A significant reduction/smoothing in/of general treble fatigue, due to brightness, excess energy, etc.
Yes, I will try keeping the Gumby, as I suspect the amp is the problem.
Right now I have:
M40X / M50X
LCD-GX
HD660
Hook-X / FD7 / Timeless / ZAS
A990Z / A1000Z / AD900X
HE400se / HE6se V2
Working on SR-007 MkII
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Ignoring the SR-007 which will have it’s own energizer I assume.
I owned a Gumby, and while it has a bit more treble extension than the BF2, a bit less slam/bass presence, I never considered it bright.
The difficulty with amp selection is the HE6 and possibly the HE400, it limits what you can use a lot.
I haven’t heard the 3XP, so it’s hard to compare.
The MLP is actually on the brighter side of hybrids, I never tube rolled mine, and you might be able to tame that @Hazi59 swapped tubes on his.
I’d suggest a tube amp, but the Tuba/SW51+, won’t drive your planars well.
And even the Quicksilver won’t drive an HE6 well.
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I don’t even like my planars very much lol. My favorite here is Hook-X, A990Z, and M40X.
Just would like to experiment, and find something that actually sounds relaxed. Darkvoice 336? Little Dot something? WA6?
Have you tried rolling op-amps on the 3xp?
The classics have a smoother upper treble but have a slight emphasis on the lower treble if you wanted to try that.
Other than that the sparkos might help but I haven’t tried them personally. All the other op-amps I’ve tried aren’t that relaxed in the treble (other than the classics).
Btw, you have a supercharger on there right?
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Nope!
Yeah.
I assume a tube preamp would have less effect than DAC → tube amp, but maybe the effect is still pretty strong? That would probably be a cheaper option, instead of going for a WA6-SE or something. Or, maybe a tube preamp just isn’t designed to have as much smoothing effect as an amp. I could use the preamp with my Stax, though.
That’ll probably depend on the tube preamp. I don’t think all tube amps/pre will automatically get you a smoother treble.
Fwiw I personally don’t find the 3xp + supercharger fatiguing in the treble. Maybe synergy is the issue here. Either way, your cheapest option will probably to try your hand at some op-amps.
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After a couple sales, and before the new gear arrives, I’ve ended up running my RNHP with bf2 today, as well as my bhc+ with bf2. I really had forgotten how great these pairings are! The dynamics and energy are just fantastic. Just when I start to think of selling these items, NOPE! Seriously great pairings for the money.
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I can really see how bf2 + RNHP would be a great gaming setup.
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Notes taken, thanks!
BHC/SB with a fucking junk food DAC… 
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I don’t think I’ve ever heard the BF2 referred to as a junk food DAC before, that’s hilarious 
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I wish I could claim it, don’t know who here coined the term for the Schiit DACs but it’s a Sonvs Apparatvs original.
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Got you!
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that’s great!
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Fucker stole it from me on a drunk discord ramble. Im callin you out @krack (the americam thing was all his though)
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Tomorrow I get to upgrade my junk food DAC to 2/64 
should be fun!
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lol, yeah, I still haven’t sold my RNHP+BF2 combo either. Partially because I can run it without any warm up or burning through tube life unlike my other chains, but also because it’s just really nice to hang out with at the end of the day sometimes.
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Because of the precision?
Will be interesting how the changes affect the bf2-rnhp synergy.
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I would like to give the RNHP a second go just out of curiosity, because when I had it for a very brief period of time I only used it with the Focal Clears (Dac: Bifrost). And I still don’t know wether I didn’t like the clears or the RNHP, hell or even both. At the time I still preferred my ifi diablo or LP. But it’s so loved by everyone else I would like to test it more.
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My experience is that the soundstage and imaging are more a function of the headphone than the DAC/amp. But I do think this setup has a solid spacial presentation. Why I say gaming with it would be fun is really the macro dynamics, punch, slam, overall energy. Everything sounds fun and alive. I watched a couple movies with it last night, and it was very engaging.
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