[morfic]

Before going out and buying the XM5 with BUF634 from practical devices, consider this: the BUF634 upgrade is $46 for the pair of chips.

Buy it without the BUF634 first, with lithium battery (great) and black case (looks much better) you are at $280 new.

Try the amp as is, once you are curious what you are missing, upgrade the amp with LME49710 opamp which are around $4.xx a piece on digikey.com
While you are on digikey.com you can pick up 2 BUF634 for $8 a piece.

And you have yourself an excellently configured XM5 for just a hair over $300 and you get to split the cost of the amp over a few weeks instead of coughing up over $350 at once, and certainly you see why you wouldn't buy a used XM5 for $285 off of head-fi.....

Aside, talk to Practical Device if they can cut you a deal if you are a return customer for even bigger savings.

 

[ZARIM]

So does $46 option better than $22 AD8397 dublecat opamp(for better sound quality)?. Quote:

Originally Posted by morfic /img/forum/go_quote.gif Before going out and buying the XM5 with BUF634 from practical devices, consider this: the BUF634 upgrade is $46 for the pair of chips. Buy it without the BUF634 first, with lithium battery (great) and black case (looks much better) you are at $280 new. Try the amp as is, once you are curious what you are missing, upgrade the amp with LME49710 opamp which are around $4.xx a piece on digikey.com While you are on digikey.com you can pick up 2 BUF634 for $8 a piece. And you have yourself an excellently configured XM5 for just a hair over $300 and you get to split the cost of the amp over a few weeks instead of coughing up over $350 at once, and certainly you see why you wouldn't buy a used XM5 for $290 off of head-fi..... Aside, talk to Practical Device if they can cut you a deal if you are a return customer for even bigger savings.

 

[morfic]

Neither.

Spend $16 (if you can get them for $8 a piece in canada) on BUF634 if you have the need for a lot of current (low impedance headphones benefit the most, like my 13ohm super.fi 3)

Otherwise just buy LME49720 opamps for $5 a piece to improve sound quality. even if you say own AD8610 and thought you have the best there is

 

[n_maher]

Please keep things civil and on topic. I've deleted several posts from this thread which were neither.

 

[morfic]

Zarim: Digi-Key - BUF634P-ND (Texas Instruments - BUF634P)
and Digi-Key - LME49710NA-ND (National Semiconductor - LME49710NA/NOPB)

To max out your XM5 with both sound (LME) and power (BUF634)

i guess they ship to canada, since DigiKey Corp. | Electronic Components Distributor | Canada Home Page is where my search started.
I would call them and check for shipping cost using USPS, mail to canada for a small envelope with max four little DIP8 chips should be pretty cheap, you can ship a international flatrate box for $12.95. there should be cheaper options, call and take your pick, good luck.