I heard the RAD-0 pre-pandemic, so it has been quite some time. With that said, to my ears, it was not for me, and the measurements only confirm what I heard. I’ve read there may be more energy in the ear-gain area now, but I cannot confirm that.
Totally agree that we’re both guessing, hence my recommendation for @pennstac to try for himself before buying.
It’s awesome that it hits all of your preferences! It may not for others, though, hence my recommendation to listen before blind purchasing.
I agree, about it being awesome for me. 
But to your point, a friend of mine is fortunate enough to live in California and was able to visit Rosson and listen to the 3 different tunings of the RAD-0 (I think of them as “warm, regular, bright” but from what I’ve been told, the “warm” and “bright” have a slight nudge in the tuning, and are not drastically different from “regular”). He preferred the brighter tuning, so he may have come to the same conclusion as you.
And come to think of it, I prefer the RAD-0 using my silver DHC Molecule Elite cable, which I found opened up the detail a little more than the stock cable, so I suppose in my own way, I did slightly EQ it.
Haha, that’s a good way of looking at it! 
Thanks everyone for the discussion. In particular @generic ‘s note about opportunistic capitalism. I will try to remain a highly opportunistic capitalist, and offer (if I do) only a price level where I’m pretty sure I can dump sell them without much loss if I proceed.
Hello everyone, and I am new to the audiophile world. I started my journey around an year ago and I have gone through different upgrades but I need some serious advise and knowing how knowledgeable and good this community is I hope I will find the right answers.
Around a year ago I purchased my first audiophile setup:
Sennheiser HD660s
JDS Atom Amp +
JDS Dac +
After around 6 to 7 months I decided to upgrade my headphones and went for Audeze LCD-X 2021 and I upgraded my amp and dac to Burson Conductor 3x Reference which I will admit sounds incredible. I also purchased Audioquest USB type C cable and XLR (headphone cable) upgrades which really changed the sound of the headphones. However I had many issues with the Burson (one of the channels stopped working) and I am looking to buy something else but I don’t have the ability to test the equipment I was looking for and I need some advise. I will start with what I am looking for AMPs at the moment.
Burson Soloist 3x GT
Schiit Ragnarok 2
Burson Soloist 3x Performance
ifi Pro iCAN Headphone Amplifier
Chord Anni
DAC:
Chord Qutest
Schiit Bitfrost 2
Schiit Gungnir Multibit
Topping D90SE
I don’t really have much knowledge on high end equipment and I was hoping if you guys can advise me on whether the Ragnarok 2 is better than the Burson, is there any other alternatives you recommend, also is it better to invest more into dac or amp or both to be equally expensive ? I have budget of around £2500 to max £3000. I am also going to buy linear power supply to help get the most of the equipment.
Power Supply: NuPrime LPS-205 5V Linear Power Supply
I would really appreciate your comments and looking forwards to have a nice discussion.
@Relype Welcome ! Sweet collection so far ! . Sort of in the same boat . I’m starting to look more closely at a dac for my smsl sp200, & perhaps bypassing my pc soumd card all together . Also wondering if the miniscule differences, if true, between the k712 pro & k7xx are true . I don’t see much reference about the Monoloth M1070 . Bit of a head scratcher, that .
A simple question here to all headphones experts : I want to buy a better cable for the HD6XX, single-ended because my amplifier (SPL Phonitor se) doesn’t have balanced output. There are many makers of hp cables ; Zynsonix is one of them, but I have not seen any comments about this one on this site. Unable to hear and compare… is it worth it? The SPL amplifier (solid state) works wonderfully and elevates this headphone to its full potential. Thanks for any input.
Hey @Dragonborn, my first question would be, what are you going to use the headphones for? I haven’t try the AKG but I can see the HD660s price is getting lower and I did try few in the same price range, and the senn to me was just the better headphone, music wise and gaming. for the Dac many people say good things about topping products, JDS el DAC II is really good one too I did test it and JDS seems to be investing more into the inner parts which leads to plastic devices, still very reliable and their customer service is splendid, probably the best one I’ve seen. they are really clean sounding, to me it sounds better than other 500£ dacs… But again it really depends on how much is your budget. also if you willing to buy sennheiser or any other brand make sure its cable can be replaced, and trust me invest into a better cable, example is my LCD-X i purchased a cable for £250 and it just changed tonality of the headphones made them sound like £2000 headphones, i couldn’t believe myself how much of a difference it was, like listening to brand new headphone 
. Beyerdynamics is another brand people really praise but I have never heard any of their headphones.
Hart Audio is popular around here - highly recommended.
Is the Burson no longer under warranty?
Music & gaming . My curiosity in the K712, is , if the differences between that & my K7XX are, if true, pronounced enough to warrant the purchase. I have the 6XX, so I’m content with those . I was looking at the companion dac to my SMSL SP200, the M200, & an SU-8 dac . Heard several good things about Topping myself . The E50 dac would be affordable enough. I’ve even started watching some reviews on the Topping A30 Pro . Looks like a sweet amp. Audeze of any kind is way too rich for my blood . My family comes first before spending that sort of money . As for Beyerdynamic, I already have the DT 880 (250 OHM) & the DT 990 (250 & 600 ohm) .
Still thinking about making a lowball offer on the RAD-O. I did a private message asking what tuning they were and the owner said warm. There are a few watchers, but the listing is pretty new, I figure on waiting a bit before making any offer to soften any resistance…
Meanwhile, I looked on mjolnir-audio.com and see that Birgir (Spritzer) has a used pair of STAX SR-007a that he’s done the port-mod on. Birgir wants $1900, which is a lot, but I know anything that comes from Birgir will be solid. He does note elsewhere in another forum that the SR-007a with port mod works well with the “lesser” amps including the stock SRM-T1S, and I have his hot-rodded model, so I know it would be a good pairing.
Still, $1900… there are probably other possibilities in that price range.
I see that headphones.com has 3 RAD-O on some kind of close-out without their usual 1 year return policy. If I am willing to go $1900, it’s not that much more to get something new in the low $2K range.
“Questions, Questions, Questions, flooding into the mind of the concerned young adult today.” - Frank Zappa
It is under warranty but its taking nearly 4 months and it still in the repair shop so I am requesting a refund as I am not happy with the customer service, there are other sellers of course where I can buy Burson products, but the main reason of me thinking of upgrade is that I became bit more knowledgeable if I can say, and I see some flaws in the current product like the DAC, i don’t think its a really good dac, but the amp is really the Rolls of the amps. anyway I am ready to experience something new.
Let me preface what I am about to say with this: you do you. If you want to spend more money on the amp and DAC than the cost of the headphone, that’s totally fine; there are many that go this route. I’m not one of them, so here’s my advice:
Solid State amps make a marginal difference in sound compared to actually changing the headphone or even EQing the headphone; the same goes for DACs. There are probably some people on this forum that will chime in and tell me I’m wrong, but that’s my experience and the experience of many others. I am not saying they don’t make a difference in sound quality - they do make a difference - it’s just not nearly as significant as changing the headphone or EQing it.
With that out of the way, if you plan to stick with the LCD-X 2021 (that’s actually the headphone I use the most), I recommend not trying to find an endgame solid state amp and instead looking at the under $1000 range. Something like the RebelAmp will pair well with the Audeze’s, and then maybe a Schiit Bifrost 2 or Ares 2 DAC.
Once you find your endgame headphone, it makes more sense to start spending more on the DAC and amp to achieve the desired synergy; but again, nothing will change the sound more than EQ or moving to a subjectively “better” headphone.
Thank you for the advise, it really makes sense of everything you said. I actually was having a thought crossing my mind on upgrading to something like Hifiman HE1000se and buy less expensive dac / amp, but at the end I had so many options that I lost myself into them . But honestly with EQ the LCD-X sounds amazing…
I heard very good things about the rebel amp , it still class A , but the only issues is that no one is retailing it in the UK and I am bit fuss on buying stuff outside of UK, just because of potential warranty issues and really slow repair times if required.
About the DAC I was looking at some second hand Qutest for £850 which is a really good price of it, but I still don’t know if its a high quality DAC. I also never used Schiit products and I also don’t really know how good they are compared to lets say the Ares you mentioned or to Chord DACs or Topping, same about the AMPs .
I’m not a super-expert but I have the K702 and the only reason to go that route is if your primary goal is soundstage. The tuning is not in the “natural” category.
If you know the K702 is what you like compared to the usuals in this price range - HD600 and Sundara - then an upgrade in the K line could make sense.
Getting away from the pc sound card would be my first priority. $99 for a Shiit or JDS Labs dac I would think is a good step. In typical audiophile cruelty there’s not much of a benefit to spending $400-$500 on a dac when many would say the next worthwhile step up from $99 would be something like the Bifrost 2 at $700.
Hey @Nuance nobody on this forum is going to tell you you’re wrong about this until, as you point out, you’re already at your endgame - high-end endgame - headphone. I might also point out, to those new people who are about to go down the rabbit hole, this thread:
One of the things about this forum is that we have a range of buyers here. I’m at a place in life where I can afford an expensive system, but my personal choices have been to stay under about $1000 list for a headphone and under slightly less than that for DAC and AMP (except for my used STAX amp, but that was special temptation). Only after about 50 years of listening to headphones and speakers and live music am I considering doubling that on a headphone.
And yes, I listened to the range of STAX phones in 1985 before buying middle of that line. And to high end phones again in the late 90s before getting a Sennheiser HD-580 back then. After joining here, a few months after the forum started, I caught the bug more. In the 10 years or so before this forum, I’d followed the forum (occasionally) hosted by Headroom, that made some amps. I had one of their portables. Maybe I didn’t catch the bug more. Maybe I had it all along, and my wife’s instance that I might bother the neighbors if I played the stereo too late or too loudly just provide a fertile substrate for the audiobacterium headfonus curiositum to flourish.
No super expert myself . Haven’t actually heard the 702 myself . I have gone on research that the K712 were just a touch better than my K7XX’s, so I wondered if it was worth it . Perhaps not . I have the 6XX already . They sound great on both my Darkvoice & SP200 ! . Also been eyeballing the Hifiman Edition XS & the DT1990 . I eq a lot of the treble out of my 990 600’s, it helps things out .
As for a dac, you probably right , the “law of diminishing returns” in cost . I’ve been looking at an SMSL SU-6 , the SU-8S , & the Topping E50 . That’s about as expensive as I’ll be able to go at present . Family comes first .
The only product you’re considering that I have personal experience with is the smsl su-8 v2. I would caution against pairing that dac with your Thx amp. Both tend toward the clinical/bright/analytical side of things. The su-8 was my first dac and I had it paired with the monoprice THX887 and the result was bright and soulless imo. Still have the THX887 now paired with a Bifrost2 and it’s a great amp and I like it much more now. It’s just when coupled with a similarly analytical dac the result is not great especially if your headphones also lean bright.
If it were me, I would look for a dac that is on the darker side. I don’t have a ton of dac experience to name off the top of my head what those would be but I’d look into Schiit or Ifi.
Of course it’s all very subjective but that’s been my experience.
@Audiophool
I’ll take all the knowledge I can get at this point . It’s all welcome ! I readily admit to being basically clueless when it comes to a dac . I had always used my pc’s sound card . As for a darker sounding dac , how about the Modi 3 , the JDS Atom dac , a Topping E30 , or the new(ish) Xduoo MU-601 ? They all seem to fit my budget right now . The Atom dac is appealing . The switch on the power cord would be quite useful , but in the end, it’s about sound quality .