Chinese Resistor ladder DAC chronicles + Headphone shootout

restrav · « **Reply #20 on:** 9 Mar 2018, 11:31 pm »

........

restrav · « **Reply #21 on:** 9 Mar 2018, 11:38 pm »

Quote from: hibuckhobby on 9 Mar 2018, 03:27 pm

A slight detour in the process, but how much was the shipping? I looked it up on
their website and it was $82 which raises the price into the 400's.
Hibuck...

no 82 but it was close to 50. mine ended up being close to 430. because they also add some fees like paypal fees and whatnot.

restrav · « **Reply #22 on:** 12 Mar 2018, 04:40 pm »

chord mojo and ifi nano iUSB 3.0 in da house!

restrav · « **Reply #23 on:** 12 Mar 2018, 10:19 pm »

Ive been ABing all day between Chord Mojo and Audio-gd R2R11. the audio gd is so brilliant. i have a mojo for sale if anyone is interested.

ps: at comparable perceived loudness, the mojo has a very pronounced emphasis on high frequencies. at lower volumes it translates into a ton of detail and space, but loud enough, it turns into ear piercing annoying shoutiness. even though mojo sounds pretty excellent with LCD-3 down to Superlux 668B, audio-gd sounds simply the best i have ever heard any these cans. also when i want loud, mojo does get loud (with audeze lcd-3 and fostex t50rp) but also gets shouty which tells me that it is being pushed beyond its limits. Audio-gd is the keeper.

ps2: mojo + senn HD599 is a very very nice pairing

TF1216 · « **Reply #24 on:** 13 Mar 2018, 03:50 am »

Quote from: Dadbeh on 12 Mar 2018, 04:40 pm

chord mojo and ifi nano iUSB 3.0 in da house!

restrav · « **Reply #25 on:** 13 Mar 2018, 03:46 pm »

Quote from: iFi Tyler on 13 Mar 2018, 03:50 am

I have great hopes for the iUSB 3.0 .... looks very promising and since i have u here do i need to add the other USB products like the defender to this or are all those products integrated into this?

/////////////

I always give audiophiles a hard time for having a fetish on their gear, but let me tell you that unboxing this Sonus Faber Pryma was quite a delightful experience.

PS: i need to clarify that even though this headphone seems antithetical to C&C mantra, but they are in HD600 territory and since they have a rolled off high freq response and slightly pronounced but tastefully done bass response that does not bleed into mid range aT ALL (ACTUALLY IT IS JUST PERFECT) they are actually like a beautiful and very nice sounding closed nack version of Senn HD599 or HD650 which makes them a wise choice in my opinion. case in point how unintrusive (is that a word?) and smooth they sound with Sabaj DA-3. they got a lot of flack for being fashion cans but at half the price they are perfect all Sennheiser replacements for all kinds of music. they are the perfect sampler for sonus faber sound. One of my best buys i'm keeping them.

Letitroll98 · « **Reply #26 on:** 14 Mar 2018, 04:05 pm »

The Sonus Faber headphones are a tad over C&C guidelines when bought at the eBay prices, but not so much that they can't be mentioned. Especially since its a DAC thread with the phones as a sideline. They look great and I like that there's lots of color options, well reviewed too.

restrav · « **Reply #27 on:** 16 Mar 2018, 01:07 am »

sfox7076 · « **Reply #28 on:** 16 Mar 2018, 01:41 pm »

I am in the process of building my own Soekeris board. I ordered a shortcut power supply and output board from China so I didnt need to surface mount. Well, I got the boards yesterday. Enjoy the soldering on the regulators.

Bridges all over the place. So now to figure out if they were done meaningfully.

restrav · « **Reply #29 on:** 17 Mar 2018, 04:04 am »

so im studying for an exam and listening to music and Audeze lcd-3 hurts my neck, as always. so i put the 40$ marantz + angled memory foam on and Came's Rajaz came up ... i had such emotional experience with the song that I completely forgot that i had the dirt cheap headphone on. it was excellent. it blew my mind that this headphone could sound so good. the aftermarket earpads completely cured the bass boominess.

restrav · « **Reply #30 on:** 25 Mar 2018, 03:23 pm »

other than the power on/off switch being in the back and the orientation of the box being inconvenient this thing is perfect. smooth as silk highs and deep precise bass and luscious mids. very nice indeed. even the amanero USB implementation is flawlwss. the only sub $1000 DAC/amp that bettered Chord mojo for me and it is quite a feat for a budget dac/amp to be almost as quiet as a battery powered DAC like mojo even tho with no music playing and volume all the way up and with extra sensitive IEMs it does have a background noise but so what? it is not even designed for IEMs with its powerful amp. it drives Audeze LCD-3 to murder level loud on 12 o'clock position and LCD-2C (my favorite planar probably favorite headphone ever) at 11 oclock.

the winning combinations are LCD-2C + R2R11 (on neutral)
Senn HD599 + R2R11 (on neutral confutation)
HE400i + r2r11 (on warm configuration)
M1060 + R2r11

im modding the M1060 right now but even stock it is 90% of LCD-2C at less than half the price. just the mids sound a little less beautiful and the bass has an ounce less impact even though it is there just doesnt hit as hard.

Monoprice M1060 is a real winner for the price it is also lighter than LCD-2C even though it is flimsier but i can live with that.

For a budget option marantz mph-2 with brainwavz angles memory foam pads is the best I have found and I literally tried twenty different headphones. The ear pads resolved the issue with the boomy bass and muddy mids and now this 40 dollar headphone plus the 30 dollar pads sounds proper.

I'm so impressed with audio-gd that I'm getting their balanced preamp + headamp to be the heart of my stereo.

restrav · « **Reply #31 on:** 25 Mar 2018, 03:39 pm »

restrav · « **Reply #32 on:** 17 May 2018, 04:14 pm »

Ok just to sum it up

Marantz MPH-2 (on sale for $40 if you get very lucky + brainwavz angled memory foam pads $25) => best value (detailed, great controlled bass, pretty decent mids)
note: MPH-2 without those pads is overly boomy, bass bleeds into mids, V shape. not very good. note that MPH-2 is the same as lynx and akai which sell for $25 to $35 do not overpay.

Superlux 668B (~$40) + Brainwavz XL round pads ~ $25 + ZMF pilot pads $30) => 2nd best value (decent bass, decent mid, decent highs, detailed airy sound). it is light and you can abuse it as much as you want just does not break. i have stepped on it and nothing. a lot of burn in necessary.
note: without these pads very uncomfortable.

Monoprice Retro (~25 bucks) awful for any music with vocals, folk, classic rock, just good for instrumental modern bassy electronic music. overly bassy with dreadful thin sounding mid range. uncomfortable with stock pads. not only i had to add ear pads, i also had to mod the headband with 3m stick on real leather pads and not worth it. not recommended although the headband mechanism which is similar to AKG 701 is the best that there is. it just conforms to head of any size or shape but the headband is cheap awful plastic instead of nice feeling leather or fabric. so it is a weird combination of good design and bad material. does not feel good.

The Sonus faber Pryma is not recommended if you just consider sound. it does not sound any better than the marantz or superlux after 50 hours of burn in. not very comfortable either even though it is light.

the hifiman HE400i is the opposite of the HD6XX's silky smooth and relaxed presentation. it has high energy high freq but it also has sub bass. at $150 these days and after 100 hours of burn in it is absolutely recommended. it is a very good example of planar sound on the cheap. it is not bassy but it has sub bass. for me it was eye opening. 100% recommended at the price that is sells now ~150. thank you hifiman for selling it at this price even though it has documented QC problems still buy it and when it breaks just email hifiman and get the parts and replace them yourself.

audeze lcd-2 classic is all the planar anyone ever needs.

Hd599 and Audeze LCD-2 classic, marantz MPH-2 and superlux are the ones that i decided to keep, even though Hifiman HE400i and monolith M1060 are better values than Audeze i just had to have the world class bass with good mids that classic has and i just wanted to own an audeze.

AGD R2R11 is the bargain of the fucking century and chances are there will be no more centuries after this one so dont make babies instead buy Audio-GD R2R11.

lol
Dadbeh out.

restrav · « **Reply #33 on:** 17 May 2018, 04:27 pm »

maty · « **Reply #34 on:** 17 May 2018, 04:51 pm »

Quote

AGD R2R11 is the bargain of the fucking century and chances are there will be no more centuries after this one so dont make babies instead buy Audio-GD R2R11.

Maybe but after I read this other review I have big doubts with the DAC performance.

Review and Measurements of Audio-gd NFB-27.38 DAC and Headphone Amplifier

https://audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/review-and-measurements-of-audio-gd-nfb-27-38-dac-and-headphone-amplifier.2486/

http://www.audio-gd.com/Pro/Headphoneamp/NFB-27.38/NFB27.38EN.htm

USD1688 (Exclude shipping cost ,With remote control) >> USD350 (Exclude shipping cost), AGD R2R11

restrav · « **Reply #35 on:** 17 May 2018, 05:29 pm »

i was aware of those measurements and others when i bought it. i dont know how to explain it but i do know that i prefer R2R11 to topping DX7s.

maty · « **Reply #36 on:** 17 May 2018, 05:33 pm »

What kind of music do you listen to?

Classical, jazz... very good recordings with high DR or commercial music (bad recordings and low DR).

MP3, FLAC 16/44 or 24/96... ?

If the music is badly recorded, maybe a less decisive DAC may help to cover up its deficiencies and the sound like more.

restrav · « **Reply #37 on:** 17 May 2018, 05:38 pm »

could be. in my library i have everything from DSD 256 to 128kbps mp3 and I listen to everything from led zeppelin to underground isreali extreme metal bands to nusrat fatih ali khan but the bulk is classic and progressive rock and singer songwriter stuff. proper audiophile recordings are 5% of my listening time and no vinyl.

but i do have a lot of DSD albums. including every pink floyd remaster available. also have a lot of flac 16/44.1 like hundreds. .

restrav · « **Reply #38 on:** 17 May 2018, 05:42 pm »

anyway AGD R2R11 gave me so many eargasms. it sounds awesome for CD quality falc and pretty good for hi rez too. on top of that the headphone amp is top notch. it is a great product.

maty · « **Reply #39 on:** 17 May 2018, 05:43 pm »

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, good world music!

I have earrings to rip them again, but now with foobar2000 and FLAC 0 12024 kbps.