As others have mentioned, the source is by far the weakest link in that chain. A Raspberry Pi based streamer would be much better. Something like the USBridge Signature from Allo is around $250, which is dirt cheap compared to the rest of that chain. Try it out initially with a power brick instead of spending more on an expensive LPS, and see if it improves anything. The BiFrost is supposed to be very good at dealing with less-than-stellar USB inputs, so who knows?
I don’t think anyone has mentioned it, but have you played around with the positioning of the SR1a? My guess is that you’ll see more dramatic differences that way than by changing anything in your electronics chain. To repeat – that’s just a guess, but an easy one to try.
Finally, you could consider adding a manual EQ from Schiit to the mix. If you need a little more bass, turn a knob and see how it sounds. Again, this can be done quite inexpensively compared to your stated budget.
Haven’t heard the Move, but the JBL Flip5 sounds decent and is smaller, more robust (IPX7 vs IP56), and lots cheaper ($78 at Walmart now, I think) than the Sonos. If you don’t need the WIFI, voice-enabled and so on, you can save quite a bit.
A recent retirement has resulted in downsizing. My listening will now be exclusively headphones which I am more than fine with. However I still want the best listening experience I can get. I currently have an old Rotel cd14 player. Not terrible but not the best internal dac. It is connected directly to a violectric v200 amp. My source is 100% cds. Im thinking of upgrading both components. So, if I go with a cd player with an internal dac and an amp also with dac how do I bypass the cd dac? Is it simply digital out from the player to digital in to the amp? For example I was looking at a Moon 260d cdp and a Chord tt2 amp dac. My totalbudget for components is $10,000. Any help on the proper connections and component suggestions would be appreciated. Current headphons are hd800s an empyreans
Looking for some new cans. I already own the Focal clear pro but as much I love them there not without there drawbacks. More on that later
My budget is anything below £2000
For home studio use only
Open or closed back I don’t mind as external noise leaking in is a non issue for me
I listen to Techno driving, Techno, Trance, hard dance, melodic house and classical rock (AC/DC)
My audio interface which has a dedicated headphone amp is an Aurora (n) 16 TB3. I also have a playdiffrently model 1 that acts as an analogue console and DJ mixer
I’m a bedroom DJ and also a sound designer with hardware synths and drum machines. It’s all just a serious hobby however
Ok, so I’m looking for something that is going to give me a different listening experience compared to the Focal. The problems I find with Focals are they don’t like EQ. They absolutely hate resonance and they don’t like heavy mixes. So my next headphones have to be able to pass those issues with no problems and give me a different listening experience
I’m hoping you can help as when I purchased the Focal I did do quite a lot research but only a couple of reviews mentioned these drawbacks to the Focal clears and I was surprised how bad these problems actually we’re
Hello! Great post and I have to say the CYRUS CD i is the best possible CD player for the money.
I would keep your vioelectric 200 amp because it is powerful enough to drive the most demanding headphones and utilize the Cyrus’s internal DAC, which is smooth as hell. It uses the R2R tech and it is a 32 bit DAC.
Later on you can get the PSXR-2 specialized power supply that is specialized for The CD i. It will cost you under 4- thousand brand new at retail price.
I have a CD i with the power supply and I swear by it. You get sheer quality without destroying your bank account.
The only flaws the CD i has is that it loads the disc a bit noisy. Sounds a bit robotic, but to be honest I personally really like it. Lol.
Anyhow. Let me know what you decide on. We’re all hear to help.
Experience slam and a pretty damn wide soundstage for a closed back.
There is a big reason why the XC is Audeze’s flagship closed back for 9 years now!
I had the same questions when I was looking at the RT vs Drop version, so I emailed DCA, and this was the reply:
"Thank you for the interest. I would say if you prefer the Open headphones, by all means get a set of Opens.
They are basically the same as the AeonX, and yes consider the VIVO cable as the difference in sound is huge."
Now I was more interested in the opens, and DCA had an upgraded cable included with theirs for the same price at that time, so I bought direct from them.
I would imagine the same applies for the closed version, which is that the RT and Drop versions are the same or similar enough to not make any real difference. Unless the Drop version is a better deal (which it was over the holidays) I would vote for buying from Dan Clark. Easier warranty coverage, probably better customer service…
Thanks for your advice. I checked out some reviews last night on these cans, all seems to look and sound good. Do you have any other recommendations that suit my requirements.
I just bought a new car and intended to get a Dragonfly Cobalt to feed my phone’s Qobuz or Apple Music streams into the car (AUX). Problem is the new car doesn’t have an auxiliary audio input.
Is there any accessory that unlocks the highest resolution from my phone but feeds that highest resolution into my car via USB/CarPlay? I’m assuming that CarPlay doesn’t process full 24/96 audio, for example, since my iPhone’s lightning output won’t provide that hi-res feed.
Your car is an inherently noisy and acoustically difficult environment. Other than playing music while stopped with the engine and climate control off — such as in a car audio competition, there isn’t much point in the highest resolution possible. Streaming is usually pretty bad while moving with cd res being the highest I’ve been able to get reliably. (Radio Paradise, Apple Music, Qobuz) Although it has improved over the years.
I’m not sure CarPlay can support higher res. Bluetooth won’t, and when I run digital direct into the car audio I go to the auto system DAC. The only possibility would be an aux input as you say. There used to be adapters that can go in the harness. Have you pulled the head unit? Sometimes there is an option that the automaker did not use…
Many, many, many people are unable to hear quality differences above CD Redbook 16/44.1 under ideal circumstances. Some also can never hear any differences between compressed sources and Redbook. Automobile high res audio is a solution in search of a problem.
Thanks - I’m not overly worried about it having higher-res in the car; I’m just more curious as to whether there is a solution to this (supposed) problem. Appreciate the responses, though!
My conclusion, arrived at about 30 years ago, was and is that trying to get good sound from car audio is like trying to get good sound in the worst room in the world, with a forced terrible seating position and a very high noise floor. Maybe I would be more motivated if I spent more time in a car, though I doubt it. Diminishing returns hits even earlier and harder in that context. Just my 2 cents fwiw.
In my car I have a USB input. Using Android Auto (italian for Car) I send the signal from USB Audio Player Pro to the system on my car. I drive for at least 100km per day and very often music is the only thing that makes tolerable the travel.
Consider I don’t play music over red book sample rate but I was curious as you are and this provided a 48/24 reply to my curiosity.
So very true. I just plug my phone in via the USB and play music just to hear music. I just throw quality out the window as usually the windows are down anyway. A car or truck is a noisy place to think one can achieve headphone quality in a car or truck. I save those $$$ for the home environment, unless one happens to own a Rolls or a Bentley where the sound is rather nice .
The value of audio characteristics changes in cars. We had a “semi-luxury” car with a 7 or 9 speaker Bose system. It sounded mediocre at best (err…Bose…), even when set to “solo driver optimized” asymmetrical mode. We also had a car with a party-oriented subwoofer under the driver’s seat. It thumped! Thumped! This carried the bass through the background noise and improved the overall audio experience…even though I’m not into bass-dominant music.
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