[Puro]

Hello all,

I have put a fair amout of money aside, to invest in a decent desktop setup for use with my pc.

I am pretty much sorted in my mind that I will be investing with WooAudio. My initial plan was to get a WooAudio 6 or WA 6SE with recabled Moon-Audio HD650s. However my mind has wandered onto bigger things.

I have been looking at the WA-GES + STAX SR-007MK2, this is quite a conciderable amount more to spend obviously, than my previous thoughts. If I went with this set up it will save money in an upgrade process in the future. I have not had any experience with Electrostatic. Am I correct in thinking that if i went with the WA-GES + STAX SR-007MK2 I will only be able to use Electrostatic headphones?

Maybe I am getting a bit carried away here and that I should be realistic and just go for the Wa6 or Wa6 SE + HD650s. This is purley for entertainment, films and music from my PC rig.

What I am still a little unsure on, no matter which option I ended up deciding on, would I need to get myself a dedicated Dac to bridge my sound card to the Amp. I realise that my soundcard would have a dac on it, however will I be sacrificing any SQ from just my sound card, or even do any damage to my soundcard by hooking something of this caliber to the card? Its a Soundblaster PCI XFI Titanium card.
Creative PCI Express Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Sound Card - Chosen by Pro Gamers

If I ever decided to hook up a speaker system to my pc, what else would I need to consider? I would like to hook up some decent non computer speakers at some point in time.

Cheers.

 

[Redcarmoose]

In 2000 I had a computer with a Soundblaster card. Then in 2003 I moved to other cards with larger than mini plugs.

You should stay away from mini plugs on sound cards. I guess if your going digital or optical out to a Dap you may be ok. I will be looking into getting a pc up for movies too maybe next year.

There maybe would be some break-out boxs that run with usb. I have been out of computer audio for a couple years. I just wrote in to tell you to stay away from mini plugs

 

[vcoheda]

i can't imgaine GES/O2 + sound card sounding great. i would go a different route.

 

[Duggeh]

Get a used SRM-717 instead of the Woo amp and spend that difference on a source that isn't crap. The O2 deserves and needs the best source you can give it.

 

[Puro]

Thank you for the replies,

Quote:

spend that difference on a source that isn't crap

Are you suggesting to not use a PC at all as a source?

 

[Covenant]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Puro /img/forum/go_quote.gif Are you suggesting to not use a PC at all as a source?

PCs can serve as excellent transports, but by "source" we mean the device that actually performs the D/A conversion, which in this case is your sound card.

An external DAC with USB input is the way to go.

 

[Uncle Erik]

Computer-as-source can be good, however, you need to invest in it as you would for any other source. I ran off a computer for awhile, but eventually gave that up in favor of SACD and vinyl. I might go back to a computer for Red Book and DVD-A, since that would save space. However, it would need a fair investment to match my amps and sources.

If you want to run speakers eventually, look for a headphone amp that doubles as a preamp. Some of them do and headphone amps generally make fine preamps. From there, you would also need a power amp to power the speakers. Only a handful of headphone amps will power speakers and even then you would be limited in the speakers you could run. Typically, you'd need highly efficient horns or singledrivers.

The best strategy for speakers, however, is to choose the speakers you want first. Then buy an amp that matches them. Each type of speaker has unique power requirements and you wouldn't want to invest in an amp only to find that it won't power the speakers you prefer.

 

[xiaobao0707]

excellent choice. it just lacks a super DAC

 

[Puro]

Bah, I really dont know what sort of set up I should go for now. Should I just go for the basic WA6 HD650 and use the cash I would have spent on upgraded parts plus some sort of super DAC, which tbh Im not sure what would even class as a high-end dac. Do i venture into the world of Electrostatic? I dunno.
The SRM-717, is this what you are refering to;

STAX SRM-717 SOLID-STATE ENERGISER

Xiaobao0707 are you refering to the WA-GES + STAX SR-007MK2 when you say excellent choice? What sort of high end DAC would you recommend?

 

[HeadphoneAddict]

As I type this I am listening to the Woo GES with Stax O2 Mk1 and using a PS Audio Digital Link III DAC which sounds great whether via USB or optical out of my Macbook. The only thing this rig seems to lack is the high-volume pounding-bass with electronic music, because the O2 need a lot of power and the GES is about 3-4dB shy of the max volume I would like. It can play fairly loud, just not "very" loud. Otherwise the timbre/tone, detail, speed, imaging and musicality is outstanding. I absolutely love it with jazz, classical, folk, acoustic, new age. I just want a little more power for rock and electronic. This same amp/phone is not as good with my Apogee mini-DAC or a Stello DA100 DAC as the source, where the highs seem rolled off. But the Pico USB DAC does well with this rig like the PS Audio. So what the guys say here about how the source is very important with O2 is very true.

I had the O2 Mk2 for a while and liked them after I did Spritzer's "ear pad spring mod" to pull back the forward mids. Because my HE Audio Jade electrostatics and Sennheiser HE60 were also somewhat forward sounding I decided to sell the O2 Mk2 and keep the O2 Mk1 which are not so forward sounding and more neutral. The Mk2 are slightly more efficient than the Mk1 and you could get more volume out of them, but not more impact if driving them from the GES.

If you like music really loud and like a good deal of impact, you'll need a Blue Hawaii SE to drive the O2 Mk1 which was quite impressive when I heard it at CanJam, but it also costs $5000 for the amp alone. So, if you can't afford that, another option for you would then be the Headamp KGSS for the O2 (which I haven't heard), or the HE Audio Jade for the GES since the Jade have better volume and impact on the GES than the O2. If you don't need it to be pounding very loud and can only afford the GES, the O2 is better in overall sound quality (I even posted that in the HE Audio thread).

Or you can switch your focus to dynamics. The Woo WA22 with an HD600/650/800 and a balanced headphone cable will have a good bit more power and impact than the GES with a stat. I had a loaner WA22 here for 2 weeks this summer connected to my PS Audio DAC, and it was very good and very powerful with my HD600 and HD800 (which I like both better than HD650). The WA22 was likely as good as my more expensive Eddie Current ZDT when used with Sennherisers and Grados (but ZDT was better with Denons and AKG K1000).

None of this does speakers, but the PS Audio has a set of balanced outputs and RCA outputs, so you could feed a speaker rig from it as well.

 

[Scooterboy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Duggeh /img/forum/go_quote.gif Get a used SRM-717 instead of the Woo amp and spend that difference on a source that isn't crap. The O2 deserves and needs the best source you can give it.

That is the best advice so far....