As was guaranteed by my Naim dealer, power conditioning did not improve anything. Unlike PS Audio PowerPlant ac regenerator, it did not hurt either, so it stayed
I LOVED the magic of Mullard tubes, but “Naim sound” from Lehmann Black Cube Linear eventually won and WooAudio went into deep storage:
Shame on me, but I never did any A-B comparisons.
The reason:before HD600 I bought HD570 advertised as being “tuned” for classical music listening, i.e. for me. They sounded dreadful!! Then, for whatever reason (usually I just dump the junk), I ordered HD570 cable from Headphile… and… to this day I still use them with Discmans and for computer listening. So, for HD650 I just bought the best cable I could afford right away, never even listened to the stock cable. Also bought a long 12ft cable from StefanAudioArt to listen to headphones when in front of my main stereo at midnight. Frankly, could not tell the difference between SilverDragon and Equinox. In my defense, at that time there was a duel between Stereophile reviewers as to whether thicker HD650 cable is the BestThingEver or is it even worse than stock HD600 cable.
I use an NDS into an Auralic Taurus II to drive Sennheiser HD800 cans. Very good, but I want to audition the EAR HP4 and TRON Anteas, which are supposedly a step up.
Lots of useful info on the headfi website.
A Question for a “parallel thread”: which DAPs/portable Naim-Heads are using?
I use Pono Player in “balanced mode” into Sennheiser HD580, and I LOVE it!!!
but Pono is failing on me and I need a new DAP. I auditioned Questyle during LA Audio Show and it sounded OK to me… Any suggestions???
Sorry but I owned a SN2 for a couple of years, I thought the headphone out was average at best. I also owned a Hugo 1 at the same time, and it wiped the floor with the SN2. I only own Sennheiser Momentums, which are an easy load, and it was quite obvious within seconds how much better the Hugo was. Last night I listened to the headphone out of my new Hugo TT2, with the same headphones, and it was spectacular. Only problem is, now I need to upgrade my headphones to get everything the TT2 offers.
I auditioned the Sennheisers but didn’t find them to be as good as the planar Oppo PM2s.
I suppose the TT2 could sound better than the SN2 but my point was that with a nice 2 box system (NDX2 and SN2) there is such a great headphone amp included that you wouldn’t need to spend on more boxes.
I assume it’s the battery in the Pono that’s failing? If so, there are inexpensive replacements available and you can even DIY - the internet shows you how.
I love the combination of Ponoplayer and HD600s in balanced mode (its even very good in SE mode, but just that much better in balanced). It is just so effortlessly musical in a way that i just haven’t managed to find with the many other DAPs I’ve owned and tried. I think that the design of the output stage may well be the reason. Charles Hansen of Ayre did a fantastic job here, and what a shame he is now gone.
Until Naim come out with a DAP I have bought a NOS Ponoplayer as a spare, just in case…
Not sure the link is ok, but it’s an application note (not a sales link) from Benchmark (makers of studio DACs now widely used in consumer / home space)… a clear and understandable explanation of balanced versus unbalanced connections in (audio) electronics, @BruceW
I have one of these on demo - a Mytek Brooklyn Bridge. It’s a complete network / DAC / Headphone amp so it’ll be interesting to see how it performs in my headphone system against the Streambox / Sony 1Z that I normally use.
@sevs – well, sometimes life is too short for extensive A/B comparisons.
Did you ever have a chance to listen to the HD800S. I am using these as I write this, and listen to Brahms Symphony No. 3 (Jansons/Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra). Simply gorgeous!
Yes, and once/if I recover from recent misfortunes I will get me HD800 to be driven by Naim Uniti Star.
My all-time favorite Brahms is under Bohm but mostly because I grew up with those LPs. I envy you!
This is what I am going to do, thank you for confirming my worst suspicions about the rest of DAPs!!! Some look like jewelry, some priced so high they just MUST sound spectacular, but none so far managed to beat my rather cheap and ugly Pono, at least to my ears. Yes, a few weeks ago I replaced its battery, and now pray that Naim will enter the field of portables.If Ayre could do it, why not Naim?
Or should we start a Kickstarter Campaign for Naim portable player?
at least in Pono player, when it is set into a “balanced mode” then second amp, otherwise dormant, kicks in. The end result is similar to bi-amping.
Whatever is out there during the shows, usually A&K, Fiio, etc… As I said, Questyle had my attention for a bit longer than other beauties.
For my daily use I have half-dozen iPods (iModded and not) into Ray Samuels h/p amps (Hornet and RS-71), owned hi-res HiFi Man DAP when it came out, but could not stand its software glitches and threw it away, and, of course, iPhone with Beyerdynamics/A&K amp.
Since I was not a fan of ripping my CD collection, my main interest was in portable CD players, not DAPs. Here is my collection before it started overflowing the desk space:
