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My turn to play

One station had Pauly's M-Audio DAC and Yulong A18 solid state amp, the other featured the Schiit Bifrost DAC and Asgard 2 solid state amp provided by Walls. Given the late start and the number of headphones available, we decided to put the best set of tubes in the Little Dot instead of trying to compare the three sets. Unfortunately I don't think anyone other than me gave the LD a spin. I've set everything up again in my office and I intend to compare the DACs and the amps over the next couple of days using Pauly's D5000s. Speaking of which, everyone REALLY liked the Denons except for one guy - the same guy who liked the very expensive Audeze LCD-X which everyone else pretty much hated.
 
There were so many sets of headphones I kinda lost track and I know I didn't try them all. Eventually, though, we decided on five headphones to compare using four songs. Me and Jonathan (Archaea) took notes whereas Sheldon (Carp) and Grant (jedimastergrant) went through pretty quickly and posted their thoughts in the previously linked AVS thread. The other person in attendance brought most of the headphones and was intimately familiar with them. I think the only listening he did was to the Denons and he was very impressed.

Stay tuned for the five headphones we compared and mine and Jonathan's thoughts (I might not get that post up until tomorrow evening)...
 
One last thing tonight; for the final round of testing we used the M-Audio / Yulong A18 station as the Schiit station sounded a bit constrained with some of the headphones, notably the Senn 800s. We left the gain switch on low on the Asgard 2 - not sure if that would've made a difference...
 
Okay, I lied, one more. Grant emphasized this in his post but it was surprising at how different most of the headphones sounded and how quickly I found some of them off-putting. A couple elicited immediate facial contortions as I wondered WTF they were doing and how could anyone like it.
 
Thanks for the writeup! Sounds like it was fun. I've yet to hear any Grados, maybe I'll investigate those someday... And yeah, I've heard/read that the Senn HD800, and especially the planars like Audeze or HiFiMan, take an immense amount of power to drive properly. Though I haven't owned any of these newer ones either, so I can't attest to it personally.

I did have a HiFiMan HE-5 (I think it was), many years ago, and it didn't work at all well with my tube amp at the time (Audiotailor Jade). I had the HiFiMan EF-5 hybrid tube+ss amp with it, which worked well as it was pretty much designed for it. But I eventually sold these as I didn't like the sound overall, it was too bright/brittle.

I'd love to hear the HD800 someday, but as Walls has said, it's twice the price of the T1 (which I own and love), and likely not worth the extra $$. (I believe Walls said he preferred the T1 anyway.)
 
Finally someone besides me thinks that the A2 sounds congested. Lol!!

I remember telling PaulyT that I thought it was my least favorite amp, and I can't figure out for the life of me how it gets so much love over at HeadFi. I really wish you had run the Bifrost through the LD, the Bifrost is fantastic and the LD trumps the A2 quite easily.

I owned the HD800 for a while, and if it isn't amped by the correct amp, it pretty much sounds very flat. When paired with my WA2 it sounds fantastic but I actually preferred the T1 over it because the T1 IMO has a bigger soundstage.

The 800 is just so.... Sterile.
 
Jonathan (Archaea) has added his review to the AVS thread. Would you guys prefer that I copy/paste from there to this thread or are you cool with hopping over there?
 
I don't mind cross-posting. However, those Denons are NOT $1500... I paid (I think) $350 for mine (granted they were used, and the one joint between cup and headband broken - hence my ugly repair job), plus another $130 or so for the new wood cups.
 
PaulyT said:
I don't mind cross-posting. However, those Denons are NOT $1500... I paid (I think) $350 for mine (granted they were used, and the one joint between cup and headband broken - hence my ugly repair job), plus another $130 or so for the new wood cups.
Click to expand...

Cool, I'll post this over there. CNet shows the original MSRP as $700.
 
PaulyT said:
I don't mind cross-posting. However, those Denons are NOT $1500... I paid (I think) $350 for mine (granted they were used, and the one joint between cup and headband broken - hence my ugly repair job), plus another $130 or so for the new wood cups.
Click to expand...
Mine were $490 new in 2011. The going price seems to be quite a bit higher nowadays. Seems they're now discontinued.

Jeff
 
When Batman and I compared his D2000 with my D7000, we pretty much agreed that mine were prettier and that was the only difference between the two. :angry-cussingblack:
 
Did you guys try switching the DACS Beyween amps? That's one thing I would have loved to compare directly.
 
I'm in shock. Floored. Almost without speech. My plan this evening was to do a quick DAC comparison between the Schiit Bifrost (with Uber upgrade) and the modded M-Audio and then move on to the amps. I wasn't expecting to spend much time on the DACs because I figured I wouldn't be able to tell a difference between the two. Well, I didn't need to spend much time because there was a clear and distinct winner. For my listening tests I used the first minute or so of Outkast’s 'The Way You Move' along with 'Bones' by Radiohead (entire song, 3:09) and the first three minutes of 'Ixtapa' by Rodrigo Y Gabriela. I used the Yulong Sabre A18 solid state amp with the Denon D5000 headphones.

The Bifrost wins this battle in a landslide. It was most noticeable on the Outkast track: I could distinguish the two vocals better; the cymbal was more prominent throughout and anchored in the soundstage whereas with the M-Audio it ended up getting lost. Bass also seemed tighter with the Bifrost. On the Radiohead track, the M-Audio had the rhythm guitar more forward and blurred – I felt it stuck out more than it should have. Everything was crisper and placed more precisely with the Bifrost – this applies to 'Ixtapa' as well.

Again, I was not expecting that at all. Wow.
 
I'm really not that surprised, the upgraded Bifrost gets really great reviews, and not just from Schiit fanboys on HeadFi.
I bought the A2 after the Bifrost, I wanted to try a solid state headphone amp and figured the quality of the Bifrost was so good I couldn't lose with the A2. I disliked the A2 from day one, congested is how I feel about it.
For shits and giggles try it in high gain mode, but if I remember right it sounds the same just gets much louder.
It's not a bad amp, and actually it's a pretty decent value, it's just not for me.
Try the Bifrost with the LD next, it is IMO leagues better then the A2.
 
I just ran through the same tracks using the Bifrost, Asgard A2, and Denons. Bass went as low but wasn't as authoritative with the Asgard versus the A18. The overall tone of the A18 seems warmer which I prefer. I didn't really notice the congestion in this configuration that stood out during the GTG with the Senn HD800s.

Time to play with the tube amp...
 
The stock Bifrost IMO is the best bang for buck DAC available. Uber upgrade places the Bifrost in the Big Boy club where it gives DAC's costing double, or even triple a run for the gold. LYR(with correct tubes)/Bifrost combo is wicked good.

Rope
 
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