Sound great with my HD650, weak for my Argons, the true bass is fun to play with. I connected it to my SP200 via the RCA and itās super clean (ordered some 4.4 to XLR, should be here Friday). I even subscribe to Tidal for a month to test out MQA.
Awesome. Glad you are enjoying the heck of it and it sounds great to you.
The Argons do take quite a bit of power to drive!
I have to say this is pretty odd, but the Zen DAC v2 really brings the HD650 and the M1060 (2.5mm) really well. I havenāt tried the HD58x on them yet, gonna work my way up to it. The HE4xx is as always flat, again, not bad, just boring to me, its like listening to a well recorded person talking on youtube and then it just sounds like you are just listening to a well recorded person on youtube talking in their room (you hear all the little echos and sounds of the room). And I will re-emphasize this, yes, the Argons will work at a reasonable level, but everything that makes the Argons they Argons is gone (the sound stage, the bass, THE LIVE of the headphones).
I ordered the 5v iFi iPower for it, when my GPU ramps up there are some pops, see if that fixes it.
If you really want to hear what the Zen DAC can do, ditch Tidal with their crappy MQA junk and get a Qobuz subscription. Standard 44.1kHz and everything above, Qobuz clearly sounds better, and is less expensive.
Honestly, I have no idea why ifi decided to proceed further with MQA. Itās a junk, failing technology that isnāt (and never was) needed or wanted.
Anywhoā¦
Thatās an awesome stack! TUBES!!!
Yep. I was looking at this one, put it on the list, saw MQA, scratched it from the list.
MQA is an annoyance, for sure, but it shouldnāt disqualify it from your consideration. itās slightly higher price is not just because it can decode MQA nowā¦it also has a superior chipset for processing the USB signal.
that said, you may be able to find a sweet deal on the Zen v1 via the used market.
I get what you are saying. Iām good. There are some great DACs out there that donāt have that garbage on them. Iāll just buy one of them when Iām ready.
wellā¦further to what I said. donāt drop the Zen v2 just because it has MQA as it is an awesome combo unit. I have the v1 as my daily driver and am loving it!
This DAC is too good just to write off because it has a feature, included more to bump sales.
Well, enjoy it then. Iāll pass, thank you.
that is too bad. you do yourself a disservice.
Not really. I am not allowing a penny of my money to go to these bullshit artists. That is all. This has nothing to do with Ifi, either. Or SMSL. Or anyone else. I get why they might want to offer MQA products. I currently enjoy SMSL products that donāt have MQA on them. There are far too many other incredible products out there for me to be the least bit worried.
I canāt stand MQA and will never listen to it again (since I no longer have Tidal), but Iām sure as hell not getting rid of my SMSL M400 because it can decode MQA. Thatās just stupid.
let me ask you a question. If your friends start listening to Tidal MQA, are they still your friends?
LOL. Why wouldnāt they be? Kind of a dumb question, donāt you think? People are free to do their own thing. As am I. If you think MQA is so great please go, do. I will pass.
Ya think? Look, you tried it, you ended up not liking it. No one is looking for you to throw your gear out the window! I have no such ties. I am MQA free and will remain so.
Youāre missing the point, but whatever.
If itās a good product itās a good product, I donāt think Iād not buy something that had a feature that I had no intention of using as long as it ticked all the other boxesā¦For instance Iāve just got a DX300 which has a built in EQ and Bluetooth neither of which I doubt Iāll ever use
Exactly. Speaking of Bluetooth, my M400 has Bluetooth. Guess where the antenna is?.. Still in the box, where itās going to stay.