Past Setups, here for historical reasons first.
It’s easier to diagram things out, so I might as well show that instead (hopefully up to date, 11/20/23):
If you prefer it in text (likely more up to date, I’m too lazy to update the diagram all the time):
– Main Listening Room: My most realistic and enjoyable setup, but can’t use it all the time
Digital:
Home Switch -> UpTone EtherREGEN (w/ Mojo Illuminati V3) -> Totaldac d1-switch -> Antipodes K50 (running Squeeze server & player) -> Totaldac d1-sublime
Cables:
Commscope Teraspeed Fiber + Finistar SFP
Esprit Aura RJ45
Echole Limited Edition AES/EBU
Purist Audio Design Dominus Luminist RCA & Dominus Diamond Power (for the DAC and K50)
Triode Wire Labs The Obsession Power (for the network gear)
Separate 20a circuit, Purist AC Power Extension, all Totaldac have live-powers.
Analog:
Totaldac d1-drivers-mk2 -> LAMM LL1.1 Signature -> LAMM ML3 Signature
Cables:
Purist Audio Design Dominus Luminist RCA, Dominus Diamond Speaker, Dominus Diamond Power
Amps direct into wall, separate circuits, multiple Synergistic Research Orange Duplex & Purist AC Power Extension.
Tubes & Tweaks: Stock tubes
LAMM: SRA Ohio Class XL+2 bases for ML3, CMS QXK Black Platinum for LL1.1
Totaldac: CMS QXK Black Platinum
Antipodes: CMS QXK Black Platinum
Transducers: Verity Lohengrin IIS & LB-acoustics Mysphere 3.1 (custom cable) on both amps
– Alt HP: Top tier performance, but in headphone form
Digital:
PC -> Totaldac d1-digital-mk2 -> Berkeley Alpha Reference Series 3 OR Sonore opticalModule Deluxe (w/ Mojo Illuminati V3) -> Sonore Signature Rendu SE optical Tier II -> Ideon Absolute Time -> Lampizator Horizon
Cables:
Commscope Teraspeed Fiber + Finistar SFP
Esprit Aura RJ45
Final Touch Audio Sinope USB (for the Horizon setup)
Audience FrontRow USB (for the RS3 setup)
Tara Labs RSC Air Evolution AES
Audience FrontRow HP Power (for the Horizon and RS3)
Triode Wire Labs The Obsession Power (for everything else)
Separate 20a circuit
Tubes & Tweaks:
Lampizator – Takatsuki 274B, Brimar CV1988 Black Glass, Tung-Sol KT170, Graphite Audio IC-35 Premium
Analog:
Robert Koda Takumi K15EX -> Riviera AFM-50 & Aries Cerat Concero 25 845 -> Direct Headphone Tap / Speaker Switch (w/ WBT Nextgen Sig posts, Cardas Rh XLR, Goldpoint Sw, & Kimber wire) -> Borresen 01 & headphones OR Mass Kobo 394 II.
Cables:
Audience FrontRow XLR & RCA (for the Koda, Riviera, & Aries Cerat)
Snake River Cottonmouth Gold RCA (for the RS3/EVO to 394 II)
Audience FrontRow Speaker (for to tap boxes and speaker)
Audience FrontRow HP power (for Koda, Riviera, & Aries Cerat)
Triode Wire Labs The Obsession (for everything else).
Headphone Tap Cables: Danacable Lazuli Nirvana Tap, DHC Prion4 Tap
Separate 20a circuit.
Tubes & Tweaks:
Robert Koda – Graphite Audio IC-35 Premium
Riviera – Siemens 5814 Triple Mica, Ansuz Darkz T2
Aries Cerat – Elrog ER845, Ansuz Darkz T2
Borresen – Ansuz Darkz T2 Supreme
Transducers:
LB-acoustics Mysphere 3.2 (on the Mass Kobo or Riviera), 3.1 (on Aries Cerat)
Hifiman Susvara (on the Riviera or Aries Cerat)
Focal Utopia (on the Mass Kobo or Riviera or Aries Cerat)
Final D8000 Pro (on the Mass Kobo or Riviera or Aries Cerat)
97′ Sennheiser HD600 (on 394 II, or out of a Sound Devices USBPre2 when I’m lazy)
Borresen 01 (on the Riviera or Aries Cerat)
Koss KSC-75 (on everything)
Headphone Cables:
LB-acoustics – Kimber Axios Hybrid, Custom
Hifiman – DHC Prion4
Focal – Danacable Lazuli Nirvana
Final – Brise Mikumari Ref. 2
Sennheiser – ALO Hybrid
– Portable Setups/IEMS: For either on-the-go, or work trips/travel
Sources: Luxury & Precision P6 Pro OR Lotoo PAW Gold Touch Ti -> sometimes Mass Kobo 424 (either off batteries or Fidelizer Nikola2)
Cables:
Brise Yatono-Mini Ultimate 4.4mm to 4.4mm
Plussound X8 Gold Plated Hybrid 4.4mm to 4.4mm
Moon Black Dragon Mini v2 3.5mm to 3.5mm (and 4 pin 3.5mm to SPDIF Coax)
Audioquest Carbon A to C and C to C USB
Transducers:
Oriolus Traillii JP (on P6 Pro and/or 424)
Rhapsodio Infinity MK2 (on P6 Pro and/or 424)
MMR Thummim (on LPGT TI and/or P6 Pro)
Hyla Sarda (on LPGT TI and/or P6 Pro)
Focal Utopia (P6P -> 424 or WA8)
LB-acoustics Mysphere 3.2 (P6P -> 424) or 3.1 (LPGT TI -> WA8)
Final D8KP (either to either)
Also Koss KSC75, the true GOAT.
IEM Cables:
Oriolus – Stock PWA
Rhapsodio – Dita Celeste Kondo
MMR – Eletech Aeneid
Hyla – PWA Blackicon Silver Gold
– Leftovers: things without a dedicated setup
Sources: Cayin RU7, few random budget to midrange dacs, and few midrange studio amps
Transducers: Beyerdynamic DT880 600 ohm (Jena 1222), Koss ESP950 (Vesper Hybrid), Sony MDR-V6, Koss KSC75, Guideray GR-i18
– Non Hifi Desk Gear: other stuff at my desks
PCs:
Nothing special about the PCs used (just older Dell precision fleet laptops), mishmash of Acer, Dell, & Samsung monitors
Mics:
Vintage? – 70’s AKG C414 EB -> Vintech X73 -> Empirical Labs Distressor -> Prism Lyra 2
Daily – Neumann U87 -> RND 5034 Newton Channel -> Prism Lyra 2
Inferior VOIP – Beyerdynamic M160 -> Modded Warm TB12 -> Warm WA76 -> Sound Devices USBPre 2
lots of keyboards lol
Brief Bio:
I have no issues rambling on about audio for as long as you let me, but don’t really have anything to say about myself lol. I guess I’ve been a part of this hobby as long as I can remember, as was most of the people I was around, I guess I started getting really deep into it many years ago and haven’t really stopped since. It’s quite hard to leave in fact, and I don’t think I could even if I wanted to.
I started out surrounded by 2 channel setups, but found myself favoring headphones early on and have continued to focus on headphones ever since (although I’ve been bitten by the 2ch bug, and it’s starting to win over now). The first “serious” cans I was gifted were a pair of hand me down a 90s Sony MDR V6, and then an original 97′ Sennheiser HD600 (and IEM wise Etymotic ER4S), and once I started making some disposable income to fuel this addiction, branched out from there. Technically had a 580 precision before the 600 but those were more of a loan than a gift lol. Many many different headphones later, those two still stick with me (although both pretty warn from their age), although I can’t say I use them all that much given what other options I have now, but I do still think they hold up for their respective categories. For what I currently use/have, check out my forum profile. I can’t really remember all the things I’ve listened to over time, but it’s a significant amount lol.
Early on, I also grew an infatuation with source gear and more foundational aspects of audio and how prominent of a role it could play in some systems, and the concept of scaling and how I could further elevate what transducers I already loved with better and better sources. That still very much holds true to this day, and admittedly largely dominates what I talk about and what I’m interested in for my own personal setups. The higher I went up, the more and more important I found it to be, I can’t stress enough how much it can potentially make or break a higher end setup. Currently (if you can’t tell) I can’t get enough of what various digital paths, power, and vibrational control contribute to my setup, but I make sure to not neglect other aspects of the chain as well, after all it’s only going to perform as well as it’s weakest link.
From a preference perspective, since I grew up around a variety of different gear, I don’t really have a strong established preference toward the gear I listen to, I just appreciate high quality sound regardless of tuning/focus as long as it’s well done. I could be content with either side of the spectrum or right in the middle, all depends on the system and the synergy between that system. If I did have to figure out some defined preferences I have, I do place heavy importance on a lot of things in the time domain: overall spatial recreation, realistic timbre, unrestrained dynamics, and generally a sense of overall directness and incisiveness that I think really contributes to the realism of a specific unit. Tonally I do tend to prefer a slight warmer and richer lean if I had to pick given my current systems, but I really don’t care too much about this anymore, as I feel that the more intangible aspects contribute a lot more to the overall sound and coloration than simple tonal balance/frequency response. As long as I can get the most direct emotional connection to the music as I can, I’m happy.
The more I learn about this hobby and the more I experience, the more I realize the less I know lol. Every question seems like the only answer is “it depends,” there’s merit to most all ideas/designs/concepts and the answer typically lies in the middle, most things aren’t absolute, trusting your own ears is the most important thing you can do in this hobby, focusing too much on the “truth” of this hobby typically leads to even less understanding, the easiest answer is typically not the best one, an open mind is the best way to approach this hobby, etc etc etc. There’s a lot of general advice that could be said here, but it really depends on the person and their own experiences for what’s actually valuable. Just making sure to do what leads to the most enjoyment for you is a good way I’d summarize, this hobby is inherently selfish, make sure to prioritize your own enjoyment first since what works for someone else might not work for you, and vice versa.
I’ve been watching and lurking in the online community for a long time, but only recently did I really sort of dive in and start becoming an active member both here and on another forum, and it’s been pretty fun actually getting in on the discussion for once. Met some great people in person and online, really enjoy just talking and hearing about most things in this hobby, though I like to keep things more casual than not lol.
I should have addressed music a bit sooner considering it’s 50% about the music and 50% of the gear for me (or at least I try to keep it that way). I tend to find myself listing to a large amount of orchestral music (typically Romantic era and up), ambient, most electronic of most all types, classic and modern hip/hop & rap, experimental jazz, and more. I really tend to listen to any genre as long as it’s enjoyable to me. The only genres I might say I specifically avoid or tend to not enjoy as much is more modern country and things that focus too heavily on vocalists and the human voice (although I do love opera lol). Not sure why, but I am not the type of person overly concerned about lyricism and vocal performance, perhaps it’s from a previous mastering side gig that mainly had me dealing with vocals and speech, doing something for a living does tend to reduce my enjoyment of it as a hobby lol. I’ve got quite a large music library that’s constantly expanding, still very much interested in hearing new sounds out there, there’s so many these days.
I guess for some non audio info, I generally find myself interested in most all tech, although after working with tech as a career, I find I’ve become someone younger me would hate, someone that just wants something that works and is willing to pay for convenience lol. I can’t say I experience that trait leaking over into audio, I just hope it stays that way lol. I also enjoy swimming & keyboards, and uh, that’s about it I guess. I feel like all I really do and care about is audio and listening to music, don’t really consume any visual media, just listen to music almost all the time.
I apologize about the more amateurish and simplistic writing, not really my strongest skill, hopefully it’s readable enough lol. Just prefer to be more direct and concise if possible, but that’s not always possible given the subject, so I tend to favor a more no nonsense and informative approach to try and get as much information across as I can. It’s all just my opinion and experiences anyways, that’s all I can really provide, so make sure to take that as such. At this point most of the stuff I want to write about is very difficult to put into words, the higher you go, the harder it is to articulate what you hear after all lol, so hopefully it still comes across well enough to have some sort of substance.
Thanks for stopping by the site, means a lot, I hope you enjoy your time here (and potentially join in on the discussion on the forums as well)!
Past Equipment:
Have had quite a lot of stuff lol, so much so that I actually can’t document it all on here because I genuinely have lost track of some of it, but I’ll try to see if I can list it out. For my own sanity, it’s only going to be things that I: 1. owned for at least many months, 2. things that I somewhat liked and isn’t going to include stuff I wasn’t impressed by and wanted to sell, 3. isn’t going to include loaners, demos, tours, etc, as it all has to be stuff I bought that I kept in my house and in use for a decent while. So while that’s omitting a lot of stuff I’ve heard still, it’s good enough for now lol. Going to try and be in order of what I owned from past to now, but I can’t guarantee it will be 100% accurate since I never bothered to keep track of when I got stuff, only mostly what I got lol. Really more showing personal journey progression (meaningful or not) rather than everything I’ve ever owned, although hard to document progression without also including some of the things I said I wouldn’t include, but I digress lol.
DACs & Digital Sources:
(first 3 shared but felt like including)
Theta DS Pro Gen V (w/ Meridian 500 MKII)
Sonic Frontiers SFD-2 MKII (w/ Audio Alchemy DTI Pro + Sonic Frontiers SFT-1)
Krell KPS-20i
–
Some NAD CDP (C541i?)
Lavry DA11
Weiss DAC2
Berkeley Alpha Series 2
Berkeley Alpha USB
Bryston BDA3 (love/hate)
Holo Spring 2 KTE
Sonore UltraRendu
Holo May KTE
Crane Song HEDD Quantum
Lavry Quintessence
Aries Cerat Kassandra II Ref
DCS Network Bridge
Berkeley Alpha Reference 2
Lampizator Big 7 MK2 BAL
Totaldac d1-direct w/ D1-Driver
Nagra Classic DAC
Audio Note DAC 5 Special v2
Mola Mola Tambaqui
Nagra HD DAC + MPS
Rockna Wavedream Signature Balanced
Lampizator Golden Gate II
Auralic G2.1 + Leo GX.1
Bricasti M21 Platinum
Mojo Mystique EVO Pro 21
Totaldac d1-digital-mk2
Ideon 3R Master Time
Lampizator Pacific
Berkeley Alpha Reference 3
Antipodes K50
UpTone EtherREGEN w/ Mojo Illuminati v3
Ediscreation Silent Switch OCXO Extreme
Sonore Signature Rendu SE optical Tier II
Totaldac d1-twelve-mk2 w/ D1-Driver
APL DSD-MR MK2
Berkeley Alpha Reference 3 (yes again)
Lampizator Horizon
Totaldac d1-switch
Totaldac d1-sublime
Ideon Absolute Time
Prism Lyra 2
Random stuff I had owned for awhile as well but not notable:
MHDT Orchid/Pagoda, Schiit Bifrost 2, Topping D10/E30, iFi Zen/Pro iDSD, EarMen Donald, Monolith Liquid Spark DAC, Soekris 2541/1541, Resonessence Invicta Mirus Pro SE, Allo Revolution DAC, Denafrips Ares II, BAT REX 3 DAC, and others
Headphone Amps:
WIP
Headphones:
Literally too many to recall all of them
DAPs:
Creative Nomad Jukebox Zen NX
iPod classic 5th gen
Zune 120
Hifiman HM-801
Altmann Tera Player
Lotoo Paw Gold
Cowon Plenue M2
Questyle QP2R
Lotoo Paw Gold Touch
iBasso DX220MAX
Questyle QPM
Luxury & Precision P6 & P6 Pro
iBasso DX300MAX
Hiby RS6
Lotoo Paw Gold Touch Ti
Cayin N7
Random stuff I had owned for awhile as well but not notable:
Fiio X5 II, Q1 II, M11, and others, some iBasso I can’t recall, and others
Portable DAC/AMPs:
Ray Samuels Emmeline SR-71
Cypher Labs AlgoRhythm Solo DAC
ALO Rx MK2
Vorzuge VorzAMP PURE II
Bakoon HPA-21
ALO Continental Dual Mono
Chord Mojo
iFi micro iDSD BL
Chord Hugo 2
Woo WA8 Eclipse
iFi xDSD
Stax SRM-D10
Analog Squared Paper TUR-06es
CEntrance HiFi-M8 V2
LessFox BX-2 Plus
Phatlab PHAntasy II
Mass Kobo 424
Brise Tsuranagi
Random stuff I had owned for awhile as well but not notable:
Fiio Q1 II, A3, Little Bear B4-X, Luxury & Precision W2, Cayin RU7, CEntrance DACport HD, and others
IEMs:
Etymotic ER4S
Victor HP-FX500
Shure SE315
Sennheiser IE80
Sony MDR EX1000
InEar ProPhile 8
Hyla CE-5
Stax 003mk2
QDC Anole VX
Final A8000
StereoPravada Spearphone SB7
Final LAB II
Hyla Sarda
Earsonics Grace
oBravo EAMT-1 c
MMR Thummim
FiR VxV
Rhapsodio Infinity MK2
JVC FW10000
Oriolus Traillii JP
Final A4000
Penon Turbo
Random stuff I had owned for awhile as well but not notable:
Fiio FH3, Meze Rai Penta, iBasso IT03, Guideray GR-i18, FLC8s, Tin T2, Ikko OH10, and others
Purely Speaker Amps & Preamps:
Some older Rotel receiver I can’t recall the name of
Bryston 4B ST
Parasound Halo A21+
Parasound Halo P6
Luxman L-590AXII
Accuphase E800
Aries Cerat Impera II Ref
Aries Cerat Diana Forte
First Watt J2
First Watt F8
LTA ZOTL Ultralinear
Bricasti M28
Grandinote Demone
Pass Labs XP-32
Parasound JC1+
Lamm LL1.1 Signature
Lamm ML3 Signature
FM Acoustics FM155 MKIIR
FM Acoustics FM108 MKII
Riviera AFM-50
Wavac EC-300B
Robert Koda Takumi K15EX
Aries Cerat Concero 25 845
Random stuff I had owned for awhile as well but not notable:
Rogue Apollo Dark Monoblock, some random lower budget stuff for HT or others but really nothing notable, only recently have I been able to get into and put attention toward speakers (but always got demos in when I could throughout lol).
Speakers:
Zenith Allegro MC4000
JBL L100
SVS Ultra Bookshelf
Harbeth P3ESR
ATC SCM19
BMR Philharmonitor
Dynaudio Special 40
Harbeth Monitor 40.2 40th AE
Raidho D1.1
Voxativ Hagen AF-1n
Spatial Audio X5
Joseph Pulsar2 Graphene
Verity Lohengrin IIS
Borresen 01
Voxativ Pi 2 AC4X
Omega Compact Alnico
Random stuff I had owned for awhile as well but not notable:
Tekton Perfect SET, Elac Navis ARB-51, Pioneer HPM 60
Yes, regretfully, I do (not) have a tier list: https://www.sonusapparatus.com/2023/05/m0ns-shit-list/
Current Rebirth (08/16/2026):
I had a lot of things happen in my life, had to take a break from everything and start over from mostly scratch years later, with much more limited constraints (budget, energy, and time). I’m slowly working on rebuilding within those constraints as I regained my interest, and in the process, reformed a lot of my understanding within the hobby and continue to grow. This is where I’m at now, and while it’s not where I was before, it has been enlightening to start from the bottom all over again and focus everything on building one setup that I plan to live with for a long while. A lot of introspection, experimentation, frustration, and satisfaction. I’ll go ahead and put the setup down here, but I want to explain my brief reasoning in how it ended up as it did, because why not.
My main goal with this setup was to create the best bang-for-buck setup I could, initially with whatever I could get, but still tailored to my own preferences, to make the best of what I had left, and take things to their limits, within reason. I wanted to play things a bit safe where I could to start, but experiment like crazy with things I felt like I had either neglected or hadn’t fully understood in the past. I ended up just starting from the core foundations and working upward. This is kinda where I ended up, and I’m very happy with the results. It’s still something that will grow and change, but I don’t think it will be anything drastic or jumping back up to my setup before, I love it nonetheless.
Power & Grounding:
Dedicated subpanel w/ dampened low contact twisted Southwire THHN 10AWG ➡ Oyaide R-0 + WPC-Z receptacle ➡[Snake River Takshaka w/ 3x Furutech NCF Booster Signal]➡ Shunyata Typhon T2 ➡[Reference Umbilical]➡ Shunyata Hydra Triton v3. All components grounded (except JS-4) to Triton v3 using Cardas grounding wire. All audio equipment plugged into conditioners, grouped into isolated inlets and grounding posts. Cables routed to avoid interference and least physical contact.
In the process of writing why I did.
Vibration Control:
Headphone setup in Adona Eris II 4C w/ Live Vibe Audio Points & Brass platform coupling tweaks, spiked into carpet covered concrete. Each component has Live Vibe Rhythm Jr Advantage & Essential 4 platforms, with Mojo & Shunyata have 2 extra AP and CD5 couplers, points are placed to best match vibrational characteristics of each component. Any cable that must touch surface is on rack platform aside from main power cable.
I already ended up writing further elaboration on why I went this direction
Recording setup in separate server rack cart, future vibration control planned…
Digital Source:
Heavily optimized PC for playback/recording on a separate circuit using JRiver MC36 with JCAT USB XE EVO + Master OXCO (no USB power) w/ UpTone JS-4 (Snake River Signature AMP PC, Synergistic Research Purple fuse, Zone 4) ➡[FTA Sinope USB]➡ Gustard U26 (Snake River Takshaka PC, Silver Sluggo fuse, Zone 3) + Mutec REF10 SE120 (Shunyata Alpha X NR PC, HiFiTuning Supreme3 Au fuse, Black Cat KLOK, Zone 3) ➡[Black Cat TRON MK. III BNC]➡ Mojo Mystique EVO Pro 21 (Snake River Takshaka PC, Zone T2) ➡
In the post linked above I think I explain some of the general tweaks I’ve done to my own system, but I don’t think I really talked about why I ended up with the rest. JRiver is a bit old, a bit clunky, but it’s extremely capable and on linux is one of the best sounding players to my ears (with memory playback) while still having modern features (like a GUI for example lol). The JCAT setup has genuinely been a revelation, I don’t think I’ve tried such a high value USB card, completely removes the desire to add another USB reclocker into the mix (even a really good one), and allows me to really simplify my setup for both recording and playback benefit. One of those “everything is significantly better” no brainier upgrades for me. Another no brainier was an FTA Sinope, it’s just got such an enjoyable overall sound that’s slightly warmer, richer, and more spaced out while still being very technical and not sounding too colored itself. I had tried other USB options but it just fit so well into my setup from both a sound and value perspective that I stopped trying other options. The Gustard is an entirely value focused pick, it’s well rounded and offered a decent lift over just the JCAT on it’s own (I do think the JCAT does a lot of the heavy lifting in my setup though), but connected to the Mutec clock it really takes off. Don’t get me wrong, on an unoptimized traditional system the Gustard on it’s own offers drastic improvements, but I found with mine it was just already at a higher level already and I was honestly more looking for a good entry point to add on a much better standalone clock. The Mutec was a really drastic improvement, but also a coloration I wasn’t really expecting either, it enhanced the overall technical performance of the system to a high degree like another quality clock I had slotted in, but it had a distinctive slightly more organic and relaxed lean that offered really nice weighting and presentation that I felt some other clocks lacked. It helped to balance out the directness of the JCAT and more cleanly focus of the Gustard on it’s own. The Black Cat spdif and clock cables also were a balance pick, they’re very technical but very refined, and just get out of the way while offering you a lot (understated performance was exactly what I needed to tie everything together, and the differences between clock cables were equally as drastic as spdif). You’ll see a lot of the components use a silver slug in place of a fuse, and while it’s not safe and I’d never suggest it (which to any insurance agency reading this, I’m not using them), it’s the highest value sound per dollar fuse option you can get. Very technical and capable although in my system sounded a bit slightly dry and colder lean. I used a SR Purple in the UpTone because it helped add a bit of warmth and body upstream, and a Supreme3 in the Mutec to add a bit of extra energy to it while keeping it’s more organic nature.
When it comes to the Mojo, I don’t really think there’s many other DACs that can offer the unique balance it achieves, including earlier and later Mojo dacs. It’s very organic, fun, and still technical. It’s absolutely colored, but colored in a way that’s very controlled and workable, and likely adds the most amount of sonic signature into my chain vs everything else. Normally with what I’m going for, I’d have found this disruptive and undesirable, but I’ve been able to balance it with the rest of the chain in a way that bolsters it’s strengths while helping to minimize and control it’s coloration. I am thankful that it’s designed in a way to extract a lot of it’s performance from the rest of the chain, like the digital source and the power going into it, and not normalize performance for the sake of consistency in setups with a less than stellar foundation. I really don’t know how to properly describe it with how it sounds in my current chain as it’s not like when I had one before, it feels like taming the beast, balancing feral tendencies and intellectual pursuits. IDK, I like the sound of it, and I made it fit in a way I don’t think I could make other dacs of similar sound do. I think I might upgrade in the future, but I think in order to get a truly significant upgrade it will be a lot more expensive and require reworking my chain somewhat. It’s special and I don’t feel like it’s holding me back, and if I did change it I wouldn’t want to get rid of it anyways.
Analog Reproduction:
[Zenwave DSR RCA]➡ Pass Labs HPA-1 (Snake River Takshaka PC, Silver Sluggo fuse, Zone T2) ➡[Norne Drausk v3 17awg]➡ Final D8000 DC Pro / Mysphere 3.2 (Bass Frames, Lavricables Grand) / Hifiman HE1000se
I’m not fully happy with the Zenwave DSR as my interconnects because their coloration shows too prominently in my setup (presentation wise it’s a bit too artificially large/grand sounding, and somewhat rounded despite it’s more neutral slightly cool tonality). I do like them still, but I think it’s pushing my presentation a bit too forward and skewed, and I’d really love to get some Darwin Enlightenment Extreme in to really let this shine technicality wise (while also being killer value), I do slightly worry about if it will end up too direct though, only way to know is to try lol.
I can’t say the same about the Pass HPA-1 though. Genuinely, this is one of my favorite solid state headphone amplifiers of all time, even with all the options these days, you would be hard pressed to find something as overall balanced and refined for any amount of money. It’s one of those amps that will continually reward you for improvements in your chain, remain balanced & focused enough in all aspects to keep up and faithfully give you what you feed it, while not being brutal enough to punish you for problems with a bit of forgivingness. Amazing coherency and refinement, everything just sounds right and it meshes with my chain extremely well. As a complete package, could I do better for a solid state headphone amp? Yeah of course, but at 3-5x the cost. Do I eventually want to upgrade? Yeah of course, but I will wait until it feels like a significant enough bottleneck to do so (likely to a Mass Kobo 491/465 or Riviera AIC 10).
The D8000 DC Pro might seem like a weird pick to settle on as a main headphone for a setup like this, but there’s a good reason for that. I wrote about it a bit here, so I’ll just be lazy and leave it there. The cable isn’t the best fit though, so a Danacable Lazuli Nirvana is next in line as I believe it will fit my chain best out of other cables I’ve tried (a Brise would be a runner up best fit).
I don’t really use the Mysphere much because while I love it, it’s not the right fit for this chain. The Hifiman is great for casual/fun listening, but isn’t something I find myself grabbing for as often anymore.
Recording:
Josephson C716 / Modded Neumann U87i (Thiersch Reskin, higher gain FET, tweaked caps/resistors/transformer) / Pearl CC22 & CB22 ➡[Mogami Platinum XLR]➡ Crane Song Flamingo.1 (Shunyata Alpha Python CX, Zone 1) ➡[Gabriel Gold Rapture XLR]➡ Crane Song Trakker (SignalCable MagicPower, Zone 2) ➡[Gabriel Gold Rapture XLR]➡ Crane Song Interstellar (Shunyata Theta NR, Zone 1) ➡[Snake River Boomslang USB]➡ JCAT USB XE EVO + Master OXCO + UpTone JS-4 (Snake River Signature AMP PC, Synergistic Research Purple fuse, Zone 4) ➡ Reaper (native rate, optimized)
Direct Feed Monitoring:
Crane Song Interstellar (Shunyata Theta NR, Zone 1) ➡[DH Labs D-110 AES + VG Chinchilla II BNC clock]➡ Prism Lyra 2 (TWL Digital American II PC, Zone 4) ➡[Mogami Gold TRS to XLR]➡ Mass Kobo 433 (TWL Nine Plus PC, Zone 2) ➡[Final Stock XLR]➡ Final D8000 DC Pro
I use this recording setup for the dumbest thing ever, but it did help get me back into audio again. I do some real recording work from time to time, but it’s mostly just for fun/personal satisfaction.
Portable:
Lotoo PAW Gold Touch ➡[Lavricables Grand 4.4mm]➡ Mass Kobo 428 (Panasonic Rechargables) ➡[PWaudio No. 10 4.4mm]➡ Hyla Sarda
I used to be really into portables and such, but considering I don’t travel much anymore and don’t listen to music at work, I don’t find myself focusing on it much anymore. Still critical when I have to be out of the house for awhile, but I am fairly content with what I have here. If I start traveling more, this might change lol. The LPGT still is a phenomenally balanced and usable DAP, and would still better most of what else is out there these days. Same with the 428 for being a fairly neutral yet enjoyable reference that’s hard to beat. The Sarda are just a load of fun while still being competent, a nice bombastic V shape with some special sauce that you don’t hear often.
If I changed anything here, I might go for a more capable and well rounded IEM since they have continued to improve and refine options out there. Which one(s)? I dunno, the space moves far to fast and I haven’t checked in for awhile.
Not a reviewer and not writing reviews, just opinions and experiences of someone in too deep for fun. Prefer to keep things concise (sometimes), casual, and hopefully enjoyable, not much more to say here lol, more active on the forum
Add me on XMPP at m0nm0n@pimux.de