[Mad Lust Envy]

I think you're overthinking it.

My Sansa Fuze dongle would connect to its Proprietary charging input, and the other end was 3.5mm, so line out. It doesn't matter if a DAP has more power than a phone. A line out is a line out. I think there's only so much power you need for line out.

Why do you want so many dac/amps in the chain? It can't be any more beneficial than just using an initial amp as a preamp. The conversion from analog to digital and back to analog would likely be even less ideal than just amp to another amp. There's still potential to put too much volume into the signal going back to digital, emphasizing whatever distortion the first amp introduced.

And yes, SXFI or any VSS survives any conversion once it's already been introduced into the chain. The VSS signal has already become the standard signal. No way to change it back.

 

[AppleheadMay]

Anybody here considering to purchase the Drop + THX Panda?

 

[SierraMadre]

I think you're overthinking it.

My Sansa Fuze dongle would connect to its Proprietary charging input, and the other end was 3.5mm, so line out. It doesn't matter if a DAP has more power than a phone. A line out is a line out. I think there's only so much power you need for line out.

Why do you want so many dac/amps in the chain? It can't be any more beneficial than just using an initial amp as a preamp. The conversion from analog to digital and back to analog would likely be even less ideal than just amp to another amp. There's still potential to put too much volume into the signal going back to digital, emphasizing whatever distortion the first amp introduced.

Well, I did explain why while also acknowledging that it was a crude and not well informed theory hence my coming to this board for answers.

And yes, SXFI or any VSS survives any conversion once it's already been introduced into the chain. The VSS signal has already become the standard signal. No way to change it back.

I knew the SXFI along with any other VSS would remain active along the entire signal path per se, rather what I meant by "survive" was that prior to the cursory test I had wondered whether DAC/amp>ADC>DAC/amp might result in any obvious additional distortion and whether toggling it on and off and back again while the aforementioned chain was live/active might result in spikes and further distortion.

In any case, thank you for your answers. If there's nothing to gain from adding ADC in to middle of the chain via a third device then I won't bother. I might tentatively try double amping SXFI from the SXFI AMP to the THX or Loxjie P20 and see what it does with my now spare pair of X2s that randomly surfaced after a year of being lost. If there are no major issues, I might then try the HD800S's although I am paranoid about doing anything remotely regarded as risky by anyone when it comes to those given the cost.

 

[SierraMadre]

Anybody here considering to purchase the Drop + THX Panda?

I am. . . Depends on whether I decide to give the Mobius another go with Vesper custom pads this time around or save up for the Dan Clark Aeon Open 2. I don't have any planars since returning the Mobius shortly after it launched and want a good one to round out my small collection. Whichever it is will probably be my last headphone purchase for a while with the possible exception of the Fidelio X3s if they turn out to be a marked improvement over X2's.

In any case, after that I'll have to institute a disciplined 1-in, 1-out policy with both cans and, once the Eddie Current Zdt Jr resurfaces on Drop, dacs and amps too unless I unexpectedly get a windfall inheritance from an unknown family member I never knew I had in which case a Smyth Realiser would be my first purchase.

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

Anybody here considering to purchase the Drop + THX Panda?

It's what I'm currently reviewing. Hopefully will be up within the next few days.

Spoilers: It sounds great wired and wirelessly. Bass is a little bloomy. Comfort is...okay. Needs more headband extension.

Sound quality:

LCD1 > Panda > Mobius

Only put those three because of price target, and I have them on hand. All three do very different things, so it depends on use case. Just thought I'd give a gauge on sound alone. Obviously, the LCD1 is pretty standard and open-backed, and the Mobius had a bunch of features that make it compelling as a fully fleshed out product. The Panda falling in the middle makes sense as it's also in between a standard headphone, and a product with some many extras.

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

Just thought I'd let you guys know what's going on in my life, if for some reason I sound different, or if I disappear for a long stretch.

My stepdad of over 20 years, had a stroke the other day, is paralyzed from the right side, and has bleeding in the brain. I'm honestly freaking out, and have a variety of feelings, but I'm trying to compartmentalize my emotions, and keep myself busy. I don't know what's going to happen to him, or how he really is atm. It's all very fresh. I was just out with him and went to dinner the night before. For me to be woken up with this was... it was a nightmare.

I currently live with him and my mother, because well, my finances and job aren't great, and they've been kind enough to help me out once all my roommates moved on to better things and couldn't afford to live alone. He and my mother have been basically my solid ground for a few years, and now... things are going to change. I just turned 37, and you can understand how it feels having to move back in a few years when I've been on my own since I was 18. But they've never judged me, and have always been there for me.

I don't know how I would be able to handle something bad happening to either of them, and would trade places with either of them in a heartbeat if I could.

So I'm just... not at the mindset of focusing on what's happening, because we just don't know what's going to happen. All I can do is hope for the best. And have to step up and sacrifice myself to whatever needs to be done if worse comes to worse.

Sorry if this doesn't have a place here. I just needed to put this somewhere, and I don't feel comfortable talking about this to my friends and family, and don't really want their consolation, so rather prefer letting it out to a group I've known for a long time, but isn't in my immediate circle. Thanks for listening.

As I've said, I'm working on the Panda review. I've written most in, just gotta do the sound sections, and take a few pictures, and edit the review. Should be no less than a few days at most, so look forward to it.

 

[illram]

Wow. Heavy stuff. I am really sorry you are going through that right now man. Life can be cruel sometimes.

I think we'd all understand if your Panda review was a little late....

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

Wow. Heavy stuff. I am really sorry you are going through that right now man. Life can be cruel sometimes.

I think we'd all understand if your Panda review was a little late....

Nah, besides I have to put it out before their Indiegogo campaign closes. That's the only stipulation they asked. For impressions to be out after Jan 27, but before closure of campaign. I do wish they had sent it to me earlier, so I could have had a normal process in reviewing them.

I managed to have a burst of writing energy the other day so I got most sections done. That helps.

Funny enough that I was able to write a section tonight on a whim. Had to do it while at work, but had the thoughts in my head and immediately wrote them down before I forgot.

 

[SierraMadre]

Just thought I'd let you guys know what's going on in my life, if for some reason I sound different, or if I disappear for a long stretch.

My stepdad of over 20 years, had a stroke the other day, is paralyzed from the right side, and has bleeding in the brain. I'm honestly freaking out, and have a variety of feelings, but I'm trying to compartmentalize my emotions, and keep myself busy. I don't know what's going to happen to him, or how he really is atm. It's all very fresh. I was just out with him and went to dinner the night before. For me to be woken up with this was... it was a nightmare.

I currently live with him and my mother, because well, my finances and job aren't great, and they've been kind enough to help me out once all my roommates moved on to better things and couldn't afford to live alone. He and my mother have been basically my solid ground for a few years, and now... things are going to change. I just turned 37, and you can understand how it feels having to move back in a few years when I've been on my own since I was 18. But they've never judged me, and have always been there for me.

I don't know how I would be able to handle something bad happening to either of them, and would trade places with either of them in a heartbeat if I could.

So I'm just... not at the mindset of focusing on what's happening, because we just don't know what's going to happen. All I can do is hope for the best. And have to step up and sacrifice myself to whatever needs to be done if worse comes to worse.

Sorry if this doesn't have a place here. I just needed to put this somewhere, and I don't feel comfortable talking about this to my friends and family, and don't really want their consolation, so rather prefer letting it out to a group I've known for a long time, but isn't in my immediate circle. Thanks for listening.

As I've said, I'm working on the Panda review. I've written most in, just gotta do the sound sections, and take a few pictures, and edit the review. Should be no less than a few days at most, so look forward to it.

Sorry to hear that, I things improve as much as possible as soon as possible. Thank you for nevertheless taking the time to answer my queries during such a difficult period.

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

Sorry to hear that, I things improve as much as possible as soon as possible. Thank you for nevertheless taking the time to answer my queries during such a difficult period.

I welcome it. I'm apparently really good at putting things aside emotionally until a more proper time. Talking about audio, or geeking out about other things really helps.

I wish I had a rough draft of my review here at work. I probably would've gotten a lot of it done tonight.

 

[AppleheadMay]

I am. . . Depends on whether I decide to give the Mobius another go with Vesper custom pads this time around or save up for the Dan Clark Aeon Open 2. I don't have any planars since returning the Mobius shortly after it launched and want a good one to round out my small collection. Whichever it is will probably be my last headphone purchase for a while with the possible exception of the Fidelio X3s if they turn out to be a marked improvement over X2's.
In any case, after that I'll have to institute a disciplined 1-in, 1-out policy with both cans and, once the Eddie Current Zdt Jr resurfaces on Drop, dacs and amps too unless I unexpectedly get a windfall inheritance from an unknown family member I never knew I had in which case a Smyth Realiser would be my first purchase.

The Mobius and Panda are the two I am considering as well at this point as I'm after a closed-back I can use wireless that will be used mainly for gaming, a movie, watching Youtube on the iPad, some general computer audio ... I have no wireless headphones at the moment. But I only need one and I think it'll be the Panda.
I'm pretty happy with the collection of phones I have (a bunch of Senns and a K7XX) and wasn't really planning to add more, just this one wireless pair.
I pre-ordered the A16 back in 2016 (the price was $1500 then) and will be connecting my consoles and computers if it ever arrives. Won't be using it for music though.

It's what I'm currently reviewing. Hopefully will be up within the next few days.
Spoilers: It sounds great wired and wirelessly. Bass is a little bloomy. Comfort is...okay. Needs more headband extension.
Sound quality:
LCD1 > Panda > Mobius
Only put those three because of price target, and I have them on hand. All three do very different things, so it depends on use case. Just thought I'd give a gauge on sound alone. Obviously, the LCD1 is pretty standard and open-backed, and the Mobius had a bunch of features that make it compelling as a fully fleshed out product. The Panda falling in the middle makes sense as it's also in between a standard headphone, and a product with some many extras.

I wish you and your family much strength in a difficult time like this but never lose hope.
I had a grandfather who had a stroke and was paralyzed on the whole right side of his body at the age of 60. He remained paralyzed but didn't lose his lust for living though and found a creative hobby. He lived 'till the age of 90 and though it was a lot of work for my grandmother to help him everyday they remained a happy couple and got a lot of support from their children and grandchildren.

 

[SierraMadre]

The Mobius and Panda are the two I am considering as well at this point as I'm after a closed-back I can use wireless that will be used mainly for gaming, a movie, watching Youtube on the iPad, some general computer audio ... I have no wireless headphones at the moment. But I only need one and I think it'll be the Panda.
I'm pretty happy with the collection of phones I have (a bunch of Senns and a K7XX) and wasn't really planning to add more, just this one wireless pair.

Yeah, the only wireless headphones I currently have are the Sony Platinum Wireless which I actually rather like and the very uncomfortable and decidedly average sounding Sound Blaster Recon3D Tactic Omegas I bought way back when I was still limited to buying gaming branded stuff only and hadn't discovered the benefits of enthusiast cans paired with gaming VSS. I didn't even like the Omegas much when I got them TBH, but wireless was a first time novelty to me back then and I ended up keeping them for the bundled Recon3D dac/amp (the then THX branded predecessor to SBX which I much preferred over Astro's Dolby headphone Mixamp) as the difference in price between the with cans bundle vs just the card by itself was only 30 or 40 due to a sale.

Mobius was my first and only experience of planars and although I enjoyed the Mobius sound and Waves NX for the most part (headtracking in particular), the memory foam wasn't remotely dense or firm enough to stop my ears touching the drivers which quickly became surprisingly painful in addition to the firmware and drivers being so buggy at the time that it blue screened my PC (and black screen video driver crashed my PC several times) on average at least once a play session over the course of the week I trialled it. Volume control was also all over the place and several times I had ear splitting spikes or just the slightest non-mobius related interaction with my PC would suddenly send the windows volume to 100, that kind of horrible crap. That was ages ago though, really soon after launch and I'm sure QC and software has matured to the point that such issues have been ironed out.

As for the K7XX, love 'em. They were just a tad lacking in bass and body for me initially but I liked them enough to want to try pad swapping for the first time and after trying to do it on the cheap with some generic "compatible" Brainwavz microsuedes which felt amazing but sounded awful, like listening to a headache, I went for the Elite Velour Hybrid iteration of the AKG K7- series specific Dekonis which resolved my issues perfectly. Now they have become the perfect counterpoint to my all time favourite Fidelio X2s.

I pre-ordered the A16 back in 2016 (the price was $1500 then) and will be connecting my consoles and computers if it ever arrives. Won't be using it for music though.

Yeah, I found out about it randomly on a forum and seriously considered getting it back when it was still a bit less than what you paid for it. Ultimately, the price (prior to that time I had never even considered spending a quarter of that amount on audio equipment) in addition to the amiable but ultimately vague and non-committal nature of Smyth's responses to my enquiries about whether VRR passthrough would be supported or could be added deterred me from proceeding in favour of waiting for the much cheaper SXFI.

I have since learned enough about the standard to know that the Realiser doesn't and almost certainly won't support VRR passthrough short of a HDMI chipset change and probably specific firmware modifications to support the new standard without compatibility issues between source and / or target display. Nonetheless it was still frustrating that I missed the earlier backer pricing because by the time I realised SXFI wasn't as good as I had hoped (although it has much improved since then and now I quite enjoy it), it occurred to me that I could forgo the need for passthrough in a number of ways by using other high channel count config-capable outputs to send the audio to the Realiser while sending VRR straight to the display via direct HDMI connection (e.g. USB audio > Realiser, GPU Display port > Realiser HDMI via a adapter cable, PC onboard HDMI modded to send audio only while retaining discrete GPU HDMI for video direct to TV etc.), crowd funding had ended and pre-orders were triple the price. None of the aforementioned work arounds was new knowledge to me, it just didn't occur to me at the time despite me deliberating long and hard about the purchase, so fixated was I on the notion of HDMI VRR passthrough capability at all costs. Sod's law that it occurred to me within just a minute of casual reflection on my previous decision not to buy many months prior.

 

[SierraMadre]

I welcome it. I'm apparently really good at putting things aside emotionally until a more proper time. Talking about audio, or geeking out about other things really helps.

I wish I had a rough draft of my review here at work. I probably would've gotten a lot of it done tonight.

Once you're done with the review, should you find yourself in a moment that might benefit from some geeking out, you should give Boom 3D VSS a go, not necessarily for review or anything, but just because you might like it and if you did, then it would give you a VSS solution to combine direct with your favoured Schiit units where their lack of optical-in and multichannel capability would become less of an issue as there would be no need to rely on Atmos or DTS X solutions or otherwise double amp should Boom turn out to suit you. There's a free trial period so you needn't pay any money. Along with Waves NX and the recently improved SXFI, it's probably my favourite VSS solution.

If you do try it, start with setting the 3D dial in the app to max and then turn everything off. I know you tend to do this anyway with VSS but I found that when checking some of the other features out of curiosity, it would sometimes have the effect of automatically deactivating or altering the 3D VSS dial. That was some time ago though so maybe it's been fixed since then.

 

[stavros.m]

would something like Mobius/Orbit S be worith it over a G6 or X3 in your opionion. I am so not sure what to purchase for a mix of PC / Stadia / PS4. The other thought with the new consoles coming out i would like something a bit more future proof if that is even possible

thanks

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

I have a rough draft of the review for my two or three backers, hahaha. All I'll say.

Hopefully I'll be able to get the Panda review complete by Sunday/Monday. I'll be in the hospital tomorrow after work, so I don't think I'll have time on Saturday.