MUSES01 Where to buy ?

[rids57]

I absolutely love my HD 650's. It took a few days to get used to the signature, which coming from AKG K702s sounded very dull. I'd heard tales of the HD 650 "veil" and was beginning to think I'd made a mistake but after a few days my brain adjusted and discovered that I wasn't missing anything at all. The high frequency sounds were still there, they were just reduced to what now sounds like far more natural levels. The bass surprised me, it really does dig quite deep and has quite a bit of grunt but star of the show are the mids and those really do take your breath away. Voices and guitars sound ridiculously good, smooth yet detailed and real enough to touch.

Actually I thought I'd have a listen to some music using my AKG K702s earlier - I didn't even make it through the first track, all that high frequency "tizzzz" was killing my ears, which obviously are no longer used to it. Now I'm converted to the HD 650 I can't see me ever wanting to change them, not unless Sennheiser come up with a replacement that sounds even better. For gaming though I still much prefer the AKG K702's and my STX, that huge sound stage and HF detail make surround sound gaming quite an experience.

As for the Schiit Modi and Schiit Vali combo, I'm really happy with them, they seem to complement the Sennheisers really well and music really comes to life. The Modi is a fine little DAC that punches well above it's weight and the Vali is just ridiculous for the price. I am yet to push the volume much above 50% on the Vali and that is borderline painful, so it has plenty of grunt but forget it if you want to use IEMs or low impedance headphones as the noise floor is too high - totally silent with higher impedance cans though. The only other thing is that the tubes are microphonic, so if you give it a clout you will hear them ringing. They tend to ring when it's first switched on or when you insert the headphone plug but it goes away after 20 to 30 seconds. With practice I have now mastered the art of plugging the headphones in with zero ringing - a milestone in my audio life.

 

[LambChop]

I absolutely love my HD 650's. It took a few days to get used to the signature, which coming from AKG K702s sounded very dull. I'd heard tales of the HD 650 "veil" and was beginning to think I'd made a mistake but after a few days my brain adjusted and discovered that I wasn't missing anything at all. The high frequency sounds were still there, they were just reduced to what now sounds like far more natural levels. The bass surprised me, it really does dig quite deep and has quite a bit of grunt but star of the show are the mids and those really do take your breath away. Voices and guitars sound ridiculously good, smooth yet detailed and real enough to touch.

Actually I thought I'd have a listen to some music using my AKG K702s earlier - I didn't even make it through the first track, all that high frequency "tizzzz" was killing my ears, which obviously are no longer used to it. Now I'm converted to the HD 650 I can't see me ever wanting to change them, not unless Sennheiser come up with a replacement that sounds even better. For gaming though I still much prefer the AKG K702's and my STX, that huge sound stage and HF detail make surround sound gaming quite an experience.

As for the Schiit Modi and Schiit Vali combo, I'm really happy with them, they seem to complement the Sennheisers really well and music really comes to life. The Modi is a fine little DAC that punches well above it's weight and the Vali is just ridiculous for the price. I am yet to push the volume much above 50% on the Vali and that is borderline painful, so it has plenty of grunt but forget it if you want to use IEMs or low impedance headphones as the noise floor is too high - totally silent with higher impedance cans though. The only other thing is that the tubes are microphonic, so if you give it a clout you will hear them ringing. They tend to ring when it's first switched on or when you insert the headphone plug but it goes away after 20 to 30 seconds. With practice I have now mastered the art of plugging the headphones in with zero ringing - a milestone in my audio life.

Great info again rids, thanks. Is the dac/amp combo a big step up from the STX II headphone amp ?

 

[rids57]

Sadly I haven't heard the STX II so can't give you a definitive answer and all I can really say is that it is reported to be slightly better than the STX. As to how you would quantify "better" I don't really know. The op-amp change, better component use and slight improvements to the circuitry are supposed to make it sound a bit smoother than the original STX, which should put it at the same level as the O2Di, Schiit M&M stack and others that sell around the £200 ~ £250 mark.

As for my Schiit Modi & Schiit Vali stack: I would say the Modi is at least equal to the STX DAC (which is itself excellent), it's detailed, accurate and asynchronous and provides me a way to feed the Vali with a clean, clear audio stream.

The Vali is a hybrid solid state/tube amp and was initially created because Jason Stoddard found a huge number of Raytheon 6088 tubes going for a silly price on ebay. So he designed an amp around these tubes and as soon as his partner heard the result they decided to buy as many of them as they could get their hands on and they've been selling as many as they can make ever since.

The Vali isn't like most cheap tube amps, it's clear and doesn't have huge HF roll off and its bass is solid and crisp. Overall, compared with the STX I find the Modi & Vali combo to be at least as detailed, has stronger and crisper bass, much more creamy mids and detailed yet far smoother highs - all in all it just sounds more musical.

My initial idea was to use the speaker output of the STX as the feed for a Schiit Asgard 2 and run my speakers from the pre-amp output RCAs on the amp. I would still use the STX headphone amp for gaming through headphones as I could then make use of Dolby Headphone, which doesn't work through the line out / speaker output. In the end it just came down to wanting an asynchronous DAC that was outside the computer, so that I could eliminate every last bit of EMI. It's ironic that as soon as I plugged everything in, the second thing I heard, the first was tube ringing, was huge amounts of EMI. It was easliy rectified by moving my router and now the background is inky black and silent.

So there is another possibility, if you can't justify ignoring your STX and buying a new DAC and amp, how about the Schiit Asgard 2 for £195? It's a very good solid state amp, designed from the bottom up with high grade discrete components. Sound wise it is reported to be warm and smooth sounding and is capable of driving almost anything you can throw at it, from low impedance IEMs to 600 ohm headphones.