Thanks
so much for the help. There's some pretty darn solid advice from the pros there.
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Originally Posted by ej82m /img/forum/go_quote.gif
I haven't heard of the m-audiophile, but these headphones really do benefit from a better source. Coming from an emu 0404/dac-ah, my E5 and dac1 sound so much better that I pretty much switched to cd listening now.
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I see. If the E5/DAC1 "sounds so much better" than the 0404/DAC-AH, which should already sound much better than the "M-Audiophile", then I think I should really be aiming for a DAC upgrade first. CDs sound great, but I don't really keep many CDs at university. I'd use CDs if I was back home. At home, my dad listens to CDs so we have a decent "collection" + nice CD/SACD player. I do like picking music from a hard copy versus clicking on a computer. I also love watching the disc mechanism smoothly glide out, disc in, and then back in. For some reason, it's just more special.
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Personally, I wouldn't worry about upgrading at the moment. It seems that you already have a pretty nice rig already. Just start saving up and enjoy the music! |
No worries. I'll be enjoying music alright!
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Originally Posted by mikeliao /img/forum/go_quote.gif
How amp dependent is the HE60? I would say not that much. The KGSS and Stax 717 sound very similiar except the 717 can sometimes be a little harsh depending on the source material. The KGSS, well, depends on your build.
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Thanks. You've saved me a lot of money. Looks like the 006t will stay around for a while
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Upgrade the source before the amp. The 006t is a very good amp. Seeing that you're in HK sometimes, stop by diyaudio and get a DAC-AM. Works very well in balanced mode for the low price. Soundstage is similiar to DAC-1. The DAC-1 is much more detailed, but at 4x the price. The DA220 keeps the DAC-1 detail, opens the soundstage even more, ups the macrodynamics a tad, and tames the high textures. In reality I use the DAC-1 more since its small, easy to transport, and can drive dynamic headphones. The DA220 sits in a shelf with the other 'big' gear, for when there's time to enjoy an hour or two. |
Definitely possible. So the DAC-1 is only "much more detailed" than the DAC-AM? Pacific Valve do some pretty interesting upgrades to a many Chinese DACs, the DAC-AM being one of them. I wonder if there is an equivalent in Hong Kong?
The DA220
mk2 is only a tad more expensive than the DAC1 USB. It'll be tempting to get the DA220 mk2 since I'll only be saving up for a bit longer. However like you said, the small, transportable form factor of the DAC1 in general, is a very attractive "feature".
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K1000 and HE60. Hmmm, K1000 = Soundstage and details. HE60 = speed and dynamics. K1000 = half hour setup and adjustments. HE60 = put on, push play. Like my profile say, I don't use the K1000 much, its just too much hassle to use. Soundstage is best served by speakers. |
I won't be able to have both rigs anyway, so I think the I'll try to get the most out of the HE60 first before going crazy with dynamic headphones. The amp choice for the K1000 is, I read, paramount to it making good sound. People talk about the $7k Air Tight ATM-300 amp as the be all end all amp for the K1000. Others such as Neil use MBL monoblocks
For the modest me that I am, there's no way I'll be able to afford either. Maybe in 10 years
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Originally Posted by neilvg /img/forum/go_quote.gif
I would certainly say that the source makes the biggest difference to the sound. This is more important than the amp you use with the HE60's. The M-Audio stuff is alright. I've spent a bit of time trying to get computer audio to sound good. It gets pretty good, but nowhere near (as far as I've heard so far) as good as a good transport/dac combo. No way, it's a different presentation altogether.
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Again, concrete advice. The general consensus seems to be "Source 1st, Amp 2nd." Surely any computer digital transport + your EMMLabs DAC will sound nice? Maybe not as nice as the EMMLabs stack because of all the fancy ingenious jitter-proof perfection connection between the transport/dac. Space and money (university, student circumstances) prevent me from going all out at the moment. If I was at home and my dad gave me a bit of support, perhaps I'd get a proper home DAC. That said, single-box players sound great too. My dad currently uses an Esoteric X-03SE and my word does it sing. I've compared it to the Chord Blu/DAC64 transport/dac combo and IMHO, the X-03SE sounds better. I'd even say the X-03SE is damn close to the X-01 Limited, which is significantly more expensive. I just wonder how the EMMLabs single-box sounds because I heard the dCS P8i and I was pretty impressed by the sound. The X-01Limited, P8i and CDSA are probably about as good as single-box players get if you ignore the 808i and Evolution 505.
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But I wouldn't necessarily hurry to get a good source/dac either. I would however look into a good DAC first though. Personally, CD's sound so much better than from a computer, it's hard to use the computer (despite its convenience) when I have the choice. I only have this feeling with regards to the best transport/dac (and cabling) configurations. If it's just a mid-fi CD-based setup, than computer as source can sound just as good as any of those and you'd be best spending your money on getting the computer audio to sound better (dac, power regenerator for the switching power supply in the PC, etc...).
Neil |
OK. Stello DA100 is relatively cheap and I heard the DA220 is basically the DA100 with balanced outputs. My understanding is that all electrostatic systems are extrinsically balanced.(not absolutely sure about this) In your experience, does going fully balanced really make a big difference? I read the 6moons review of the 3030 and 4040 systems and they didn't seem to hear much of a difference between the balanced and SE inputs of the 006t
Then again, they didn't tell between the 3030 and 4040 either
I've never thought about power stuff. Never thought about regeneration, but would something like a Shunyata Hydra 4 or PSAudio Power Center (used to be Ultimate Outlet) do any good? Power regeneration is beyond my budget for the near, predictable future. I'm already running my electronics through a Belkin PureAV 8-socket mains block, which apparently does some filtering. TBH, I don't think I heard a difference between connection to the mains and through the PureAV block at all. I also tried using one of those Russ Andrews noise harvesters (he likes to call the The Silencer) and that did absolutely nothing. Worst $80 spent.