The Price of Good Sound ... (Reviewing DACMAGIC+GS SOLO Amp+ HD 650 combination)

[admin_exported]

After spending hours reading and researching about how to get the best sound quality from a pair of headphones & a computer based system, I made up my mind and got myself the following items:

Headphones :Sen HD650 Price: 180 GBP

Amplifier :Graham Slee Solo SRG Green Intro Price: 326.39 GBP

DAC :Cambridge Audio: DACMAGIC Price: 199 GBP

Cables :Atlas Equator MKII 2 RCA to 2 RCA; 1m Price: 43.20 GBP

Main : Tacima CS929 6 Way Mains Conditionner Price: 34.99 GBP

Total : 783.58 GBP





My music is saved on my ThinkPad T42 HDD, as WAV files using EAC software for ripping and Foobar 2000 to play the files.

I’ve been running the above mentioned items for 07 days now.

Headphones are great, warm sound, huge base and accurate treble.

Amplifier: I had to use it for 72 hours (required burn-in time) before noticing a huge difference in sound quality.

DAC: No doubt the DACMAGIC improves drastically the sound quality of compressed music, personally I’ve noticed only a slightly better improvement with WAV files.

The above combination works fine, now that the amplifier has “finally” burned in,

However I have discovered that when listening to my carefully ripped WAV files through the laptop phone jack (using my HD 650 directly without DAC & amplifier) the sound quality was not bad at all, Volume reached high levels, base was still tight and treble was very decent.

No doubt that when the DAC and Amplifier were involved the sound was more accurate, separation was more obvious etc….

Definitely I can’t accurately quantify how better the sound was when played through DAC and Amp, but roughly I would say 20%.

The question is: was it worth to invest /603.58/ GBP for the extra 20%?

Does the sound quality will get better with time?

I don’t know the standards in this industry but personally I was expecting more for the extra 603.58 GBP investment (DAC+ AMP+ Cables+ Mains conditioner).

 

[PJPro]

Given your setup, why have you gone with .wav? I'd recommend flac. No sonic improvements, but take up a lot less space.

Also, you don't state the configuration of your computer. There might be a little more that can be wrung out of your source yet.

 

[Anonymous]

Now after spending days (not hours) ripping my best Jazz collection using EAC, I think I'm done with ripping, so I will stick to WAV (thanks for the advice though, didn't know the difference between the 1 formats)

as for my laptop it's simple Centrino based laptop,1.6 GHZ with 2Gegs of RAM and Windows XP as OS. (nothing fancy)

DACMAGIC streams the sound through USB and my Amplifier is attached to the DAC with Atlas Equator MK II RCA to RCA 1m cable.

 

[John Duncan]

Read PJ's post here, in case you don't view signatures.....

 

[Superaintit]

Le Robert:
After spending hours reading and researching about how to get the best sound quality from a pair of headphones & a computer based system, I made up my mind and got myself the following items:

Headphones :Sen HD650 Price: 180 GBP

Amplifier :Graham Slee Solo SRG Green Intro Price: 326.39 GBP

DAC :Cambridge Audio: DACMAGIC Price: 199 GBP

Cables :Atlas Equator MKII 2 RCA to 2 RCA; 1m Price: 43.20 GBP

Main : Tacima CS929 6 Way Mains Conditionner Price: 34.99 GBP

Total : 783.58 GBP

Bought without first listening to it!?

 

[Superaintit]

Le Robert:
After spending hours reading and researching about how to get the best sound quality from a pair of headphones & a computer based system, I made up my mind and got myself the following items:

(......)

The above combination works fine, now that the amplifier has "finally" burned in,

However I have discovered that when listening to my carefully ripped WAV files through the laptop phone jack (using my HD 650 directly without DAC & amplifier) the sound quality was not bad at all, Volume reached high levels, base was still tight and treble was very decent.

Same here. Others have laughed at my remark, but to me the mac mini with tube amp and sennheisers sound just fine. Granted, with a dacmagic, things sound clearer. I'm not sure with the prices here in Holland being twice the UK price, I'm going for it. I enjoy my music just as well now. With a Cyrus DAC-X there's a very noticable upgrade in sound. But and this is a big but, at a price. 1200 pounds!

On a second note, you have definately room for improvement as Windows need a special 'plug-in' to sound it's best. See post PJ PRO.

I've been listening to quite some dacs lately. If you want to know anything about that or my experience with the mac mini feel free to ask.

Those headphones are a joy to own. Great sounding, tough and comfortable, they will give you years of listening pleasure. Enjoy!

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the advice, honestly I will try to see if something can be done with Windows, but I believe the plug- in effect on sound won't be huge (the difference between day and night).

Currently I am satisfied with my setup but at what price?

I've already invested a lot fo money and especially time, So what's done is done,

the idea behind posting my review was to hear what Audiophiles have to say about it, personally I found it unjustified to pay around 650GBP (amp+ DAC+ Cables ) to get the sound I am getting.

It's definitely a personal approach for how to quantify the added value of such investment.

 

[PJPro]

Le Robert:
Thanks for the advice, honestly I will try to see if something can be done with Windows, but I believe the plug- in effect on sound won't be huge (the difference between day and night).

I think you might be surprised. Certainly, I found with Vista that there was significant difference and, from what I understand of XP, the improvements should be even greater.

Give it a go. What have you got to lose? The changes will cost you nothing.......other than a bit of tinkering time.

 

[Anonymous]

I will download the ASIO support plug-in from Foobar 2000 website and get back to you as soon as I give it a try.

 

[Anonymous]

Hi there,

could you please help me setup the ASIO plug-in for Foobar2000.

I have downloaded the plug-in on my desktop but I don't know what to do with it, as you know it contains a file with .dll extension,

what are the next steps that need to be taken in order to make the plug-in work with foobar2000 V 0.9.6.3?

Thx in advance

 

[Anonymous]

Le Robert:
Hi there,

could you please help me setup the ASIO plug-in for Foobar2000.

I have downloaded the plug-in on my desktop but I don't know what to do with it, as you know it contains a file with .dll extension,

what are the next steps that need to be taken in order to make the plug-in work with foobar2000 V 0.9.6.3?

Thx in advance

You have to put the dll in in the compoents folder in the foobar directory. So C/programmefile/foobarr200/compents just paste it in there.

 

[Anonymous]

I've just taken a look at PJ's post. I'd have to disagree with one comment there though regarding the k-mixer and itunes.

The K-Mixer has been proven to be bit perfect if certain conditions are met.

Only yesterday did my brother and I conduct a blindfold test comparing iTunes to MediaMonkey using ASIO on Windows XP. I failed to tell the difference between the two and my brother struggles, even over headphones to hear any difference.