[magichenke]

Hello Everyone!
 
My first post @ Head-fi!
 
I recently took an interest in headphones after getting a portable player and decent in-ears.
 
For no specific reason and more of impulse I got the Musical Fidelity M1 DAC and HPA combo.
I hook this up to my custom parts computer with built in realtek hd sound.
 
An el cheapo coax cable goes from my sound card to my dac and that to the phone amp.
Got a pair of HD650 and I've listened a little to my cd res lossless collection.
A little is some 50 hours or so.
 
I'm not really sure what kind of quality to expect here as it was an impulse buy without testing any of the gear before hand. I don't really have anything to compare with either.
 
Won't say that I'm dissapointed currently but some kind of transport, perhaps the Hiface Evo seems like the next step.
 
My question is if there would be an increase in quality that would be noticable by adding another 2-400€ on a transport on this rather low-end setup?
 
What are your thoughts?

 

[FallenAngel]

I'd simply use USB to the M1 DAC.

 

[magichenke]

Quote:

I'd simply use USB to the M1 DAC.

Perhaps I should have mentioned that I would like to be able to play high res up to 24/192 to see if it makes any difference.
It seems unfortunately that the USB input is limited to 16/48.

 

[FallenAngel]

In that case, two questions:
 
1) Do you have any content at 24/192?  If not, and unless you plan to in the immediate future, don't worry about it.
2) Would you consider a decent sound card for S/PDIF transport?  I have had great experience with EMU0404PCI - a great bit-perfect transformer-coupled S/PDIF output available off eBay for about $60.
 
If you're really trying to jump on the new custom USB driver bandwagon (which I think is a silly implementation that didn't really correct the main issue that it should have been addressing - proper buffering and error correction), the M2Tech HiFace seems to be the current flavor of the month...

 

[magichenke]

Quote:

In that case, two questions:
 
1) Do you have any content at 24/192?  If not, and unless you plan to in the immediate future, don't worry about it.
2) Would you consider a decent sound card for S/PDIF transport?  I have had great experience with EMU0404PCI - a great bit-perfect transformer-coupled S/PDIF output available off eBay for about $60.
 
If you're really trying to jump on the new custom USB driver bandwagon (which I think is a silly implementation that didn't really correct the main issue that it should have been addressing - proper buffering and error correction), the M2Tech HiFace seems to be the current flavor of the month...

 
 
1) I do have some content already actually. I am interesting in seeing what differences I can hear if I step up to this resolution. 
 
2) Thought of getting some card for my desktop computer as well but I don't want to add something to a legacy pci bus. My thought was also to get some decent dual core Atom Netbook as a dedicated music source later on hence the usage of USB would be my preference.
 
Also if I get the Hiface Evo I could use the XLR connection to my DAC and save the other inputs for future sources.
 
I have not found any documentation that mentions what resolution is supported by the XLR input on the M1 DAC though. I hope it accepts up to what the DAC is capable of handling tough...