[purrin]

  I'll see if anyone can make me a usb cable for cheap, and then compare with a normal usb cable with the +5V in place. At the very least it'll get rid of some noise that I hear when I plug the UERMs into the nfb-10es2 w/ usb.
 
Just noticed that you changed the headphones in the OP to "HD800 Anax 3.0 (Beta)"!

 
Yes. I wrote "Anax 2.0 mod" out of habit because I get so many pms about it. He's running a secrat version which measurably completely eliminates the 6k peak and fills in the 3-4k null. I've heard it, his HD800 is quite good, but he's still tweaking it.

 

[Maxvla]

Anaxilus mod 3.0. Coming to a headphone vendor near you, summer of 2020.

 

[stainless824]

not sure if i'm going to get piled on; but the lightharmonic USB cable looks interesting

 

[Happy Camper]

Thanks Purrin.
I really don't want to know what all happens at a DAC-OFF Do you order Pizza? I LOLed, but i'm not going there..
There is one guy on your forum who's opinion I really trust but I won't say who. I'm sure he played a role here..or not.
I've gotten into some friendly arguments with him too and you'd think we were worst enemies.
That's what makes things interesting sometimes. I really complain about my gear way too much sometimes I think.
Most people would think I hate the HD-598 but I actually love it.

I really do get tired of reviews that are too positive so please don't hold back on very negative impressions. Yet i'm the guy who complained about your 1/5 star reviews.
I haven't given anything a 1/5 yet but maybe someday. Nuforce Icon Mobile deserves that, but not even an E5 does.

Maybe when you listen to the (Uber) Bifrost you can add it to your list if it's worthy. Maybe even give a short comparison to the Modi.
I have a feeling I would like it since I love the Modi's sound and both have AKM chipsets.

You don't seem to like the Modi as much as me but IMO it really doesn't sound like a $99 DAC. I'd say more like $200 max.
When I had the HRT MSII I really never knew what I was missing until I upgraded to the ODAC and then the Modi.
MSII+ is supposedly comparable to the ODAC i've read.

Heard any desktop DACs with the CS4398 other than your UHA-6S? I really like it and I usually hate Cirrus Logic stuff.
I'm not a fan of whatever is in my Ipod Touch 2G (Cirrus) but somehow it manages to be a good match with the HD-650 using a dock.

I might be wrong but I can't imagine you liking the CS4398 as a DAC chipset..

The Hilo uses CS4398 chipset.

 

[yfei]

The Hilo uses CS4398 chipset.

That's right.       And Hilo was an eye opening experience for me.    Used to have ESS 9018 based Eastern Electric MiniMax,  and Anedio D1, D2.    These 9018 based DACs are very nice,   but Hilo is simply another level above:   much much more details, everything are more realistic, and the sound is FULLY transparent,  sound stage is more precise....   
 
ESS 9018 is ~$40, while CS4398 is only $6 (for >5k order).    Apparently implementation is more important than the $ of DAC chip.

 

[thegunner100]

   
Yes. I wrote "Anax 2.0 mod" out of habit because I get so many pms about it. He's running a secrat version which measurably completely eliminates the 6k peak and fills in the 3-4k null. I've heard it, his HD800 is quite good, but he's still tweaking it.

 
 

Anaxilus mod 3.0. Coming to a headphone vendor near you, summer of 2020.

Well it's good to see that there's progress. It's a little hard to imagine an even more improved version but I'll have to wait.

 

[Stapsy]

I don't see the point in the light harmonic usb cable.  For an extra $300 you could have an OR5 and remove the 5volt power supply from $5 USB cable.  I highly doubt a USB cable with a separate power supply cable would come close to matching the improvement you would get from an OR5.

 

[barid]

A bit off topic since it wasnt part of the review; but do any of you DAC guru's have an opinion on the Benchmark DAC2? Does it fall in line with your thoughts of the DAC1?

 

[Simon Jay]

Purrin,

First, thanks for the detailed post! As someone who's relatively new to hifi it's great to read approaches in how to listen and think about sound. I see in one of your photos the Audinst HUD MX-1. This is the DAC I have and I'd be really appreciative if you could describe this what you hear in this DAC so as to help me also identify it's various characteristics. It's my first DAC and I really enjoy it but also have nothing to compare it to.

Cheers,
Simon-Jay

 

[daigo]

Interesting read.  I've thought about upgrading from my gamma 2 that I've used for three plus years now, but I still enjoy my music as is so maybe I can avoid that upgrade bug for a bit.  Good to see it still garners favorable comments.  While not perfect, it still performs well for me.  

 

[purrin]

 

Purrin,

First, thanks for the detailed post! As someone who's relatively new to hifi it's great to read approaches in how to listen and think about sound. I see in one of your photos the Audinst HUD MX-1. This is the DAC I have and I'd be really appreciative if you could describe this what you hear in this DAC so as to help me also identify it's various characteristics. It's my first DAC and I really enjoy it but also have nothing to compare it to.

Cheers,
Simon-Jay

 
The person who sent me the Audist HUD MX-1 warned me against it. I've already measured the jitter and I am afraid! Very afraid. Jitter measurements do have some correlation to good sound, at least to me. Eventually I will listen to it and report back.
 
It's interesting. I've grown (or re-grown) to prefer DACs with a more natural sound. By this I mean mostly the R2R chip based DACs of yesteryear; although I really do appreciate the hyper-detail some of the modern sigma-delta DACs provide. The really funny thing is that we've all gotten use to this sigma-delta sound, and forgotten how these older chips used to sound. Most of you younger guys have no idea.
 
The other day, someone had asked me if there were any other measurements I would be interested in, and I replied "the ultrasonic band past the range of human hearing." I know this sounds like hocus-pocus, and I can see a lot of self-appointed "objectivists" huffing and puffing in outrage (to the point of registering for the sole purpose of telling me I am full of ****) about what I am going to say. The ultrasonic characteristics of gear do matter. The audio engineers I've spoken to, ones who have done this for a while, the ones who I think make good stuff, do look at this range.
 
Well, I found out fairly recently, that two of my favored DACs, the Gungnir (AKM4399) and AGD M7 (PCM1704), which I feel have the best vocals, best bass texture, and most natural sound (#2 and #1 respectively in these sonic categories) without any treble weirdness, actually had similar performance characteristics in the ultrasonic range. That is a low amount of crud, and with most of the crud way off past the spectrum of human hearing. I thought this was an interesting coincidence - but still hardly enough data to make any generalizations or correlations to the subjective experience.
 
Now I have yet to see the ultrasonic spectrums of the other sigma-delta DACs, especially the ones which I felt sounded kind of nasty, but it would be interesting to identify their chips and see the pre-filtered ultrasonic spectrum. My guess is that something like SABRE would have a lot of noise and other garbage up there. I might look up some of the spec-sheets of some of the sigma-delta DACs to see if there's any information on this. I do find that it's interesting that SABRE supposedly makes everyone who gets their hands on one sign an NDA and that their spec-sheets are super secret to the public.
 
Alas the ladder DAC ships are no longer being made in volume. Something like the PCM1704 last time I checked was $75 per piece, and you need one piece per channel. The industry went to sigma-delta because of all the hoopla on having 20 bits, 24 bits, 32 bits. Even though Redbook (CD) is 16 bit and mp3 is, well mp3. Bottom line was well, the bottom line. The sigma-delta chips being cheaper to make. Something about trimming the resistor ladders to be super precise supposedly makes the R2R chips more expensive. I'm don't know much about that, but it would make sense. The level of accuracy required for the resistors would be paramount - the differences in level between LSB and MSB of 20 bits is HUGE - 1:2^20. You do the math. I can only fathom the accuracy and precision required.
 
One of these days, I'm going to open this stuff up and measure the ultrasonics.

 

[zerodeefex]

Purrin,

First, thanks for the detailed post! As someone who's relatively new to hifi it's great to read approaches in how to listen and think about sound. I see in one of your photos the Audinst HUD MX-1. This is the DAC I have and I'd be really appreciative if you could describe this what you hear in this DAC so as to help me also identify it's various characteristics. It's my first DAC and I really enjoy it but also have nothing to compare it to.

Cheers,
Simon-Jay

It's an Audinst HUD-MX2

 

[purrin]

  It's an Audinst HUD-MX2

 Well we would never know. Maybe the MX1 is way better.

 

[Simon Jay]

It's an Audinst HUD-MX2

Oops........ the different volume knob and selector switch are out of view in the photo.

 

[Simon Jay]

 Well we would never know. Maybe the MX1 is way better.

Oh, I think you'll find the MX1 to be an entry level unit.