The All Purpose Advice Thread

Quick question, people seem to say that the best 5AR4 tube is a Mullard?

Is this the one?

http://www.dougstubes.com/mullard-gz-34.html

Not overly familiar with this type of tube, so if there is a way better option let me know. I'm tube shopping for Aficionado right now so that means I'm picking up a WE396A and then an also undecided pair of 2A3s.

Maybe something like this?

 

As a late comer to iems, i missed the hype around JH Audio, lately the local used market are getting flooded with used JHA products and i would appreciate if anyone could share some impressions on the following iems:

13v2 Pro
16v2 Pro
Angie mk 1
Tri Fi

I don't really have a tuning preference (love my andro, fitear parterre and ex1000 equally lol)

thanks in advance!

 

Thanks everybody!

 

Discouraged by @Torq impressions of the Fiio X5 III, I am looking for an alternative and stumbled upon the Pioneer XDP-100R (spotify, DNLA and dual card slots are required), The lack of USB DAC functionality and raw output power aside, it seems to be a lot more mature unit than the Fiio software wise. Its has dropped price wise a lot since launch I might even be able to get one for 250€. quite a bite ess than the Fiio X5.
Negatives seems to be forced upsampling and poor battery life. That said, do people have any thoughts on the soundsignature? I am not interested to really drive high-impedance headphones from this, mostly IEMS and easy to drive headphones ( Meze, Nighthawk,ect).
Is this a good alternative to the Fiio X5 or better to research some more?

 

I've only heard the 300R with the Andromeda, wouldn't use it even if you paid me to. Diametrically opposed sound signatures IMO, one is sheet metal thin and the other agreeable 'velvet sound'.

 

I assumed as much...

 

I don't have a lot to compare it to, but the GOv2+ Infinity I bought a few weeks ago really scaled up my CA Vega, especially sound stage, separation, and details. I had a few offered to me on HF for $275 and $285; however, I snagged one off of eBay for $267.

 

@wormcycle I second the above. GOV2+ infinity secondhand. I owned the DX50, DX90 and Mojo. GOV2+ is way better than the DX50/90 and better than the Mojo. I also preferred it to all the A&K that I tried on in store demo (sorry, cant remember models).

 

I tried the Pioneer XDP-100R along with the 300R and Onkyo DP-X1 last year at the London Indulgence show last year. Needless to say I would not touch it unless I want to masochistically burn my cochlea with sharp sabre treble...

I posted my impressions at the time...

"Pioneer XDP-300R (newer model with MQA - who cares!), XDP 100-R (old model) , Onkyo DP-X1
Three sabre DACs ...sigh.
On the Pioneer DAPs there was just some John Williams crapola music on but at least there was Richard Strauss 'Also Sprach Zarathustra' intro to listen to. The Onkyo had Mahler 5th symphony adagio.
Background is black on the andro, no hiss. Bass and mids great sounding. Dynamics are full and well bodied. Staging is fine. Treble is complete and utter piercing, drove me nuts! Here I am with a reasonably priced DAP but etchy as hell treble again."

 

Can you elaborate what discouraged you in @Torq review? I thought it was rather positive, except some weird issues with 1.1.6 framework.

 

I would say that while the sound quality of the thing is quite agreeable, and the overall hardware at work is nice even disregarding the more than competitive price, that overall there are enough issues with the software/firmware to be cautious about the thing. And if you need streaming capability, to avoid it completely until it's fixed.

They broke WiFi in v1.1.5, such that it periodically (about every 20-40 minutes) disconnects. This interrupts streaming playback and requires manual intervention to get going again. Then, weeks later (since firmware updates have slowed to a comparative crawl, v1.1.6 released and this issue is not fixed (or even acknowledged). That's a pretty big regression (it was working fine in v1.1.4 and earlier), and a worrying occurrence, especially given the slow, and slowing, rate of fixes. There's not, that I can find, even a hint at when v1.1.7 might drop - and there was a lot of indicative rumbling from the beta users (you can get into that program easily enough) a couple of weeks or so ahead of the v.1.1.6 release.

Then there's the fact that the player has some odd limitations, such as not currently being able to handle high-resolution output on it's COAX connection. And with more than one comment from FiiO that "they're working on it but not sure it can be fixed" ... not very clever given that it's supposed to be supported out of the gate. Or the fact that it's still not feature-complete (I received my unit, via Amazon, back on March 19th, so it's been in the wild for long enough that this is nonsense). Things like USB DAC output aren't working properly/reliably. And when it does work it's apparently getting nobbled via SRC - which was supposed to be completely eliminated with FiiO's heavily-reworked Android core.

While I think it is the best of the currently shipping Android-based players - at least those that expose a reasonably current build* of Android in full - it still has a number of issues and new ones get created even as old ones get addressed.

In my case it's gone from being a nice, if quirky, little high-capacity streaming-capable player to a door-stop due to a regression in the software. Without reliable streaming I just don't have a use for the thing. Fiddling with the thing three times just to get through one album is a pain in the arse and destroys the experience. And until that gets fixed I can't recommend it to anyone that wants to use it for streaming. The other, still-incomplete, functionality is embarrassing.

--

*The Sony ZX2 is a great device, for example, but it's on a comparatively ancient version of Android and buying it today if you're relying on third-party streaming apps is not something I would personally advise. All it will take is the app/player you rely on to get updated to use a single API that's only present in a newer version of Android, and you're screwed ... (and that's the primary reason I don't have a ZX2 myself).

 

Firmware is pretty much why I still don't have a FiiO. iBasso, despite Torq's distrust of them, at least consistently updates their firmwares. The DX50, which launched in 2013, had updates till June 2016. While I don't like the DX200's sound, it probably works better than FiiO...

Edit: Only thing that annoys about anything iBasso is that the sound tends to change with firmware. Which in itself is "amazing".

 

Torq did explain the better than I could. Bless him for his diligence.
Thats said I just bought an Fiio X5 III.

 

I am getting mine tomorrow, but if wifi is still flaky it is a deal breaker. I want Tidal. Otherwise I really like the sound of my iBasso DX80 although the battery replacement issue drives me crazy. And still not 100% sure if a player is the way to go or should I buy a good DAC/amp and use with my phone.

 

(quoted Kattefjaes from my first post in the Introduction thread as a jumping off point)

To begin, I am looking for an amp/DAC (combo or separate) that will not have to be replaced when I upgrade my headphones.

I have the Sennheiser HD 580, 600 & 6XX (incoming Massdrop)...to keep it short I'll skip an explanation for the 3 Sennheisers. I'll work with these for now. I have connected them straight to the Mac headphone jack. Step #1 is to get a good amp/DAC setup. I could stop there if I liked the result enough.

I want to aim at something that is appropriate for better headphones like the HD 800 S, Focal Elear or MrSpeakers Ether Flow. This way I will be ready for the better headphones if I decide to follow through on that step.

I am thinking of the long run. I know there are people who would be content with something at the beginning level like a Schiit Modi/Magni stack. I also realize it would be better knowing in advance which headphone to match with the amp/DAC. But I have to do some of this by making general decisions. At least getting the amp/DAC first will place me in a position to decide what I like and dislike from there before choosing the headphones. I won't rule out starting over if needed but I am going to attempt to avoid it.

Budget for the amp/DAC is $500-$1000. I would consider anything close if it was worth the extra dollars.
For reference, the headphone budget is $1000-1800.

I'd like the option to use XLR.

Thanks

 

So, I currently have a pair of LCD4s and HD700s...as well as a Chord Mojo. Started off with the 700s, bought the Mojo to listen to them properly, and then when I came across an insanely good deal on the LCD4s, I couldn't pass it up.

The Mojo is...the bare minimum for the LCD4s. It powers them, but hasn't nearly enough output, as you can imagine. I bought the 4s first with the intent of then trying to figure out what amp to buy after the fact, but life got a bit busy and I just didn't have the time to dedicate to this for a while. However, I've had a few changes in life and find myself listening to the headphones far more, and getting more and more frustrated with the Mojo as my sole source of amplification. I'm looking for a reasonable, high quality desktop amp that will power the LCD4s rather well.

To give a sense of my budget, I was thinking of the iCan Pro. In fact I almost bought one a couple times, but for some reason just wasn't able to pull the trigger. I've thought of the Mjolner 2, but have heard it doesn't sound nearly as good as the iCan Pro. Thought about a second hand WA22, but I've heard from a few that it really struggles with the LCD4. Wondering if there's anything out there I'm not thinking of.

I don't need something that's the last word in flat, neutral response. I find brightness far more off-putting than warmth or darkness. However I do appreciate detail. I've heard overall that OTLs are not a good idea for planers, especially Audeze, especially the hungry LCD4. However I have no idea as I've never demoed one. Based on how they work doesn't seem exactly right.

Overall I want something that's dynamic, detailed, powerful, maybe a little fun, and not too expensive. How it accomplishes that I care not...although balanced out would be nice and I think very helpful in driving the LCD4 properly.

The HD700 gets to come along for the ride no matter what...it sounds "good" out of anything, given that it's extremely sensitive.

Thanks so much in advance for any input.

 

Phone for me is too much hassle with cables and USB nonsense ( tried with Mojo). Not really portable - transportable yes.
For my usage the Fiio X5 III seems to be the best option currently. Time will tell.

 

Tonally, what are you looking to get out of your current collection of headphones? What's your sonic priority?

I throughly enjoyed my audition of the Schiit Jotunheim whit my HD650s, but that doesn't mean its perfect. It works well with the headphones you have because it tightens up some looseness in bass and extends it a bit. It adds a touch of sparkle to treble (small amounts) too. But staging leaves something to be desired, so if you're hoping for an expansive "speaker like" experience, this wouldn't be ideal.

And considering that you might go to an HD800S, then this amp might be wrong for you.

So again, what are your sonic goals?

 

Hard for me to describe fully, although mostly what I stated in the original post. If there's one thing I can't stand, it's excessive brightness. And to be honest a lot of what seems to be described as "neutral" even seems to be a bit bright to me. I love detail, but I hate any sort of harshness or etchiness. I dislike muddy, uncontrolled lower frequencies but brightness can be physically painful. I suppose I tend towards warmth, perhaps even darkness but I always am unsure how to use that word when it comes to sound.

For reference - hearing my LCD4s and a pair of fazor'd LCD3s out of an RSA Intruder was to me, very good tonaly. About the only thing I would've liked was a bit more bass. In terms of technicalities, I suppose more separation and soundstage would've been nice too. Perhaps that gives an idea of my preferences. I love a good soundstage but it seems that's going to be very hard to achieve w/o an extremely expensive tube amp. So I can live without the best there.

When people use words like "punchy" , "colorful" , "lush" , "organic" , "dynamic" , "fun" - those are all things I feel attracted to. I'm not really looking for a super-reference, ultra-flat sound. To me, that's a bit boring. If you can achieve decent separation and detail but still fall into a few of those previously-listed categories, that's about perfect. For another point of reference, I find the LCD-X to be a bit too neutral for me, especially when I heard them driven out of a BHA-1. I could tell it was flat, and perhaps even accurate. But it was also flat emotionally and a bit dull, almost painfully bright at times too.

Down the road, I'd like to purchase a Spring DAC, from all accounts it sounds about exactly what I'm looking for. Headphone-wise, not sure what's next, for now I just want to get the most out of my LCD4s. Perhaps the HD800S might come around later. I'm looking for something I can use for at least a while and feel fairly satisfied with, I don't really want it to feel like a pure stop-gap. Maybe someday I'll be able to own a WA33 or something like that.