David222
Headphoneus Supremus
I’m in the same boat David, loving the Orchid for years now but haven’t found a decent replacement without having to morgage my house! Which DAC did you finally go for? I would love to find a battery driven « transportable » DAC to replace my Orchid because I like to listen to music in different spots, I use a Woo WA8 amp for that purpose but the internal ESS based DAC does not give me the same satisfaction as when I sit down at my desk and connect it to the Orchid. Thanks.
I've never heard an ESS architecture that sounded natural / timbre to my ear. If I was practicing the dark arts of delta-sigma - i'd likely bank on an AKM chip. Very subjective commentary (of course).
I have a balanced Pagoda and I heartily recommend it. Transparent, layered, dimensional, and textured.
I never got around to testing the Pagoda - the balanced Pagoda seems to make (much) more sense - if one was considering vs. Orchid.
If Single-Ended is the game, I'd think the Orchid remains the unbeatable price-to-performance ratio.
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