Have you tried changing filters or applying EQ?
Think of it like spiking the punch of that prim, upright librarian. 
Alright, so this far, I’ve reached out to several dealers, and not only are they all slow to even get back to me, it’s like they’re not interested in selling their products with any sense of urgency. It’s unreal.
I called one that had replied to me (who owns the website and builds the amps) after not hearing back, and he said it wasn’t a good time and he’d get back to me later that day (and never did).
I emailed another severally times (repeatedly asking similar sets of questions that have not been specifically answered), and literally said “how do I proceed to get final numbers and buy?” - and no response yet.
It’s like I’m dealing with home contractors or something.
Does anyone have a dealer that will actually come with a sense of urgency? Someone that cares about the client experience as well?
One would think that for the money, you wouldn’t see this.
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There’s a man with his own business. I spend quite a bit of time thinking about client experience and ways to improve it. Trying to be consistent and responsive. And while I know that many of my clients do appreciate that, many are oblivious. And I doubt that 1 in 10 businesses I work with take care with client experience in a real, hands on (and not automated) way. I make it my business to recommend them and give them repeat business.
I’ve had good response for the people at headphones.com, of course, but also Joe Jezyk at Overture audio video in Wilmington DE. If you talk to him, please mention my name (the real name, not @pennstac)
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I’ve bought few items in USA living in Europe but I can happily recommend headphones.com: kind, responsive, competent people.
If there where more dealers like them in Europe (or if I was living in the US) I’m sure a lot more money would have departed from my pockets.
Sadly many sellers behave much more like butcher (x$/kg) than like passionate.
I wanted to buy in Europe a Zu (Denon DL103/103R modded) cartridge and I wrote so many times emails to the only seller in Italy and never got a reply that one morning, after receiving no answer at the phone, I took a train and went to Rome. For him I was “the cartridge guy”: buy it if you want it, otherwise don’t bother. I had a nice fun day with my son and saw some exhibitions I really loved in Rome. Obviously I did not buy the cartridge and I will never buy a thing from that guy.
We are all different and we all behave accordingly to our way of seeing life.
We can choose.
I know that if I want an headphone or an amp available in US only I’ll buy it from Taron and his crew: we have a very similar idea of life.
Give them the opportunity to satisfy your needs.
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Sorry to hear it, but you’ll probably find this with the smaller businesses, which are often one or two man shops. It can take a day or two to get a reply, or longer if they’re swamped. I once canceled an order after not receiving an email reply after a week, only to find out the owner had had a family emergency, which made me feel like a total jerk.
And for the hand-made stuff, once you’ve made your order you then have to wait, sometimes several months. But ZMF headphones, ampsandsound and DNA amps and other works of art are worth the wait.
Head-fi is definitely a slow & steady wins the race hobby, not instant gratification.
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I will just put my own experiences across regarding purchases. My major ticket items were purchased from headphones.com. The service was nothing short of exceptional and was made to feel special. Delivery time considering it was to Europe was great also taking into account just how impatient i am too. So basically I can recommend them wholeheartedly.
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Some of the smaller boutique brands experienced massive demand growth due to good recent reviews (documented) and (IMO) stimulus check money looking for a home. Some small shops are content to have an order backlog because this ensures employment stability for the foreseeable future. They sometimes resist adding staff because they’ll have to lay people off during the next lull in business, and if they sell enough items to exceed demand the used market will cut into new sales.
At the end of the day, luxury audio is a luxury and many have no urgency. You can find a wide variety of used luxury audio products at sites such as usaudiomart.com or audiogon.com too.
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Just purchased the Naim Uniti Headphone Audio Edition. Lovely unit, but does not accept USB as an input from my iPad. Does accept RCA coax, so wondering if this cable would do the trick if I wanted to feed Apple Music from my iPad (which has a USB-C output). What do you think?
So… naturally…. A convo has made me question something.
Does anyone actually use a CD player with a collection of discs?
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I have cabinets filled with over 2000 CDs unopened in my basement for 10 years (at least) that say the answer’s no.
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Well helllll, maybe I will end up diving down this path as well and you can send 'em my way 
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Every time I fire up Qobuz I hear the CDs mocking me for my expenditure all those years ago…
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HA! I know what you mean. Part of this was a convo on the forum…
The other part is I am streaming the soundtrack to Immortal Beloved off Quboz right now and some sentimentality came in. I remember owning that CD many moons ago.
All the CDs of my childhood and adolescence are long gone so I would be starting from scratch.
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I looked up the Nail Uniti and it lists USB as an input. Are you saying your unit does not have USB at all, or is it that you tried USB from the iPad and it didn’t work?
Optical/coax inputs are a different type of connection (S/PDIF) that is not interchangeable with USB so a cable is not going to help with that. It appears that the cable is something specific to Cayin products.
USB inputs are for thumb drives only, as per Naim documentation. I’m gonna feed Apple Music via iPad and a Topping D10s that will act as USB pass through. When I use AM that is. Will usually go with Qobuz through Roon.
CD’s will eventually degrade, they don’t last forever. I’ve got a box sitting for the last six plus years since I last moved.
Ok, if no USB input then electronics to convert from USB to coax is needed (called a DDC) and your D10s has that covered.
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I had recently started listening to CDs again, it was quite a refreshing change of pace as it limited my ability to jump around or hit next track with ease.
I used the CD player as a transport and fed to my two DACs via optical and Coax, there was something that I could not put my finger on that came across slightly different. It was also nice to try to figure out what CD I was putting in as I flipped through one of those mega folder cases.
Personally I still buy CDs of music I enjoy, then immediately rip them to FLAC for Roon. Every once in a while inserting and ejection a disc is a good change of pace, especially with some of my older music where there was an effort to make an album one unit vs a few songs here and there.
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With no personal computer (or plans to get one) COMBINED with a general leaning toward old ways of doing things (big affinity for vinyl… my phono preamp costs more than my integrated amp for the system)… CD player stacked on is starting to sound like a less-than-bad idea.
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I found the same when I was ripping cd’s to a portable drive. Could be that streaming uses different masters or maybe I didn’t have optimum streaming settings.
Thinking about the effort required to pin it down made me want to take a nap, so it remains a mystery.
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