sander99
Headphoneus Supremus
I am not sure I understand what you did exactly?Woah, very handy information!
Also, it was what I was looking for, I want to experiment a bit, I am getting somewhere with it.
Tried the A16 vs a high-end DAC/AMP like the Mytek Brooklyn DAC+. Tried it with HE400i 2020, because i had it on hand
At first, A16 sounds different from what I was expecting, a bit too airy and not quite enough bass (not sure where I am doing something wrong), Then when switching back to a standard DAC/AMP, the differences are huge, it sounds like the sound of a traditional DAC/AMP has bulky and blocky parts, which with A16 are just a natural soundscape. It is amazing what it can do, but I feel that I can also get the bass right with more experiment - I think that I'm doing wrong the HPEQ settings, or that I'm stuck with the default one which was meant for HD800. It surely is not easy to use and set up, but man, I was not expecting such results, going back to not using it feels like going between a hi-res file (a16) and a very compressed mp3 file (most traditional dac/amps) - I'm talking about the magnitude of differences in how natural the stage sounds.
Do you mean that you tried the A16 without any SVS (short for Smyth Virtual Surround in case you were wondering) processing? In other words: you used the "stereo mixdown" function?
And did you also use it with SVS processing? With a self made PRIR?
In above quote, are you talking about switching back from SVS processing to normal headphone stereo?Then when switching back to a standard DAC/AMP, the differences are huge, it sounds like the sound of a traditional DAC/AMP has bulky and blocky parts, which with A16 are just a natural soundscape.
I think it would be wise to be more clear - in your own mind as well as later to your readers - what you are comparing to what.
I think the most relevant comparison regarding the A16 is: A16 with SVS processing versus A16 without SVS processing. Because SVS processing is not so much a change in fidelity but more a transformation to a different perspective (as a figure of speech). The audibility of this transformation is at a completely different level (much more audible I mean) compared to differences between amps and DACs (to put it mildly).
You could compare the A16 without SVS processing to another DAC/amp without SVS processing, or compare the A16 with SVS processing using it's internal DAC/amp to the A16 with SVS processing using another DAC/amp (connected to the A16's spdif output). But comparing the A16 with SVS processing to another DAC/amp without SVS processing is not very meaningfull. That is like comparing apples to oranges.