Filburt

I don't personally hold the DA10 in particularly high regard. I've used it a few times now, and every one of those times I've come away unimpressed and with a general sense that it has a rather "off" sound to it; it's got that OP275 (the op-amp it uses for the output) awkwardness, and it seems like the AD1955 converter is not being used to great effect. K701 is my main headphone, and I've used the DA100 and VDA-2 with it. Both did a good job I think; substantially better than the DA10. The DAC1 sounds OK, but a bit sterile. Overall, I'd probably go with either the DA100 or VDA-2 out of what I saw mentioned. I like the PCM1794 (what the VDA-2 uses) better than the AK4395 (what the DA100) uses, but the DA100 does appear to have a more sophisticated output stage design, and it seems to help.

1. Yes, I've heard them. The Mini and Macro don't have a sound, per se, since they're user-configurable. I guess because head-fiers are used to reviewing amps as closed designs, they find it natural to review amps and make statements as though it's dispositive of the issue (whether or not they intend to do that, I don't know, but the manner of the language is such anyhow). There are better op-amps (and buffers) available than what Xin ships with and what makes the rounds on head-fi. So, I think it's difficult to get a good idea of realistically maximum performance based on such reviews. 2. Uh..I think they range from 200 to 350 USD. 3. User-configurable designs are fairly unusual to begin with, and the Xin Mini/Macro designs are about as configurable as it gets. I'm not a fan of the Reference; it basically sacrifices those strengths just to use some unbuffered op-amps of modest performance and trade on the mysticism of the Supermicro that some fans have built up. The Supermicro, at least, is very small and uses a DC-DC converter to keep the supply at 5.5V, so it still has something unusual to offer. Still, I don't share the enthusiasm for the AD8615, although it sounds decent. Still, he leaves out bypassing and decoupling that I wouldn't personally leave out and unfortunately, on the Mini at least, this problem isn't easily solved, either. The absence of solder mask and poor access to the ground plane is regrettable.

For earbuds I recommend the Yuin PK2.

Hi dave

If I recall correctly, the D-25S was a small-market production run of units for airliners or something that Silicon Salvage picked up a big lot of some years ago and sold on eBay for 45 or 50 dollars. Some people bought up portions of the lot, waited a while, and then are now opportunistically selling them at a big markup. IMO there are better ways to spend the money.

I thought Pocket PC, too, but then thought maybe that wasn't what he was getting at. Still, it would do all those functions, for the most part anyhow.

Archos 504 views photos and reads PDFs (mostly), though I don't know about sound quality. Kind of clunky, too. Unfortunately, reading PDFs on top of photos really narrows the selection a lot, especially if it needs to be an all-in-one solution. The method linked for reading PDFs on the iPod really isn't a method of reading PDFs, but a method of packaging plaintext that can be read on the iPod. You use a computer to extract the text from the PDF, and then use the computer also to package it thereafter, and then finally upload that packaged text (as 'notes') to the iPod to be read. So, it's not actually a method of reading a PDF per se, it's just a generalised method of reading text on an iPod that includes a step for extracting the text from a PDF.

I find the stock 303 is overrated, though post-modification it's considerably better and is pretty good overall. I'd actually rather have the D-25, between the two. It has a better d/a converter and, post-mod, I tend to like that sound better. Still, definitely wouldn't pay anywhere near $275 for one.

The major problem with toslink is rise time. I've found it mostly works fine for my applications, but when I did quantative evaluation of each, coax did fare a bit better overall. The distortion spectrum was a bit less complex and a bit lower out of the dac I was using, although I'm not sure it was particularly audible. In more demanding applications, though, toslink appears to be disfavored.

Get a D-335.

I'm really not sure what the deal is. The first pair I had did the same thing. Maybe it's how I break them in or I get special K701s; I don't know.

It takes some effort to make an amp that sounds outright offensive, although some succeed. Nowadays, it isn't very difficult to make amps since there are ICs available that do most of the work for you and a wide variety of designs published for public consumption. Really, the concern here is relative performance of course. Shiki - K701 is the headphone I use for basically everything, as I'm rather fond of it. I personally like how it pairs with the GS-1 and GS-X, although that's with my other gear. I can imagine with some of the sources I've heard in head-fiers' stashes that it wouldn't be such a happy pairing.

Well, while the Opera hasn't gotten rave reviews, the Heed hasn't really over here, either. I don't personally consider the Heed worth the cost, considering how banal the design is. I probably would have gotten a GS-1, DIY dynahi, or maybe a B22 instead (not sure what a 'three channel' b22 costs), but maybe things will work out or, if not, you can find a willing buyer. Perhaps you can substitute LMH6321 in for the BUF634; it tends to have a less dull sound to it.

Of course! I also don't want to miss out on sweet, sweet quantization noise in the audio band

I choose Class D because I am a _huge_ fan of switching noise, phase shift, and bizarre, complex distortion spectra. Those things really improve my listening experience and I could not go without them.

2.828vpp is a 1vRMS sine wave. Peak amplitude may differ in actual music but suffice it to say at what is likely 3.7v supply, factoring in headroom, much above unity gain won't be particularly useful. On a smaller amplitude output, such as a PCM2704 (1.8vpp), gain can perhaps be a bit higher but unlikely even 2 when factoring in how close the amp will realistically approach its rails. Probably more than anything, the use of such high gain just raised the noise floor and distortion.

Better than the MFSL (that's what I have)?

It looks like the 2704 and 12MHz XO got the red paint treatment for the Florida meet?

When I read 909's post, I understood it to mean essentially that; e.g. superficially appears similar but is, in fact, not and the Pico is more sophisticated. I concur with his finding.

Haven't tried Halo 3 yet; haven't even gotten to use Halo 2 much. I used to play the Marathon series a lot back in the day.

I met Ori in person at his house and, honestly, he really wasn't a bad guy to me at least. He was pretty hospitable and personable overall. However, I do agree that he is a 'Member of the Trade'.

WEP will pretty much just keep out people who are only willing to invest the effort required to get onto an unsecured network. Otherwise, someone will just run airsnort or something of that sort and break in. I'd just make your roommate upgrade to something that can use WPA2. If you can't do that, use MAC filtering and don't broadcast your SSID, but really WPA2 is preferable.

I would probably have more sympathy for todd if he didn't try to eviscerate me whenever he disagreed with a comment regarding products that he happened to have some allegiance to.

?

I've used both the fourth and fifth gen iMods in quiet conditions with various headphones (including my K701s).