[yoghurtlidlicker]

  I'm curious how much of a difference the mx-hpa makes for you?  It looks like a nice device.

indeed it is!!
clean, accurate, fast (some headphones can't handle it!) but still musical.
I love it. One of the best purchases ever.

 

[Happy Camper]

I'm curious how much of a difference the mx-hpa makes for you? It looks like a nice device.

You mentioned cables. I was in a test group for Silver Fi cables out of Turkey. They do their own silver recipe and I was truly stunned that their cables made such a clear difference. The balanced Rumi's were great. I would love to hear their higher units but they are out of my range. The habit never ends.

 

[lcasadonte]

You mentioned cables. I was in a test group for Silver Fi cables out of Turkey. They do their own silver recipe and I was truly stunned that their cables made such a clear difference. The balanced Rumi's were great. I would love to hear their higher units but they are out of my range. The habit never ends.

I'm still searching around for cables and I discovered I needed female xlr's to plug into the hilo. Can you share a website for the the cable's? I was thinking of just going with the beyerdynamic cable and a generic pigtail into the hilo. Thanks,

 

[lcasadonte]

Well I ordered the beyerdynamic balanced cables which terminate in a 4pin xlr and i ordered the 4 pin to 3 pin xlr converter from china and am awaiting delivery. We'll see if balanced makes a difference.

 

[Happy Camper]

http://www.silverfi.com/

 

[lcasadonte]

Thanks, they look interesting, modestly priced. I can safely say listening in balanced mode vs single ended on the hilo sounds tremendously better. Night and day kind of differences even though its over my "stock" cables. I also upgraded my source at the same time and obtained an Onkyo DP X1 and bought a chinese converter for the 2.5mm to 4 pin xlr to drive my stock beyerdynamic balanced cables. It makes less of a difference on the onkyo but still an audible difference. The hilo continues to blow me away.

 

[yoghurtlidlicker]

just out of curiosity...
did anyone of you compared Hilo to any high end DACs (like Chord etc.)?

 

[PleasantSounds]

just out of curiosity...
did anyone of you compared Hilo to any high end DACs (like Chord etc.)?

I have been running both Hilo and Metrum Menuet for the last year or so. In terms of sound, my preference is hands down with the Menuet, which is more detailed and sounds more natural.
Hilo has the edge with rock solid USB interface, and in fact I use it with Menuet as USB to AES/EBU converter.
Sorry but I have no time for a more detailed comparison.

 

[yoghurtlidlicker]

I have been running both Hilo and Metrum Menuet for the last year or so. In terms of sound, my preference is hands down with the Menuet, which is more detailed and sounds more natural.
Hilo has the edge with rock solid USB interface, and in fact I use it with Menuet as USB to AES/EBU converter.
Sorry but I have no time for a more detailed comparison.

more detailed then Hilo? wow!!!!

 

[Xanthos]

Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but I'm wondering if some of you could tell me how you have your device set up for a balanced headphone situation to an amp. What settings etc. My device got all messed up and I had to reset it. I'm not sure what's going on as far as what screens to use and what to select. The interface has changed a lot over time.

 

[lcasadonte]

For balanced I use the 3 pin xlr out on the back. I have an adapter to a 4pin xlr for the headphones. You can just use general settings to play to all outputs which you get at through the routing menu. You can explicitly select your input and output. The knob for volume can be cycled through what it controls by pushing it in. I generally leave it on master. You can control each output level individually. Hope that helps,

 

[PleasantSounds]

Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but I'm wondering if some of you could tell me how you have your device set up for a balanced headphone situation to an amp. What settings etc. My device got all messed up and I had to reset it. I'm not sure what's going on as far as what screens to use and what to select. The interface has changed a lot over time.

Are you using the Hilo Remote? It's much easier than the touch screen menus: