General Source Gear Help/Discussion Thread

[Draaly]

Moving this here since the question is going to get slightly off topic.

@M0N

Darker, thicker, and rich, but not that more artificial holo smoothness or presentation, it’s still organic, and while it is more on the relaxed and smooth side of things, it doesn’t sound dulled or blunted which also drives me a bit nuts with the holo stuff. It doesn’t really feel like it sacrifices much for it’s signature technicality wise, perhaps outside of some treble extension, but if you are after utmost treble extension, none of the totaldac are really worth looking at imo
Vs the direct, the direct is a lot more neutral, more forward in comparison, less smooth, more energetic, and easily more convincing from a technical perspective. You still want the d1-drivers though, since direct out of the direct can be very hit or miss. In the general grand scheme of things though, they do still share their similar technical priorities, they are still somewhat warmer although while I’d consider the lower end ones more actually warm and rich, the direct is more neutral-natural with a bit of warmth, although it’s much less relaxed

The blunted sound is what I am trying to avoid specifically. TBH I don’t realy mind holo’s sound sig over all if they just added a bit more energy to it. Im not super concerned about treble extension so long as there is still some energy and vividness in the mix. TBH Ive been liking the m1se with the aic a fair amount, but its fairly lacking in spacial presentation (layering is really what I want to be better. Its not bad, I just like having even more of it even if maybe slightly exaggerated). The relaxed term is really what has me slightly concerned though. I haven’t really been that concerned about it in the past, but pretty much everything I demoed and liked a lot this weekend (+ the m1se synergy being better than p6p even ignoring technicalities) has been much more neutral or even slightly forward (not hyper agro though) with its energy. This was especially apparent with my preference for the lp6 over the p6p tbh.

Ive seen your takes on mojo vs totaldac a few times before and seen you say that you expect dual and X SE to be on fairly similar tiers (a tier slightly above m1se and even Weiss IIRC?). Would the reclocker coming with the dual push it past? I have been thinking if I go the dual I can always keep the reclocker and sell the dac if I don’t like it but im not sure. The other side of the coin obviously is the 45 day mojo in-home demo.

IDK, I think im more of thinking out loud than realy asking any questions. Just seriously not sure which way I should go since I’d realy like to just demo the two before hand but that’s just not possible.