The All Purpose Advice Thread

So lets close this foroum. Google have everything.

 

Google is a good start.

I suspect you’d get a friendlier reception here if you at least tried to do some of your own research. No one likes spoon feeding info to those coming across as too lazy to try and find answers on their own.

Search online, see what comes up, and then come back here and ask members what they think. They are usually happy to chime in with gear or other items with which they have experience.

 

But we come here for the occasional blatant display of cluelessness.

 

I have searched in google. Too many options and i don't know which is the best. I don't know also which will be accurate with eac because i found an old list for accurate settings cd drives. Also i was searching if i can use directly the tunderbolt port. So i guess somebody here will be help me a lot, that's why i am asking! Thanx guys.

Ps: The apple drive doesn't worth, too old and so slow.

 

OWC Slim Optical Drive with external power works very well for me, around $50 if I remember

 

OWC stuff is nice, I have their fat one and it goes works nicely with CUERipper.

 

Thanx guys.

 

Does anyone compares the rme rmi 2 and gungir multibit?

 

Search the forum for the threads for each DAC. I'm pretty sure the comparisons are there.

 

Like @Elnrik said, use the search feature on the site, or use google and narrow your search to this website.

When you find a thread that has one of the things you’re looking to compare, you can do a search for the other item you want to compare it with by searching using “Search this thread only”. The RME thread is here if you haven’t found it:

https://www.superbestaudiofriends.org/index.php?threads/rme-adi-2-dac.5649/page-6#post-188528

Lots of Gungnir comparisons in there. There may be some comparions in the Gungnir thread as well, not sure.

As was said before - people here are not going to spoon feed you the answer to every question you have, especially if there are already threads and conversations covering it, which is the case here. Do some research first, then come with questions that don’t have readily available answers.

SBAF’s mantra is: Read moar, post less.

This keeps the “signal-to-noise ratio” high (I.e more real info to help people, and less general commenting and covering the same question over and over).

Also you can say “thanks” to someone by simply liking their post. Again, this keeps the clutter down.

 

I'm curious for anyone who wants to chime in.

My chain is SDAC>Magni 3>HD6XX (unmodded). I've been really impressed with this budget combo. It is satisfying.

So here's the two-part question: What do you consider to be the audible weaknesses in the chain? And what is the most budget friendly path of improving that specific weakness?

I may not ever be able to max the enjoyment of this system; that's really personal. But I am curious about what is missing that I'm not hearing and how much it would take to sample what is missing.

Really pretty crazy what under $400 will get you. A few years back $400 would only get you a HD650.

 

Hells, you're in CA.

Start borrowing gear from friends who have far too much crap lying around. You won't be spoilt for choice.

You're on a 6, it scales indefinitely, it all depends on your budget and how much time you're willing to spend chasing that dragon.

I mean, it's a 6, short of sub-bass and soundstage you can get more of anything with enough gear and modding.

 

@Taverius said it — try some other equipment. See what you like better than your current rig, and specifically what sound quality you would like to improve: change in tonality? More detail? Better dynamics? You get the idea.

If your post said: ‘My rig is ... what can I do to improve...?’ you’d be more likely to get useful responses.

As it is, you’re going to get recommendations as to how to improve your system based on the preferences of those who respond, rather how to improve it for you. You might hear folks recommend a tube amp, or a R-to-R DAC, or different cans.

Personally, I wonder if your best bang-for-buck might be modding your cans — I think there’s a whole thread about modding the 650s.

Bottom line, you have a very competent, mid-fi system, and to get significant improvement you’ll have to spend some serious bucks.

JMHO

 

@imackler , I have been enjoying TH-X00 Purplehearts a lot more than my HD-650s because my music preferences are less about vocals and acoustic instruments and more about rock. More comfortable as well. For me, it drove home how musical preferences should inform gear purchases. Running from a DAP to Valhalla 2.

 

@imackler, you see:

@Wilson: Not criticizing your post — just using it to illustrate my point.

 

@lcmusiclover, no worries. What I was trying to convey was that the HD650 is an excellent baseline in which to look at sonic (and comfort) preferences.

 

No doubt — I’ve really enjoyed them since I got my Liquid Platinum.

 

650 (especially modded) scales to infinity, so that's not the weak link.

I personally didn't like the Magni 3 when I owned it briefly.... But that was with the 800. I feel like Jotunheim is gonna be a direct upgrade from the Magni 3 and it is one of the best pairings you can get for the 650. Pretty easy recommend as a next step in your journey. Especially if you're looking to stick with solid state. Valhalla 2 is also an excellent budget amp that performs much higher than its price would suggest if you're interested in tubes. Personally I feel 650 works best with tubes. Val2 is a bit hazy/veiled but the 6CG7 tubes do alot to remedy that.

If you want a free/low cost and easy upgrade right now, modding the 6XX is recommended. It took me quite a bit of adjusting the various mods before I settled on spider cage removal, coin mod, and no dynamat to get the sound I wanted. YMMV.

 

9 tenths isopropyl alcohol and 1 tenth distilled water. Spray on disk wipe in circular motion with tissue. Been doing this for years, works great and it is also effective at cleaning your eyeglasses. Just aim for them, haha.

 

I'm looking at some used Andromedas and I have questions...

1. Are they light on bass? I'm ok with a "neutral" amount like HD600, but that's in a silent room - I'm going to use them in noisy public places. That lows-centered noise of traffic is a bitch. (This has to do with isolation also.)

2. I'd be mostly using the hp-out of my iPhone 6s+ to drive them - it's what I like to use, does this combo make any sense?

Edit: Does it take bass boost EQ ok?

Cheers!