Just to cap off my flurry of posts, I am not an accuracy freak. I don’t shoot for accuracy, transparency or many other keywords of audiophiles. As I mention regularly on Head-Fi, I love “fun” headphones. I am not a fan of Audeze and hated the HD6XX’s.
Think Grado and Meze 99 Classic’s. I didn’t like the Loxjie for the first few days. I thought my Burson Fun was so much “cleaner” and “crisper”. After a while I started to like it with certain music: Florence and the machine and horn jazz. What I sometimes find shrill or piercing the Loxjie smooths right out. Is it as accurate? Not even close, but I don’t care.
I am just looking for a DAC that works well and offers lots of options. RCA out, XLR out, USB/SPDIF/Coax in and several sound profiles sounds really interesting to me.
Yes, I use the P20 for the very bad independent recording pre-1990s (e.g., The Clash, The Replacements, and most first generation punk rock), and the early digital recordings of the 1980s that are wildly edgy/painful. It’s also a way to work around the harsh content of the Loudness Wars (late 1990s to ~2010).
I had the opportunity to hook the SU-8 up to an Auralic Taurus and listen to a bunch of high-end over-ear headphones (Meze Empyrean, Sennheiser 800S and 820, ZMF Eikon, a few others) yesterday and it performed as well as I hoped, but I honestly would be hard-pressed to tell the SU-8 + Taurus apart from my Element. I thought the SU-8 + Taurus sounded just a bit more resolving but that easily could have been the product of placebo and the absence of proper level matching.
I’ve been playing around with the SU-8 this week. I like the fast linear, fast hybrid, and slow minimum. Fast hybrid was really good for jazz with my Focal Clears. Slow minimum was good for capturing more bass.
Cool. My things are rock and horn jazz. I can’t imagine my Burson sounding even better, but that’s an exciting idea.
My guess is that like most optional things, I will try them all out and then end up sticking with just one. Two if I’m lucky.
I just ordered a new “sound station” for my lazy boy.
I came across one of these (DAC Magic +) on CAM (Canuck Audio Mart), but it is ten years old. Also, the seller says that the power source was dropped and now rattles. He is asking $200.00.
I would gladly pay $300.00 if there was no rattle and it was only a couple of years old.
I don’t think they’re allowed to sell that product in Canada.
Best price for that product on Amazon.ca, or anywhere in Canada, is $499.00. Plus 15% sales tax.
I think my search is over. There are a couple of models that I kept coming across. I have been monitoring CAM (Canuck Audio Mart) several times a day for weeks.
Tonight I put a bid in on a Cambridge DAC MagicPlus model. This should close in the morning. Seems like a good DAC with great reviews.
Recently recommended by rrwwss52, but it is almost $600.00 new in Canada. I will be paying half of that, delivered to me.
Now I just need to buy even more cables.
If this is the answer, I want to thank all of you for your input.
