"Ears deep" in Schiit

[PHC1]

Originally Posted by 1KW

Nice schitt and a great review

Thank you David! It was your egging on that even got me back into audio after almost 4 year hiatus.

[Puma Cat]

Originally Posted by PHC1

Forgot all about that one Stephen and my wife loves Ludovico. By the way, she is not an audiophile (surprise! ) but she loved the combo.

Not surprised. That's what I like about women; they don't get into the gear at all; they could care less.

But they have incredible hearing, they know music, and can tell you if something sounds "right" or not...

[John49]

Originally Posted by bart

It all makes you wonder how good their headphone amps are...

Bart... the Schiit Lyr that I used (and still have, pending sale) with HiFiMan HE-500 and then HE-1000v2 headphones is/was a great piece of equipment and enabled tube rolling to ‘tune’ the sound to my personal preference.

[PHC1]

Made a pleasant discovery this evening.

I was almost sure my MacBook Pro, being a late 2012 model would not have an optical out through the 3.5mm headphone jack. Based on what I read, it was supposed to be the early 2013 models that had them.

Just as an experiment, I ordered FosPower 24K Gold Plated Toslink to Mini Toslink Digital Optical S/PDIF Audio Cable from Amazon. Plugged it into the MacBook Pro and into Gumby's optical SPDIF input. It worked!

Immediately I noticed an improvement in sound. Bass tightened up, blacker background as the resolution increased further and I can hear even deeper into the soundstage in the headphones.

USB was already great, optical SPDIF took it a few notches higher. Glad I decided to experiment.

[Puma Cat]

Originally Posted by PHC1

Made a pleasant discovery this evening.

I was almost sure my MacBook Pro, being a late 2012 model would not have an optical out through the 3.5mm headphone jack. Based on what I read, it was supposed to be the early 2013 models that had them.

Just as an experiment, I ordered FosPower 24K Gold Plated Toslink to Mini Toslink Digital Optical S/PDIF Audio Cable from Amazon. Plugged it into the MacBook Pro and into Gumby's optical SPDIF input. It worked!

Immediately I noticed an improvement in sound. Bass tightened up, blacker background as the resolution increased further and I can hear even deeper into the soundstage in the headphones.

USB was already great, optical SPDIF took it a few notches higher. Glad I decided to experiment.

Okay then, at some point in time you may want to try Eitr....you could always return it if you didn't think it would bring a big improvement.

But I bet it would...

[PHC1]

Originally Posted by Puma Cat

Okay then, at some point in time you may want to try Eitr....you could always return it if you didn't think it would bring a big improvement.

But I bet it would...

I opened up a Pandora box with the Focal Utopia. I can't hear any appreciable difference between USB and optical S/PDIF with my Sennheiser HD600. I can barely hear any difference with the Focal Elear. But I can clearly hear a difference with the Utopia!

Now working in the RCA S/DIF on Gumby since that's the only input I have not tried yet. I have the Oppo spinning some CDs feeding Gumby through coaxial S/PDIF instead of optical now.

[John Jordan]

I have a 12 foot FosPower from my 2010 MacBook Pro to the 2500 DAC. Even with the current firmware, the USB of the 2500 is still finicky. That inexpensive ((in the range of $10 depending on length) FosPower cable does a pretty nice job!

[Puma Cat]

Originally Posted by PHC1

I opened up a Pandora box with the Focal Utopia. I can't hear any appreciable difference between USB and optical S/PDIF with my Sennheiser HD600. I can barely hear any difference with the Focal Elear. But I can clearly hear a difference with the Utopia!

Now working in the RCA S/DIF on Gumby since that's the only input I have not tried yet. I have the Oppo spinning some CDs feeding Gumby through coaxial S/PDIF instead of optical now.

Serge, how long have you had the Utopias? I read Tyll's review of them from 2016, and at the time, he said it was the best headphone in the world. They're very popular in the two big dedicated headphone forums.

I wasn't aware that the Oppo had a SPDIF RCA out; so it basically is just acting as a transport for your CDs with Gumby doing the decoding, correct? I would expect Gumby would walk all over the ESS Sabre DAC in the Oppo.

The Oppo will not output DSD from an SACD, correct?

[Puma Cat]

Originally Posted by John Jordan

I have a 12 foot FosPower from my 2010 MacBook Pro to the 2500 DAC. Even with the current firmware, the USB of the 2500 is still finicky. That inexpensive ((in the range of $10 depending on length) FosPower cable does a pretty nice job!

John, if your DAC has a RCA digital coax SPDIF input, you definitely want to try the Schiit Eitr. It's frickin' killer, I tell ya. Schiit pulled out all the stops on that puppy. I have yet to read a negative review of it by anyone.

[PHC1]

Originally Posted by Puma Cat

Serge, how long have you had the Utopias? I read Tyll's review of them from 2016, and at the time, he said it was the best headphone in the world. They're very popular in the two big dedicated headphone forums.

I wasn't aware that the Oppo had a SPDIF RCA out; so it basically is just acting as a transport for your CDs with Gumby doing the decoding, correct? I would expect Gumby would walk all over the ESS Sabre DAC in the Oppo.

The Oppo will not output DSD from an SACD, correct?

I have had the Utopia and Elear at home for an at home audition for about a week now. I can not say if the Utopia is the best headphone in the world since I have not heard all of the headphones in the world Stephen but I can definitively say that it is the MOST INCREDIBLE HEADPHONE I personally have ever heard. I auditioned them with Audeze LCD-4 side by side briefly and the Audeze was also fantastic but I preferred the Utopia.

Yes, OPPO has optical and coaxial S/PDIF. I am using my older OPPO 83 as a transport only using the coax to feed Gumby. The MacBook took over the optical SPDIF for right now.