Yeah I don’t regret asking the question but also understand it’s kind of impossible to really answer it. It’s tied to sonic preferences, budgets, willingness to have multiple components and then how many and in what price categories.
As someone who doesnt realy like 1266 tbh, from a therry crafting perspective I think its possible depending on what you want. I personaly have come to value liquidty with a bit of lushness in the mids which is a source signature that benefits both 1266 and sus. I think the issue for me would come in that I think they need different levels of help here. Like for sus I wuld crank the liquidty and tone back the mids but do the oposite for 1266. I think striking that balance would be quite hard for me. Now something like D8000 Pro/sus/LCD-R? That would be a trio that seems much easier to get one chain for just based on what I want out of each one.
The most SS tube and the most tubey SS /s (but only partialy)
I cant seem to find this. Whats the NS1? A streamer I assume but im comming up blank for some reason
Honestly, I would get more time on the 1266 and just see what you want to focus on with it. Spring 3 → wa33 isnt the most neutral chain but should certainly give you a good idea of what stuff is capable of/voiced like. If you decide your prefrence for sus and 1266 lean in the same direction then go for one chain.
TBH I dont think its possible for one chain to get the most out of each one, but I do think its totaly doably to have one chain that handles both exceptionally. Its that ast 2% that always just incredibly hard to get
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I already heard enough to know that between the two I probably don’t need any other headphones but they can serve very different purposes for me.
Susvara is my ultimate all arounder since with the right chain it is exactly what I like to listen to. The 1266 on the other hand provides what the Sus can’t which is pronounced deep rumble bass and quick in your face presentation with a bit of treble spark that suits my electronic music needs kind of perfectly. I wouldn’t be able to wear them for long and probably get listening fatigue as well but for that purpose they are probably perfect.
What I’m questioning is considering the above, what’s the minimum amount of gear I need to own to have both of them satisfy what I exepct out of them. I’m also fine with 95-97 percent utilization and not chasing that last few with crazy gear.
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Honestly, your chain should be plenty balanced as is. Maybe a different dac if you want a slightly differenr focus but the wa33 does a dmaned good job balancing the two cans strengths imo
Yeah that’s kind of why I went on this spring cleaning sale. I think that between the Enleum (love this amp too much) and WA33 I’m good for amps and just need to figure out the DAC. Hoping to find one and just use it with both (currently theres a Rockna Wavedream and Lampizator Baltic in the classifieds).
I really have no need for the other headphones and will use that money for the DAC upgrade, powerplant, digital source (thinking Lumin but open to suggestions) and tube rolling.
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It’s this EMMLabs NS1
https://www.emmlabs.com/ns1.php
Ed Meitner’s answer to the DCS network bridge
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not-so-random-yet-random-question:
Does connecting both the WA33 to the balanced and the Enleum to the single ended outputs in my Spring 3 KTE degrade sound quality? does the answer change if they are turned off or do they have to be disconnected by the cable?
Most likely (depends how the spring handles SE out), it will change the load the spring is driving, but unless it has a dreadfully high output impedance (which it probably doesn’t) or one of the amps has a particularly low input impedance it will have at most a marginal effect.
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Nope. You are totaly fine either way. Tbh very few dacs will have issues with this (some denefrips stuff and maybe toraldac d1-direct being notable exceptions)
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Has anybody hear heard the A&K kann alpha? Is it a great dap to start with?
I been wanting a dap for a long time as I never had one.
The big problem here is I already have an ifi gryphon which might as well be as good sounding
*anyone here thinks the kann alpha is worthwile even while having a good ol ifi?
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I thought the KANN Cube looked more interesting but I’ve got zero experiences with either lolz. I will say this however, I used to have the Sr25 and I absolutely loved it. So I cannot imagine you can go wrong with other A&K products.
Sadly dude I think people here only have experience with the Sr25 too so idk you will find much more here.
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Original Vic20 owner here 
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Kann Alpha is supposed to be a good option for harder to drive full size sets, but haven’t heard it myself to confirm. I think I recall discussion with trusted ears putting it in the sound quality range of something like a Lotoo Paw 6000 but with more oomph. It’s been a while, so my memory could be a little off.
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Hello hello! Moving this conversation over here since it’s not really about the Mojo.
To summarize the earlier posts, I’m currently using my iPhone into an SU-2 KTE as a source for my chain and it’s a glaringly obvious bottleneck, so my next upgrade should be a streamer of some kind!
My current music library consists of Apple Music, Qobuz, and a small amount of local files, so unfortunately, a streamer that doesn’t support any Apple Music playback would be a no-go (though even something sub-optimal like AirPlay 1 or Bluetooth would be acceptable).
I’m pretty broke after buying the Mystique V3, so anything over $2K is definitely out of the question, but from the sounds of it, I should see noticeable dividends even from picking up a Pi or like a Zen Stream or something. I’m also considering the NP5 Prisma that @esmse linked to in the streamers thread.
I dunno, does anyone have any strong recommendations for the direction I should go? I don’t actually know that much about streamers!
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Does that mean your bought music is stuck on Apple Music? Otherwise, most streamers have their own programmed player that will play local files. Or, maybe you can find a Pi that will support it shrugs
There used to be tools to crack apple music DRM, and a lot of it is DRM free now, that’s what I used to get off that eco system a few years ago, and move those files to local files.
No idea if that’s still possible.
Ropiee XL and Volumio both support apple music (uncompressed 44/16), Chromecast (44/16) and DLNA (not sure what the limit on the transport is) that could be used to stream from Apple music, by selecting the output device.
I’m in the treat it like Vinyl camp, buy a $50 Raspberry pi4, install Volumio or Ropieee use the USB directly to the SU-6 and see if you like the difference, possibly buy one of the cheaper Ifi power bricks for it.
If you notice a difference save your pennies and jump in at the deep end.
If you’re not comfortable with installing an OS on a Pi (which is incredibly easy) then buy a Zen Stream, and save your pennies.
I have a Pi2AES I’d sell you, it’s a step up from a basic Pi if you use AES or SPDIF, but like turntables I’m not sure there is a lot of value in messing around in the middle ground.
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@Polygonhell This is helpful…been wondering about low cost streamers and how much
audible difference it would make vs my newer Asus laptop.
Auralic Aries G1 might be worth looking at. It’ll handle Quobuz nicely but iirc for Apple Music you’d be using Airplay. I was using Tidal and local files.
Sound quality vs my laptop was really a nice step up. I didn’t get to compare it to a Bluesound Node or iFi Stream directly but I have owned those units as well and the Auralic was a worthwhile step up from that IMO.
The Auralic app is only available on iOS but seems like that wouldn’t be a problem for you.
@Polygonhell I don’t know if this falls in the middle ground you mentioned so it very well could be worth saving more depending on the system.
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I know a lot of users that love their Auralics and their Aries G-series gets a lot of praise and keeps their value well.
My first server/streamer was an Aurender N100H. What I liked about it is that it did not require any internet at all to listen to music. Meaning, if I ever had the ISP crap out, I can still listen to music. Or… to add insult to injury, you can remove the issue of ethernet all together – yes, ethernet and ethernet cables is a thing…
Anyways, streaming is extremely convenient and a great way to discover new things, but ever since I committed to local files, it’s been that way or the highway for me.
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