[Whazzzup]

well getting there not bad either, the bigger question, does one know that they are there

 

[Rayon]

I'll just comment here (mainly for future adventurers trying to fix the same problem) that switching from Qutest to Holo May changed everything. Now that my dac has a big stage, the amp just needs to pass it though. I much prefer this over a dac with small stage and trying to fix staging with an amp. Also now it feels crazy to choose headphones based on their staging.

This experience taught me that the importance of the dac is not understood properly or at least I heard people saying something like "the detail retrieval doesn't get any better after Qutest". Maybe true, but dac has a BIG role in staging. Right now I would say that one should buy something like Spring 3 before one would start buying TOTL headphones and definitely before TOTL amps. A good dac will put every system to another level and one will probably switch headphones/amps much more often than dac. A good dac will serve one for a long time. Also a poor dac will make sure that people's judgement on their headphones/amps along the way will be misguided. For example when I first time tried Utopia from some mediocre setup and compared that to HD800S, my reaction was "meh". But when I tried the two from Dave, the difference blew my mind. Now I feel like it's not headphones that sound good, but instead good headphones reveal the dac and the better they are, the further they can reveal the dac. But if the dac is mediocre, there is nothing to reveal and they don't sound much different.

I have spoken.

 

[Whazzzup]

By source, if you mean, delivery and format, then I agree as well as with dac differences and the amps pass through function, adding scale. I found source really helps a dac achieve all it can be…imo, ymmv

 

[Rayon]

By source I meant dac. I edited the post to avoid misunderstanding. I was using "source" and "dac" interchangeably, as dac acts as a source for the rest of the chain.

 

[Monsterzero]

By source I meant dac. I edited the post to avoid misunderstanding. I was using "source" and "dac" interchangeably, as dac acts as a source for the rest of the chain.

source would be how you're sending files to your DAC....computer, server, streamer, CD transport, etc....
Now that you've discovered what a good DAC can do, do not underestimate the differences a good source can do as well.
Getting off of a multi purpose computer can have a huge impsct as well.

 

[theveterans]

I'll just comment here (mainly for future adventurers trying to fix the same problem) that switching from Qutest to Holo May changed everything. Now that my dac has a big stage, the amp just needs to pass it though. I much prefer this over a dac with small stage and trying to fix staging with an amp. Also now it feels crazy to choose headphones based on their staging.

This experience taught me that the importance of the dac is not understood properly or at least I heard people saying something like "the detail retrieval doesn't get any better after Qutest". Maybe true, but dac has a BIG role in staging. Right now I would say that one should buy something like Spring 3 before one would start buying TOTL headphones and definitely before TOTL amps. A good dac will put every system to another level and one will probably switch headphones/amps much more often than dac. A good dac will serve one for a long time. Also a poor dac will make sure that people's judgement on their headphones/amps along the way will be misguided. For example when I first time tried Utopia from some mediocre setup and compared that to HD800S, my reaction was "meh". But when I tried the two from Dave, the difference blew my mind. Now I feel like it's not headphones that sound good, but instead good headphones reveal the dac and the better they are, the further they can reveal the dac. But if the dac is mediocre, there is nothing to reveal and they don't sound much different.

I have spoken.

The transport matters too. I find that really good streamers (consistent and stable low jitter) helps with overall sound quality. A Lumin U2 mini feeding a May DAC in NOS will sound more engaging than feeding the same NOS from a regular desktop/tower PC

 

[Rayon]

Thanks for the tips, I may get back to this next year or something. (For now) listening to the pair dance of May and Utopia just is enough in a some very weird way. I've been in the constant urge to try new things, but now the music just hypnotizes me and makes me forget about secondary problems. Yesterday I spent like 10 hours listening to music actively. It may be the first day ever I've spent listening to music non-stop.