Jodet
1000+ Head-Fier
I have a main hi-fi system in the family room and I do my headphone listening in a dedicated headphone only system in my office (by the comfy chair).
The main system is Harbeth P3ESR's with a Blue Circle SBH as a pre-amp and MF Monoblocks. Source is a Cambridge or Onkyo spinner and a WYRED DAC1.
My headphone setup was just a cd-player into my tube headphone amp, the Soundquest SQ84-V2. Recently I added an HDP to that setup and it is a huge improvement over whatever DAC is in my cd players, Cambridge, Onkyo, etc. A HUGE improvement.
Last night I took the WYRED dac and put it in the headphone system. As good as the HDP is it can't stand up to a thousand dollar dedicated DAC. It was like 'Bambi vs Godzilla'. The WYRED dac has way, way more detail than the Nuforce. It wasn't close.
So. Damn. As long as having a little headphone setup was just 'get an amp and a source' I thought it was ok. But now that I've been ruined by the sound of a thousand dollar dac I might have to fold up that headphone setup and just do my headphone listening in the main room. Now that I see (hear) how good an expensive dac can be it's hard to justify having two systems.
The main system is Harbeth P3ESR's with a Blue Circle SBH as a pre-amp and MF Monoblocks. Source is a Cambridge or Onkyo spinner and a WYRED DAC1.
My headphone setup was just a cd-player into my tube headphone amp, the Soundquest SQ84-V2. Recently I added an HDP to that setup and it is a huge improvement over whatever DAC is in my cd players, Cambridge, Onkyo, etc. A HUGE improvement.
Last night I took the WYRED dac and put it in the headphone system. As good as the HDP is it can't stand up to a thousand dollar dedicated DAC. It was like 'Bambi vs Godzilla'. The WYRED dac has way, way more detail than the Nuforce. It wasn't close.
So. Damn. As long as having a little headphone setup was just 'get an amp and a source' I thought it was ok. But now that I've been ruined by the sound of a thousand dollar dac I might have to fold up that headphone setup and just do my headphone listening in the main room. Now that I see (hear) how good an expensive dac can be it's hard to justify having two systems.