Okay, I know the amount of people using a ZEN with this thing will be vanishingly small, but DO NOT use the balanced out. I just switched to RCA from an SDAC and the noise is completely gone
The Soloist has noise on very sensitive headphones and IEMs in higher gains. Itās not as quite as the SA1 or any of the THX stuff, but it does sound much better than those. The noise is only noticeable when nothing is playing. If itās a really an issue for you, you can just use ifi IEM match or resistor adapters to get rid of the noise. I also would not suggest using the RCA in over balanced. There is a noticeable decrease in sound quality when switching between RCA and balanced out of the Bifrost 2. The Soloist is just a very powerful amp and those tend to have higher noise floors. I know that the reported specs for it arenāt accurate. I donāt remember where, but someone did actually measure how powerful the Burson was and itās much higher than what they say it is. Which is very weird from a marketing stand point.
Also, the Soloist is an amazing pre-amp, so if you need a more quite amp, then just hook one up to the Soloist. I use the soloist to pre-amp tube amps, the liquid gold x, and speaker Amps.
Iām using the t1.2nd and I have noise floor in medium and high gain
Yeah itās very, very slight on medium and very slight on high RCA out of my Zen, now. Not anything like before, though. I have to actively listen for it. My Zen does have the ifi Power supply which does help cut the noise. The guy I bought it from said he got no noise on any levels but he had the matching DAC so that could make a difference. All I know is this ampā¦OMG this amp. Itās ā¦ I dipped into a savings fund for getting a place with the GF, and I felt sort of shitty for it, but now that I own it? No regrets- worth delaying that by a month all day. If itās only going to get better with a better DAC and Balanced in fuck me sideways
What are people using for Balanced DACs $700 USD and under? Anyone try the iFi Neo?
Denafrips Ares II. The hype is real and it is fantastic.
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I have been very happy with the Bifrost 2.
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It depends on what you need, watch recent GoldenOneās review of D1SE, he explains difference between dacs well in this video
My personal choice is d1se, i tried at my setup d90, Ares 2, m400, bifrost 2(i tried in shop) and for me personally d1se is the most balanced sound from all these. I experienced burn-in with this dac, straight from the box the it sounds a compressed. Dac question is closed for me.
@Coran as well, been there done that with the Ares- didnāt think there was a big difference over my Zen and it had 0 features so it was a losing battle on both fronts. The BF2 interests me, but theyāve had questionable QC and I donāt wanna buy from a company who doesnāt stand behind their products enough to pay for return shipping under warranty. Living in Canada makes that an especially expensive proposition
Iām finding more and more I donāt like colored DACs with the soloist and that all the color it provides is enough for me when the V6 vivids are installed. With Sparkos I can handle a little bit of coloration on a DAC but going dead neutral on the DAC with the V6 vivids in volume bypass is still my favorite. Ifi DACs are kinda lacking in detail IMO and a little too warm and oversmoothed and burr brown chips as a whole have odd soundstaging and kind of a wonky center image and come off as a little loose and uncontrolled sounding to me.
If what you have sounds good enough then just keep it and save your money for new headphones or IEMs.
I like the sound of most ifi products. I have a micro black label.
I also have never had an issue with my B2 though. I have it for over a year now. It also has a 5 year warranty and is modular so if they release a B3, you can just buy the upgrade for it. I would never get rid of my B2. All my amps are pretty replaceable but I never thought about āupgradingā from the B2. Well I would never get rid of my Dethonray Honey either.
If I could run balanced out of my Zen into the Soloist without the noise and other caveats, I wouldnāt be as concerned, but alas, I canāt, so here I am lol
Yeah- thatās why I am more certainly more open to moving away from Burr Brown chip set- The Neo interests me because my understanding is that it keeps what I like about the BB while being cleaner and not AS warm. Itās also the only iFi DAC Iām aware of thatās XLR to XLR- or at least anywhere near itās price point I should say
Thing is that you will never get ride of the noise in medium/high gain with more sensitive headphones or IEMs with the Soloist. The change in a DAC will not change that. Thatās a quality of the AMP itself. You need a more quite Amp not a different DAC for those situations.
Well kinda, if the output voltage of the DAC is higher than the 2v that heās getting from RCA here could easily lower the gain from the added volume and drop noise considerably.
No from what I understand, because the Zen specifically has to use a 4.4 to XLR cable, based on what the seller told me, those cannot be used as per Burson as it can damage the amp. Iām not talking about a little bit of noise- Iām talking about on medium gain through a pair of 600 Ohm 880s SE it sounds like youāre listening to an AM radio station between 2 frequency type of noise. This went beyond a noise floor. Imagine pulling up a white noise video on youtube, except the sound was even more erratic, and you were listening to it on medium volume kind of noise. When I switch to RCA from the Zen, completely gone on all 3 gain levels for the same headphones. Someone else mentioned this if Iām not mistaken higher up in this thread with his Zen Balanced as well. Made the noise on the Emotiva Bass X with jumpers with the volume knob almost maxed out sound down right quiet
Thatās strange. I have the ZEN DAC and while I am not currently using it with my Jot 2, I have used a 4.4mm Pentacon to xlr cable with it and experienced no issues. I canāt see why it would either since itās a balanced to balanced output and input. I use the Hart cable 4.4mm to xlr.
Just to add to my previous message, I also use RCA to XLR cable for my R2R Pi 4 Streamer/Dac to the Jot since going from unbalanced output to balanced input is fine.
No I used it for my G111 and it was marvelous- this is a specific issue to the Soloist based on its design