That Aune 8 “Magic” DAC was one of my first good DACs, but I was even more all over the place with gear than I have been recently, so I soon sold it to “upgrade”. I recall it sounding really good; in particular, I remember bass guitars sounding really full and well-defined on it.
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They can make such a tremendous impact often taking a DAC up a level. The problem is that they can also impact the tonality which can be great for tuning but bad if it takes you in a direction you don’t want to go.
I’d love to see you build a LPS as that would be an effort I’d copy cat you on. It would be interesting to know which components have an effect and which don’t. I’d have to think that clean power gives you the gains in detail and the transformer dictates the sonic characteristic but just thinking out loud here.
BTW the effect is not just on DACs, streamers and DDC are affected as well. Not to the same capacity but again, when you’re trying to eek out.
But you know about the streamer effect when you built your.
I think you’ve got a Mutec DDC, they’re supposed to improve a good bit with an a good PS.
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I had one about ten years ago, sold it and always regretted doing so, it’s just such a good workhorse dac that with the right chain, opamp (and apparently now psu) punches above its weight. I think it is one of the pieces of gear were you can most tell that it benefits from the more expensive Aune gear development. That’s why I decided to get the FPGA version when it came out. I also really like the Aune aesthetic which helps.
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Going to have to do it now aren’t I!
Something to do in January I think. So far my intuition is that the psu makes the most difference to background blackness and that the other subjective effects stem from that. Cleaner signal, better sound. As for sound characteristic I think as ever we are back to good chain matching!
Edited to add
The one I have has an internal transformer and I have never looked inside it. Now I am curious!
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I’ve read about people modding their Mutecs to use an LPS instead of the internal transformer.
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I saw Fiio was restocking the JM21 this morning at 4am my time so I stayed up until then and grabbed one for $150 shipped. Haven’t had a DAP in a couple years and I’ve been itching to 3d print a dock for one and integrate it into my desktop setup. I’m pretty excited to see where hyper budget DAPs are these days, they seem like they’ve come a LONG way since I last paid attention to DAPs.
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Nick, after listening to you hype this up for 2 solid days ( 
), I have to say that the visuals live up to the hype.
@oberon is clearly a talented designer. I just bought a one of a kind “jewelry stand” for my wife as an early Christmas present. This is without doubt the best present I’ve ever given her. She’s a nature lover and she described it as a slice of nature that she can look at inside the house during the harsh Chicago winter.
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@PaisleyUnderground not only am i fortunate enough to own 3 of Oberon’s unique creations i have also had the pleasure of handling and admiring a few more pieces owned by our friend Camus. Yes, beauty is in the eye of the beholder but when you feel, touch and experience quality craftsmanship for yourself it’s only fair to the builder to speak appropriately about it. 
That’s a damned gorgeous piece you had commissioned for your missus. 
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That is a cool project idea. I hope you post photos!
That particular one is so interesting, it really speaks to me also. Just a fantastic idea and execution!
I am also fortunate to have several outstanding examples of @oberon’s work. Each one is so unique, you almost feel bad putting a headphone on it! I have a Manzanita Burl & Resin on my desk, generally with no headphones so I can enjoy looking at it.
ZMF headphones go very well with his stands…
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My first ever Decware Zen Triode SE84UFO2.1 Mod Level 2 
I only changed the rectifier to my beloved Haltron 5U4G. Watching Decware some time, but no chance to see anything on EU used/new market.
Was time to play with 2.3 Watt…and I understand the hype around his 6P15P-EV, very, very impressive musiciality! Anyone who has a change and owning speakers with 94db+ try out this simple, little magical SET!
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Congratulations @gerihifi ! 
I absolutely adored the purity of sound produced by that little amplifier and i know for a fact mine was no where near being properly burned in. I honestly wish i had ordered a matched pair to be used as little 6 wpc monoblocks, that would have provided me great satisfaction. I moved on though 
Congratulations again and may you get enjoyment out of the little beast.
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I really like how my HE-6 & 5LE slam on my Cambridge AXA35 so I decided to experiment before I settle on an amp…
The noise floor on the Cambridge was a little high, and I’ve heard that using Schiit speaker amps on demanding headphones can work really well. However, I don’t know whether it’s a synergy issue or lack of driver control, but both cans sound super bright and painful on this Aegir. I do listen loud, but haven’t heard either can be this bright on the GWN Prelude! I’ve ordered a HifiMan HE Adapter to see if it makes a difference. My 560s sounded great on this amp, though!
I guess it could be the DAC. I’m currently auditioning a Hugo 2 to pull double duty at my desk; a DAC to feed my HP amp and also as a source for my IEMs. More investigation required 
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Becareful with direct speaker drive, The Benchmark AHB2 speaker amp fried the susvara’s driver, couple days ago received a new unit from hifiman that was with a headphone amp preamp section, the volume was not even high. If you will use direct speakers, use a dedicated preamp with safety feature (forgot what they call it, resistor or something).
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Thanks for the advice, dude
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Loud volume is about the last thing you need to worry about the speaker amps driving headphones.
Theoretically turning it up too loud could damage a driver, but you’d go deaf listening at those levels, so it’s self limiting.
The issues are two fold, a speaker amp MIGHT have significant DC offset, which could be safe for Speakers, but not Headphones, that will kill a driver with nothing playing. In some topologies this is impossible, in others it might only be a risk shortly after power on. There is just no way to know without measuring it, and you could get lucky for months before it up and decides one day to kill the headphone.
Most speaker amps though should be fine.
The other big one is if your source or amp “pops” when you turn it on or off those spikes can be big enough to kill a driver. They can be big enough to kill speakers for that matter, It’s the reason why your told to turn things on from the source and off from the power amp.
Either way your doing something neither the Headphone manufacturer or Amp manufacturer planned for, so I wouldn’t expect a lot of sympathy if you tell them what you did.
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I picked up a BambuLabs P1S, I’ve been using 3D printers since the OG Reprap Mendel, probably owned 15 of them (possibly more than that) some of my own design, some requiring assembly and some off the shelf.
And I wouldn’t recommend any of them to someone who just wanted to print stuff, too many failures, too hard to diagnose.
I have to say I’m impressed with the BambuLabs printer, pretty much load the model in the slicer, pick the predefined profile, slice and print. I’ve run through the included filament about 1/2 a Kilo, with no failures, and pretty amazing print quality for no calibration.
The P1S will replace my E3D Toolchanger on my office desk, my big issue with it was always the underpowered remote extruders, causing issues at any sort of speed.
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Wow, very reasonable pricing and it handles multiple colors on a job, very nice! Thank you for posting about this, many of my coworkers have taken to purchasing their own printers after using the older models we have at work and it’s good to be able to make a recommendation from someone who has extended experience w/ many units
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