IEMCrazy
Longwindeus Supremus
- Joined
- Jan 5, 2012
- Posts
- 1,506
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- 67
I've been making the rounds around here lately since finally signing up....and going through a bit of upgradeitis on my setup. I just got my Schiit Lyr which is, IMO an amazing amplifier compared to my hold Headroom MicroAmp (given how close the pricing is, I feel kind of robbed on that one...but that was years ago, and it was good for its day (their first generation of Desktop setup Micros.)
I like the Lyr so much I've ordered a Bifrost to go with it.....which is of course on back order so I have a few weeks of DAC time to kill with my iTouch and Pure I-20 until it arrives.
Now, I've done a bunch of searching here on H-F and elsewhere and found a few related posts....but I didn't think any of the responses hit the answer straight-on. It mostly went off into comparisons of the digital outputs on other external DACs and how messy the power supply is. One great H-F poster replied to one thread well stating its quality...but didn't say when compared to what.
So I was playing with the I20 yesterday, trying to get a feel for whether I like the iPod's built in DAC over LOD or the i-20's DAC better. To me they definitely sound different from each other. Very different voicing. But I can't tell if one is truly better than the other or if there's just a different set of tradeoffs.
My question to fellow H-F'ers is: Of those who have compared the built-in DAC on an iPod/iPhone/iPad versus the Pure I-20's analog outs, did you walk away feeling one was better than the other in any significant way? Or if just different, how would you describe the differences you heard?
It's a trivial academic discussion on a cheap component...but since I have the component to play with while I impatiently wait for my real DAC to arrive...it's fun to discuss the comparison anyway!
I like the Lyr so much I've ordered a Bifrost to go with it.....which is of course on back order so I have a few weeks of DAC time to kill with my iTouch and Pure I-20 until it arrives.
Now, I've done a bunch of searching here on H-F and elsewhere and found a few related posts....but I didn't think any of the responses hit the answer straight-on. It mostly went off into comparisons of the digital outputs on other external DACs and how messy the power supply is. One great H-F poster replied to one thread well stating its quality...but didn't say when compared to what.
So I was playing with the I20 yesterday, trying to get a feel for whether I like the iPod's built in DAC over LOD or the i-20's DAC better. To me they definitely sound different from each other. Very different voicing. But I can't tell if one is truly better than the other or if there's just a different set of tradeoffs.
My question to fellow H-F'ers is: Of those who have compared the built-in DAC on an iPod/iPhone/iPad versus the Pure I-20's analog outs, did you walk away feeling one was better than the other in any significant way? Or if just different, how would you describe the differences you heard?
It's a trivial academic discussion on a cheap component...but since I have the component to play with while I impatiently wait for my real DAC to arrive...it's fun to discuss the comparison anyway!
