SPDIF converter which i think improves it quite a bit and doesn't leave it too far off from the 1k competition these days.
 
i am looking at a W4S DAC as an upgrade someday though.

You shoulda look at other options too, the whole dac market has moved a lot since the W4S was introduced. I haven't heard the stock DL3, but I heard a Dl3 with cullen 4 mod - nice warm dac (aka musical). The W4S2 on the other hand is pretty bright.

 

[Dubstep Girl]

from what i've read, the W4S is still not as bright as some of the other dacs. i was looking at the PS Audio NuWave, but seems like some of the impressions from other head-fiers indicate its a bit of a letdown, and that one is much different than the DL III.
 
ive also been interested in the Rega DAC, but it seems to be a bit too colored.

 

[OldSkool]

Quote:

i use a PS Audio DLIII as well! 
 

All the cool people have one

 

 

[MickeyVee]

I've got the DLIII also and love it! It's part of my main A/V system but I used it for a while when I got my Lyr.  I ended up getting the Bifrost just for aesthetics on my desk and the DLIII went back to my main rig.  Love the auto switching and sweet warm sound.  I should give it a try again in my HeadFi system just for kicks.
I've been considering the M-DAC but for now, happy with the DLIII and Bifrost.

 

[khaine1711]

Quote:

from what i've read, the W4S is still not as bright as some of the other dacs. i was looking at the PS Audio NuWave, but seems like some of the impressions from other head-fiers indicate its a bit of a letdown, and that one is much different than the DL III.
 
ive also been interested in the Rega DAC, but it seems to be a bit too colored.

 
The W4S2 was actually on top of my list until I tried it 

. It's not bright as some other Dac (Mytek/Benchmark1 comes to mind - but I classified them as "solid state went wrong"), still the performance is quite lacking compared to competitors in the same range.
 
A hummingbird told me W4S2 with modified IV stage fed by OR5 via i2s is a world class dac - but of course I have no way to confirm that 

 (plus the OR5 alone cost 2500 bucks)