My Genalex Platinum Gold Lion 6922 came in today! I found a few comparisons between the Lions/Electro Harmonix stating the Lions are much better so I figured why not, not too much of an investment After putting them in and letting them warm up, I checked out a few songs I use as a reference.
I know the standard is to burn in tubes, but these tubes sound perfect right out of the box. I’m noticing bass is more pronounced and crisp, along with treble not being as sharp. Sound stage seems a tad more open as well. This is definitely an upgrade for me
Thanks to @db_Cooper for recommending me to a great seller!
Just got in my balanced cable from Hart Audio (thanks @WaveTheory)! I can tell sound is a tad more crisp, not substantial, but it’s there. Overall, I’m really satisfied with the recommendations from you guys. Thanks everyone that pitched in!
Now, I’m on the fence for buying a RME ADI-2 so I can run Tidal in Exclusive Mode w/ an EQ so my LCD-X’s follow the Harman Target Response Curve as that makes them sound much better. I know there’s Roon, but that is $700 for a lifetime subscription which is hard to swallow. At least RME ADI-2 is hardware and is system-wide.
Glad you’re enjoying! And happy to help. Don’t hesitate to ask us if you ever need something else.
The ADI-2 is an attractive product if you’re into EQing. Out of curiosity, have you tried Qobuz? IMO it sounds better than Tidal and you don’t have to worry about MQA. Initially the Qobuz library wasn’t as robust as Tidal’s but they’ve really improved it in the just over 2 years they’ve been live in the US. The ADI-2 would still be needed for exclusive mode and EQing even with Qobuz, though.
So you prefer Qobuz above Tidal and Audirvana over Roon? Also, since I’m not using exclusive mode to my DAC, shouldn’t I just select CD (16-bit, 44.1kHz) in Qobuz since that’s all Windows supports?
Does this not create playlists for me and such based on recent songs I’ve listened to? That’s a pretty big deal to me.
I do. IMO, even in Redbook-to-Redbook comparisons Qobuz sounds better; better soundstaging, more detail, and Tidal seems to roll off the treble a bit…at least they did 2.5 years ago when I got in on the Qobuz USA beta testing and was A/B testing the two services. I also don’t like MQA, not necessarily from a sound quality standpoint, but from a philosphical standpoint. Simply, I think it’s a bad solution to a ficticious problem and ends up being more DRM than anything else. However, Tidal is still a good hi-fi streaming option with an enormous library and pretty decent recommendation algorithms.
Couldn’t say, I’ve never used Roon. I use Audirvana because I stream from Qobuz and have a rather large collection of local music files. Audirvana allows me to do both stream and play local files in a single app for a pretty reasonable price. Audirvana also integrates Tidal streaming if you choose to stick with Tidal.
As far as the creating playlists thing goes…I don’t know. That’s not a feature I really use so I’m not qualified to answer that. HFGF actually has several threads about streaming services you can peruse to get an idea of what audiophiles think of the various services.
Do you think it’s even worth it to spend $1.2k on a DAC just for being able to use Exclusive mode + EQ? I don’t think I’m going to gain very much sound performance. Value/performance ratio is very low here. At this point, I’d be spending more on the DAC than my headphones, lol…
no. not worth imo. for that money you could get a higher performing better sounding dac without all the extra EQ/features.
Also If you can’t live without EQ for the LCD-X maybe you should consider a different headphone? This might just be me but if I have to EQ a headphone to make them sound good then I would rather just buy a different set that doesn’t have those problems.
I like to EQ my headphones to the Harman Target Response Curve. Every headphone I EQ’d w/ that via oratory1990’s settings made them sound better. Those headphones were Ananda, Arya, & Focal Clears.
I agree with @Towa here; no. I will again plug Audirvana. It supports software EQ via VST plugins. A quick Googling makes it look like Audeze offers their Reveal equalizations via VST. I would recommend starting there.
I will also echo @Towa though that the more you have to EQ a headphone, the more likely it is it’s not the headphone for you. There are headphones out there that do tune pretty close to the various Harman curves as their stock tuning.
to each their own i suppose… I just don’t see the point in EQing everything to sound the same i guess.
if that’s the case then you pretty much have two choices, go with the adi2 or something similar and lose out on performance and SQ but enjoy exclusive mode+EQ or go with a different DAC that is higher performing and better SQ but have to deal without exclusive to use EQ.
I can assure you that EQing the 3 headphones I mentioned above + LCD-X w/ the Harman Curve does NOT make them sound the same. Each headphone has their own characteristics which is why I picked the X out of the bunch.
How am I losing out on performance with going w/ ADI2?
I’d say a good chunk of the cost on the adi 2 is the features, all the bells and whistles. when you strip all that stuff away what you really have is a 4-500 dollar dac performance wise. That’s why I said you could get a lot more performance and SQ out of $1200 if you don’t have to have the EQ functionality. Even something like the Bifrost 2 is higher performing for only $700.
full disclosure; I have not heard a Adi2 firsthand, but there are people on this forum that have and can back this up.
all in all I just want to make sure you know what you are getting for your money.
Ahh, I gotcha. Makes sense - thanks for explaining!
@WaveTheory In Audirvana, I see on the left side w/ 24/44.1 kHz and the right side 32/88.2kHz. My DAC is showing 88.2 so why are they showing differently? Is the left side before MQA unfold?
See here: Imgur: The magic of the Internet
There is known bug in Audirvana they’re working on, far as I know. If your DAC accepts 32 bit signal, it outputs that. Best I can tell it’s just adding 0s to the bits and not affecting sound. The left number is file information, the right number is output signal info.
After putting them in and letting them warm up, I checked out a few songs I use as a reference.