Well I’ll need to put on hold the DAC acquisitions since tomorrow I’ll finally get the WA33 and I just bought a 1266 with superconductor cable on head-fi. That should be a perfect match to the spring and woo.
I think that’s enough for June purchases lol
That’s an eventful June! Rinse and repeat in 28 days?
I feel like for me it always just depends on what’s slacking lol. Like most of the times the Dac upgrades felt more substantial but that’s also because the amp and headphone I had were usually ahead of my dac which I left last. But when the dac or headphone were already up ahead but the amp was behind I noticed a huge/bigger improvement from the amp haha. Most recently that happened with the WA8 where I would say it felt like a bigger improvement than any dac purchase I had made but I think it’s just because I was lacking in the amplifier department before it. (altho the tube upgrade on the wa8 was the real vip lol)
I kind of hope the WA33 is so great I don’t mind selling my 23r and find a buyer for the LCD-5. That’ll free money either for the DAC upgrade or 2ch stuff I had in mind…
It’s nice to have times where you can focus on the music and forget about upgrades for a while. I feel like I have so much to explore with the new gear and exploring my current headphones on it as well
But who knows July can’t come soon enough
Now you piqued my interest. What’d you have in mind??
I think this was part of my curiosity and original question. It’s weird that it is very common for most of us to leave the DAC for last. Even worse, most completely ignore the source upstream such as server/streamer 
I’m a bit crazy though. I AM a proponent of best source signal and how it affects downstream.
I went to listen to the new Devore Fidelity o/Baby and they’re amazing but would definitely need to sell some headphone gear before I commit to building that system. I do think it’ll synergize well with the 23r.
Also keep hearing about the Buchardt integrated and passives but not sure how much of it is marketing fluff (they do have a reasonable return policy).
what amp did they have them connected to? They look like a great entry point into the DeVore world, but I think I would still prefer chasing a used O93 or O96 if I were to ever go that route.
can’t remember the model but it was a vintage 15wpc solid state.
The o/baby is little under $7K including the stands and I think a used O93 would be closer to $9K so still quite a difference and according to the a few I spoke to, not sure the difference in sound justifies it. Even had someone tell me they preferred the baby to the 93.
O96 is a different ball game but also better for bigger rooms and you need more space.
I’m sure very few if any here need to hear this, but i just had to pop in to say don’t underestimate the importance of a quality digital source. I was running my desktop PC to a Bifrost 2 for a few years now. I didnt know any better. I got in a pair of Fostex TH900mk2 Pear whites in, i listened first on my DAP (Hiby RS6 at the time) and got my initial impressions. Then i took them to my desk setup, and i started noticing this sibilant like harshness fairly often with them. I went back to the DAP, then the DAP just as a transport to the Bifrost 2, harshness was competely gone this way. I then tried my samsung tablet as the source to the Bifrost 2, and the harshness was also not present with this setup. I upgraded my DAC to a Yggy A2 and the harshness was still present with my desktop as the source. (Dont want to focus on how great the Yggy is here, but it is indeed such an excellent upgrade) This was all with @M0N’s help. Because my goal was for my main listening setup to remain my Desktop with foobar as my source, he recommended a few different options and i decided to go with a nice DDC. I got lucky and found a Mutec MC3+ USB for sale 20 minutes away from me. While i still need to get better digital cabling, I can say that this really made such a substantial improvement that i cant exactly describe. All of that harshness i was getting before was now completely gone, no question about that, but its also had other substantial benefits that i havent been able to describe just yet. I think if i had to try right now, id say that it makes everything sound less ‘digital’. its not something ive noticed until i got the Mutec, but it makes everything seem more correct and true to how it should sound with regards to general timbre of everything and so much more.
Thats all for now, i will try and get some stuff written up for the Mutec specifically in its thread at some point when I have more time to gather my thoughts.
I describe it as driving your car after you’ve thoroughly cleaned the windshield. Same everything but a layer of smear has been removed.
Pretty good way of describing it, although I think for me it goes deeper than that.
I remember saying the first time I tried a DDC, it is was as if you’d bought a better DAC, taking it to a next level. The main benefit of getting off the damned PC is lost on so many people in the hobby. It’s such a low hanging fruit.
Hallelujah. This
Yup. Less noise, and less jitter make for a smoother, cleaner reproduction. 
Has the sub 1k-1.5k dac market changed in the last while? Still bf2 and ares ii reigning supreme?
Edit: you could put border patrol in there too I guess but that’s what I’m looking to replace
If you are open to DS there seem to be a slew of new options, but not much change in r2r
I picked up my Exogal for under $1.5k, and I think you could also get a Soekris for under that as well? But yeah, neither of those are new options.
merason frerot seems the new kid on the block there but not sure how it compares to the usual suspects
The comet and frerot I’m unfamiliar with and the 1541 I somehow forgot about. Thanks gents.