Love the 9500's.

Cool!

Side question: Do they make those LPSU's in any other voltages?

Mainly Amazon due to its catalog and price, though software isn't perfect and some of their tracks are off (e.g., OG Taylor Swift albums have a lot of tracks replaced with her newer ones).

I'd say Qobuz was the best in terms of sound quality, but catalog was lacking some foreign music I listen to.

Tidal had a decent catalog, but I was a little turned off by all of the different "versions" of albums they had. Supposedly different masters, some versions sometimes sounded better than others, sometimes I couldn't tell. Interesting though, if nothing else.

Spotify and Youtube are probably the most accessible with the best catalog and a good recommendation engine.

Never tried Apple music, but I am very curious about the classical music version they recently announced/released.

Oh, and buy/download what I can if it's not on one of these services, I guess.

The 660s still come with nice boxes, at least as of ~5 months ago when I bought mine.

660s2 reportedly does not.

Yeah I'm aware of the video. My understanding of the tech (or at least, what is claimed) is that it stores information under the noise floor or something, and MQA hardware can "unfold" that information to generate a more complete reconstruction. Whether there's any audible benefit, I have no clue. Given all of the different masters on Tidal, it makes it difficult to determine whether the codec is actually making any difference or if its the master itself. So I just gave up trying to see if there's any real sound quality differences for MQA itself.

I think the biggest issue with MQA is false marketing claims and the proprietary nature of the tech. If they made more accurate claims that were verifiable and improved the listening experience, I wouldn't mind it.

>That's kinda odd. I mean, being an artist, why would you put out several masters of your new album? Why is Tidal the only one to carry several masters? Is there a way to check that there are several different masters of a particular recording if I don't have Tidal?

No idea. Kind of just gave up on trying to figure out what was going on lol.

As for MQA, don't know if an MQA DAC would've made any difference. I never got around to testing it when I had MQA DACs.

I don't think modern albums are exempt from this. Taylor Swift's Lover album was one I distinctly remember there being 3 different versions, with one of them sounding quite different. FWIW, I tested this on a non-MQA DAC.

After trying Tidal and seeing there are sometimes multiple copies of the same album (apparently, different masters, according to internet strangers), I no longer know if it's something with the service or if some of them are simply using different masters. Sometimes the different versions on Tidal sound different, sometimes they don't (at least, nothing that I could discern).

FWIW, I think Qobuz generally tended to sound better than Amazon or Tidal (though that album version thing throws a wrench into the whole thing).

Aye, wish I could afford one xP. Can't even afford to covet the dcs stuff. Don't think I can justify spending that kind of money on something that produces audio, unless it has 4 wheels and a 10 year/100,000 mile warranty.

Loved the DCS Lina and the fact that it was everywhere and accessible. It's absurd. The price too.

Just came from the Head-fi impressions thread and I think I'm getting deja vu. =)

>it seems that the Sennheiser HD6xx's would be a decent open-backedpair of starter headphones

Wrong. They are decent opened-backed pair of endgame headphones.

Well I wouldn't call them relaxed sounding. Quite a lot of treble and bass, but pretty fun sound. I think they're more intended for monitoring and maybe mixing, perhaps not quite for long and relaxing listening sessions.

Might help to EQ a bit. Look around for guides on Peace APO. Oratory1990's presets are a popular place to start.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rP8c-ggXqcw

> It is slightly boring combination

This is something I've experienced with a lot of amps and HD6x0's. Tube amps are often recommended for the 600's. I personally thought the Jot2 was an interesting pairing using balanced. 789 was okay too. Also paired nicely with r2r-11mk2 Something about the r2r-11mk2 and HD6x0's just work very well for me.

You'll probably get different advice but IME the HD600s are fairly hard to drive and benefits from a more powerful source. s

Could try some different amps but frankly, you might be better off trying different headphones.

Guessing that "sharpness" you hear is probably the upper mids. I find it to be a bit shouty/obnoxious and fatiguing.

I also thought that the HD6x0 series can sound a little boring, but certain source gear does seem to add a lot of life.

Did you mention what you were using to drive those headphones?

R2R-11mk2 and HD660s. Longest I've gone in 2 years without getting something new. Before that, have gone through Ares II, Soloist 3xp, OG Clears, SA-1, D1se, Bifrost 2, Asgard 3, THX 789, El Stack II, E30/L30, K5 Pro, M50x, X2hr, HE6seV2, Sundaras, G6, E10k, DT1990, HD600, and probably some other stuff I'm forgetting.

Though Canjam is coming up and maybe the 660s2 will change my mind. And still want to give the Meze 109's another listen. And try some ZMF stuff. And look at some tube amps.

Sigh, I think I'm in trouble.

I guess so. Most other budget stuff I've tried was significantly less grainy and harsh, but thought more details came through in most cases.

If you're happy with it, use it. If you want something better, be prepared to spend money for it. If you want something significantly better, be prepared to spend a lot more money for it.

I'd suggest buying used and sell it if you don't like it. I also use any new gear for at least a few weeks, if not a couple of months, before deciding whether I like it or not.

A lot of people will say dacs and amps sound the same. Some of us think they sound different. I personally thought the E10k was a little bright and grainy. It was one of the first dac/amps I tried.

Also gave up on the idea of a "correct" sound. I've tried several amps that measured similarly, but sounded quite different to my ears. Just find something to your preferences. If you like the sound out of your laptop, just use that.

I got a little monitor stand to separate my DACs and the Soloist 3xp. The Bursons get quite hot!

Had SA-1 before the 3xp, and I much preferred the sound out of the 3xp. Amazing sound quality, but gotta deal with crappy controls and other quirks.

I haven't tested too many headphones with my Soloist 3xp in balanced, but I actually preferred the single ended output over the balanced one. I thought SE sounded a little more relaxed and natural. Plus, SE out was more usable with medium gain on certain sensitive headphones like LCD-X.

Love the Elites. Love the Soloist 3xp. Never heard the Composer but Conductor was pretty nice.

But let that Soloist breathe! It must be getting quite hot.

It's for really really small... audiophiles.