[Jackpot77]

Would be nice for people going for the pair of players to be able to get one of each. I went for the 2 x Pro pack which I decided to upgrade to the Pro X perk once CD announced the Pro was going to be a small batch run (thinking firmware and support would be pretty non-existent on the Pro, so resale value came into it as well down the line). Hoping they can split the difference as two docks would be pretty pointless but a half respectable DAC to complete the chain between my Surface Pro 2 (which has surprisingly good audio output as it is) and my new iCan would definitely be the preferred choice.
 
@glassmonkey - if you have the DAC already, how is the sound if you use it hooked up to your PC? Is it a noticeable upgrade or more marginal?

 

[glassmonkey]

  Would be nice for people going for the pair of players to be able to get one of each. I went for the 2 x Pro pack which I decided to upgrade to the Pro X perk once CD announced the Pro was going to be a small batch run (thinking firmware and support would be pretty non-existent on the Pro, so resale value came into it as well down the line). Hoping they can split the difference as two docks would be pretty pointless but a half respectable DAC to complete the chain between my Surface Pro 2 (which has surprisingly good audio output as it is) and my new iCan would definitely be the preferred choice.
 
@glassmonkey - if you have the DAC already, how is the sound if you use it hooked up to your PC? Is it a noticeable upgrade or more marginal?

The Feather DAC is a bit bass light, which likely has more to do with the meagre amplification than the DAC itself, so I found the included headphones played well with it (mine came with Impact Bass headphones with a flat cable). The DAC is not perfectly clean on the noise floor, you can hear a bit of noise floor in quiet parts of songs. It does play DSD256 natively. I also found that the volume buttons were useful, but I'd not like to press volume buttons when it is in a USB slot as this causes wear and tear on the USB slot. The build quality is cheap and plasticky--I wouldn't be rough with it. I bought mine when they did their Christmas-time sale, as I wanted a preview of what Seiun players may sound like (house tuning). Overall, I think it is stellar value for money as a relatively good sounding DSD256 capable DAC/Amp. You won't do better for twice the asking price, and probably won't do better for 10 times the asking price if DSD256 is important to you--personally, I can't tell the difference between DSD256 and DSD128 and wouldn't pay extra money for DSD256 but I have some for testing equipment and it does sound excellent.

 

[Jackpot77]

The Feather DAC is a bit bass light, which likely has more to do with the meagre amplification than the DAC itself, so I found the included headphones played well with it (mine came with Impact Bass headphones with a flat cable). The DAC is not perfectly clean on the noise floor, you can hear a bit of noise floor in quiet parts of songs. It does play DSD256 natively. I also found that the volume buttons were useful, but I'd not like to press volume buttons when it is in a USB slot as this causes wear and tear on the USB slot. The build quality is cheap and plasticky--I wouldn't be rough with it. I bought mine when they did their Christmas-time sale, as I wanted a preview of what Seiun players may sound like (house tuning). Overall, I think it is stellar value for money as a relatively good sounding DSD256 capable DAC/Amp. You won't do better for twice the asking price, and probably won't do better for 10 times the asking price if DSD256 is important to you--personally, I can't tell the difference between DSD256 and DSD128 and wouldn't pay extra money for DSD256 but I have some for testing equipment and it does sound excellent.

Thanks for the info - definitely food for thought. Been thinking about picking up a Dragonfly Dac for PC and Other use, but if the Feather sounds good then might just keep my fingers crossed CD leave us the option to choose one when they finally ship.

 

[Karmeck]

Maybe change the titel now that the the price is 499$

 

[glassmonkey]

Thanks for the info - definitely food for thought. Been thinking about picking up a Dragonfly Dac for PC and Other use, but if the Feather sounds good then might just keep my fingers crossed CD leave us the option to choose one when they finally ship.

Me and some others have had some issues with the Feather as a DAC to use with a phone. There can be some awful noise, but this isn't experienced by everyone. The Dragonfly has better build quality, and likely less issues with use (haven't used it so don't know) but not as much format compatibility. The new Dragonfly DACs also have really low battery usage so are good for use with a phone.

 

[fox403]

News on 8/3/2016
 

Dear all, after we sent out the message regarding the Music Box add-on, we got many of your feedbacks very quickly. Since the Pro X has such amazing audio, we don't think the Music Box will do it justice - instead, we decided to release our newly designed stereo speaker set to accompany the Pro X. 

After our internal discussion from a development standpoint as well as the user expectations standpoint, we've finalized our decisions.

To sum up the updates from a past few days -

1) Instead of giving all backers the DSD DAC as the gift, we're considering giving everyone a higher-value Audio/Video Docking station for the Pro X. We need your feedback on this - please let us know if this is what all of you will prefer.

- The AV docking spec will be provided in 2 days.

- we will finalize the the product design for this AV Docking in a week - we'd like to be able to deliver at the same time with your Pro X.

2) We will now add in our newly designed Hi-Res Stereo Speaker Set (as a new add-on option to buy), to best match the performance of Pro X 384K/32 Bit audio output quality.

3) As always, we commit to our principle to provide you the best with affordability.

For more detailed information, please check the product description and specifications below.

 

might turn out to be a nice freebie

what are we looking for in a good set of speakers ?

 

[Daeder]

 

News on 8/3/2016
 

Dear all, after we sent out the message regarding the Music Box add-on, we got many of your feedbacks very quickly. Since the Pro X has such amazing audio, we don't think the Music Box will do it justice - instead, we decided to release our newly designed stereo speaker set to accompany the Pro X. 

After our internal discussion from a development standpoint as well as the user expectations standpoint, we've finalized our decisions.

To sum up the updates from a past few days -

1) Instead of giving all backers the DSD DAC as the gift, we're considering giving everyone a higher-value Audio/Video Docking station for the Pro X. We need your feedback on this - please let us know if this is what all of you will prefer.

- The AV docking spec will be provided in 2 days.

- we will finalize the the product design for this AV Docking in a week - we'd like to be able to deliver at the same time with your Pro X.

2) We will now add in our newly designed Hi-Res Stereo Speaker Set (as a new add-on option to buy), to best match the performance of Pro X 384K/32 Bit audio output quality.

3) As always, we commit to our principle to provide you the best with affordability.

For more detailed information, please check the product description and specifications below.

 

might turn out to be a nice freebie

what are we looking for in a good set of speakers ?

The Hi-Res Stereo Speaker set is going to be a freebie? Or is it the audio/video docking station that will be added as a gift from them?

 

[fox403]

Dock is going be free

 

[FSTOP]

i'm fairly sure, not knowing any particulars yet though, that i'd rather have the dock for the ProX than the DAC, but i've already got a few higher-end DACs anyway. 
As to speakers, I'd probably not be interested in buying any from CD though, as i design and build my own (from portable Bluetooth boxes to tower 4-way monitors), and my house is over-run with my speakers as it is--or so says my wife.  

 

[talan7]

Does anyone know if the balanced headphone out of the pha is 3.5 or 2.5?

 

[jdog]

Does anyone know if the balanced headphone out of the pha is 3.5 or 2.5?

It's hard for me to tell.  If you look at the original specs on the PHA, it says 3.5 mm + 3.5 mm balanced, but then the original picture shows a single balanced out port that looks a little smaller than the stereo port which is 3.5 mm.  The latest picture posted by Seiun has a single ended headphone jack in the balanced port, so it is impossible to determine the size of the port.  I bet ExPatin could probably tell us because he has actually seen the PHA; I'm hoping the balanced port is 3.5 mm, because the only balanced IEMs I have are 3.5 mm....

 

[jdog]

Not to distract from the Pro's or the PHA (which hopefully will be shipping out soon), but I was looking at the Cyberdrive site today and they are taking pre-orders for the Seiun JR2; the price is $425...  Here is the link:  http://cyberdrive.audio/products/seiun-jr2-384k-32bit-music-player-metallic-finished.  But no mention of delivery date yet....

 

[chompchomps]

I'll wait till they release more specs about the dock and the speakers but i think the DAC is a cooler toy to play with since i dont have one yet. 
 
i think they should show us how we should use the doc with the speakers or how the  'higher value dock' can be utilised with our other peripherals

 

[ExpatinJapan]

Not to distract from the Pro's or the PHA (which hopefully will be shipping out soon), but I was looking at the Cyberdrive site today and they are taking pre-orders for the Seiun JR2; the price is $425...  Here is the link:  http://cyberdrive.audio/products/seiun-jr2-384k-32bit-music-player-metallic-finished.  But no mention of delivery date yet....

i have a JR-2 for review at the moment. I have unboxing photos on my site. ESS dac

 

[oliolio]

What's the difference between jr2 and pro x?