Thanks everyone for your replies. The culture on head-fi never ceases to impress me.
@ken6217 -- While I agree with you about buying used for all of the reasons you've mentioned, I simply am not able to stomach the risk with this purchase. As
@Litlgi74 mentioned, "...be careful of Hifishark...Lots of scams." You're also notvthe first person to advise against the Qutest. There's a review on Youtube by John Darko (
) that spoke about this DAC with an amazing amount of enthusiasm, which is why it landed on my shortlist. I've listened to the Qutest with lesser headphones and kind of liked it -- and I actually met Rob Watts, who's a very nice guy -- but was also told that it sounds "thin" through the 1266 TC.
@Litlgi74 -- Thank you for welcoming me to the club! I feel honored to be in such good company and grateful that I was able to save so much money for such expensive cans. The factor that helped finalize this decision was that no part of the headphone actually touched my ears. I felt no hot spots on my ears and while the only other headphone that came close in comfort was the HD800, but it just does not sound nowhere near as good. I agree with your pennies on the dollar remark, but these would be pennies I will not be able to recover if a month down the road I paid for a lemon.
@CreditingKarma -- I spent a few hours last night reading every review I could find on the Chord TT2. I hadn't considered it before because it wasn't two separate units. I'm still attached to the opinion, although now less so, that a good amps should have a longer shelf life than even the most expensive DAC, and not having two standalone units might put me at a disadvantage of not being able to upgrade one while keeping the other. On the other hand, aside from the weird ergonomics, I read that the TT2 was even preferred over the Berkeley Audio Alpha DAC Series 2.
@ken6217 -- I've never had to articulate the kind of sound I like and I'll try my best to do so without sounding too much like an idiot. The headphones I use now are the Grado SR-325e and I like them with the Luxman DA-250, particularly because they do well with rock and jazz and I guess I like the Grado "house sound." However, my Grados don't really need an amp or high res music because while they're a forgiving headphone, they not terribly resolving and the soundstage is narrow. Not until I heard the SR-009s did I believe that there could be something much better than my Grados (according to my taste). I fell in love with the amount of detail I could hear, however I did not perceive it had a particularly full sound or as emotional as dynamic headphones. In short, I am hoping to extract what I liked about the Stax with the 1266, but with a warmer and more bass forward sound.
@JLoud and
@MacedonianHero -- I knew that Headamp was making very expensive amps for electrostatic headphones, but I didn't know they made equipment that could drive planars. Price wise, the HeadAmp GS-X mini is in reach and I plan to call Justin tomorrow.
The other two considerations on my list now are also the SPL Phonitor XE and the Benchmark HPA4. Does anyone have experience with either? Finally, I have been told that the Pass Labs HPA-1 does not have enough power to properly drive the 1266 headphones -- can anyone confirm or deny this?
Many, many thanks!!!!
