Armaegis
Modern Modder Man of Manitoba
HTML... uphill, both ways!
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It'll be more than enough for the HD800.
Nuforce HA-200: High performance, Single Ended, Class-A Headphone Amplifier
- Thread starter kazsud
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Modern Modder Man of Manitoba
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ngkou,
You're smart to be concerned about the effect of the Line Out voltage on the amp, but I can assure you, 1V rms is plenty of power to drive the HA-200 into the HD800. As I write this, drinking my first cup of coffee this morning, I'm listening to the pictured rig with my HD800 and my volume control is set to 9 o'clock. I can't even stand how loud it is at high noon.
TidalHiFi > iPod Touch 6 > Oppo HA-2 Line Out > iBasso PB2 with Burson V5 Duals and LME49990 buffers, balanced out > HD800
And consider this: My Metrum Acoustics Aurix desktop amp has a gain switch that allows me to toggle between 0 dB and 10 dB. At the 0 dB setting, where the Aurix acts only as a passive pre-amp, literally driving the headphones solely with the power of the DAC's Line Out, I routinely listened to the HD800 with the 0 dB setting when using the 2V rms Metrum Acoustics Octave MkII DAC. But, believe it or not, I've come to prefer the much higher resolving, yet still not fatiguing ES9018K2M DAC of the Oppo HA-2. And I still use the 0 dB gain setting of the Metrum Aurix amp!
Previously, when using the 2V rms Line Out of the Octave MkII DAC, I would listen to the HD800 with the Aurix volume control set at about 11 o'clock for the 0 dB gain setting. Now, with the 1v rms Line Out of the Oppo HA-2 DAC, I listen to the HD800 with the Aurix volume control set at about 2 o'clock for the 0 dB setting! That's right, I'm driving the HD800 using only the 1V rms of the HA-2 Line Out and there's plenty of volume (less attenuation) to spare.
Note that a 2x change in voltage equates to a 6 dB change in level. Again, I cannot imagine how painful it would be to listen to a 1V rms Line Out with no attenuation. Add the NuForce HA-200 and you should have no problem damaging your HD800 at full volume. Oh wait! What about your ears?
Thanks!
How's everything Nathan? I haven't looked at your profile lately - what's new and wonderful at your place?
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ngkou,
I should have mentioned, too, and I'm sure you understand the significance of this - you're not just shopping for V rms when selecting a DAC. I'm not nearly as experienced (with having listened to a lot of gear) as many people are, here on Head-Fi, but I've paid my dues with a lot of "low-fi" DACs - looking for an affordable DAC that makes the HD800 happy, in combination with a good amp. It might not be your cup of tea, but my whole mindset with the HD800 has been to allow it to be itself - to not hold back the traits that make it stand out among most other headphones.
It's very easy to ruin the HD800's resolution or neutrality or soundstage and imaging or speed and ultimately, its transparency, while trying to deal with its tendency to sound brittle, sibilant, edgy, or fatiguing with most DAC/amp combinations.
It doesn't put up with any crap - it's a microscope - and it will ferret out anything and everything that's wrong with your upstream components - and with the recordings, for that matter. So you really have two choices - you can destroy one or more of the HD800's best attributes by smearing the treble with a soft DAC or amp or by coloring it with a euphonic tube amp or by stuffing it with feathers or whatever -OR- you can keep searching for DACs and amps that allow the HD800 to be all that it can be, yet not fatiguing or brittle.
In my experience, what the HD800 wants is a highly resolving, neutral and transparent DAC (the sky's the limit, but on a budget, nothing beats the HA-2's ES9018K2M) and a zero-feedback amp (like the Aurix) or at least a single-ended, low-feedback, neutral and highly resolving, but not in the least bit edgy amplifier (like the NuForce HA-200).
If there is such a thing, and rumor has it that they do exist, I firmly believe the HD800 would be happier still with an NOS DAC, but I can't afford the NOS DACs that allegedly carry a lot of resolution. In the meantime, the Oppo HA-2 Line Out continues to amaze me. And even though I primarily use the Oppo HA-2's input for iDevices as my sources, I find its USB receiver to be way more transparent than the USB receiver of my Oppo HA-1 desktop DAC/amp - which is somewhat grainy. (I love the HA-1 for its amp section - for use with any headphone other than the HD800.)
Mike
I should have mentioned, too, and I'm sure you understand the significance of this - you're not just shopping for V rms when selecting a DAC. I'm not nearly as experienced (with having listened to a lot of gear) as many people are, here on Head-Fi, but I've paid my dues with a lot of "low-fi" DACs - looking for an affordable DAC that makes the HD800 happy, in combination with a good amp. It might not be your cup of tea, but my whole mindset with the HD800 has been to allow it to be itself - to not hold back the traits that make it stand out among most other headphones.
It's very easy to ruin the HD800's resolution or neutrality or soundstage and imaging or speed and ultimately, its transparency, while trying to deal with its tendency to sound brittle, sibilant, edgy, or fatiguing with most DAC/amp combinations.
It doesn't put up with any crap - it's a microscope - and it will ferret out anything and everything that's wrong with your upstream components - and with the recordings, for that matter. So you really have two choices - you can destroy one or more of the HD800's best attributes by smearing the treble with a soft DAC or amp or by coloring it with a euphonic tube amp or by stuffing it with feathers or whatever -OR- you can keep searching for DACs and amps that allow the HD800 to be all that it can be, yet not fatiguing or brittle.
In my experience, what the HD800 wants is a highly resolving, neutral and transparent DAC (the sky's the limit, but on a budget, nothing beats the HA-2's ES9018K2M) and a zero-feedback amp (like the Aurix) or at least a single-ended, low-feedback, neutral and highly resolving, but not in the least bit edgy amplifier (like the NuForce HA-200).
If there is such a thing, and rumor has it that they do exist, I firmly believe the HD800 would be happier still with an NOS DAC, but I can't afford the NOS DACs that allegedly carry a lot of resolution. In the meantime, the Oppo HA-2 Line Out continues to amaze me. And even though I primarily use the Oppo HA-2's input for iDevices as my sources, I find its USB receiver to be way more transparent than the USB receiver of my Oppo HA-1 desktop DAC/amp - which is somewhat grainy. (I love the HA-1 for its amp section - for use with any headphone other than the HD800.)
Mike
ngkou
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thanks for clarifying in such a detail Mike 
I now understand the use of this site as there are so many parameters affecting the sound quality.
I d like to mention some more concern i have :
I ve read that Spotify( which i currently use) offers max quality 320/mp3. and the Tidal offers a CD quality. But then, there are blind tests with people using sound gear at around $1500 and still 90% of those people cant tell the difference.(see link below)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrfX-g8auc8
Waveform Tests (see link below) also show that you cant really hear the difference :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJUYhgYh_ks
So, while it is necessary to have a good DAC , my 1st question is why people bother with Tidal and FLAC/DSD files ? and 2nd why bother with expensive DSD DACs ?
and a 3rd question regarding your portable system pictured above is: What s the need to get balanced out of the ibasso ? I read that sound improvement with the use of balanced mode is only achieved when it comes from a balanced source DAC/CD... but your Oppo does not give balanced out to your ibasso. Which in fact can deteriorate the sound as it has to be modified to balanced signal within the ibasso. On top of that, Balanced mode is useful for long run cable distances in order to cancel the unwanted picked up noises . So, my 4rth question : Why people bother with balanced mode in headphone systems ??
I now understand the use of this site as there are so many parameters affecting the sound quality.
I d like to mention some more concern i have :
I ve read that Spotify( which i currently use) offers max quality 320/mp3. and the Tidal offers a CD quality. But then, there are blind tests with people using sound gear at around $1500 and still 90% of those people cant tell the difference.(see link below)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrfX-g8auc8
Waveform Tests (see link below) also show that you cant really hear the difference :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJUYhgYh_ks
So, while it is necessary to have a good DAC , my 1st question is why people bother with Tidal and FLAC/DSD files ? and 2nd why bother with expensive DSD DACs ?
and a 3rd question regarding your portable system pictured above is: What s the need to get balanced out of the ibasso ? I read that sound improvement with the use of balanced mode is only achieved when it comes from a balanced source DAC/CD... but your Oppo does not give balanced out to your ibasso. Which in fact can deteriorate the sound as it has to be modified to balanced signal within the ibasso. On top of that, Balanced mode is useful for long run cable distances in order to cancel the unwanted picked up noises . So, my 4rth question : Why people bother with balanced mode in headphone systems ??
ngkou
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I now understand the use of this site as there are so many parameters affecting the sound quality.
Thank you !
you be interested in what i wrote to Mike:
I d like to mention some more concerns i have :
I ve read that Spotify( which i currently use) offers max quality 320/mp3. and the Tidal offers a CD quality. But then, there are blind tests with people using sound gear at around $1500 and still 90% of those people cant tell the difference.(see link below)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrfX-g8auc8
Waveform Tests (see link below) also show that you cant really hear the difference :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJUYhgYh_ks
So, while it is necessary to have a good DAC , my 1st question is why people bother with Tidal and FLAC/DSD files ? and 2nd why bother with expensive DSD DACs ?
and a 3rd question regarding your portable system pictured above is: What s the need to get balanced out of the ibasso ? I read that sound improvement with the use of balanced mode is only achieved when it comes from a balanced source DAC/CD... but your Oppo does not give balanced out to your ibasso. Which in fact can deteriorate the sound as it has to be modified to balanced signal within the ibasso. On top of that, Balanced mode is useful for long run cable distances in order to cancel the unwanted picked up noises . So, my 4rth question : Why people bother with balanced mode in headphone systems ??
Thank you !
you be interested in what i wrote to Mike:
I d like to mention some more concerns i have :
I ve read that Spotify( which i currently use) offers max quality 320/mp3. and the Tidal offers a CD quality. But then, there are blind tests with people using sound gear at around $1500 and still 90% of those people cant tell the difference.(see link below)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrfX-g8auc8
Waveform Tests (see link below) also show that you cant really hear the difference :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJUYhgYh_ks
So, while it is necessary to have a good DAC , my 1st question is why people bother with Tidal and FLAC/DSD files ? and 2nd why bother with expensive DSD DACs ?
and a 3rd question regarding your portable system pictured above is: What s the need to get balanced out of the ibasso ? I read that sound improvement with the use of balanced mode is only achieved when it comes from a balanced source DAC/CD... but your Oppo does not give balanced out to your ibasso. Which in fact can deteriorate the sound as it has to be modified to balanced signal within the ibasso. On top of that, Balanced mode is useful for long run cable distances in order to cancel the unwanted picked up noises . So, my 4rth question : Why people bother with balanced mode in headphone systems ??
ngkou
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I was offered the Lehman Linear Headphone Amplifier (used for $500) . It is also class A like the Nuforce HA-200 but far more expensive on High Street Market ($1200).
Apparently, it seems this amplifier was the ideal match for Sennheiser HD800 during its launch back in 2009 before even the HDVA 600 was introduced in 2012...
see link:
http://www.hifi.com.sg/journal/sview.asp?id=227
Apparently, it seems this amplifier was the ideal match for Sennheiser HD800 during its launch back in 2009 before even the HDVA 600 was introduced in 2012...
see link:
http://www.hifi.com.sg/journal/sview.asp?id=227
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ngkou,
First, regarding those studies where hundreds of people discern a difference in quality... Listening to well-reproduced music cannot be fully appreciated until you've spent a lot time doing so. It's a skill that can be acquired, with practice, by anyone with healthy hearing, and the acquisition of this skill is often accompanied by adaptive hedonism - that natural tendency to become accustomed to a repeated experience that was previously pleasurable, but then becomes mundane. This drives you to find ever more pleasurable versions of that experience, ad infinitum.
I know a guy who swears the least expensive wine he can enjoy costs him $25 a bottle when he buys it by the case, so he's not really happy with the price he's paying, nor the fact that he can only get that discount when he buys it in quantity, but having experienced a lot of fine wines, he has grown to detest the wines that he can more readily afford. He argues there are some $100 wines (and higher) that he drinks on special occasions, swooning that they are "to die for," but he can't afford to drink them regularly. I say, "No thanks!" I'd rather stay "inexperienced" than go through what he's suffering. Keep me away from the good stuff!
I suspect that less than 1% of the even the world's wealthiest 1%, much less the entire population of this planet, has acquired any significant experience listening to extremely well-reproduced audio, and thus, the people who are randomly (?) selected to participate in those audio studies are no better suited to evaluate the difference between an MP3 file and a FLAC file than I am well-suited to evaluate the difference between a $5 bottle of Chardonnay and a $100 bottle (even if the gear used in the study was beyond reproach).
Most people have never heard the likes of what you'll be hearing if you supply the HD800 with a proper signal AND jade your hearing by listening to it for a few years - to the point of finding it boring or, at least, no longer euphoric or exciting.
I wasn't born with "golden ears." I only have experienced ears, and truth be known, even though I can no longer enjoy listening to MP3 files on my system, I'm probably like my friend - consuming audio at a level of quality equivalent to a $100 bottle of wine, while there are people out there consuming the equivalent of $500 bottles of wine, who would find my Head-Fi system lacking.
----
Regarding Tidal HiFi (44.1 kHz/16-bit) vs. higher resolution PCM and DSD formats... I for one, can both hear and appreciate a difference between 96 kHz/24-bit recordings and 44.1kHz/16-bit versions of the same tracks. I attribute this to both my gear (my relatively "low-fi" DACs) and my experience, but I am incapable of hearing or appreciating higher resolutions. I've tried them all, but simply cannot justify the storage or expense of acquiring formats more dense than 96/24. Regarding conversion: It's much harder for a DAC to do a good job of converting 44.1/16 to analog than it is to convert the higher resolutions. In fact, DACs that support DSD files have the least amount of work to do, so to speak, leaving very little that can go wrong in designing them - as in, there's no excuse for designing a DSD DAC that sounds bad, where 44/16 DACs are all over the map in terms of quality, with plenty of room for trying different approaches to get it right. Thus, the more expensive the DAC, the closer 44/16 sounds to the quality of 96/24 in a lesser DAC. This is especially so with R2R NOS DACs. NOS means "Non-OverSampling," but ironically, there are quite a few NOS DAC enthusiasts out there who upsample their 44.1/16 files to 96/24, in advance of playing them through their 96/24-capable NOS DACs - finding that the files sound better when the DAC doesn't have as much "work" to do.
So... Lossy formats like MP3 files, are intrinsically bad. Lossless 44.1/16 PCM formats leave room for improvement and are best handled by expensive DACs - the more you spend the better they sound. 88/24 and 96/24 PCM files level the playing field a bit - still sounding better the more you spend, but nearly as bad as with 44/16, allowing a higher quality experience with a greater number of (less expensive) DACs. 176- or 192-kHz and higher resolution PCM files are a waste of money and storage, at least for my ears. DSD files are even larger and more expensive, but they can sound pretty good with even the cheapest DSC-capable DACs.
----
As to measurements... We can get excited about what somebody has measured or we can get excited about what we hear. There are so many variables involved that what's measured in somebody's lab can rarely be reproduced in someone else's environment, and besides, that which can be measured is always a fraction of everything our amazing ears can detect. It is only with arrogance that any scientist could believe his test equipment thoroughly measures every variable that we experience. Measurements do tell us something, but in the end, my advice is to just listen - whether we're talking about file formats, amps, DACs, sources, power supplies, or cables... just listen! Your tastes are different, your ears are different, your gear is different, your power supplies are different - why would you want to trust anyone else's "objective" measurements any more than you are willing to trust someone else's subjective impressions? Just the gear and listen to it. Then keep it or get rid of it, trusting your own impressions. Welcome to the world of audio, where you have to buy it (new or used) before you can figure out whether you want to keep it or not. Measurements are a weak attempt, at best, to quantify what we experience.
The best you can do without trying an audio component for yourself is to look for a strong consensus of approval. Don't take any one person's opinion as gospel - including mine - even if they are using the very same gear you are using, except for one component that you are considering. You still need to buy gear and try it yourself, to know for sure whether it's of any value to you. A positive consensus only suggests that your risk of disappointment is low compared to competing products.
----
Regarding balanced headphone output... It's a fad more than anything substantial, except for the additional power that can be had, when driving inefficient headphones, by using the balanced output of an amp that also offers both, with the 6.3mm jack outputting a lot less power than the balanced jack.
Here's my explanation (rant) on this subject: http://www.head-fi.org/t/260346/ignorance-cure-needed-balanced-vs-unbalanced#post_11558111
----
I've never heard the Lehman, but I've read that it's warm (if I recall correctly), and yes, that it's very good with the HD800.
Buy it and try it. Then buy the HA-200 and compare them. Then sell one of them. Then wish you hadn't when you get a different component that might have worked better with what you sold. Then stop selling gear altogether, so that you can mix and match a lot of components at will, without having to buy the same component a 2nd or 3rd time, as many people have done, and then slowly but surely build yourself a headphone museum of yesterday's most fashionable gear, that nobody wants any longer, but which is, in truth, still very competitive.
Welcome to Head-Fi.
First, regarding those studies where hundreds of people discern a difference in quality... Listening to well-reproduced music cannot be fully appreciated until you've spent a lot time doing so. It's a skill that can be acquired, with practice, by anyone with healthy hearing, and the acquisition of this skill is often accompanied by adaptive hedonism - that natural tendency to become accustomed to a repeated experience that was previously pleasurable, but then becomes mundane. This drives you to find ever more pleasurable versions of that experience, ad infinitum.
I know a guy who swears the least expensive wine he can enjoy costs him $25 a bottle when he buys it by the case, so he's not really happy with the price he's paying, nor the fact that he can only get that discount when he buys it in quantity, but having experienced a lot of fine wines, he has grown to detest the wines that he can more readily afford. He argues there are some $100 wines (and higher) that he drinks on special occasions, swooning that they are "to die for," but he can't afford to drink them regularly. I say, "No thanks!" I'd rather stay "inexperienced" than go through what he's suffering. Keep me away from the good stuff!
I suspect that less than 1% of the even the world's wealthiest 1%, much less the entire population of this planet, has acquired any significant experience listening to extremely well-reproduced audio, and thus, the people who are randomly (?) selected to participate in those audio studies are no better suited to evaluate the difference between an MP3 file and a FLAC file than I am well-suited to evaluate the difference between a $5 bottle of Chardonnay and a $100 bottle (even if the gear used in the study was beyond reproach).
Most people have never heard the likes of what you'll be hearing if you supply the HD800 with a proper signal AND jade your hearing by listening to it for a few years - to the point of finding it boring or, at least, no longer euphoric or exciting.
I wasn't born with "golden ears." I only have experienced ears, and truth be known, even though I can no longer enjoy listening to MP3 files on my system, I'm probably like my friend - consuming audio at a level of quality equivalent to a $100 bottle of wine, while there are people out there consuming the equivalent of $500 bottles of wine, who would find my Head-Fi system lacking.
----
Regarding Tidal HiFi (44.1 kHz/16-bit) vs. higher resolution PCM and DSD formats... I for one, can both hear and appreciate a difference between 96 kHz/24-bit recordings and 44.1kHz/16-bit versions of the same tracks. I attribute this to both my gear (my relatively "low-fi" DACs) and my experience, but I am incapable of hearing or appreciating higher resolutions. I've tried them all, but simply cannot justify the storage or expense of acquiring formats more dense than 96/24. Regarding conversion: It's much harder for a DAC to do a good job of converting 44.1/16 to analog than it is to convert the higher resolutions. In fact, DACs that support DSD files have the least amount of work to do, so to speak, leaving very little that can go wrong in designing them - as in, there's no excuse for designing a DSD DAC that sounds bad, where 44/16 DACs are all over the map in terms of quality, with plenty of room for trying different approaches to get it right. Thus, the more expensive the DAC, the closer 44/16 sounds to the quality of 96/24 in a lesser DAC. This is especially so with R2R NOS DACs. NOS means "Non-OverSampling," but ironically, there are quite a few NOS DAC enthusiasts out there who upsample their 44.1/16 files to 96/24, in advance of playing them through their 96/24-capable NOS DACs - finding that the files sound better when the DAC doesn't have as much "work" to do.
So... Lossy formats like MP3 files, are intrinsically bad. Lossless 44.1/16 PCM formats leave room for improvement and are best handled by expensive DACs - the more you spend the better they sound. 88/24 and 96/24 PCM files level the playing field a bit - still sounding better the more you spend, but nearly as bad as with 44/16, allowing a higher quality experience with a greater number of (less expensive) DACs. 176- or 192-kHz and higher resolution PCM files are a waste of money and storage, at least for my ears. DSD files are even larger and more expensive, but they can sound pretty good with even the cheapest DSC-capable DACs.
----
As to measurements... We can get excited about what somebody has measured or we can get excited about what we hear. There are so many variables involved that what's measured in somebody's lab can rarely be reproduced in someone else's environment, and besides, that which can be measured is always a fraction of everything our amazing ears can detect. It is only with arrogance that any scientist could believe his test equipment thoroughly measures every variable that we experience. Measurements do tell us something, but in the end, my advice is to just listen - whether we're talking about file formats, amps, DACs, sources, power supplies, or cables... just listen! Your tastes are different, your ears are different, your gear is different, your power supplies are different - why would you want to trust anyone else's "objective" measurements any more than you are willing to trust someone else's subjective impressions? Just the gear and listen to it. Then keep it or get rid of it, trusting your own impressions. Welcome to the world of audio, where you have to buy it (new or used) before you can figure out whether you want to keep it or not. Measurements are a weak attempt, at best, to quantify what we experience.
The best you can do without trying an audio component for yourself is to look for a strong consensus of approval. Don't take any one person's opinion as gospel - including mine - even if they are using the very same gear you are using, except for one component that you are considering. You still need to buy gear and try it yourself, to know for sure whether it's of any value to you. A positive consensus only suggests that your risk of disappointment is low compared to competing products.
----
Regarding balanced headphone output... It's a fad more than anything substantial, except for the additional power that can be had, when driving inefficient headphones, by using the balanced output of an amp that also offers both, with the 6.3mm jack outputting a lot less power than the balanced jack.
Here's my explanation (rant) on this subject: http://www.head-fi.org/t/260346/ignorance-cure-needed-balanced-vs-unbalanced#post_11558111
----
I've never heard the Lehman, but I've read that it's warm (if I recall correctly), and yes, that it's very good with the HD800.
Buy it and try it. Then buy the HA-200 and compare them. Then sell one of them. Then wish you hadn't when you get a different component that might have worked better with what you sold. Then stop selling gear altogether, so that you can mix and match a lot of components at will, without having to buy the same component a 2nd or 3rd time, as many people have done, and then slowly but surely build yourself a headphone museum of yesterday's most fashionable gear, that nobody wants any longer, but which is, in truth, still very competitive.
Welcome to Head-Fi.
BALANCEATOR
New Head-Fier
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Hi. I just did a review in Spanish of this amplifier, I using the 2 mono amplifiers and balanced. Sure you like the review.
http://auricular.org/2016/03/13/review-nuforce-ha200-dual-monofonico-balanceado/
http://auricular.org/2016/03/13/review-nuforce-ha200-dual-monofonico-balanceado/
http://auricular.org/2016/03/13/review-nuforce-ha200-dual-monofonico-balanceado/
http://auricular.org/2016/03/13/review-nuforce-ha200-dual-monofonico-balanceado/
ngkou
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thanks ! I still think going balance mode is a bit extreme for the HD800. But perhaps it is good for the hard to drive headphones as it doubles the power.
ngkou
Head-Fier
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yes, fully agree with your arguments. I have to find my listening limits in order to know when to stop investing more.
16 years ago, i ve had the same adventure with hi-fis then. I purchased Mordaunt Short speakers Cambridge Audio CD player , Cambridge Audio amplifier and Pioneer CD recorder . I was very happy especially with warm bassy sound.
3 years later, i had to sell the system because i immigrated to another country . Then tried to rebuild similar system but a bit more expensive: bought the B&W speakers , Arcam CD, Rotel amp . Sound was a bit more detailed but missed the warmth and bass of my initial Cambridge system.
Spending more time watching movies instead of listening to music, I gave up this system and decided to pass it to my brother. So , I bought a Blu rya player , an AV Cambridge Audio and my favourite Mordaunt short speakers with subwoofer . Now i ve settled down for the last 10 years with the last system as I couldnt tell the difference between this and the audiophile Arcam/Rotel/B&W.
I cannot afford this anymore, so whatever i get that s it and you will be partially responsible for this Mike lol
It seems that you are absolutely correct about the amazing ESS Sabre 9018 DAC chip . Audiolab M-DAC and Oppo HA-2 both got EISA/What HiFi rewards. It is not a coinsidence. Although the Brrown Burr Dac Chip is very close to performance i.e ifi nano iDSD Dac got also EISA award which i consider the most impartial trusted commitee in Europe.
i also liked your argument about having DSD file which makes it easier to down converted . The same story with 4K video. The 1080p footage looks much better when shot initially in 4K than 1080p.
16 years ago, i ve had the same adventure with hi-fis then. I purchased Mordaunt Short speakers Cambridge Audio CD player , Cambridge Audio amplifier and Pioneer CD recorder . I was very happy especially with warm bassy sound.
3 years later, i had to sell the system because i immigrated to another country . Then tried to rebuild similar system but a bit more expensive: bought the B&W speakers , Arcam CD, Rotel amp . Sound was a bit more detailed but missed the warmth and bass of my initial Cambridge system.
Spending more time watching movies instead of listening to music, I gave up this system and decided to pass it to my brother. So , I bought a Blu rya player , an AV Cambridge Audio and my favourite Mordaunt short speakers with subwoofer . Now i ve settled down for the last 10 years with the last system as I couldnt tell the difference between this and the audiophile Arcam/Rotel/B&W.
I cannot afford this anymore, so whatever i get that s it and you will be partially responsible for this Mike lol
It seems that you are absolutely correct about the amazing ESS Sabre 9018 DAC chip . Audiolab M-DAC and Oppo HA-2 both got EISA/What HiFi rewards. It is not a coinsidence. Although the Brrown Burr Dac Chip is very close to performance i.e ifi nano iDSD Dac got also EISA award which i consider the most impartial trusted commitee in Europe.
i also liked your argument about having DSD file which makes it easier to down converted . The same story with 4K video. The 1080p footage looks much better when shot initially in 4K than 1080p.
ngkou
Head-Fier
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This guy on youtube is changing his "analytical" ESS Sabre 9018 DAC to a more "analogue" Burr Brown DAC ! What can i say ?! perhaps it is not so bad to choose the ifi nano iDSD (Burr Brown DAC chip) which won EISA 2014-15 Awards
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_wntx0UYXY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_wntx0UYXY
Armaegis
Modern Modder Man of Manitoba
HTML... uphill, both ways!
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I had a very brief venture into stax land. Other than that, I don't think I've gone into anything too crazy. I've had a bunch of loaner gear come through, most of it kinda disappointing. I've been sitting on my hands to write up my HE-X impressions but don't feel particularly motivated to do so.
The main rig right now is a Nuprime IDA-8 driving my HE-6's. The IDA-8 is fed coax from a Nuprime uDSD chained through a Schiit Wyrd.
I've accumulated a lot of pro audio gear lately, which has taken my focus off headfi a bit. I'm sort of the unofficial sound guy for a couple dance studios around town, so that has resulted in a terrible excuse to acquire big beefy power amps. I don't know how it happened, but I suddenly find myself with 6 Bryston amps!!
It's kinda funny, I don't have a "real" headphone amp at the moment. Actually for that matter I don't have a dedicated dac either. Right now the uDSD feeds its analog outputs into a Yamaha Mixer which then flows into a chunky Yamaha P4500 power amp.
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It sounds like you're having a lot of fun, while crossing over to production responsibilities instead of just recreational. Thanks for the update. My quest is in the doldrums lately. I'm doing more listening than tweaking and testing. 
Armaegis
Modern Modder Man of Manitoba
HTML... uphill, both ways!
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What, no more new iterations on crazy battery powered transportable rigs?
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