[Csi]

Hello everybody and great job on the community you guys got going here. I first came across this site a few monthes back looking at some of the awesome testamonials. Anyway now I have come to you audiophile gods for your advice ;p. Grace me with your wisdom ;p.

I recently bought Sennheiser 650's and am in the process of getting Zu cables. Right now i don't have any amps and source is an Audigy ZS platinum pro. I glanced at a few of those threads where people succesfully enjoyed using their audigy cards with an e-mu 0404. Anyway I am looking to spent anywhere from 700 to 1,300 dollars maybe more on an amp/source but i'm trying also to cut costs. I think at some point in the future my end goal is to get one of those heavily acclaimed Benchmark Dac-1's. However will I be doing a Dac-1 justice by only using a E-mu 0404? or even a E-Mu 1212?? While both the 0404 and 1212 are solid is the E-mu 1820 worth the extra bucks? or for the same price there are much better cards available? Also if i do go the Dac-1 route how easy is it to Xlr-ify my zu cables? I don't know anything about wiring and i don't know if i can just trust some local computer store guy to mess around with my cables. If i don't go the dac-1 route and just go ahead by a source card and amp is the GS-1 good enough to warrant a purchase over the GL/PSU? If i'm to spend 500-800 on an amp should i jsut ditch the GS-1 for another amp? which amp? How do i balance or buy a balanced something? Why aren't they originally sold as balanced *laughs* or already modded. I have a lot of things to learn it seems....lot of things to buy...not enough money...not enough time...

Thanks!

 

[virometal]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Csi However will I be doing a Dac-1 justice by only using a E-mu 0404? or even a E-Mu 1212?? While both the 0404 and 1212 are solid is the E-mu 1820 worth the extra bucks?

You don't need an expensive sound card with the DAC1. A chaintech av710 will do fine.

You send a digital signal to a DAC so the card is insignificant as long as it is bit perfect which I even question that.

With that budget, I would skip the steps, and go for what you want. With the DAC1, you get a great source a good amp. What else do you need?

Once you get into balanced stuff, your getting into mega bucks for smaller and smaller increases in performances.

Get the Benchmark, have Zu xlr your cables, be happy, and get the hell away from here.

Just my opinion. The gods will step in and dispute me of course.

 

[atx]

apogee minidac has a usb interface, so you can get rid of the soundcard altogether.

 

[Csi]

Quote:

Originally Posted by virometal Once you get into balanced stuff, your getting into mega bucks for smaller and smaller increases in performances.[/ Get the Benchmark, have Zu xlr your cables, be happy, and get the hell away from here. Just my opinion. The gods will step in and dispute me of course.

How do you get something balanced? I assume that since when you buy it new they don't already say its balanced that you got to do something to it to make it balanced? Are there any adapters similar to a 1/4 inch jack can slip over a 1/8 jack that applies to a XLR jack over a 1/8 inch? I ask only because I still would like to use my 650's with Cd players, mp3 players etc, etc.

I went to the Zu site and they didn't mention anything about xlr and zu cables for Senn series so any idea on the costs of it? Are xlr quality significantly better than the standard 1/8 inch or is it more to just use Dac-1?

 

[skyskraper]

balance in terms of most applications describes an output or input which has three parts to the signal. rather then standard signal and ground, its positive signal, negative signal, and ground.

the inverted signal on the negative part is later summed with the positive at its destination point and any noise that could be caused by rfi or cables or whatever over longer runs dissapears! fantastic system in pro audio. long cable runs can be a low noise reality!

there's no real point in running a balanced amp off an unbalanced source though in general headphone use. sure if you have a balanced source such as a soundcard/dac, mixer, high end cd player, it would be nice having a balanced amp. you can easily run balanced amps in unbalanced configurations, and you can get adaptors off the shelf or custom made (in the case of 1/8" to xlr you would probably need to have one made up for you) if you choose to run a balanced input off an unbalanced source. and vice versa you can run an unbalanced amp off a balanced source with adaptors also, but you won't be seeing the benefits of the balanced system unless your amp has a little circuit that will sum the signals.

even with a well sortted balanced setup, you wont see a night and day difference over unbalanced. in my dj setup and studio setup, the only balanced parts currently are mixer to monitors in both. it seems this final connection is prone to picking up more noise then other connections, and i only use balanced connections here because i had the option available to me.