[oculus]

I am running the HD800 with the Audio-gd Reference 10.32.  A marriage made in heaven in my opinion, having tried a wolfson amp/ dac which does work well with the slightly brighter HD800 sound, but pcm 1704uk dac of the Reference 10.32 is sublime.
The Ref 10.32 does give a very natural sound.  I do have a nfb-8 (wolfson) linked to my speaker system and this sounds fantastic too .  I think the main improvement with these beastly ampsand dacs is the power regulation, it so damn black a background.  The music literally jumps out of the abyss with no grain or etchiness.
Its a wonderful experience!  Interestingly I am not running balanced with my HD800 but possible sonic improvements may be possible going this route.  (I have a kit to convert to balanced just need some one to do it for me).
 
Highly recommended
 
http://www.audio-gd.com/Pro/Headphoneamp/Reference10/RE10EN.htm

 

[audiokid]

I read some posts in this thread of people comparing the Chord Hugo to the HDVD 800 with the HD800 headphones. 
 
Has anyone else tried this? Any further verdicts?
 
I'm considering ordering online a HDVD 800 to compare to my Hugo (and try it with the DAC of the Hugo into the HDVD 800), or try the HDVA 600 with the Hugo. 
 
Any thoughts here? 
 
Also, what about the balanced cable? Any good with the aforementioned?
 
Thanks

 

[magiccabbage]

  I read some posts in this thread of people comparing the Chord Hugo to the HDVD 800 with the HD800 headphones. 
 
Has anyone else tried this? Any further verdicts?
 
I'm considering ordering online a HDVD 800 to compare to my Hugo (and try it with the DAC of the Hugo into the HDVD 800), or try the HDVA 600 with the Hugo. 
 
Any thoughts here? 
 
Also, what about the balanced cable? Any good with the aforementioned?
 
Thanks

The DAC in the Hugo is far better than the HDVD800. The amp section isn't far off either. Over all I was more impressed by the Hugo and considering its versatility (being portable) you cant go wrong. If you were to upgrade to another amp later it would be even better but you might be happy enough with the Hugo as an all in one. 

 

[kazsud]

The DAC in the Hugo is far better than the HDVD800. The amp section isn't far off either. Over all I was more impressed by the Hugo and considering its versatility (being portable) you cant go wrong. If you were to upgrade to another amp later it would be even better but you might be happy enough with the Hugo as an all in one. 

How was the Hugo feeding your Wa2?

 

[magiccabbage]

How was the Hugo feeding your Wa2?

Mighty! I really liked the Hugo but I cant wait to get the Yggy and DNA stratus - my mouth is watering at the thought of it!

 

[holyindian]

So, i have almost made up my mind to get the Master 9 amp for the HD800.. i wanted to know do i also need to have a balanced DAC along with this amp, as the Master 9 is a balanced amp? Also, is it recommended to use balanced cables with this amp?
I recently brought the Bifrost Uber USB gen2 DAC, is it a good match with the Master 9, if not i can always sell it off and get the recommended DAC with this amp.
 
Please recommend.

 

[spurxiii]

My master 9 is coming but I can't afford the master 7 as yet. I've decided to get the NFB-1 to tide me over, is this a wise move considering the DAC is a sabre and I'm using the Hd800 as my main can?

 

[preproman]

How about the NFB-7?

 

[drez]

Any of the AudioGD balanced DAC's seem to be great value for money, but can't say what the NFB-1 sounds like.  
 
For a reference though, I can't use HD800 unmodified with my setup - I need some form of Anax mod to tame the treble peak.  Master 9 is pure class A while my Master 6 is A/B for part of the power delivery so maybe this would not be an issue with M9.

 

[oculus]

I think any of the top end balanced audio gd dacs will be good.  Master 7, nfb-7 or nfb-8 will be brilliant with the master 9.  Very subtle differences between the 3 types of DAC.

 

[spurxiii]

How about the NFB-7?

That's more than twice the price of the NFB1. I think I'll save for the master 7

 

[nigeljames]

  Any of the AudioGD balanced DAC's seem to be great value for money, but can't say what the NFB-1 sounds like.  
 
For a reference though, I can't use HD800 unmodified with my setup - I need some form of Anax mod to tame the treble peak.  Master 9 is pure class A while my Master 6 is A/B for part of the power delivery so maybe this would not be an issue with M9.

 
I doubt if the Master-6 will need to get anywhere near class B driving the HD800's.
 
I have absolutely no issues with treble peak with my M6/HD800's even with silver cables. 

 

[BirdManOfCT]

It's (not so) surprising how much of a difference adjusting the headband makes on the sound. It was good to see the Head-Fi sidebar reminding us/me of that. I tried adjusting, again, but ending up back where I started. Still, good to revisit that.

 

[spurxiii]

My Master 9 is in Sydney and most likely will be delivered tomorrow. Wow Audio Gd want me to test that its OK before I sign off with TNT that its OK

 

[spurxiii]

Can't wait for the Master 9