[jrussell6]

OK,, i'm a newb,, i know, but please, i just purchased my first pair of high end phones, and i'm blown away even without an amp (cmoy arriving tommarow) from my ipod/reciever. as we speak all cds are re-ripping as apple lossless, and my lacie 500 is pissed

and i need some advice,, so i refer to the collective concious of head-fi geniouses.

so i have the sony mdr-sa3000 phones and have never heard vivaldi like this in my life(after 24 hours burn in.) not even on speakers.

SO here's my general question,,
my source is a powermac g5.... currently the system is as this,,,
powermac g5>toslink optical>yamaha htr 5840 reciever>klipsh sb-2 x2/jbl scs145.5 sat/sub. or my new phones mdr-sa3k.
as of late, i have much prefered the new phones to listening to my full stereo system.(even dolby digital halo2 from xbox optical) sounds i've never heard before come at me from every media

so here is the question/problem,,
a. is the optical out from my g5 bit perfect?
b, which would be better,,,
b.1 g5>optical>hrt-5840> speakers/mdr-sa3k
b.2 G5>usb> headroom micro dac>Millett hybrid>mdr-sa3k/millit as preamp>rca>htr-5840> speaker system. (i have heard the tube amp, and i believe it to be orgasmic,,, but does orgasm transfer into speakers via reciever?)

for my portable rig i'm looking at ipod>micro amp>mdr-sa3k/ powerbook intel>micro dac>micro amp>mdr-sa3k

i know this is only my 3rd post,, and my first two posts went totally ignored, but i would love to contribute to this awesome resource/website if i would be able to get anybody's oppinion/info/advice/or comment. please help me.
ps. with the exception of my best recordings,, i seem to get alot of white/pink noise in the silent parts of audio. i'm figureing this is due to no decent dac/amp.
anyway,, thank you to anyone who could offer anything.

 

[grawk]

First, yes the optical out on the g5 is bit perfect.

Second, for the money, I'd say your best bet is to find a better pair of headphones. Barring that, a good headphone amp along the lines of an M3 to feed from a tape out on your receiver. You can upgrade your dac later, but the most bang for the buck will definitely be to upgrade the headphone amp.

 

[jrussell6]

ok, thanks grawk, i really just got the sa3000's to dip my toes in the water,, i think they sound and look great, and after hearing them, and hearing so many people on here bash them and the sa5000's i'ld love to hear better,, i wouldn't mind some more base, i was thinking maybe the hd650's or the k701's any suggestions,,

and what's the m3? would the headroom microamp work for me? it would be great to take with my ipod,

 

[RockinOut]

If you already have a Powermac G5 and already have or are considering a Mac notebook with optical, then I would highly recommend the Micro DAC if that's what you're looking into.

You can use the Micro Amp (you have choice of Desktop or Micro Module based on sound quality vs. battery life, I'd go with Desktop Module), or you can use any amp of your preference with the Micro DAC.

At $600 the Micro Stack works really well with Macs and Itunes especially if you have optical output. It's really, really easy to use. Just rip, plug, and listen. That's it.

It's reasonably affordable, flexible, transportable, and it's really been tested and tried by many HeadFiers.

You may not be getting responses to your posts because the Micro Stack has been discussed so often already: It's popular, tried, and tested.

It might not be the "ultimate" computer-as-source rig, but I think it's popularity is well earned just like the Ipod craze.

Cheers.

 

[jrussell6]

yeah,, i figured i just wasn't asking good enough questions, than and it seems as if alot of people just don't like sony, so what other sub 300 dollar headphone should i get,,, with the the way this is panning out my wallet is pissed, my ears are starting to smile, and i have a ****load of back-post educational reading to do

 

[RockinOut]

For earphones, go to the headphone forums. Tons of stuff there.

Make sure your "user CP" settings are set so that you're seeing all the threads. If you're seeing only 5 pages of threads then you are missing out and need to set your thread preferences to show all threads.

If I had to do it all over again, I'd start with source (Mac in your case), then amp & DAC of your choice, then headphones.

To me a DAC really makes a HUGE difference, and I don't like using earphones without an amp. Everyone's different.

There's lots of info here. Just go explore, but this place will really suck up $s. That's the way it is.

If you already have a Mac: $600 DAC/amp and $3-400 headphones.

You can spend less or more. It's all up to you.

I'm just a Mac and Micro DAC guy. That's what I have, so I tend to answer these types of posts.

 

[jrussell6]

thanks, thats the way it seems to be going right now, i think i will go with the micro stack. then i'll upgrade the phones, ,then maybe by cristmas i could save up for a millitt. the other fellow suggested i just use an amp from my record out on my reciever, but i just read in my reciever manual that it doesn't output analog record signal from a digital in source,, only digital,,, so i will need both the dac and amp,, but for the time being i'll just deal with the ipod>micro amp
then i'll get the dac and hook it up usb, and bypass the stereo entirely

is the home module really good enough to warrant half the battery time? vs the micro module?

 

[SK138]

From personal lesson learned....I should have done what you are considering...start the upgrade with a good DAC. MicroDAC is a great product. You will be happy with it. To me, a good source (encoding) and good DAC makes a real enjoyable system.

 

[ManMower]

I use a Power Mac G5 at work, and I can't get the front panel earphone jack to play 44.1khz audio without doing some funky 48khz resampling.

Is there some setting somewhere I need to change? Or is it only bit perfect on the digital outputs?