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Originally Posted by Tigerwoodkhorns /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Larry,
First, I am new here but want to thank you for putting so much time and effort into this. The information that you provide is very helpful, especially when there is really no place to audition gear locally.
I have narrowed my search to the Sennheiser 650's or 600's and from what you say above, I probaly should avoid the 650's as they are sensitive to amps and DAC's.
I have been into audio my whole life and have a respectable system for music. I want something to use while in my bedroom while my wife is watching tv and I do not feel like listenign to my main rig. So my source is my server and my laptop (1 year old Gateway FWIW) listening to MP3's at 192 or higher, and a lot of FLAC and other lossless. Most of my music is on vinyl so ripping it to my server is really not going to happen. When I want really high resolution I will use my main system. Problem is that I am used to the detailed audiophile sound and soundstage. I also listen on my main system at mid 70's to 80's DB and when I play really loud, never past say mid 90's, so I do not listen that loud.
I have a pair of Sennheiser 580's on loan from a friend and they are quite good with my laptop, just lacking in the bass. I cannot find an EQ or tone control in Vista but that probably would not solve the problem as they usually create more problems than they solve. At the volume that I listen, they also are OK being open backed as my wife has said that they do not bother her.
So now I assume that an amp will help the bass response. The NuForce comes highly reccommended, but should I go for something more expensive? I had a Benchmark DAC1 a few years ago but never used its headphone jacks. I read here that the Benchmark's headphone amp is not all that great, which surprises me as it is a great DAC. I really do not want to spend that much either. I also sold the Benchmark DAC1 and bought a Musical Fidelity A3.24 which is a warm sounding and great DAC (Musical Fidelity's higher end products are quite good, don't know about their lower priced lines).
So the question is, using my laptop USB out, is the NuForce uDAC the way to go with the HD600's, or is there something, maybe used that will be better for not that much more? Say, if I spent $400 or $500 on new or used, will I get that much better, and will it matter with MP3's and lossless? I do not need portable as this is for my bedroom.
I assume that you will reccomend the HD600's and NuForce uDAC with my source material and volume levels.
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I've not heard a DAC1 yet.
I have the HD600 with a 4-foot APS V3 cable plugged into the uDAC right now, listening to some Shota Osabe Piano Trio, and normal listening volume is set at about 12 o'clock on the volume. It's loud enough at 2-3 o'clock, and louder than I care for at 4-5 o'clock, with no distortion. I think I am getting close to 100dB region at 5 o'clock. It doesn't get loud enough to be painful, and I might be getting 115-118 dB from my desktop amps.
At these levels the bass is strong and full, at low or high volume, and with the APS V3 cable installed the highs are great with the uDAC. I always felt the stock cable slightly rolled off or recessed the highs slightly, but not to the degree of the HD650. So a $25 HD650 cable on the HD600 is a decent upgrade and could save you buying a $200 cable for a while, since I did feel it added a little detail, bass and sparkle to the HD600.
So, the low level detail retrieval with the uDAC and re-cabled HD600 in quiet volume jazz, classical and new age music is nice. I could turn the volume knob down to 10 o'clock and listen quietly, and I don't feel like I am missing much. No, it's not as detailed as my Apogee > Woo WA6, but it's pretty darn good enough to make me happy.
My Infected Mushroom "Dancing with the Kadafi" isn't recorded at as high of a level as this jazz music, and I will often have to go as high as 3 or 4 o'clock on the uDAC with infected mushroom, but I can feel the bass with the HD600. I can actually turn the volume knob to 5 o'clock and then go into iTunes and choose 120% volume and it gets a bit louder without clipping. A portable DAC/amp with a 9v power supply, or a desktop amp would add a bit more thump at the higher volumes where the uDAC works a lot harder to keep up.
After listening to the music above at these high levels, my ears needed a rest for 30 seconds . After that I found that normal listening volumes with the jazz had creeped up a bit to 1-2 o'clock on the knob, because my ears had adjusted to the louder levels. So, with your volume levels you should be just fine. But, later, if you do want more power you could get a Grahm Slee NOVO to feed the uDAC into and still be within your $450-500 budget. The NOVO fed by my Apogee mini-DAC sounded good with HD600 and had gobs of power that could give you tinnitus. The uDAC should warm up the NOVO nicely and was a little better sounding than the Apogee mini-DAC's headphone out. There are actually many $180-$400 amps that you could feed the uDAC into for a power upgrade that would get along with the HD600. The HD600 and uDAC wont make 192K MP3 sound terrible, but you will be able to tell between a 192K and a FLAC. I wont go less than 320K these days, and my electrostatic rig tears apart 256K MP3 - yuck.
