[dleblanc343]

Yes, I found the NAD M51 to be a better sounding dac when I tried it with my McIntosh MC225 and HD800/HE6; although I would of liked to have listened to it with the LCD3. I went with the M51 over the BDA-2; they both have the same exact cost for me.
 
The BDA-2 may synergize better with the BHA-1 being that they're made to be a pair; but again, I don't know because I did not have my BHA-1 anymore...

 

[Lappy27]

Quote:

 
Good to know as the NAD has been on my mind for a few months now. Although that Audiophilleo2 and PurePower is $1000.

 How much of a difference is there between the stock NAD m51 by itself vs. your rig?
 
Like wouldn't it be better to spend that instead on a better DAC?

I did prefered the NAD over the W4S without the Audiophilleo. 
 
A friend of mine loaned me a plain Audiophilleo (without PurePower) to try with the NAD. I was a bit skeptical with this one but I had nothing to lose, so...
 
WOW! What an improvment in sound compared to USB direct to the NAD. Blacker, tighter and more refined. I was that impressed that I decided to try the PurePower version. Another good step up in performance. Specially in bass and body. A little bit more ooompf.
 
The problem with current dac is poor to meh USB implementation. Nearly every so expert agreed that a good USB-SPDIF converter is mandatory to extract the last bit of performance from the vast majority of today's dac. It's sad but for now it's the truth. Hope things will change in the future (I'm sure it will with the growing audiophile converted to computer source music).

 

[Zoom25]

Quote:

I did prefered the NAD over the W4S without the Audiophilleo. 
 
A friend of mine loaned me a plain Audiophilleo (without PurePower) to try with the NAD. I was a bit skeptical with this one but I had nothing to lose, so...
 
WOW! What an improvment in sound compared to USB direct to the NAD. Blacker, tighter and more refined. I was that impressed that I decided to try the PurePower version. Another good step up in performance. Specially in bass and body. A little bit more ooompf.
 
The problem with current dac is poor to meh USB implementation. Nearly every so expert agreed that a good USB-SPDIF converter is mandatory to extract the last bit of performance from the vast majority of today's dac. It's sad but for now it's the truth. Hope things will change in the future (I'm sure it will with the growing audiophile converted to computer source music).

 
Cool might give that a try down the road. I am going to be using the NAD with my Marantz CD player which has coaxial and digital outs. Also, my Mac's have digital outs. I'm guessing it's probably better to use those over the USB directly, even with basic standard stock cables (for time being) ? 
 
Also, am I right to assume that NAD M51 doesn't come with any USB/digital cables right? (I remember reading that somewhere a while back)
 
I'll probably have to get a USB cable anyway for it either way.

 

[BournePerfect]

Got the BHA-1 today-this thing is ridiculously gorgeous looking. And dang it-I want every piece of gear I ever own again to have the same beautiful, perfectly lit (hear me, Schiit??) led.  Pure black/green led gives me a Star Wars vibe everytime I look at it-and I'm not even a SW geek. Beautiful.
 
Will post listening impressions later concerning the HD800, LCD 2.2s, fed by Dac100. More to come...
 
-Daniel

 

[longbowbbs]

Quote:

Got the BHA-1 today-this thing is ridiculously gorgeous looking. And dang it-I want every piece of gear I ever own again to have the same beautiful, perfectly lit (hear me, Schiit??) led.  Pure black/green led gives me a Star Wars vibe everytime I look at it-and I'm not even a SW geek. Beautiful.
 
Will post listening impressions later concerning the HD800, LCD 2.2s, fed by Dac100. More to come...
 
-Daniel

 

[Namkung]

Sort of a random question but, right now I am using the BHA-1 with the M-DAC from Audiolab .
I have not yet received my balanced HD800 cables so am using it single ended obviously however I do have my balanced interconnects so I connected the two with the balanced interconnects and flipped the switch on BHA-1 to balanced.
The sound still came out of HD800s connected to the BHA-1's single ended output. And it was drastically different.
I am not doing any harm to either of my gear by doing this am I? Could someone explain to me what is happening?
Anyways, can't wait for my balanced cables to get here..

 

[Hubert481]

i am also using the combination: SONOS-optic-MDAC-balanced-BHA1-balanced-TH900/HD800/K1000

The switch is for input - not output
http://www.desktop-audioblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/sample0001-bha.jpg

 

[preproman]

Quote:

Sort of a random question but, right now I am using the BHA-1 with the M-DAC from Audiolab .
I have not yet received my balanced HD800 cables so am using it single ended obviously however I do have my balanced interconnects so I connected the two with the balanced interconnects and flipped the switch on BHA-1 to balanced.
The sound still came out of HD800s connected to the BHA-1's single ended output. And it was drastically different.
I am not doing any harm to either of my gear by doing this am I? Could someone explain to me what is happening?
Anyways, can't wait for my balanced cables to get here..

 
IMO and for some odd reason the SE output of the BHA-1 is underwhelming.  Once you get that balanced cable you "may" hear a somewhat near drastic improvement - I know I did.  
 
Using the BHA-1 balanced from input to output with a truly balanced DAC will yield you better results..  IMO of course.

 

[Namkung]

Quote:

 
IMO and for some odd reason the SE output of the BHA-1 is underwhelming.  Once you get that balanced cable you "may" hear a somewhat near drastic improvement - I know I did.  
 
Using the BHA-1 balanced from input to output with a truly balanced DAC will yield you better results..  IMO of course.

 
I see. I have read quite a few people saying that as well. Hopefully that is the case as my balanced cables are on the way!
There is already a sound difference when you are using balanced inputs compared to single ended (even though my output in both cases were single ended).
I had both single ended / XLRs connecting my M-DAC to the BHA-1 and I switched the BHA-1 from single ended to XLR with my music paused and there was an instant night / day difference. You had to be deaf to not hear the difference.

 

[Lappy27]

Quote:

 
IMO and for some odd reason the SE output of the BHA-1 is underwhelming.  Once you get that balanced cable you "may" hear a somewhat near drastic improvement - I know I did.  
 
Using the BHA-1 balanced from input to output with a truly balanced DAC will yield you better results..  IMO of course.

+1

 

[ehlarson]

When you do that comparison between balanced and unbalanced be sure to compensate for the gain difference. In my opinion there is no audible difference once you correct for the higher gain of the balanced connection.

 

[Namkung]

Quote:

When you do that comparison between balanced and unbalanced be sure to compensate for the gain difference. In my opinion there is no audible difference once you correct for the higher gain of the balanced connection.

 
Yes this gain was very noticeable even when using single ended out with balanced in.
I wasn't sure if there was any other audible difference I was hearing as a result of changing inputs from single ended to balanced.
I'm curious about what people have their gain settings on with their balanced bha-1 setup. I still have mine on high paired with the hd800s.

 

[BournePerfect]

Perfect timing. I just came in to comment on the SE output. With the HD800s and LCD 2.2s, the difference between SE out and balanced out isn't nearly as dramatic to my ears as people here have suggested. I thought there was slightly more bass impact and clarity to a degree, but still perfectly acceptable to. A step down, yes-but a minor one. Keep in mind I've only run a single ended dac into the Bryston so far, I don't think that that would affect this outcome though.
 
-Daniel

 

[Chris J]

Quote:

 
Yes this gain was very noticeable even when using single ended out with balanced in.
I wasn't sure if there was any other audible difference I was hearing as a result of changing inputs from single ended to balanced.
I'm curious about what people have their gain settings on with their balanced bha-1 setup. I still have mine on high paired with the hd800s.

 
To compare the sound of the balanced output jacks to the SE output jack you would want the volume to be the same.
 
Balanced output is 6 dB louder than the SE output.
 
One easy way to compensate for different levels between SE vs. balanced output:
 
set gain to 20 dB with SE phones,
set gain the 14 dB with balanced phones.
 
The reason for this is the balanced headphone jacks output twice as much voltage as the SE jack, twice as much voltage works out to 6 dB louder.

 

[Namkung]

Quote:

 
To compare the sound of the balanced output jacks to the SE output jack you would want the volume to be the same.
 
Balanced output is 6 dB louder than the SE output.
 
One easy way to compensate for different levels between SE vs. balanced output:
 
set gain to 20 dB with SE phones,
set gain the 14 dB with balanced phones.
 
The reason for this is the balanced headphone jacks output twice as much voltage as the SE jack, twice as much voltage works out to 6 dB louder.

Ah I see.
Looks like High gain setting is +20dB and Low gain setting is +14dB.
On my BHA-1 it says High / Low (without the numerical values) where as in some pictures of BHA-1, I see +20dB / +14dB.
Anyways, will definitely try out tonight.
 
Thanks for that info.