[paradoxper]

Quote:

Among other shockers; the O2 can drive the LCD-3 about 95-100% as well as the Headamp, and the HE-6 about 85-90% as well.

Going to that meet totally changed my perspective of my Objective stack. I had a listing to sell them before the meet, but afterwards, there is no way that I'm going to let them go for a while.

Boohockey. But I respect your subjective finding's.

 

[MorbidToaster]

Yeah I thought the 851C was a great unit for the money. They PWD II was a little better on detail retrieval, but was underwhelming to say the least, especially at the MSRP. It also sounded harsh to me sometimes. Some have tried to say this is DAC is 'neutral', but after trying it on quite a few systems I still find it a tad bright. 
 
At a used price of say...2.5k I'd say it's a good unit if you're going to USE all the features. Multiple ins, preamp, etc. 
 
The Cantata slaughtered it, and considering my old Scout beat them both I'd say I know what I like.
 
Quote:

The real question would be what other DACs did he hear comparatively.
 
Perhaps his ears just say the O2 is on par with all of it.
 
 
 
I know you preferred your 840 to the PWD and heard the diffences, right MT. Haha.

 

[paradoxper]

Quote:

Yeah I thought the 851C was a great unit for the money. They PWD II was a little better on detail retrieval, but was underwhelming to say the least, especially at the MSRP. It also sounded harsh to me sometimes. Some have tried to say this is DAC is 'neutral', but after trying it on quite a few systems I still find it a tad bright. 
 
At a used price of say...2.5k I'd say it's a good unit if you're going to USE all the features. Multiple ins, preamp, etc. 
 
The Cantata slaughtered it, and considering my old Scout beat them both I'd say I know what I like.
 

No one pays MSRP. Haha.
 
And leave the Cantata out of this. Wallet hurts too much thinking 'bout it.

 

[khaine1711]

Hard to compare dac in meets; especially with cans you're not really familiar with. Unless they have drastically different sound sig of course. Home auditioning, a/b listening at 2 a.m. with volume matched is where it's at 

. 
 
About the Cantata, it looks so pretty, but no dealer here put it on home loan so I can only admire its casework. Meanwhile, we used to have PWD2 MRSP @ 4k GBP (~6k USD) over here

 

[MorbidToaster]

I can't leave it out. It's my benchmark for digital sources. Simply put it's the best digital front end I've heard. 
 
I still recommend analog to anyone with that much money to blow though. It takes time and effort but the returns (especially on modern recordings) are just massive. 
 
Then again...You could always get a good digital and analog rig and just needle drop all your LPs and then enjoy them from a great DAC like the Cantata. 
 
Quote:

No one pays MSRP. Haha.
 
And leave the Cantata out of this. Wallet hurts too much thinking 'bout it.

 

[BASGTA]

AD900 on some KNS8400s.


1280x720 image.

Spoiler

 

[LugBug1]

Quote:

AD900 on some KNS8400s.

Spoiler

 

Hah nice to have a bit headphone porn this time of night

 

[wolfetan44]

Quote:

Among other shockers; the O2 can drive the LCD-3 about 95-100% as well as the Headamp, and the HE-6 about 85-90% as well. I swear I'm not deaf. Perhaps I needed a little more time to settle down and really critically listen, as I was a bit rushed, but I've come to the opinion that the majority of the differences between amplifiers and DACs are grossly exaggerated.

Going to that meet totally changed my perspective of my Objective stack. I was kind of in a slump about the combo and I had a listing to sell them before the meet. Now, there is no way that I'm going to let them go for a while.

I tried both those cans on my O2 and I thought it was awful

 Thats why this hobby is so interesting and at the same time frustrating..
 

 

[preproman]

Quote:

Among other shockers; the O2 can drive the LCD-3 about 95-100% as well as the Headamp, and the HE-6 about 85-90% as well. I swear I'm not deaf. Perhaps I needed a little more time to settle down and really critically listen, as I was a bit rushed, but I've come to the opinion that the majority of the differences between amplifiers and DACs are grossly exaggerated.

Going to that meet totally changed my perspective of my Objective stack. I was kind of in a slump about the combo and I had a listing to sell them before the meet. Now, there is no way that I'm going to let them go for a while.

 
 
Of course every thing in this hobby is grossly exaggerated.  It wouldn't be right if it wasn't.  Saying that.  You have to sit down at home with better recording than the mp3s you had 

.  The PWD2 certainly does play down to the recording.  However, we had a few heavy hitter at the meet.  Sorry no Cambridge audio DAC was any where worthy of being there 

 
Hilo
D2
Master 7
PWD2
m51
ODAC
 
For me the Master 7 took the show.  
 
At our next meet in a few weeks.  I'll sit you down with some very well recorded material and point out a few things for you "grass hopper".  You had no guidance you was just off on your own.  
 
The Hilo had a few issues.  You need to go to school to learn what that thing can do.  It' didn't sound it's best.  I had it at home and it did sound better.  However, if you mess with it enough you can screw it up.

 

[autoteleology]

mp3s

 


I might not have decades of experience in this hobby, but I'm not stupid or uneducated by any means. I wish the majority of the people at that meet would have stopped assuming that I was simply because I am somewhat younger than the average Head-Fier.

I know that this is your gear that I'm reviewing, but just assuming that I didn't hear a difference because I did a bunch of stuff wrong makes me really angry. If anything, it was probably due to the fact that I just didn't really have enough time to sit down and compare. My observation was made in a less than ideal setting with a limited time frame to make my observations.

Picture is all the music that I brought with me to the meet, which is only about 25% of my collection. I have very few "mp3s", and what I do have mostly doesn't exist in anything better (such as Excision).

 

[preproman]

Quote:

 
 


I might not have decades of experience in this hobby, but I'm not stupid or uneducated by any means. I wish the majority of the people at that meet would have stopped assuming that I was simply because I am somewhat younger than the average Head-Fier. I know that this is your gear that I'm reviewing, but just assuming that I didn't hear a difference because I did a bunch of stuff wrong makes me really angry.

Picture is all the music that I brought with me to the meet, which is only about 25% of my collection.

 
 
Ha ha ha    Not trying to make you angry - I don't want you to beat me up.  I'm just saying.  I would like to point a few things out to you so you'll know some things to look for in a comparison.  Just like I was shown.  Further more - I didn't say you did anything wrong.  But you truly didn't do a lot of things right either.  
 
Like I said.  If you like we can sit down together and we can show each other the things we look for when comparing amps/dacs..  
 
Don't hurt me hammer..

 

[KimLaroux]

Quote:

Spoiler: Cut

 
 


I might not have decades of experience in this hobby, but I'm not stupid or uneducated by any means. I wish the majority of the people at that meet would have stopped assuming that I was simply because I am somewhat younger than the average Head-Fier.

I know that this is your gear that I'm reviewing, but just assuming that I didn't hear a difference because I did a bunch of stuff wrong makes me really angry. If anything, it was probably due to the fact that I just didn't really have enough time to sit down and compare. My observation was made in a less than ideal setting with a limited time frame to make my observations.
 

 

Picture is all the music that I brought with me to the meet, which is only about 25% of my collection. I have very few "mp3s", and what I do have mostly doesn't exist in anything better (such as Excision).

 
In all honesty, these tracks would sound the same trough just about any source at just about any bitrate. 
 
I'm not degrading your music choice, as I listen to these too. It's just not something I'd use as a reference. They would bottleneck the detail retrieval and accuracy demonstration of the gear being tested.

 

[TheWuss]

Casa de Wusster.  Circa...  St. Patrick's Day, 2013.  

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[MorbidToaster]

OH MAN. LFD, eh?
 
Which model? How much? What else did you try first? 
 
Someone over at SH suggested LFD to me for the HL5 as well. 

 

[TheWuss]

This is the NCSE mk II model.
I caught one on Audiogon for a great deal.... About the same price as a LE IV would be brand new.
I couldn't resist.
It is better in many ways than the Audio Research.
Now i just need to upgrade speaker cables and a few other odds and ends...
The system is sounding fantastic. Hardly ever use cans at home now...