[Treeko]

@blinsc thats good to hear i will be waiting for your input very (im)patiently 

 
@simulatedrain  thanks for your input, very insightful and is only further making me understand that this product might be the end game dac amp for me. Can I ask you for a favour? do you mind taking a picture of the remote control for this device, i've heard so many speak a good deal about it but never have I actually seen it haha. Cheers in advance 

 

[514077]

  Hey guys, im not sure if ill be any help as this is my first step into the audio world, but ive had the cma600i for a few weeks and ill try to give some useful information.
 
Shipping packaging:
I was looking for an excellent amp / dac that would allow me to concentrate on headphones and carry me until i discover my preferences in sound.  I bought this from moon audio and it was a problem free / pleasant experience.  Shipped fast , well packaged and came in perfect condition with a power cord, controller and a certificate of authenticity.  The certificate also shows test results done by Audio Precision of frequency response and amp power tests which match the graphs on their site.
 
Audio setup:  
Im playing files from my PC foobar2k -> usb > cma600i >  ath m50x / hd 650 single ended.  Many files from lower quality recordings to higher quality recordings.
Ive also tried using pre amp with a logitech z906 system thru the RCA connectors ( not active but i think it is considered a powered speaker setup).  In the future i plan on getting a tube amp to run from the pre amp.
 
Experiences:
 
I dont really have much experience with other amp/dacs, so ill just try to explain my experience with this unit.  Ive done a bit of research on different headphones trying to get a feel for their sound signatures  and decided to start with the hd 650s.  The 600i had no issues powering either of these sets and definately lifted the "veil" on the hd650s.  It allowed the characteristics of the headphone to shine with no interference that i could hear.  Ive listened to many different styles ranging from fast guitars / drums in death metal to solo piano music.  I found myself completely immersed in the music because all you could hear is the music.  On those quiet solo piano pieces you could hear each key stroke float through the air and decay with no static or hissing noises clouding the music.  Bass felt  the way it was intended to be ,impactful, not over powered or under done.  The warmth helped tame the treble and made alot of lower quality recordings more palatable ( with the hd 650).  On the down side i tried using the m50x to see if it changed its sound at all.  I found that the short comings on the m50x became more apparent with the amp.  Very tinny shallow sound and highs were very bright and cold, it was almost unpleasant going from the hd650 to the m50x.  It became apparent to me, that this amp was very clean and really allowed the headphones to shine.
 
I had a few negative experiences when using the amp/dac for gaming and general purpose use on computer.  When sound was routed through the 600i, sometimes i would hear a system sound or pop-up sound with a very unpleasant click/hissing sound.  This only seemed to happen when i had no audio for a while and the notification would pop up.  I also had a situation arise when i was playing Overwatch and using voice chat over the Discord application.  Every so often i would hear a click, audio would die and come back a few seconds later.  I didnt buy this amp for this purpose so its not a big deal for me, just something i noticed while testing it out.  I wasnt able to successfully replicate the audio dying, so im not 100% sure if it has something to do with win10/software , PC mobo sending audio via usb or if its the amp.
 
Other notes:
Ive read that many amps can get pretty hot during operation and this unit does not get that hot even after hours of use.  My computer room can get pretty hot, so its nice that this doesnt add too much to the heat.  I really love the design of this amp, it looks great with neutral bluish greyish coloring.  Its flat and wide so i have my monitor sitting on top of it with no issues.  The dial and switches feel solid and of high quality.  The controller is pretty nice, there is a servo motor on the volume dial so if you use the controller to change the volume you can see the dial move.
 
 
This setup is amazing, once i start listening to music the immersion takes over and its so easy to lose track of time.  I have no regrets with my purchase and im looking forward to pairing more things with this amp.  I have a custom balanced cable coming for the hd 650 soon, so im looking forward to trying that out.  Im also planning to get an lcd 2 at some point.  I didnt do much testing with speakers.
 
I mostly listen to metal, ranging from the various sub genres of black metal to folk metal.  I tested a little bit of vaporwave/ future funk and synthwave.
 
Hopefully this helps shed some light on something you guys are curious about, sorry i dont have more experience to compare this too also wall of text >.>

Folk metal?  That sounds interesting.  Could you give me a couple of examples, please?
Glad you're enjoying the Questyle sound.  Hope to have a nice stack one day, and love my QP1R.
Thanks for the clear impressions.

 

[blinsc]

@Treeko Looks like a (low res) picture of the remote is here:
 
http://www.fairaudio.de/img/artikel/highend16/tk/P1010292.jpg
 
Original link:
 
http://www.fairaudio.de/artikel/2016-messen/high-end-2016-muenchen-hifi-messe-report-5.html

 

[simulatedrain]

@Treeko
 
looks like i was beat, but heres a picture anywho since i already uploaded it:
 

 
@blinsc
 
i might have needed to clarify more, but i was trying to say that the 600i does not run hot which is what i believe your saying as well.  As for other amps getting hot, i havent really had any experience with them, but ive gleaned from various reviews that there are amps that can get hot.  I doubt hot enough to heat a room, but might be worth mentioning for those rare temperature sensitive cases ( looking back im not even sure why i said anything about it lol ).
 
 
 
Yea folk metal is really intersting and diverse i love it , a couple bands i like:
Ensiferum - pretty much any album is good
Finntroll - Trollhammaren
Heidevolk -  De Strijdlust is Geboren
Leprechaun - The Ultimate Dance
korpiklaani is really good tooo
 
and there are lots more, these were in my recent listening history

 

[Treeko]

blinsc & simulatedrain cheers guys, i'm liking the look of that remote!

 

[gonzfi]

So I've had my unit for a few days and can report that it's quite exceptional. I was running a violectric v281/v850 with a t1 2nd gen and find the questyle to provide 95% of the sound quality for a fraction of the cost. Very detailed, plenty of oomph when required and a lovely musical tone. Not as warm as the violectric but very close in terms of detail which surprised me. I actually find that with a SE ended cable, it outperforms the violectric stack, with a balanced cable it's just behind. For the money it is a superb unit and I would highly recommend it.

 

[blinsc]

Just got mine in today and I'm extremely impressed with the build quality - it feels like it's made from a single block of aluminum.  I haven't had a chance to do any real listening but I did power it on here at work.  It's actually a bit smaller than I expected it to be, but still bigger than an Asgard 2.  The previous poster is correct in terms of heat - it barely gets warm at all, way way cooler than an Asgard 2.
 
After I've had a few days to listen to it, I'll give some impressions with a couple different headphones.  I've included a picture of it with a Magni 2 and my cable-modded DT 990 PRO (all I have here at the office) as as size reference.
 
Again, the build quality of this amp seems top notch!
 

 

[Treeko]

all kinds of sexy 

 

[blinsc]

After having the CMA600i for nearly a week, listening several hours a day, my impressions on sound quality are... well, I'm not sure.  The sound quality is quite good, in that I certainly enjoy listening to music with it, but I'll be damned if I can hear a difference in single-ended mode versus a Schiit Modi 2 Uber/Magni 2 Uber stack on my Sennheiser HD 800 S.  Both the Modi 2 Uber and the CMA600i use the AKM 4490 DAC, but the Magni 2 Uber is a different amp topology than the CMA600i.
 
With my test setup I am able to send the same optical signal to both DACs simultaneously, then I level the volume as closely as I can with the amps.  After that I just unplug/plug the headphones from amp to amp.  I'm tempted to get a Sescom A/B switch so I can test without having to unplug the headphones but I honestly don't think it will make any difference.
 
I've tested using a decent variety of music, both in FLAC and 320kbit mp3 formats.  I also have a couple test discs (The Ultimate Demonstration Disc by Chesky and Sheffield Lab's Audiophile Reference Series) and it all sounds very good on both setups.  I briefly tested with my Beyerdynamic T90 headphones as well and got the same results.
 
I tried to compare balanced versus single-ended with the HD 800 S.  Balanced certainly has more power.  But, because it's a fairly slow process to change headphone cables and re-level the volume, I'm not going to pretend that I could pick apart any real differences in actual sound quality.  The CMA600i has a fixed gain of 4.7 (13.4dB) so if you have really sensitive balanced headphones, you might not get much usable range on the volume control, but luckily the volume control itself is very precise, even using the remote.
 
As far the operational/build side of things go... again, my thoughts are a bit mixed on that end.
 
The build quality of the CMA600i is outstanding; everything feels solid, the volume control is smooth and has absolutely no channel imbalance at any level, and the fit and finish is impeccable.  This is one area where the CMA600i blows the Schii stack away.  My particular Magni 2 Uber has a pretty funky channel imbalance that makes high-gain mode more or less unusable with my headphones.
 
The CMA600i's optical, coax, and analog inputs all work fine.  I had issues with the USB input.  It works but I get frequent pops/clicks when streaming through USB using the latest drivers from Questyle's web site on Windows 10 64bit Professional.  I tried all of the various settings in the Questyle Audio Control Panel (Safe, Extra Safe, Reliable, etc.) as well as multiple USB ports and they all had the same issues.  My motherboard even has a pair of yellow "DAC" USB ports that are supposedly isolated from the rest of the motherboard but that didn't make a difference.  I almost feel like it is a driver issue because the Schiit Modi 2 Uber connected via USB does not have any trouble in the exact same scenarios.  The CMA600i uses an XMOS USB chip while the Modi 2 Uber uses a CMEDIA USB chip.  Luckily I never intended to use the USB input on the CMA600i as my primary connection is optical, but it still bugs me that it doesn't work out of the box like the Modi 2 Uber.
 
Here's another nitpick: I've reached out to Questyle a couple different times over the past two weeks and have gotten zero response.  This is contacting the info@, info_usa@, and service@ email addresses listed on the Contact Us page (http://www.questyleaudio.com/contact).  I reached out on Aug. 4 before I got the CMA600i regarding the specs page and then again on Aug. 13 regarding the USB issues.
 
Speaking of the specs page for the CMA600i, it claims there is a switchable digital filter for PCM mode but I'm pretty sure it's a copy/paste typo from the CMA800i as there is no filter switch on the CMA600i.  I'm guessing the CMA600i uses the more traditional FIR filter for PCM.
 
The remote included with the CMA600i is a "one size fits all" for all of Questyle's products and as a result, most of the buttons don't do anything.  In fact, the only ones that do anything are Volume Up/Down and Mute, and Mute only works if you are using a digital input.  If you are bypassing the internal DAC and using the analog RCA inputs, Mute doesn't do anything.  This is an absolute non-issue for me but I thought I would mention it anyways.  The remote is pretty small, extremely light, and uses a CR2025 battery.
 
Also, the CMA600i has a SPDIF (coax) output but I can't seem to get it to do anything.  I thought it might be a pass-through for the SPDIF input, but that doesn't seem to be the case.  The manual shows the output in the connection diagram but makes absolutely no mention of how to use it or get it to work.
 
At the end of the day, I still like the CMA600i because it's a well-built, good-looking piece of equipment and it does sound really good and, my USB quirks aside, works well.  I just can't honestly say I hear a difference between the ~$300 Schiit stack and the ~$1300 CMA600i.  I'm willing to accept that my equipment has outstripped my hearing capability and/or the music/volume levels I use aren't enough to make a difference.
 
If anyone has tested with similar equipment and has heard a significant difference, please let me know what tracks/albums you are listening to.

 

[simulatedrain]

I definately experienced the same problems with the USB.  It was driving me crazy for a while, i would get random disconnects pops and clicks.  I tried using , foobar, HQplayer and jriver seeing if it was a software issue.  I tried customizing as many options as i could change with no effects.  4 different usb cords and different usb ports.  I never could have imagined it would be on the cma600,  I noticed that i got usb driver failure in windows event center and decided to try optical.  That was a pretty big disappointment cause i was planning to use usb.
 
Changing to optical fixed all of the problems i experienced and it has been running great.  I will email the moonaudio guys to see if they are aware of this issue, as this makes the USB pretty much a non option.  Im also on win10 x64 pro.
 
I remember the controller having buttons that didnt do anything as well, but i already lost it ....
 
When i originally was asking about advice for my setup, my first choice was with schiit stack.  Everyone loved it and it was decently priced.  The guy that recommended the cma600i to me said the lower / mid schiit stacks can be a dry and more forwarded sounding and maybe harsh.  That might be something to look out for when listening to the two.
 
Ive been contemplating picking a usb decrapifier like the wyrd or the ifi usb nano.  I wonder if that would help with the usb problem?

 

[reiserFS]

Anyone tried it with a LCD-2 yet?

 

[simulatedrain]

Any specific music you want me to try? I just got a used lcd2.1 prefazor and ive been re-listening to all my old music and i dont want to stop >.>   Ive been using the single end stock cable and this amp definately has the power to drive the cans.  Rich smooth sound and that great punchy bass.  Most of the music ive listened to sounds great from acoustic guitar and piano to fast heavy hitting metal.  The level of clarity is unreal.  Ive run across a few songs that i previously enjoyed that sound almost disjointed most likely due to poor recording quality.
 
 Ive been reading that it only gets better going balanced with a custom silver cable and i think im going to look into getting one.

 

[kodreaming]

Thanks @blinsc. I really appreciate your review. I listened to CMA600i in a recent meet-up and was going to get it.

 

[JoeDoe]

If any buyers are interested in paying not-new price for an all-but-new 600i, shoot me a PM. I think it's a smokin' piece of kit, but right now, I need to recoup funds rather than hold onto this guy!

 

[miceblue]

I've recently had the chance to listen to the CMA600i with an Audeze LCD-4, OPPO PM-3, and ENIGMAcoustics Dharma D1000.








Overall I'm pretty impressed with the unit. I find it to render the soundstage and imaging really well compared to what I'm used to with the LH Labs products (Pulse X Infinity and Geek Out V2+), while also having a very clean bass response with authority and a treble response that's not grainy-sounding.

As a DAC, the CMA600i's Pure DSD output sounds cleaner than any DSD DAC I've heard so far. It was pretty phenomenal as I actually listened through a few of my DSD tracks in entirety, which I usually don't do. It's a lot smoother-sounding compared the ESS DACs I've heard.

As an amp, it can power most headphones for the most part. Using sensitive in-ears, I heard no background hiss, but I wasn't able to use the volume knob very much before it got too loud, so I wish there was a gain switch. Then for larger headphones, it was fine, but I still didn't need to turn the volume knob past 10 o'clock. That being said, I hope to hear the HE1000 on the CMA600i some day as that headphone can really scale well with an amp, and it would be a nice comparison to make since I've heard it with the CMA800r before.

For a Class A amp, this thing doesn't get very warm at all. I was surprised when I felt it after a few hours of use.