One conversation led to another and I guess I am team Mystique X Z NC DAC now.
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damn!
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So did you buy their main setup or the whole store?
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this is virtual shopping for us all. it would be dangerous to step foot in that store.
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Just watching that video was like playing a game of I spy. Cool to see so much gear so densely packed into one video.
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Got a schiit eitr in the meantime while saving for a gustard u26 for a 100 its really good and bang for buck
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So, about, ten years ago (ish, maybe?), when I decided to stop dabbling and get into headfi gear as a proper interest, one of the very first things I bought was an Ifi Zen Can. The original one. Oh and I did like it a lot. It was an excellent first piece to find out how much more I could get out of music with better equipment. After a couple of years I got other, “better” gear and in one reorganization I accidentally plugged the wrong cable in the wrong thing and released the magic smoke from that old Zen Can.
In the intervening years I’ve learnt a lot more about what I like from gear, what I want to invest in it and most of all, that sometimes price is not the defining factor in “goodness” of a piece. That got me wondering. What would I think now of that old Zen Can? The newer ones don’t interest me because it would be a different sound and I feel like they got into chasing the market. The old one had a purity to it. Analogue bass enhancement, crossover buttons and class A/B design and that odd faceted volume pot. The lovely shape, colour and texture of it. For a little thing it was surprisingly heavy.
When I bought it I got a box with an Ifi 5v IPower supply included. Good power supply, still have it.
My curiosity didn’t die away and I occasionally looked at it when still in stock, never had the money at the right time and it never really went much under the original price, so I never replaced the old one. However, randomly browsing some of the Dutch hifi stores last week I found one. New in box, a third of the original MSRP. Only one in stock and the only one I have seen in the wild in several years.
Now it is on my desk.
So how does it sound? As good as I remember with my more experienced, probably more nit picky ears? Surprisingly good in fact! I also have the old Schiit Magni here that I use on and off as a daily driver for PC use. This is better. More detail, more clarity, more punch. It’s more fun than the Geshelli Erish 2 which edges ahead for detail but at the cost of being a drier sound. Beats out the Gustard H16 which is fun but not as punchy - only reason I don’t run that instead of the Magni for general use is it gets really hot!
Oh and those bass enhancement and cross over buttons still don’t work on many headphones but when they do they really do. At the moment I am listening with the DT880, a combo I did not have back then, really nice synergy, The Zen Can always did have a silly amount of power output available.
Glad I spent the money on it. Thanks for coming to my little retrospective ramble about cheap head amps.
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Just got these bad boys in earlier today. I’m really enjoying rediscovering that 64a magic, it’s been a while.
Now just getting used to wearing ear tips again after so long. I’ve been exclusively using custom iems for a few years now so the feeling is a little weird haha.
Im currently using final type-e ear tips but I’m open to any other suggestions.
Thanks to @Veritas for the great deal and quick shipping.
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Hifiman just decided they’re gonna start making estats that can handle bass shelves and without the bias voltage recently
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The original ifi zen dac was a steal at $90 then they proceeded to add no features for v2 and charge $150, then the underwhelming v3 for $200 also the same
Zen can went through something similar
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I think a lot of the smaller brands really struggled to compete with SMSL and Topping in that period with their numbers focus and (sometimes unnecessarily) feature rich interfaces and the other companies were trying to find ways to do so. I think it has taken Aune until now to find a way and I am not sure Ifi have yet done so.
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I got this otg interconnect for my schiit vestri when it arrives (hopefully) next week. I heard pretty good stuff about this ddhifi one for the price, I’m really impressed with how nice it feels and it is super flexible which is exactly what you want with an otg cable.
And while I was shopping for the otg cable I saw that Eletech is in the ear tip game now, so of course I had to check these out. Really nice design for the box and also the ear tips themselves, they are on the shorter side so they really have a deep fit and also a wide bore, reminds me a bit of JVC spiral dots actually.
I got a few hours on them with the Fourte and so far they sound great and the fit is really good for my ears, nice and snug with a good amount of grip and comfort, very premium.
Sound wise, I can tell that they have added more airiness to the treble and upper mids that sounds rather exceptional with female vocals in particular. Slightly bigger staging, mostly width but maybe a tad more height. Attenuated sub bass ever so slightly which has made it sound tighter and a bit faster, less muddy (although the Fourte bass isn’t exactly muddy to begin with), it is very subtle.
They also have another ear tip sku called Baroque Stage that I want to give a try, but Bloom Audio was out of stock in my size unfortunately, will have to try again sometime.
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Got a bunch of stuff, a dac in the meantime with the schiit eitr ddc while I find a good offer for the gustard u26 ddc
Grado gh2
Merason dac frerot
Shunyata power cord
Pads for ath-w5000
DIY cardas rca cables
Altor usb isolator
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At basically $5 bucks a disk, it’s easy to go down the rabbit hole. Cheaper per disk cost if you buy a few more, but I was just looking for interesting things. Always find it way easier to justify these purchases than paying for a download.
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Got this in a few days ago, it sounds great. Sounds close to my magni unity on my desk, the most noticable difference is in the lower end but still quite good and couldn’t really tell without comparing back and forth.
Unfortunately both of my IEMs are too sensitive and I can hear an audible noise and clicking when attached to my phone… It’s a bummer since I was mainly planning on using this on the go on my phone with my fourtes. I don’t think I want to to spend even more money on a pricey iematch either since that kind of defeats the purpose of the $99 dongle price point.
The unit sounds incredible with my full size cans though, no problem at all with my ad900x and it drives the senn 6xx beautifully. I might still keep it just for variety or when I go on vacations and I take one of my headphones along for the trip.
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I fully agree it sounds pretty great for what it is, both Focal Clear OG and ZMF Bokeh Open are excellent with it, though bass is missing the authority and impact of my desktop rig, not to mention resolution.
Taken on its own, for $99 I can’t imagine a better option. I am pretty impressed with it, and with how small it is! I haven’t yet tried any IEMs with it, though I’m not much of an IEM guy. Campfire Mammoth and Meze Alba are it! 
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A few things have come and gone in the early year, might as well round ‘em up here.
Gustard DR70: Solid R2R DAC (& Streamer) from Gustard. Doesn’t really sound like whatever people go on about when they talk about the over-used R2R stereotype. It sounds fast, extended in both directions and has good impact with good tonal density in the bass. Stage size is slightly on the larger side with fair depth and good layering. Very cohesive imaging/staging for the range. Timbre is fair, a little throaty/boxy to my ear. It can do op-amp rolling on the gain stage, but it’s a mixed bag. The default LME49720’s are sibilant and unrefined, but have good dynamics and slam. Upgrading further to Burson V5i-D’s, V6V’s, V7V’s gains refinement, spatial recreation and micro by a lot, but you lose dynamics and density as they get more power-hungry. I think it’s a cheap regulator or some circuit design quirk causing heavier power drawing op-amps to get choked somewhat. Best balance is V5i-D or OPA1656, which I’ve found are a little warmer and more refined over the stock LME. Also, very good volume control on this unit, so good could be worth it for that alone.
SMSL RAWPRO DAC1: Got it for like half the price on HifiGO with free shipping/duties so why not. Wide/tall but shallow stage and not very cohesive. Very nimble on the macro side with a lot of quickness and sharp attack. Less so on micro. It can punch and slam in the bass to an extent, but mainly in a narrow-ish range around the mid/upper bass. Bass extension isn’t great, so that and the lack of cohesion indicates to me not-so-good clocking. Looking at the pics of the PCB indicate that, the clock is a fairly cheap and unshielded (for comparison, the DR70’s is better and shielded). In general, though, it’s fair unit. Very neutral, resolution is good and it’s very fast. I kind of like SMSL’s timbre and tuning, it’s kind of typical ESS but with more upper bass and sibilance is kept under control surprisingly well. I can kind of see why @Go-Kart likes his D1se2, but looking over the build in that, it’s power supply and clocking are on another level so I doubt this one matches up. Volume control is reasonable, too, not as good as the above but getting better for this kind of unit.
Burson V7 Vivids: Great set of op-amps. I asked Burson about sending me some for review and I actually managed to first do the V5i-D and V6 Vivids, because I was genuinely interested in trying them all out and observing generational differences. V5i-D’s are an improvement over pure IC op-amps, they’ve got more warmth, texture and speed with better weighting. V6 Vivids are a further upgrade in technicalities and speed, but they are kind of lean and dry with some forwardness and haze around the low treble. The V7V’s are a refinement of the V6V’s and might not be more technical, but they have a fuller, more balanced tonality with much less haze and more resolution. Very power hungry, though. I wish there were more competent DACs capable of using op-amps, because these deserve a spot on something decent.
Arya Organic: After my comparison in the budget Hifiman thread, I felt this was the next step after those sets. One of the most detail-forward headphones I’ve ever heard. Super capable in large transients to about the same level as the HE1000se. Very large staging. Perhaps the easiest Hifiman planar to drive, period. The cups are the same metal build as the HE1000 series but painted black, which I think is a big deal for the quickness and stability the driver has here relative to cheaper egg-shapes. More ‘organic’ than you’d think, although that’s not a strength, either.
JackAudio ISOUSB211 Isolator: @M0N wanted to know about this compared to the Altor, although I see you’ve moved on to that impressive PCIe one. In any case, it’s kind of different and a little better. Less forward, more layered with less tonal density quantity but more quality. It actually is the slightly more laid-back option I was hoping for. Pretty much the extra and slightly better power supply on the PCB made for gains in micro/refinement.
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Temptation wins again it seems!
Very early listening on these but I’m am very impressed with how fun and punchy they sound, just what I would expect from a ZMF. I have missed this house sound a lot and am glad I pulled the trigger.
I got to say headphones aside, the case for these is amazing… might be the best looking and feeling hp case I have ever seen, they knocked this out of the park.
Big thanks to @Souldriver for sending this out so quickly and for the amazing buying experience.
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While the focal is more compact and just the right size for my setup, the ZMF case isnt that much bigger and is way more plush while still being protective. The handle probably will not break on it either, like my focals have.
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