[valod]

hello my name is valod
 
i want to get into the audiophile game. currently i have a creative x7 DAC/amp and bose QC25 noise cancelling headphones.
 
this is the only gear "audiophile" gear i ever herd. so i guess it sounds good. on mp3s. but when i listen to some good quality flac audio, with the noise canceling turned on, seems like the headphones cant handle it and the audio gets distorted like listening to high volume on bad speakers.
 
sorry for the lack of audiophile terminology. i cant describe music well yet.
 
im looking get get some better gear.
 
been lurking on the forums and reading reviews from here and there.
 
from what i understand, i need a DAC, headphone amp, and headphones.
 
i see many of the people doing the reviews or unboxings of high end gear and they say this is my end game. im assuming they started out with lower end gear then mid end gear then they got high end gear.
 
what i want to do is not spend too much money and get high end gear to begin with but not that high end because im not that rich just passionate.
 
mainly i like rap music and mainstream music or what was once mainstream music i guess.
 
 
based on what i have seen in my search for gear,
 
 for the headphones i want to get stax sr009
 
for the headphone amp either woo audio wes with upgraded parts or the BHSE from headamp i dont know yet
 
for the DAC im thinking of the Bricasti M1 special edition, initially i was looking at the schiit yggdrasil, but i found out that it has to be on the whole time which turned me off. also i was looking at the AURALiC Vega also but again the reviews say it sound best after a few hours of operation. i dont mind waiting a hour but a few hours? depends how good the dac is i guess. also the zodiac platinum.  i don't know kind of expensive with the 10m clock combo.  the MSB analog dac looks good too but its really expensive with the upgrades i want and i think its unbalanced. not sure what that means though i just know balanced is better.
 
also im gonna get high end cables too for either jps labs carda ..... high end usb cable too.
 
also i had a few questions.
 
1. do i need a preamp
 
2. what  about a power conditioner / AC power director. are those the same thing? what dose this do really is it needed.
'
 
is there any other piece of equipment i would need to have a complete system.
 
 
or im thinking maybe i should just get a sennheiser hd800s and a benchmark dac2  with woo audio tube amp or the headamp gs-x mk2
 
 
thank you
 
sorry for being a lame this is my first time getting into audiophile any help is much appreciated

 

[Muinarc]

 
 
1. do i need a preamp
 
2. what  about a power conditioner / AC power director. are those the same thing? what dose this do really is it needed.
 
 
3. is there any other piece of equipment i would need to have a complete system.
 
 
or im thinking maybe i should just get a sennheiser hd800s and a benchmark dac2  with woo audio tube amp or the headamp gs-x mk2
 
 

 
1) No, most likely not. The headphone amp will have the volume control and that's really all a pre-amp is for. That and source switching.... which leads to 3) (see 3).
 
2) Some people swear by them, others don't think it matters. Might just depend on where you live. Some homes have a lot of noise in their power lines from any number of sources, including other electrical devices, dimming switches in the home, microwave ovens, etc. I'd tell you to skip it and add one later if you felt you'd gain something from it.
 
3) I didn't see you mention the source of the music. I saw DACs, will you be running these off a computer or will you need a music server?
 
 
I will warn you, a lot of people have done what you wanted to do and were severely disappointed. They expect too much or just have buyer's remorse. This is why taking the "slow" road to the high end can be a good thing, you can appreciate the performance gains along the way.
 
Let alone that if you are new to this I'm going to tell you: you don't even know what you want yet. You say you like rap music but chose 2 of the headphones that probably suit the genre the least. An Abyss, TH900, or LCD4 would probably be a better place to look. You won't know what you like and do not like until you have tried many headphones and analyzed what strengths and weaknesses they have to your own ears.

 

[valod]

hello
 
my source is my computer. i have mainly 192+ mp3s and flac. im stating to see the light of going low to high.
 
what is a good amp for the abyss 1266. i herd the liquid gold, but that seems to be unavailable now

 

[Muinarc]

I heard the new Wells Audio Milo on the Abyss a few weeks ago and it's about as good as I've ever heard the Abyss.

 

[valod]

people saying the cavalli liquid gold is the best with the abyss but seems like its unavailable. at this time. i think alex is working on some new stuff.

 

[valod]

anyone have any experience with the focal utopias compared to hd 800S with a tube amp