[raisedbywolves]

just got one of these for my laptop for a really good price. my first ever dac/amp. looking forward to hearing it.

 

[estreeter]

Quote:

Is the MicroStreamer supposed to sound better than the Music Streamer II? The Music Streamer II is a couple years older by now.

 
I hope to have the microStreamer in my hot little hands by the end of this week, and I've owned the MSII for almost 3 years - give me a few weeks of living with the new DAC to vaporise some of the usual new toy joy/purchase justification/expectation bias and I'll post a few impressions. Note that I mainly listen with the ATH-AD900 - a very different headphone to Mike's LCD-3 - but I'll fill in those blanks when I put together my impressions somewhere around the end of July. Apologies if that seems like a long wait, but there are enough folk on HF who dash straight to a keyboard the instant their new toy is plugged in - understandable, but it gets old over time. I hope to review a lot more gear on a regular basis from mid-2014, and people simply won't take any of that seriously if it's all gushing superlatives on day one of ownership. HF has been good to me, and 2014 will be my chance to start giving something back. 
 
(Mike, I lay the blame for my first audio purchase in over 18 months squarely at your feet, hence my comment above re. expectation bias. I ignored all the chatter here, ignored the WHF and TAS raves, but then you had to go and put the microStreamer on the same level as the JH13/LCD-2, both considerably more expensive toys. The danger here is that my expectations may be a little *too* high, but part of that is my respect for what Kevin did with the MSII. How many people do you know who have relied on the same DAC for the last 3 years ? Not many ..... )

 

[jarrett]

I definitely appreciate it and understand. I hate when people jump on the boards to post their amazing first impressions of a new headphone instead of using it for a week. You can't really say if you enjoy something unless you live with it. It's sort of what happened with the CKM500 - ok I ordered one, not a bad headphone, has some good qualities; could I convince myself that I was loving it? Absolutely not. I'll never forget this post on the CKM500 thread http://www.head-fi.org/t/607006/the-ath-ckm500-the-best-ckm-earphone-yet/1785#post_9476909 Later scored to be 8/10 and my criticism about it was later confirmed in joker's review.
 
From what I gather in the reviews, I think the microstreamer is meant to be better. I hope it's obvious when you start listening to it.

 

[mikemercer]

Quote:

 
I hope to have the microStreamer in my hot little hands by the end of this week, and I've owned the MSII for almost 3 years - give me a few weeks of living with the new DAC to vaporise some of the usual new toy joy/purchase justification/expectation bias and I'll post a few impressions. Note that I mainly listen with the ATH-AD900 - a very different headphone to Mike's LCD-3 - but I'll fill in those blanks when I put together my impressions somewhere around the end of July. Apologies if that seems like a long wait, but there are enough folk on HF who dash straight to a keyboard the instant their new toy is plugged in - understandable, but it gets old over time. I hope to review a lot more gear on a regular basis from mid-2014, and people simply won't take any of that seriously if it's all gushing superlatives on day one of ownership. HF has been good to me, and 2014 will be my chance to start giving something back. 
 
(Mike, I lay the blame for my first audio purchase in over 18 months squarely at your feet, hence my comment above re. expectation bias. I ignored all the chatter here, ignored the WHF and TAS raves, but then you had to go and put the microStreamer on the same level as the JH13/LCD-2, both considerably more expensive toys. The danger here is that my expectations may be a little *too* high, but part of that is my respect for what Kevin did with the MSII. How many people do you know who have relied on the same DAC for the last 3 years ? Not many ..... )

This post made my day brother.
I can't say how many times I've tried to encourage somebody to spend time listening to a component before posting their impressions.
And I ain't scared (SMILE - of having the blame at my feet) - that little piece of magic is, IMO, Kevin's masterpiece.  
 
I'm so glad you decided to take the plunge, AND, even more excited that you plan on taking some time with the unit before sharing your thoughts.

 

[diegoeffio]

Hi, I`m doing some research for a dac/amp to use between my galaxy s3 mini and a beyerdynamic dt1350. Has anyone tried the microstreamer with that headphone? Thanks!

 

[morserotonin]

I am definitely interested in reading more peoples thoughts on this great piece of gear. I have been listening to it everyday for 4+ hours at a stretch for the past 2 months and I only have one complaint about it; it makes my expectations  for higher priced gear very, very high.  The next big leap in refinement and musicality happens post $1k to my ears and so I am putting a plan together to go to that level.

 

[jaywillin]

This post made my day brother.
I can't say how many times I've tried to encourage somebody to spend time listening to a component before posting their impressions.
And I ain't scared (SMILE - of having the blame at my feet) - that little piece of magic is, IMO, Kevin's masterpiece.  

I'm so glad you decided to take the plunge, AND, even more excited that you plan on taking some time with the unit before sharing your thoughts.

I have learned the value of tempering my initial enthusiasm the hard way, or I guess I should say the long way, something new can sound different after a period of time, not only does gear break, or burn in, but my auditory system adjust as well, but I still stand behind my enthusiasm for the microstreamer, anyone who's looking for a reasonably priced dac/amp should hear it, and I just used it in a desktop system, I wasn't looking at portability at all

 

[raisedbywolves]

just got my microstreamer. initial impressions are VERY positive. didn't think the sound would be this much improved.

 

[xenithon]

Very interested in this - it is one of a few in my shortlist for computer-based DAC/amp combos for use with my CIEMs. The only concern I would have, having read a number of threads, is the clicking/popping on computers (i.e., running Windows, not Mac). What is the general consensus in regard to that? 

 

[raisedbywolves]

Quote:

Very interested in this - it is one of a few in my shortlist for computer-based DAC/amp combos for use with my CIEMs. The only concern I would have, having read a number of threads, is the clicking/popping on computers (i.e., running Windows, not Mac). What is the general consensus in regard to that? 

absolutely no clicks so far for me in windows 7 ultimate sp1. have used it with foobar2000 in wasapi, potplayer with reclock in wasapi and also with chrome and no clicks or pops so far.

 

[estreeter]

They dont actually sell WHF in this burg, but I'm hoping one of the dealers or HRT will transfer the 'DAC battle' to a PDF for download at some stage. 
 
http://www.wickeddigital.com.au/information/audio-product-reviews/333-hrt-microstreamer-wins-dac-shootout
 
Some considerably more expensive DACs in that list. 

 

[mikemercer]

Quote:

They dont actually sell WHF in this burg, but I'm hoping one of the dealers or HRT will transfer the 'DAC battle' to a PDF for download at some stage. 
 
http://www.wickeddigital.com.au/information/audio-product-reviews/333-hrt-microstreamer-wins-dac-shootout
 
Some considerably more expensive DACs in that list. 

I know Steve at Wicked Digital (from when I worked at HRT)  - perhaps he could do the PDF for download...
 
and I've used the microStreamer on my wifes HP ENVY a bunch of times now, between that and a pair 
of Audioengine A5+ - since my review.  I've never experienced any pops or clicks.  
 
I want to be able to say I'm surprised by this amazing response to the microStreamer.  But I wholeheartedly 
believe it's Kevin Halverson's opus.  He was the first to introduce affordable asynchronous DACs, and on his
first headphone amp/DAC (the Headstreamer) he also introduced the digitally controlled analog gain stage - 
a cool trick the boys at Audioquest wisely picked up on!
 
It's a fascinating little sonic wonder

 

[jaywillin]

the pops and clicks i had were only when using jriver in wasapi mode,  with high res files, and the fix for this, with most dacs that have this problem, is increasing the buffereing,
with hrt products, DECREASING the buffering works, this was the case with the micro, and msii, 

oh, and yeah mike, its all your fault, you got me to try hrt  in the first place, and now i'm a fan, i love stuff, thats no nonsense, no fluff, no "snake oil" just well engineered, great sounding stuff, with good customer support(kevin helped me along, answered every email himself), and reasonable pricing,
what i'm really looking for right now is going to be my "reference"or "keeper" dac,the one i'll keep, i'd like to just here the msii+ , kevin suggested it since i don't kneed portabilty
but the micro is so damn good !

 

[breadvan]

No pops and clicks when used with Win 7 PC and Samsung Note 2 /w Neutron.

Does have pop and clicks when used with Samsung USB Audio Recorder Pro, but cannot be sure where the pop came from.

 

[breadvan]

Firmware update!!

Just heard this from our local supplier and I quote "a new firmware version will become available in the next few days which adds iPad compatibility to the microStreamer. For generations 1, 2 & 3 iPads, the HRT HMA-1 (available from HRT as a separate item) is required, for the generation 4 iPad or the iPad mini, the Apple USB camera cable is required."