[betula]

Interesting. R26 has received such strong reviews. I bought it from Amazon, so it is not too late to return it.

Pegasus 2, Audio Gd N1OS, and Holo Cyan 2 are all on my radar. I want something that's meaningfully better than my Musician Draco. Any thoughts?

All of these should be meaningfully better than the Draco.

 

[phoneslave86]

Is yours a Pegasus 1 or 2? I just bought an R26, and I am curious to hear more about your thoughts about the two.

It's Peg 1 with purple fuses, R26 also has purple fuses. If a Peg pairs up with your amp better than an R26 and is cheaper it's better IMO. R26 is more feature packed and costly, bluetooth, remote, LAN, filters. Can't go wrong with an R26 you did great, all of these DACs can't go wrong IMO. They will all need system tuning to come out their best too. If I was on a strict budget and could get a used Peg with fuses I'd say it's better in that case or with the right amp.

My system got upgraded a bunch and has finally settled so I couldn't resist saying something last night. I feel like I owe the Peg some kinda credit for hanging in there this well with AES.

My interconnects arn't equal so it's not easy to do a precise comparison. The Peg I2s broke AES has always been quite a bit less deep than I2s, easy to hear. Never tried a really high end AES cable though.

I can say the Peg does tend toward cloudlike/gentle, soft, high upper mid and uppers more than the R26 which is where my Jot 2 can be brash which makes sense why it pairs so well. The Peg also slows it down a bit and goes along with the warm/rich end of the Jot 2 which is quite energetic/speedy, also makes sense why it's so good there. Both the Peg/R26 can get sibilance/shouty with and out of wack audio chain if it's not balanced, the Peg is easier to control/balance out here perhaps. R26 sounds better after unplugged, the Peg is just plain terrible unplugged and need a very long settle. Both come out sounding great when done right of course. Both just have incredible soundstaging and imaging especially with a tube amp. With my Jot 2 the R26 sounds a bit brash/overly fast but I could tune it to some extent for the Jot 2 and I haven't to be fair. Peg tends toward warmer richer low mid/upper mid bass, I'm sucker for this kinda sound, love warm rich mids my system is often tuned in this direction. The R26 probably wins overall in some general averaged out sense of thought that never does this stuff fairly, and at a greater cost. I will share more in a month or two or three after listening with my new system fully settled.

 

[UseThe4s]

Hello guys, I am very new to the headphone scene. I just gathered my first "advanced" listening gear and I'm about to start using it. I am using headphones every day for all of my PC output and PC is also my main music streaming source (Audirvana). I usually turn off my PC for the night since it's located in my bedroom and I can not put it in a sleep mode since it is a VM server. My question is - is it better for lifespan of my DDC and DAC and AMP to turn them off every day for the night also or should I rather keep it on 24/7 and only on a several day leave/vacation turn it off?

 

[betula]

Hello guys, I am very new to the headphone scene. I just gathered my first "advanced" listening gear and I'm about to start using it. I am using headphones every day for all of my PC output and PC is also my main music streaming source (Audirvana). I usually turn off my PC for the night since it's located in my bedroom and I can not put it in a sleep mode since it is a VM server. My question is - is it better for lifespan of my DDC and DAC and AMP to turn them off every day for the night also or should I rather keep it on 24/7 and only on a several day leave/vacation turn it off?

It is definitely better for the DDC and DAC to leave them on 24/7 and only switch them off when you go away for days.
With amps it depends. Some people leave SS amps on as well (never tubes), but I personally would probably switch the amp off for the night.

 

[TheRealDz]

There's an argument to be made that repeated cycling on and off is more detrimental to equipment than leaving it on.

These are generally low power, low heat devices. I leave mine powered on 24/7, and only turn them off when traveling or if there's a storm.

And BTW, you have quite the badass system for someone just starting out in the hobby - well done!

 

[UseThe4s]

Thank you guys for your comments

 

[UseThe4s]

And BTW, you have quite the badass system for someone just starting out in the hobby - well done!

Thank you. I have been around hi-fi and hi-end for decades now. Long time ago I had a hi-end speaker setup that I had to sell to buy a flat for my family. To this day I have no suitable conditions to build a speaker system (lot of people in our flat). So few years ago I started to look into a car hi-end music installations (which is a whole different animal - time corrections, DSP's, etc.) and built me a decent car system since i travel a lot. But I never gave up on home audio and discovered a whole new world in headphone hi-fi. So I began with JDS labs ODAC, JDS labs EL AMP and HD660S about 2 years ago just for casual listening and to test things out... I was caught very intensively in this headphone world and decided to build me something more advanced...

 

[phoneslave86]

The only thing I turn off is my tube amp and my digital DAC. It's good to make sure not playing music and to let equipment cool down. That's the main thing. I've had my share of issues running equipment for too long and it overheating. Good airflow under equipment helps and make sure room doesn't get too hot + running stuff all day long straight. I never run stuff for more than few hours in a row or it's break time. It really can build up heat eventually and will. One can do this and I do sometimes but there is an effect on transformers as they get warm ect. ect. Good to give it breaks and cool downs and that takes the place of turning it off. Because I don't turn it off it takes forever to cool down but it will eventually, 4-6 hours a few times. Gaming PC + Tubes + audio system make room get hot very quickly.

 

[UseThe4s]

Well, there I have it - ten people, ten different points of view. And all of them are valid from it's perspective. Welcome to the forum, just pick your answer... Thank you guys, appreciate your help . I guess I will doublecheck the temp on the running devices and if that is OK I will avoid power-spiking the devices by everyday turning them on. And if I find that the devices are getting hot I will give them the time to rest.

 

[kopczas]

I see no reason to leave equipment on if it's not in use.
Lifespan of your S17 if turn on would drastically shorten as you should not trust that top quality components purposed for high temperature environment where used so if internal temperature of S17 sets at 55oC and 65oC at 100mA mode, then it's not far from 85oC capacitor high limit. Rule is simple: capacitor may live longer if temperature, voltage and current are way below it's limits. Look at the specs of low price cap: it should stay consistent in it's parameters for 1000 hours in 85oC environment.

 

[phoneslave86]

I see no reason to leave equipment on if it's not in use.
Lifespan of your S17 if turn on would drastically shorten as you should not trust that top quality components purposed for high temperature environment where used so if internal temperature of S17 sets at 55oC and 65oC at 100mA mode, then it's not far from 85oC capacitor high limit. Rule is simple: capacitor may live longer if temperature, voltage and current are way below it's limits. Look at the specs of low price cap: it should stay consistent in it's parameters for 1000 hours in 85oC environment.

I feel like you are right if overheating is what to watch out for. That said equipment does sound much, much better on and settled and that's why I leave it on. Heck my clock is supposed to be settled for 30+ days on. R2R DACs need usually 1-4 days of on and settled to even sound right to me. If it gets warm I just let it cool off with air circulation and not playing music through it which is what heats it up as well. It can be cooled all the way down while it's on, but it's harder to cool it down can take a few hours. Be aware of stacking equipment. If you put good airflow/space on it isn't so much an issue. Most capacitors can last a very long time if it's taken care of. Have to watch the overheating though.

 

[betula]

IMO DACs, especially R2R ones are better left on. It takes at least half an hour for the Pegasus to properly warm up and sound at its best (if not hours). It's operation temperature is low, definitely less harmful than 365 or more on/off cycles a year. Frequent expansion of components IMO is less ideal than a constant low flow. Amps are different, operation temperature is a lot higher there, especially with class A.

 

[kopczas]

Another thing I consider is electricity bill
Pegasus takes ~20W, I don't know how much Musician DDC takes, but my U18 uses 8,5W. PC with Daphile needs 10W idle. I have active Adam A77x speakers, another 30W idle. S17 25W takes 50mA, 35W in 100mA mode. Around 100W every hour. 2,4 kWh every day, 720kWh per year if all of my stuff would stay on all the time.

 

[UseThe4s]

Another thing I consider is electricity bill
Pegasus takes ~20W, I don't know how much Musician DDC takes, but my U18 uses 8,5W. PC with Daphile needs 10W idle. I have active Adam A77x speakers, another 30W idle. S17 25W takes 50mA, 35W in 100mA mode. Around 100W every hour. 2,4 kWh every day, 720kWh per year if all of my stuff would stay on all the time.

Yes, that is a fair point also. At some point when you have a really expensive equipment you care only about what is best for the equipment I guess.

 

[phoneslave86]

IMO DACs, especially R2R ones are better left on. It takes at least half an hour for the Pegasus to properly warm up and sound at its best (if not hours). It's operation temperature is low, definitely less harmful than 365 or more on/off cycles a year. Frequent expansion of components IMO is less ideal than a constant low flow. Amps are different, operation temperature is a lot higher there, especially with class A.

Mine sounds just terrible for at least 4-6 hours, I wouldn't even want to think of listening to it. I can hear it getting better and better all day long the first day. The next couple of days it's still not all the way there for sure and just keeps getting smoother and more controlled, less weird stuff in the background, less smearing. Somewhere in 3-4 days it's all the way there just smooth and liquid no more weird imaging in the background. Background imaging just sounds so bad, like weird smeared stuff, unnatural and artifical. My digital DAC I don't even think I can tell whether it's hot or cold. Gustard R26 is much better when it's cold than the Pegasus. The first time I heard it, it was already broken in and with fuses I thought it did not need to warm up but it also gets much better for a couple of days of settling.