[diabelli]

I'm stuck in the searching of a companion DAC for my V200, the most recent candidates are: V800, Mytek and XSabre.
Obviously they have pros and cons (price, DSD, look...) I have no possibility to hear any of them with the V200 so it's a "blind" purchasing...
Which should be the best with V200? Is the V800 a no brainer choice?
The headphones are in my sign, I'm thinking to add a LCD2-2 (or a HE500) later in 2013...

 

[Kendoji]

I haven't heard the others you mention, but the complete Violectric stack sure is a beautiful thing to behold...    Certainly don't think you can go wrong with the V800.

 

[dfarina]

Quote:

I'm stuck in the searching of a companion DAC for my V200, the most recent candidates are: V800, Mytek and XSabre.
Obviously they have pros and cons (price, DSD, look...) I have no possibility to hear any of them with the V200 so it's a "blind" purchasing...
Which should be the best with V200? Is the V800 a no brainer choice?
The headphones are in my sign, I'm thinking to add a LCD2-2 (or a HE500) later in 2013...

I also have the V200,LCD-2 combo and just went through the same dilemma,couldn't part with $1300 for the V800,so I opted for the Rein X-DAC,has good reviews and looks nice stacked on the V200.If you do a search on the reviews they seem to think it mates up well with our equipment when tested,goes for $680.

 

[project86]

Quote:

I haven't heard the others you mention, but the complete Violectric stack sure is a beautiful thing to behold...    Certainly don't think you can go wrong with the V800.

 
Agreed. See my sig for X-Sabre review where I compare the V800 with X-Sabre. It's not a clear victory for either unit, and both are quite enjoyable. 

 

[diabelli]

Quote:

I haven't heard the others you mention, but the complete Violectric stack sure is a beautiful thing to behold...    Certainly don't think you can go wrong with the V800.

 
 

I see, they are perfect together and I love the "look and feel" of my V200...

Anyway, I think that the V800 is a little bit overpriced for what it's offering in today market, and DSD it's the hype of the moment...
But I'm also a promoter of the brand synergy (my main system is full Naim...)

 
Quote:

I also have the V200,LCD-2 combo and just went through the same dilemma,couldn't part with $1300 for the V800,so I opted for the Rein X-DAC,has good reviews and looks nice stacked on the V200.If you do a search on the reviews they seem to think it mates up well with our equipment when tested,goes for $680.

 
Thanks, I'll make a search for the X-DAC...

 

[diabelli]

Quote:

 
Agreed. See my sig for X-Sabre review where I compare the V800 with X-Sabre. It's not a clear victory for either unit, and both are quite enjoyable. 

 
I've read carefully your reviews (both the V800 and X-Sabre) and I have understood there isn't a clear winner between the two.
I'll forgot to write that I'll be eventually feeding the V800 with a HiFace EVo so the limit of the USB input it's not a big problem, it's more a "take the DSD train or wait the next turn" thing...

Btw thanks a lot for your reviews, my English is not good at all but your reviews are clear and understandable even for me...

 

[FlySweep]

 
I love how this looks & sounds.  I'm not a big stickler for gear aesthetics.. but in this case, I couldn't resist getting the V200 when I knew the V800 was on its way.  In terms of performance, I can't recommend the V800 highly enough.

 

[dfarina]

Here is a review from this forum on the Rein X-dac,part of his equipment in the review is the V200 and LCD-2.The V200 and X-dac are very similar in size as seen in the review,so visually they look better together than any other dac out there with the exception of the V800

 

[Kendoji]

When I'm in any doubt I just follow project86 around these forums and buy whatever he tells me to.

 

[jronan2]

I have the X-Sabre, V200 for the Fostex TH900 and hopefully HD 800 down the road. I have never tried the V800, but I think the X-sabre wins out if they perform similar just in more options and better usb. The only gripe you will find with the X-sabre is no optical. They also looks great together, almost like they were made for each other. You probably can't go wrong with either one.

 

[roskodan]

...

 

[roskodan]

Quote:

Hey guys, could someone please help me get a grip on a mystery?
 
To begin with, I would like to ask you guys if anyone has found their V200 or V100 to impart some channel imbalance on any headphone connected to it?
 
I have a V100 and just recently found that on any headphone hooked up on it the physical left channel always sounds slightly louder than the right channel...
I've noticed this imbalance months ago but I thought that it was coming from the headphones themselves, but recently I actually verified that the problem was coming apparently from the amp.
 
I've tested all possible variables: digital sources, interconnects, software (channel reverse), pre-gain settings (of course!, I used the same for both channels duh!), volume knob position, etc... and the imbalance remains always the same regardless of the above configurations... The left channel of the headphones sounds louder than the right one.
So it seems that it's an issue within the amp....
 
My ears detect this imbalance mostly on the upper midrange - treble frequencies, on the lower frequencies I'm not sure I was able to discern any imbalance as strange as it seems...
I'm not sure if it's right to call it an imbalance, it's a sort of sound image shift to the left channel...
As if a sound that was supposed to appear in front center position of the sound field appeared to be coming slightly from the left (channel)... it's like a slight incoherence between the channels, and the left channel always seems to sound a bit more dynamic or detailed? than the right channel which sounds comparativelly kinda dead... but this could just be the impression caused by the volume mismatch.
 
This is not simple to describe.
I hope I'm making sense here...

 
My amp is currently at Lake People instalations undergoing inspection, but they already informed me that they measured the channel imbalance to be within norms, nothing major, way below 0,5 dB...
But the difference I hear is most certainly of several dBs it's quite apparent in the higher frequencies...
I'm not sure if they tested it at 1000Hz tone only though...
 
I don't get this channel imbalance from my other sources my PC integrated HP-out nor my Sansa Clip+, so it seems to be a real issue with my V100...
 
Note that this is not the usual low volume channel imbalance, this is omnipresent regardless of how loud the sound/volume knob position is.
And it's always the left physical channel of the headphone that sounds louder.
Even if I reverse channels through software (foobar2000, for example) and swap channels in my head it's the left channel of the headphone that sounds louder, regardless of being routed the left or right channel stereo signal from software.
 
I'de like to ask if anyone has noticed this behavior with their amps Violectric or not?
Is this a normal occurence with amps?
What could possibly be causing this issue on my V100?
AFAIK the previous owner didn't mess within the amp, but could this be caused by DC coupling issues or incosistency between the opamps/transistors used for each channel?
 
Any help or clarification would be much apprecciated.

try setting your v100 to dc operation and/or gnd position for the ground lift jumper
 
edit: is the imbalance the same regardles of it being cold or warmed up ?

 

[kkl10]

^ Nevermind....
I received the amp back from Lake People few days ago and after some more careful listening, it's clear now that the amp has no imbalance at all.
It turns out all my headphones have the same imbalance, some more than others but while these mismatches can be quite subtle when hooked up on my Sansa Clip+ or my PC HP out, on the V100 they're more consistently noticeable for some reason...
 
It's in my headphones after all.

 

[roskodan]

anyway, changing the ground to gnd instead of lift and switching to dc operation in some cases can give more focus and clarity, worth a try
 
edit: ofc with gnd you can expect noise issues with iems if your electrical mains aren't grounded properly
 
if you change some of the settings inside be sure to screw the whole case back together before listening as the screws are the ones that makes the electrical contact, the nextel coating really seems to be a bed conductor, so that the case is grounded properly

 

[kkl10]

I still didn't touch the ground lift and the DC coupling but I plan to, thanks for the advice.