Magnetostatic_Tubephile

Queued my whole music library in Roon, revisiting all albums one by one. Love it!!

It could be that labor makes up the rest of the cost, but honestly, I think that's a stretch. The last audio manufacturer I worked for, their COGS was like... 60-70%, labor 10%, profit margin was very thin. Most profit was made from repairs and service/maintenance fees.

But even with profit margin so large, why are their sales so underwhelming? Just as an example... Drop probably sold more HD6XX as a whole in 2019 than the entirety of DCA's lineup. That's crazy.

Not really that surprising on the 6XX sales. It is a headphone staple that costs only $200. DCA really only has 2 products with the cheapest being $900, and the reception has been lukewarm, to say the least. I'm honestly a little surprised they are still afloat even if I like their stuff.

I am curious to see how much money they actually get from this campaign. It's rough for entrepreneurs at the moment so I feel a bit sympathetic. I think it just brutally difficult to build a company around selling headphones.

Zach seems to have figured it out. You can't compete on price with the big boys so you offer what they can't, a bespoke experience with exotic materials, and the knowledge that the designer's hands actually touched your set. I hope Dan figures it out because I do like the Aeon 2 Open.

Didn't expect something like this from Dan. Other than some ear pads issues, I've always enjoyed the build quality on his headphones. The Aeon Flow Open are still at the top of my list to when considering timbre. I guess the very generous return policy (full refund) and what I see as the underwhelming Ether 2 isn't helping. I hope he pulls through and keeps making headphones.

Haha, just poking buttons in case that wasn't obvious. Glad you finally found that gold at the end of the rainbow! I honestly don't have a target yet if my headphone selection is any indication so I suppose I'm stuck in it for a while longer.

A system that satisfies. That's all you need, and you have it. Enjoy.

Stay with SBAF for the porn.

Your wallet thanks you.

Similarly, aside from a few more pieces of gear, I'm almost there too and can relate. Thought about a serious vinyl setup but that extra 2-3% is not worth the time, hassle, and expense to me.

I am more lenient of the Ether 2 because A) it sounds very good and B) has had some definite mechanical/R&D growing pains that may have been of the type to only really show once a bunch of units were out in the wild. Customer support so far seems positive for anyone suspecting a defective unit. And mind you we are generally more quick to highlight and find issues here, so the scale may seem larger than it is.

Even the Lyr 3, good as it is, has had some growing pains. Concerning reports of units going out and taking headphones with them (which happened to me, but did not bitch about because shit happens and Schiit took care of me).

My ether 2's were defective also but didn't want to mention it cause they took care of me... but yeah I agree with ur statement. Get it right the first time!

Looking forward to your thoughts on them!

Review should be ready in a week or so I think. Since I mostly focus on tone, timbre and associated basics, dont need to spend months evaluating. The headphone just either delivers an overall natural sound, or not. :-)

Really looking forward to get my thoughts together on this one too, excited!

Looks like you're on your way to a custom title.

I can only hope it would suck less than HD660S so far... (But lets see, maybe it will get better, only unpacked it few minutes ago.)

I was on #teamHD600 for a long time (years now), but have to qualify that now that I prefer them on tube amps with somewhat higher output impedances (Valhalla 2, Torpedo 3). On my Ragnarok, the HD600 is too thin and HD650 is a much better match. *sigh*

What are your conclusions?

Very similar to yours so far actually - upstream components play an important role and might very well be the PRIMARY factor influencing the preference of many for either headphone.

I will post more in my measurements / review thread here. So far, HD650 seems slightly closer to perfection tone-wise (more universal) while HD600 might be a bit more convincing timbre-wise (more 'life-like' subjectively). Lets see.

Along with PMx2s and LCD2Cs (vegan pads), I am really looking forward to determining the comp. curve. Ive also got some other spare headphones should further data be needed.

OK but please don't say anything publicly until you have a final product for us.

If everyone on here agreed about everything life would be boring. But yeah, now I'm suddenly craving bacon at 1AM :))

Most of the reason why the Yggdrasil is so loved is that it has excellent price-performance. It was kinda obvious reading some of the posts that there were better DACs around, only they were "fuck you"-level value.

The Yggdrasil A2 is about the most I can ever see myself spending on audio gear this lifetime, so to see something /in its range/ that competes is kinda exciting. I'm sticking sub-$1k for now though.

@Lyer25 Sticking to sub-1k range for good might be the most reasonable move for the vast majority of audiophiles. Will be scaling down myself at least partially. I do have the money to stay higher... but the diminishing returns are too strong.

I'm almost certainly sticking to sub-1k DACs for the foreseeable future, and it should be obvious by now that "value" audio has been closing in on the higher-end, but I know myself well enough to admit that I'm going to keep chasing better amps and cans as they come. Besides, the hobby's always been about chasing the last fraction of a percent; it's just a matter of knowing when you want to stop at this point :P