Is it worth it? (Help requested chasing "end-game")

BondDaBoom · September 6, 2019, 10:29pm

When I sold my Aeolus I lost 70 bucks. I luckily bought them on pre-order for under a grand. Still I’m going to miss them but Need gsx mini and Verite.

M0N · September 6, 2019, 10:30pm

Hey thats pretty good though. I mean only losing 70 bucks really isnt much if you got good use out of them

BondDaBoom · September 6, 2019, 10:31pm

Would Aeon Flow be up his ally? It sounds really good but requires some bass oomph. I thought it be good upgrade for $700 new.

M0N · September 6, 2019, 10:32pm

Ehh, it might not be what he’s looking for, as I wouldn’t say it had that great soundstage, and kinda suffered from some compression issues imo

BondDaBoom · September 6, 2019, 10:33pm

Didn’t use that much. I’m more of a planar guy.

M0N · September 6, 2019, 10:39pm

What made you want the Verite then?

BondDaBoom · September 6, 2019, 10:55pm

Resolve Review comparison to the Utopia. He said it sounds like a planar. I’ve got Autuer which are amazing so if Verite sounds even better I’m there.

SM_Music · April 27, 2020, 8:05pm

M0N:

I would honestly say that you need to have multiple 2k headphones to benefit from a singular dac that would cost 1k. I think your desktop dac amp setup should be under 1k and a portable dac/amp under $500. You should prioritize your actual headphones or iems first. And personally I feel that you shouldn’t have a dac/amp setup over the costs of your headphones, and to go a little further, it should be 1/2 the price of your headphone collection. It’s just not worth it for a 1k dac only even with a couple 1k level headphones

In terms of importance I would say that the actual headphones or iems are where you should put the majority of your money if you want to upgrade. Next I would say the quality of your source files/music or other media needs to be at a reasonable level of quality. Then I would suggest the amp as the next upgrade, because imo it will give you a bigger improvement in sound. Then your dac is next, because even with higher level dacs, the changes are fairly minute to a decent quality dac. And then comes stuff like cables, software to play the media, other stuff I can’t think of right now because I’m walking, etc.

Hands down, this is by far one of the best remarks/advices I have seen on this forum

M0N · April 27, 2020, 8:08pm

I would revise that a tad now that I look at it to be more vague but I would say that it depends on your desired setup

SM_Music · April 27, 2020, 8:11pm

I just like the path of how to look at it. It helps to understand the sequence and to get order in your priorities. I like it

Nick_Mimi · April 28, 2020, 1:56am

Revise it the @M0N way please. There were some pretty good parameters in that statement and it helps focus folks some. What parts of the statement do you feel are off knowing what you know and what you have spent lately?

M0N · April 28, 2020, 1:58am

Damn I hate blanket statements like this lol. I would rather just go off a single case, trying to generalize will lead to errors and incorrect statements for some setups

Nick_Mimi · April 28, 2020, 2:01am

I very much understand your hesitation, and some of us have thrown most of those parameters “out the window” but that entire statement was actually a pretty decent set of parameters, Budget items keep getting better and better, and allot of new folks in the hobby are torn on purchases and also need to budget so that they can maximize value to sound quality

Nick_Mimi · April 28, 2020, 2:06am

Sorry, i didn’t mean to put you on the spot, i can say from personal experience that every part of the signal chain matters to some extent, and some budget items benefit from the improvements higher quality items bring forth etc. add to this the importance of finding the synergy between pieces or properly matching, whatever way you want to describe it.
It’s funny how many high end audio guys always tell you to spend at least double or triple on your speakers relative to what the amplifier costs, yet will be the first to criticize your equipment when you go out and do just that and then go back to the forums to talk about it.