[theShaz]

Quote:

thats too bad, at least if you had the opamps you could still mess with the board + AKGs, but seems your excited?  

Man you bet I'm excited.. the improvement in sound from the Recon3D to the Essence so far has been unworldly.. which is why I'm so itching to get my equipment already.
 
I just sent Hifiic another message, I used one of his existing items this time rather than just sending him a direct message.
 
Just checked Amazon, the AKG's are coming tomorrow and my LME49860NA OpAmps from Mouser are already here. I only bought 3 so at least I'll get to play with those haha.
 
EDIT: Got a response from Hifiic, he's definitely partying

 
Quote:

Because it's the Dragon Boat Festival, I can give your the information tomorrow.
Have a good day!

 

[WiR3D]

Quote:

Man you bet I'm excited.. the improvement in sound from the Recon3D to the Essence so far has been unworldly.. which is why I'm so itching to get my equipment already.
 
I just sent Hifiic another message, I used one of his existing items this time rather than just sending him a direct message.
 
Just checked Amazon, the AKG's are coming tomorrow and my LME49860NA OpAmps from Mouser are already here. I only bought 3 so at least I'll get to play with those haha.
 
EDIT: Got a response from Hifiic, he's definitely partying

 

Party party party Vusa, in jo mother se ... lol "Die Antwoord" 
I'm gonna party nicely this coming week, South Africa is number 3 on the list of top alcohol consuming countries per (capita) (if its the right word.) I think Ireland and Australia are the only ones that drink more. 
 
Time to party like a rock star.
Arg ex is outside... stalking me... cheating cow... Denons are good at blocking outside noise.

 

[theShaz]

Haha funny you say that, my buddy is from South Africa and all he does on facebook is post pictures of night clubs he frequents and the type of booze he downs...
 
Not a bad life if you ask me. I might have to grab a ticket and check it out myself one of those days.

 

[WiR3D]

Quote:

Haha funny you say that, my buddy is from South Africa and all he does on facebook is post pictures of night clubs he frequents and the type of booze he downs...
 
Not a bad life if you ask me. I might have to grab a ticket and check it out myself one of those days.

Sounds about right, and the chicks are hot.
Many other interesting and dodgey things I can't post in public. Love/hate this place.

 

[theShaz]

Z-5500 arrived, and its 2am.. that tells you something. I've been listening to my entire music library since 6pm today.. well.. yesterday I guess. since I'm already in tomorrow.. today.. err. I need sleep.
 
I know I'm only using Optical to get my sound.. but even with Logitech's DAC the sound is absolutely magnificent. I have already ran into the annoyance of having to switch between Prologic II, DDL, DTS and regular PCM... gollie too many choices When I game I have to run PLII Movie, while when I listen to music I have to turn it to PLII Music.. Either way.. the sound is absolutely glorious.. the woofer will probably shatter my window if cranked all the way up.
 
Why Dolby you ask? Well.. 5.1.. that's the only way this thing will do 5.1 via Optical. I have to wait for the H6 before I can enjoy the Analog yumminess. Where I won't have to keep switching modes every time I want to game.
 
I have not played with OpAmps yet because Optical is not affected. But I'm eagerly waiting 'til I get to do so.
 
I'm giving the z-5500 a 9.2/10.. its definitely uber ampy on the mids and highs, and I'm hoping I'll be able to remedy that with some OpAmp combos. We'll see. I am VERY excited

 

[WiR3D]

Quote:

Z-5500 arrived, and its 2am.. that tells you something. I've been listening to my entire music library since 6pm today.. well.. yesterday I guess. since I'm already in tomorrow.. today.. err. I need sleep.
 
I know I'm only using Optical to get my sound.. but even with Logitech's DAC the sound is absolutely magnificent. I have already ran into the annoyance of having to switch between Prologic II, DDL, DTS and regular PCM... gollie too many choices When I game I have to run PLII Movie, while when I listen to music I have to turn it to PLII Music.. Either way.. the sound is absolutely glorious.. the woofer will probably shatter my window if cranked all the way up.
 
Why Dolby you ask? Well.. 5.1.. that's the only way this thing will do 5.1 via Optical. I have to wait for the H6 before I can enjoy the Analog yumminess. Where I won't have to keep switching modes every time I want to game.
 
I have not played with OpAmps yet because Optical is not affected. But I'm eagerly waiting 'til I get to do so.
 
I'm giving the z-5500 a 9.2/10.. its definitely uber ampy on the mids and highs, and I'm hoping I'll be able to remedy that with some OpAmp combos. We'll see. I am VERY excited

My friends (plural) have them. I give them a 7/10, they are good for what they are. but they aren't mind bending in any sense. I'm willing to bet a good 2.1ch will clobber them.
 
My vastly cheaper sansui floor standers (ok this isn't fair, they were oddballs of note) clobbers them in all aspects.

 

[writereviews]

Why end might ask civil again spoil.

 

[theShaz]

Well man just from my old speaker system to this one, the difference is night and day. I hope one day I'll be able to splurge on a full HT setup where i can pick my own AMP/DAC, speakers, woofer, etc. But for now, the Z-5500's will do. Especially when I live in apartment, the woofer in this thing is already overkill for me as I'll never be able to crank that some bitch to full force lol.
 
For now, I'm going to be enjoying this crispness

 

[WiR3D]

Quote:

Well man just from my old speaker system to this one, the difference is night and day. I hope one day I'll be able to splurge on a full HT setup where i can pick my own AMP/DAC, speakers, woofer, etc. But for now, the Z-5500's will do. Especially when I live in apartment, the woofer in this thing is already overkill for me as I'll never be able to crank that some bitch to full force lol.
 
For now, I'm going to be enjoying this crispness

Well personally I would have gone for KRK Rokit 6. But then again I wouldn't. Headphones for now. Until I make more money. Then Tannoy speakers + Vintage Pioneer SX-1980 (yeah right). Untill I can afford a Classe + B&W system. Lol, big dreams. 
 
and I have an oddball pair of Sansui floor standers that way play out of there price range, and a 90s Onkyo amp, weee
 
OMG "Lana Del Rey" crazy.
 
EDIT: IMHO upgrading incrementally is the best, discovering bargains, and big punching underdogs, and being surprised, and enjoying it, thats the best. Like my AKG K242HD, they really surprise me every time I put them on, and thats saying something, coming from a D7000. But with different music. The AKGs are demons on Knife Party's Rage Valley EP

 

[theShaz]

Hey WiR3D,
 
What do I need to configure in my Xonar before plugging these AKG suckers. I read something about impedance level or something of that sort that if not set properly can damage equipment. Is that true, and if so, what precautions should I take.
 
Thanks bud.

 

[WiR3D]

Quote:

Hey WiR3D,
 
What do I need to configure in my Xonar before plugging these AKG suckers. I read something about impedance level or something of that sort that if not set properly can damage equipment. Is that true, and if so, what precautions should I take.
 
Thanks bud.

Meh, the drivers may be low impedance, but they are balls far from sensitive. set the Gain to high (middle one) and the rest like I described:

1. Windows settings (playback devices) 24bit/48kHz
2. player settings (with good upsampler) resample to 48kHz
3. Asus Center on 2ch, and turn on the HF button (bypasses other processing)
4. wait for 200 hours as they burn in, and the pads soften. it makes a difference.
5. crap yourself when they finish burning in and the THS4032 opamps arrive

 

[stv014]

Quote:

Anybody know if the STX works without using any nonfree software? I'm running Trisquel, a Ubuntu distribution without nonfree software and I'd rather not be forced to use nonfree software to use the card.

 
It works fine using ALSA, but of course the Dolby technologies that are implemented in the C-Media proprietary Windows driver are not available at all. On the other hand, it is more stable than typical proprietary Windows drivers. It also has a couple of minor extra features (see image) compared to Windows.
 

 

[theShaz]

Quote:

1. player settings (with good upsampler) resample to 48kHz

 
Currently using foobar, and I'm having this problem where the music plays about 1.5x faster. I have to hit stop, then hit play again for it to go back to normal. But I'm using WASAPI > Digital.
 
What do you recommend as a decent Upsampler without having to switch players. I do have Winamp, but I don't really use it anymore.
 
And.. 200 hours? Man.. I might as well by a USB DAC and hook my old laptop and leave them both in the closet to burn for a few weeks haha.. That's the only way I can see that happening in 8 days... Isn't that a bit extreme? 8 days of continuous playback to break em in.. But you know your stuff so I'm not going to argue

 

[writereviews]

Why end might ask civil again spoil.

 

[331099]

One user in the thread said that OPA637AUs don't work with this sound card. I would say otherwise, using two of them right now from Auzentech and they sound beyond fantastic.