[haiku]

i am looking at alo cdm, wa8 and tur-06 for my iem 16ohms 114 sensitivity.

anyone tried at least two of them before?

thanks.

One advantage of the CDM is you can do tube rolling. That´s not possible with the other two afaik. And tube rolling can be quite addictive, I can tell you......

 

[FidelityCastro]

i am looking at alo cdm, wa8 and tur-06 for my iem 16ohms 114 sensitivity.

anyone tried at least two of them before?

thanks.

I own a CDM and spent some time trying a Wa8 last week.

The CDM is great for portability. It's not smart-phone portable but I carry mine strapped to a FiiO X7mkII either in my hand or bag with no issues, and you could certainly get them into the pocket of a winter coat or even cargo pants.
Tube rolling is fun (yes it does make an audible difference - although more about your own tonal preference than actual sound quality).
As someone mentioned above, the amp adds real depth, punch and, especially with the tubes, warmth. When I got mine I was still using an iPhone 6 as a source, so adding the CDM's amp and DAC with a good pair of IEMs was life changing!

The Wa8 sounds AMAZING. It weighs a tonne so isn't portable. Rather, it's transportable thanks to the battery and more manageable size than desktop amp.
All of the reviews have said the battery life is very short.
So the Wa8 is incredibly small and transportable for a world class tube amp, but bloody heavy and short on battery for a 2017-gen on-the-move music device. It depends on which way you come at it.
There have been complaints about the Wa8 not powering demanding 'phones, but it was fine with my IEMs.
The sound blew me away and I will be buying one in the next couple of weeks. On sheer sound preference, I'd take the Wa8; but for my lifestyle and the portability, I'm glad I have the CDM. It's a fantastic product.

 

[haiku]

I own a CDM and spent some time trying a Wa8 last week.

The CDM is great for portability. It's not smart-phone portable but I carry mine strapped to a FiiO X7mkII either in my hand or bag with no issues, and you could certainly get them into the pocket of a winter coat or even cargo pants.
Tube rolling is fun (yes it does make an audible difference - although more about your own tonal preference than actual sound quality).
As someone mentioned above, the amp adds real depth, punch and, especially with the tubes, warmth. When I got mine I was still using an iPhone 6 as a source, so adding the CDM's amp and DAC with a good pair of IEMs was life changing!

The Wa8 sounds AMAZING. It weighs a tonne so isn't portable. Rather, it's transportable thanks to the battery and more manageable size than desktop amp.
All of the reviews have said the battery life is very short.
So the Wa8 is incredibly small and transportable for a world class tube amp, but bloody heavy and short on battery for a 2017-gen on-the-move music device. It depends on which way you come at it.
There have been complaints about the Wa8 not powering demanding 'phones, but it was fine with my IEMs.
The sound blew me away and I will be buying one in the next couple of weeks. On sheer sound preference, I'd take the Wa8; but for my lifestyle and the portability, I'm glad I have the CDM. It's a fantastic product.

I also thought about ordering the Wa8, but the lack of a balanced out/in made me change my mind.

 

[gunwale]

I own a CDM and spent some time trying a Wa8 last week.

The CDM is great for portability. It's not smart-phone portable but I carry mine strapped to a FiiO X7mkII either in my hand or bag with no issues, and you could certainly get them into the pocket of a winter coat or even cargo pants.
Tube rolling is fun (yes it does make an audible difference - although more about your own tonal preference than actual sound quality).
As someone mentioned above, the amp adds real depth, punch and, especially with the tubes, warmth. When I got mine I was still using an iPhone 6 as a source, so adding the CDM's amp and DAC with a good pair of IEMs was life changing!

The Wa8 sounds AMAZING. It weighs a tonne so isn't portable. Rather, it's transportable thanks to the battery and more manageable size than desktop amp.
All of the reviews have said the battery life is very short.
So the Wa8 is incredibly small and transportable for a world class tube amp, but bloody heavy and short on battery for a 2017-gen on-the-move music device. It depends on which way you come at it.
There have been complaints about the Wa8 not powering demanding 'phones, but it was fine with my IEMs.
The sound blew me away and I will be buying one in the next couple of weeks. On sheer sound preference, I'd take the Wa8; but for my lifestyle and the portability, I'm glad I have the CDM. It's a fantastic product.

are you connecting via usb input or aux bypassing the dac?

 

[FidelityCastro]

I also thought about ordering the Wa8, but the lack of a balanced out/in made me change my mind.

I'm a massive fan of balanced so I should have said that it's another feature of the CDM that I love (And indeed my last three DAPs). But the Wa8 still sounded amazing.

 

[FidelityCastro]

are you connecting via usb input or aux bypassing the dac?

When I used the CDM with the iPhone I was using a custom OTG cable and using the CDM's DAC. But with the Fiio I reckon it's DAC is better so I'm just using the line out from the Fiio to the CDM (I.e. Just using it as a portable tube amp) and the balanced out from the CDM.

 

[meomap]

Hi,
How many different pair of tubes have users in this thread tested so far?
And which brand sounds the best so far?

 

[gunwale]

When I used the CDM with the iPhone I was using a custom OTG cable and using the CDM's DAC. But with the Fiio I reckon it's DAC is better so I'm just using the line out from the Fiio to the CDM (I.e. Just using it as a portable tube amp) and the balanced out from the CDM.

so both of the setups sounds similar?

 

[FidelityCastro]

Ip

so both of the setups sounds similar?

iphone > CDM was a while ago but they certainly both sound good. I haven't tried the CDM's DAC with the FiiO.
I've also added new IEMs and IEM cables since then, and that makes as much or more difference than which DAC I'm using (assuming we're talking good DACs inside decent DAPs).

 

[thecrow]

i used to have the pha 3 which is a great neutral dac/amp. Great open soundstage with great detail. it packs quite a punch and takes control

a while ago i spent a little bit of time playing around with the cdm and pha3.

after BRIEFLY using the dac of the pha 3 with the amp of the cdm i came to the (perhaps premature) conclusion that this set up was pretty close to the pha in dac and amp mode.
ie that more of the over all sound of the cdm (ie slight roundness/musical touch) comes from the dac influence rather than the tube influence.

i can't recall what i thought of the the cdm as dac and the pha 3 amp, perhaps from a vague memory the pha 3 amp took control due to the energy it brings to the table

(all this whilst using my iphone 6 plus as source streaming tidal)

 

[kukkurovaca]

after BRIEFLY using the dac of the pha 3 with the amp of the cdm i came to the (perhaps premature) conclusion that this set up was pretty close to the pha in dac and amp mode.
ie that more of the over all sound of the cdm (ie slight roundness/musical touch) comes from the dac influence rather than the tube influence.

This was also my experience comparing the CDM to my TEAC HA-P50 using the CDM dac through both, as well as using aux in from another source on both. Not that the amp section on the CDM wasn't different but that the CDM's DAC was much more so. (Note: I have no prior experience with tube amps, at all.)

Switching from the stock tubes to Sonotones does make the CDM's amp section more distinct-sounding, but it's still subtle.

 

[Ike1985]

Anyone tried Hugo2 + CDM?

 

[meomap]

Anyone tried Hugo2 + CDM?

The question I'd WHY?
It's either CDM or Hugo2 as dac/amp.
You want tube sound or SS sound?

 

[vlach]

The question I'd WHY?
It's either CDM or Hugo2 as dac/amp.
You want tube sound or SS sound?

He happens to have both, maybe the Hugo2 as DAC and the CDM as amp is the best of both worlds?

 

[meomap]

He happens to have both, maybe the Hugo2 as DAC and the CDM as amp is the best of both worlds?

Actually, it's kind of tempting to hear what Hugo2 has to offer. Probably, I have to search and find a dealer in the Bay area to try out in the near future. Waiting for more reviews and see from there.