I can see going that way on components eventually. it would have been nice to consider this before jumping on a $2000+ headphones. lol .
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Thanks @ToddR for sharing your experience. I read up on the pendant but wasn’t sure if i’d lose some of the warmth going that way. Also looking at ampsandsound direct models like the Kenzie but so far, having trouble deciding. I guess it would come down to the right combo of tubes to get the warmth i need?
I was thinking the same thing! When you’re headphones cost $2500, it’s a big deal to match your other components to the same price range.
This serves as general guidance, but there are exceptions and it likely depends on the particular price bracket at hand.
For example, the Schiit Bifrost 2 and Senn HD6XX are often a part of chains that are much more expensive. And then cans such as the Focal Clear or ZMF non-Verites are favorably used with amps costing from $200 to multiple thousand dollars.
Understood.
There are standouts of course.
I just plugged in a Border Patrol DAC this afternoon and I’m liking it quite a bit. It costs about half as much as the DAC I was using.
OTOH, you have to be careful not to cripple the performance of great headphones by feeding them with a lesser DAC or Amp.
Kind of like not getting the best performance out of your Porsche because you used cheap gas and bad tires.
Agreed. If I was given a $6k budget, I personally wouldn’t allocate equally.
I’ve been curious about Border Patrol DACs. It seems like they lean more toward euphonic rather than analytical.
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I figured it out. I switched to Mazda input tubes. Brent J is right about Mazda dynamic punch.
Eventually, I might try VC with Eikon lambskin pads, but @Chrono’s review and pad comparison suggests I might not prefer it.
I haven’t listened long, but I wouldn’t say it’s euphonic. It has a little wider soundstage than my existing DAC is what I’m noticing right now, but doesn’t sound rolled off or smeared.
Great. Perhaps a more accurate description I intended to communicate is natural, not digital, not analytical. It’s good to see more of these out in the wild - R2R non oversampling and tube rectified.
For DACs I agree with those who think they’re down the list below headphones and amps. In some ways rolling some of my tubes create more difference than switching DACs. While I’m currently using the TT2 primarily as a DAC, the increase in the experience vs. the $200 SMSL SU-8 certainly isn’t anywhere near what the price difference would indicate. The Hugo2/Qutest are 90-95% of the TT2 for me.
The Drop SDAC-B was perfectly decent, as was the Drop Airist. Check out Soekris DACs. I thought the 1421 was excellent and up there with the Hugo 2 in terms of staging, resolution, and just overall satisfaction–it’s not a warm R-2R like the Airist, which was hard to go back to after spending time with the 1421. The ARES 1 I had just wasn’t competitive with the 1421 and was less clear, with a narrower stage. If I needed to cash out with the TT2 I’d happily go back to a Soekris.
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Just ordered a VC today. The 5-10 week wait begins. Now I feel the need to buy a tube amp.
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It’s hard to resist that urge. Everyone seems to agree that tubes do great things with ZMF’s. I have my VC’s, but my tube amp is still a couple of months away.
I’m currently going back and forth between using my JDS Labs EL Amp II and Emotiva A100 with the jumpers removed. I think the effective output impedance of the A100 is 200 Ohms with the jumpers out. This seems to work pretty well with the VC’s. It sounded terrible with my old HD58X (150 Ohms) with bloated undefined bass due to being so under-damped.
Needless to say, I’m finding the VC’s very enjoyable on my modest mid-fi equipment. I’m excited to see how much they scale when I get my tube amp and eventually upgrade my DAC.
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I’m in the same boat with some lower level? equipment. I use focusrite scarlett as my dac into thx 789. I had the chance a while back to compare my scarlett, smsl su-8, and oktoresearch dac8 all against each other into 789 with focal elex, hd58x, lcd-x, and 64audio u10s. The dac differences were so marginal, I would forget it after 30 seconds without A/Bing immediately with another source. The su-8 had like more clarity in the mids compared to the scarlett and then the dac8 had a tighter presentation across the entire freq range.
I enjoyed the setup with my aeolus but sold it to fund the VC. So maybe will still be good with the VC, but starting to feel the need to test more stuff.
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If you don’t want to get into tubes, might I suggest checking out the Burson soloist 3x…I personally have it paired with my Aeolus and they sound addicting with them!
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Just wanted to share that i also tried running the VC with my Liquid Platinum hybrid amp via balanced connection. The difference between running it here versus on my Crack were night and day as far as the 3D-ness was concerned. Felt like someone flipped the off switch for 3D when on the Platinum. I guess i can try this with my 789 as well to see if it’s consistent with solid state or if it’s just this combination that’s causing this.
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I was very close to getting the Liquid Platinum for my VC’s. When the price dropped to $399 it was very tempting even though I already had an SW51+ on order. I have read mixed reviews of the LP when paired with ZMF’s. Most that have tried hybrids and full tube amps seem to have preferred full tubes.
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Received my VC today and I am ecstatic! I was one of the double purchasers from the first batch of stabilized maple burl mass runs and I was able to get the “Eye of the Tempest” set.
*I am by no means a photographer
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Nice set! How does it sound?
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Thank you!
Coming from the Aeolus, it seems more engaging if I had to sum it up in one word. Sorry for the vague description, but I have just started listening to them and only on the Auteur solid pads so far!
*Not to take anything away from the Aeolus, I still love them
**Also I have only listened to them on the Cayin iHA-6 Solid state amplifier at this point as well
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Nice set man! I went for those as well. Congrats!
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