My goodness guys you are much too kind - I'm almost too nervous to continue writing!
But truly, I really appreciate the feedback. It's nice to know this arduous but
very enjoyable process has been of some value for others, as well as me.
Comments:
@RazorJack - I certainly will look into the cross feed and tonal balance. I already have ideas and experience of what they do, but of course it's important to now start fresh, as far as I can.
@sampson_smith - great to hear how your comments about the Bifrost/Lyr/Ortho combination. One thing I mean to do very shortly is roll back to my favorite tubes and explore more fully this combo's potential
@olor1n - just to say again I really enjoy your own searching, critical and measured approach. Btw, a great series of questions you asked some of those EE guys on the NFB10 thread. I would've chimed in if I'd had fewer distractions at the time.
And well, I think Schiit are a company of constant surprises. It will certainly be interesting to hear what the next tier sounds like - I won't be surprised if they go somewhere quite new!
@cooperpwc - for sure, with some appreciable fraction of material (just guessing, about one in six?) the cross feed makes a large difference. Once I had a better headphone rig, I was amazed at the benefit with particular tracks, but put the Stagedac back into the speaker rig pretty quickly (only because that's what I bought it for). By chance, I didn't hear the Stagedac with a lot of vocal material, which would certainly have made me keep it with the headphone rig. But I certainly missed the cross feed "effect".
From memory, this effect was to 'separate' the layers in those tracks where it worked, making them quite '3-dimensional'. I'm not sure whether I mean this in sound-stage terms (probably - that's certainly the theory), or whether I mean it meaningfully separates the instrumental layers. Maybe this is the same thing?
As Dr Meier suggested, Stagedac does this much better than the implementations in his amps. Perhaps because of how well the Stagedac does it, I rarely use it on the Concerto.
@caracara08 - I sure hear you, but I think there is reason for you to be hopeful about the Bifrost. With the LCD2 anyway, and despite my own mild bass preference, I see the Bifrost as a genuine alternative to the MiniMax. Looking forward to hearing
your experience though, and good luck!
@ecohifi - thanks a lot! And, geez man you're talking to an ideas guy here, as in
not very practical. I'll certainly let you know if I decide to try that, and I'll be sure to ask your advice
@judmarc - thanks! And yes, haven't forgotten about Audirvana plus and looking forward to trying it.
@sridhar3 - really appreciate it man, especially having really enjoyed your own contributions on head-fi!
