Looking to get an upgrade from my current stack. I have a Geshelli Labs Enog2 Pro Dac and an Archel Pro (the first one) amp. I don’t have that much access to products in the US from my country without risking a lot on shipping. Recently I saw an LCX+SDAC for about $160 2nd hand and my friend might sell me his relatively new Magnius for about $200 (assuming he still has it).
Just wondering what you’re guys’ opinions on the LCX is considering it’s been out for a while. For the SDAC vs Enog2, specs alone looks like the Enog is probably the best bet. Worst case scenario would be me feeding the LCX balanced from the Enog and not using the SDAC all together unless the difference is negligible. I’ll probably sell the Archel Pro amp afterwards
I was going to get an IHA-6 store demo model for $400-ish but i think I might funnel that money into my PC upgrades soon. I do wanna go balanced tho.
Current headphones are:
HD800
LCD-3F
He-400 (the og ones)
58x
All of them except for the HE-400 have balanced adapters that go to my mmcx balanced modular xlr cable.
That’s a pretty solid price, and to be honest with the headphones you have, I’d really suggest going for that if you can, it would be a big improvement over either the magnius or lcx
Regarding the magnius vs lcx, I’d probably go for the lcx, the magnius was a bit disappointing with it’s lackluster spatial recreation and timbre, also felt to aggressive and forward, the lcx imo has more impressive staging and better timbre while having similar detail (perhaps slight edge to the lcx there)
Yeah, I’ve been eying the iha for a while but I’ve also been eying an i9-10900k. In your experience, how big an improvement would the lcx be over the archel 1?
Personally, I was not impressed with the LCX. I thought the Magnius was a much cleaner amp. Sorry, that’s the exact opposite of what M0N is saying , but it was my experience. I did a copmarison of a bunch of solid state amps a couple of months ago–the LCX and Magnius were in the bunch along with some others. Feel free to check it out:
Personally, I like the CTH better than both of them, and you can grab one of those for $100 if you watch close.
Haven’t heard the NFB, so I can’t comment on that, but I can say the iHA-6 is a great amp. Warm neutral tone with great control and very versatile with outputs, especially with the current mode for more demanding planars. Not until I got the V281 did it drop from the primary spot on my desk.
