Current Set-Up Pics - Official Picture Thread



My bedroom Setup.

SMSL D300 + SP400.
Meze Liric + Aeon noire
MacBook With roon

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NIce! An SMSL D300 DAC out in the wild. What’s it like? I’m curious about that Rohm chip.

Can’t really tell a difference to my other DAC since I upsample everything in roon to DSD512 . :slight_smile:

Nice setup. I have the DCA Aeon Noire 2 and was going to consider the Liric too (looove the Elite). How do you like the Liric?

I use the DCA AN2 with a Chord Mojo 2 and iPhone as my bedside system, very nice.

If that’s the same brand of headphone stand I have, I love them. Mine’s in black with an adjustable top.

It’s the rooms headphone Stand. But it’s the simple wood version. For the liric it’s the perfect size.
I’m considering getting the more expensive version for the Aeon Noire.

I do enjoy the Liric and they are actually pretty comfortable when adjusted correctly.
But the noire are more comfortable and have larger earcups.

The Liric certainly feel more valuable and sound isolation is better than the Noire. The liric have better bass and are more exciting sounding.

I like to use the noire for movies or concert videos where I don’t want to use a EQ or can’t use one.
They are good for games as well.

But if you got already a nice open back headphone from meze you probably don’t need the liric along with the noire.

The liric are alot more expensive than the Noire and the difference between is not that big if you EQ both to the Harman curve.

I mainly got them because I sold my Focal Elegia, wanted a headphone that I might actually take outside or on vacation. And with the whole Russia Ukraine thing I got interested in companies from there like fluxlabs, rebel amp and the driver meze uses.

I had a good offer (1551€ instead of 1999€ )from a hifi store with full warranty. But I paid 777€ for the noire and for that they are simply outstanding.

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Rooms, that’s it. Had to order it from Europe. I also have a Grumpy Goose which is very cool.

I hear you in the Liric. I love the Elite, which I use at home. The DCA AN2 is for travel or mobile around the house (where the closed back does not bother others).

I thought perhaps the Liric was close to a closed Elite, or otherwise the Meze sound, but it sounds like it has a slightly different character. To be expected but one can always hope :laughing:

And appreciate your story on Ukraine.

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Singxer SA-1, Feliks Audio Echo mkII, Topping D70S, Focal Clear OG, Hifiman Ananda, DCA Aeon 2 Noire, Sony WH-1000XM4, iFi Audio iMicro USB3.0

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how do you like the Noir compared to the Ananda and the Clear? do you use it without EQ?

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Welcome to the forum! Nice set-up you got going there.

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I love the Noire! They sound so full with excellent bass. I dont really miss anything with them.
I think the Noire sounds better without EQ but the Clear and Ananda better with.

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Current setup:
PS Audio Stellar Powerplant 3
Auralic Aries G1 with Hoer Wege PSU upgrade
Singxer SU-6
Rockna Wavedream Edition
Enleum Amp-23r

Loving this a lot

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I’m going to be making some pretty major changes to this setup soon, but figured I’d share my trusty Schiit build in my new apartment in the meantime.



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That’s a lotta Schiit! :sunglasses:

I see a ZMF XLR cable on the floor, but not a single XLR amp to be seen! What’s up?

Flooring has a cool look to it.

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I see three headphones in the photo. Probably like me, he switches his headphones with XLR to TRS cable by plugging and unplugging XLR female / XLR Male. This avoids a momentary short that a TRS connector cable would cause when being pulled or inserted into TRS jack with live amplifiers. Much safer and easier on the headphone amplifiers.

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Both Schiit amps are single ended 1/4" only, so I ordered pigtail adapters from Forza.

Actually I think it’s the opposite? You’re not supposed to leave the adapter plugged in with no headphone plugged into it because it removes all impedance and can short out the amp. Or am I mistaken? :thinking:

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Dude, this is awesome! Beautiful setup.

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On solid state amplifiers it should be fine to have no load on the headphone output.

With your Schiit Valhalla 2 however, it is probably frowned upon to run without headphones plugged in since it uses tubes on the power output stage. However, I do it anyway on my tube amps when I am A/B comparing. Even Schiit says that some people may want to turn on their tube amps first without headphones plugged in to let them stabilize before plugging in expensive headphones. (This is what I do.)

Your Schiit Lyr 3 should be fine with whatever side of the fence you sit. The tubes in the Lyr 3 are only operating in the preamp stage. So, less concern overall.

As, for real world danger on TRS jacks when inserting TRS plugs. There is protection built into solid state amplifiers to avoid damage. However, I plug and unplug jacks excessively compared to a normal headphone audio enthusiast. Also, even though I am not OCD, in the back of my mind it bothers the crap out of me that an uneven amount of stress may be applied to left and right channels due to these brief momentary shorts over the lifetime of the amp. Again, for the normal listener these are likely never going to cause issues. Actually, it will likely never even be a problem for someone like me that is plugging and unplugging every other minute. Ultimately, my worries are put to rest knowing that my amps are not shorting from plugging/unplugging headphones because I am using XLR/XLR.

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Thanks. Even better, we’re both Utopia & Stellaris people, so once my Stellaris arrives, with my turntable, and I once upgrade my dac, we’ll be in a great position to compare source gear through an identical chain.

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Killer setup! @chrisnyc75

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Quickly becoming one of my favorite things I’ve heard!

Raal CA1A from Mimic Audio (Raal CA-1A) and new cable from Double Helix Cables!

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