[ThanatosVI]

Headphones as a hobby is a much smaller niche than speakers.

With volume comes the variety. Head-fi is only a "small echo chamber"
We often have a flavour of the month or season and the main members of the forum are all testing those to share impressions with each other.

I mean just look into the summit fi section, always the same few characters sharing their newest aquisition.

 

[dougms3]

Maybe people don't realize that dacs are interchangeable with headphones or speakers?

 

[iFi audio]

Headphones as a hobby is a much smaller niche than speakers.

The headphone market used to be way smaller in comparison to speakers, but recent years show it's only growing and rather fast. Who knows, eventualy it will catch up one day?

 

[RobertSM]

I think one can own a TOTL Head-Fi rig for 1/5th the cost of owning a TOTL two-channel rig. And you can enjoy this Head-Fi rig without (mostly) disturbing others.

 

[RobertSM]

The border patrol DACs are somewhat popular with the two-channel people.

I'd auditioned them. Due to the very low output levels I never found them to be worthwhile for a Head-Fi rig.

 

[iFi audio]

I think one can own a TOTL Head-Fi rig for 1/5th the cost of owning a TOTL two-channel rig.

I would multiply that many times over, I think. TOTL speakers alone are $500'000 and upwards

 

[bluecar]

Not sure I agree with the premise. ...

All of the kit regularly talked about here finds it's way into speaker-based setups as well, especially Chord and dCS, but also holo, rockna and Lamp. totalDac is also very commonly used in room setups, as is Dena.

Playback Designs is a great company, and the 'Dream' series of kit is excellent top-end equipment, although they have gone a bit 'system lifestyle' recently, emulating Linn, Burmeister and others. It's not widely available outside the US, and it's expensive compared to similar offerings. I've listened to one, and it's great (caveat- it was great when using the PBD transport....other SACD/Streamers, not so much).... But not as great as an MSB premiere or a dCS Rossini, which cost roughly the same $$ and suit my preferences better. (that said, if you get a chance to go demo a Dream stack, do it - it might be perfect for you!).

So, you are probably right when talking uber-high end (i.e. $25K+ components), but my experience with headfi is that the community nails it every time when 'taking out the trash' at any price point below that....hence the focus on a handful of DACs, and not much above the $25k mark.

If you do get a chance to listen to a PBD setup - post a review!

 

[penguinofsleep2]

Probably b/c there is simply more $ in 2ch and consequently there's more incentive to go there first. I do agree that there is some cross over though.

I've also noticed that many DACs that sound good with 2ch do not sound as good with headphones and vice versa.

 

[F208Frank]

Probably b/c there is simply more $ in 2ch and consequently there's more incentive to go there first. I do agree that there is some cross over though.

I've also noticed that many DACs that sound good with 2ch do not sound as good with headphones and vice versa.

That is pretty interesting. Thanks for sharing that experience/thought.

 

[chesebert]

Probably b/c there is simply more $ in 2ch and consequently there's more incentive to go there first. I do agree that there is some cross over though.

I've also noticed that many DACs that sound good with 2ch do not sound as good with headphones and vice versa.

We need some names, because that's the first time I have heard anyone say this.

 

[iFi audio]

I've also noticed that many DACs that sound good with 2ch do not sound as good with headphones and vice versa.

DACs aren't picky if someone asks us, but I can imagine that a DAC can bottleneck an amp and speakers/cans to leave one under such an impression.

 

[chesebert]

DACs aren't picky if someone asks us, but I can imagine that a DAC can bottleneck an amp and speakers/cans to leave one under such an impression.

That must be some low-end crap if that's the case. A simple HPA-1 or GSX2 + HD600/650 would be enough to evaluate most DACs and will not be a bottleneck unless you are talking about $10k+ dacs.

 

[iFi audio]

That must be some low-end crap if that's the case. A simple HPA-1 or GSX2 + HD600/650 would be enough to evaluate most DACs and will not be a bottleneck unless you are talking about $10k+ dacs.

Just to clarify, I had in mind a scenario where a DAC wouldn't allow an amp and speakers/cans after it in a setup to sound their best. Hope this helps, thanks!

 

[chesebert]

Just to clarify, I had in mind a scenario where a DAC wouldn't allow an amp and speakers/cans after it in a setup to sound their best. Hope this halps, thanks!

So you are talking about system matching issue and not a scaling issue, correct?

 

[eskamobob1]

That must be some low-end crap if that's the case. A simple HPA-1 or GSX2 + HD600/650 would be enough to evaluate most DACs and will not be a bottleneck unless you are talking about $10k+ dacs.

Hard hard disagree here. That is fine to find the flavor of the dac to a certain extent but it simply doesn't have the technicalities to truly evaluate the finner details of dacs in the dave/mola/emm/etc range imo