Are their any Hi-Fi shops in your area that you can visit for auditions? A lot of them let you take your headphone and drive it using the gear you’re interested in.
The Chord stuff is supposed to be quite good, but I haven’t heard the Qutest so I’m unable to comment on it.
Fair enough 
I did find an Zen V2 for a good price . Would need a 5v power brick to fit it though . They’re not terribly expensive . Schiit has the Modi 3+ though .
@Nuance That I know of , there are no brick & mortar stores I could visit in my area that I know of , outside of maybe a Guitar Center . A new dac will come first , roll with the gear I have (using my 6XX through my Darkvoice presently) until I’m able to buy new headphones , hopefully by summer’s end .
There was one not far from home which is the biggest in the UK but sadly this is where I have issues with my Burson and I don’t want to deal with this place again. I think there was another place in Manchester where I can request to test few different amps and dacs, but yeah thats how I got the Burson on first place I went with my cans and listened for 2-3 hours straight then came back after few days for another session to make a comparison again. I was comparing Burson Conductor 3x Reference vs Chord Qutest + Chord Anni and Naim Unity but the burson sounded best with the LCD-X , I am looking now on going into Verrite Open but thats still a discussing im having with myself 
By the way any thoughts on the Cayin IHA-6 Headphone Amplifier ?
I’ve not had the pleasure, although I believe Resolve only recommended it for very hard to drive planars, saying there are better options available in that price range.
The LCD-X is quite efficient with a low impedance, so if you’re interested in the Chord stuff, try to get another listen; their gear is highly praised among the community.
I concur. @Dragonborn The ifi iPower 5V power supply is fantastic, for what it’s worth. If that’s all the Zen DAC needs, it may be worth looking into.
I found a listing on ebay, where the Zen Dac was open box for $150 . Price is fair enough, just have to purchase a seperate power cable . However, the JDS Atom Dac+ is looking more interestimg . Made in America, customer support seems to be top notch, based on my research, and , their offices are approximately 90 minutes east of my home . I could possibly just drive there to get it .
You can get a Zen DAC Air New for $100, but maybe you should get both and return the one you like less.
Or find a place you can audition the Zen DAC and then audition the Atom DAC at their reception if they’ll let you.
Interesting, the Zen Dac Air . I’ll do some research . I may have to cl/email JDS Labs, inquire about If I can make the drive to their facility .
Made a headphone switch last night, started using my HE-4XX with my SP200 . More I think about it , more I think my next purchase will be a set of planar cans .
I think I am going to go with Cayin IHA-6 amp still thinking about the dac but I might sell my LCD-X and go for ZMF Verite instead open or closed not sure yet, but like you said I better invest into high end headphone first which I think Verite is. I also looked at Diana v2 and HE1000V2 but I don’t know how good they are…
But yeah I wanted to thank you on making a fair comment which helped me change my mind a bit and go for expensive headphones which will change the sound more than buying 3k amp / dac…
Does anyone know what output voltage cayin Iha-6 and Denafrips Ares 2 are using 5V or 12V as I am looking at a Linear Power Supply to buy and I am not sure which version do I need as I still haven’t purchased them yet and I don’t want to do a mistake ha!
Thanks in advance.
The both come with a standard AC power cable, so they already have their own internal power supply.
I wanted to get external linear power supply as usually the stock PSU’s are just a joke…
Switching wall wart power supplies can be poorly made, but these aren’t that, and I don’t think these internal PSUs are crap. Who told you otherwise?
Just to add to what @Nuance said, it sounds like someone has given you misinformation that any electronics you buy will sound better with a linear power supply. Putting aside whether or not a LPS would help, you would only be able to experiment with this if the amp or dac has an external power supply that can be replaced.
Look at the back of the unit. If you only see somewhere to plug in a power cable (similar to the back of a PC), then the power supply is inside the box, and can’t be replaced. Here’s the back of the Cayin IHA-6 that you mentioned. If you look at the red rectangle, it only takes a cable, so you can’t use a LPS.
If the back of the unit shows that it’s powered by a “wall wart”, or a micro-USB cable (like the Chord Qutest), then the power supply is outside the box and can therefore be replaced. Here’s the back of a Schiit Magni 3, which takes a wall wart.
Your post is confusing because:
Output voltage is not relevant to supplying power to an amp. Input voltage could be relevant except
These amps don’t accept DC power at all. They accept AC power.
There is no place to connect a linear power supply to these units
There is no external PSU at all
Maybe it would be helpful to take a step back and verify your assumptions about the gear you are buying.
Thank you very much for clearing that out. I really got it wrong then, I am bad with electrics so this really helped me understand how wrong I was thinking. This now makes so much sense, basically like @NickZ said it accepts AC power not DC, and like @PaisleyUnderground mentioned I wont be able to use external PSU, I cannot explain how thankful I am for your advises and time to explain to me, I was going to do a big mistake then !
From my understanding the only thing I can upgrade is the power cable to a “better” just using this term to explain.
Thank you again you have been nothing but awesome !
Well there you stepped into another huge debate within the audio hobby. Some people swear by cable upgrades, while others swear at them. Power cables are often considered to have a small impact relative to headphone, amp, or DAC upgrades. Keep in mind that you are buying just the last 1 to 2 meters of cable, and this is connected to standard house wiring plus very long wires reaching back to the generation station. Many, many of us choose basic $5 or $25 cables unless we want something that looks better.
Thanks for explaining that to me, I will leave it for now as it is.
Yes, the power cable debate is perplexing. While some people whom I respect do go for fancy power cables, I never have. The only rational explanation that I have is that AC power will generate a field around a cable, and that some highly-sensitive equipment or systems may be affected by power cords in close proximity to each other, which might be typical in an installation containing many electronic boxes. Once you get to the outlet, wire congestion isn’t an issue.
I still haven’t figured out a rationalization for those who think that elevating speaker cables above the floor with little miniature Eiffel Towers made of toothpicks improves the sound.
I’ve given up trying to understand the mechanisms for what I have heard.
I don’t run cable risers, but I have heard them make a difference (all be it small), my best guess is it changes the stress points on the wire.
Try a good isolation platform on a SS amp or DAC and try and explain cause and effect there.
I do have mid priced power cables, and I agree the only rational explanation is RF noise, and if you look at how they are designed that’s clearly a part of the thought process. I’d never try and convince anyone to buy expensive power cables, but for me with a power regenerator where they are in effect the only 6 ft of cable in the system, the difference is quite clear and enough I’ve had definitive preferences between $200+ power cables (though again we’re not talking swapping amps or DAC’s level).
BUT having said all that my general rule is you have to be rational about that, anything you invest in one aspect of a system could be invested in another, you really shouldn’t be spending more than 10-20% of the cost of your system on cables.
