what is the sound profile for the X6? warm? neutral? cool?
specs say it can drive up to 120 ohm headphones. decent power for 16 and 32 ohm headphones too.
Eehh, it’s been so long, I can’t recall. I gave mine away maybe two years ago.
someone needs to buy one ASAP and get it over to ASR! 
so, they cleaned up the PCB layout, better DAC, have a proper DC to DC converter, but apparently it doesn’t look filtered. seems the volume control knob is digital rather than resistor now too.
2 Likes
4 Likes
weird. this is only an amp. makes little sense to pair with the existing Zen as it’s a true combo.
3 Likes
Drop also had a IFI DAC since NY CanJam earlier this year. Who knows when that will be officially announced.
3 Likes
ooh, that looks really nice… wonder how it sounds in comparison.
I would hope for a more neutral sound signature (probably the most we could expect from ifi lol)
Ehhh… I am doubtful it would be nearly the price/performance the ZEN already has (The CAN on it’s own will be $250)… Zeos will be happy about the power on the front, and using 4.4 for balanced, with balanced pass-through (or pre-out?) I personally don’t have the 6XX, and still feel like the “EQ” for it is a bit of a gimmick.
nice thing with this is hopefully people will just ignore the drop versions of the oldac and O2 and go for somehting somewhat better value
I think the amp alone is listed at $250, if what they listed is accurate. If Drop throws in any combo discounts with the 6XX or DAC it would help value wise. Not sure how this would compare to any other ~$500 stack.
1 Like
The only real ~$500 stacks I can think of off the top of my head are
- EL2 stack
- Gesheli Labs
- SMSL SP/M200
If there are more, then I can’t think of them off hand… But from my understanding, that is already some stiff competition.
pretty decent competition indeed… asgard 3 + modius as well if that counts… this could still slot in as the ultra warm entry which is pretty odd to me that it’s the 6xx pairing
1 Like
That is, of course, not to include any of the combo units in that general vicinity (Element 2, Jotunheim, Lyr, ect.)
1 Like
the bass boost on the hip dac with the 6xx generally sounds pretty awful, but on the sundaras sounds pretty good.
If the dac has spdif you could get the zen blue too and make it a three way, hell, just throw the zen dac in there too and you got yourself a Zen gang bang.
1 Like
I know this all too well (about the senns)… if they made the bass boost much more subtle and targeted sub bass I think that could be nice
I’ve been meaning to try the sundara balanced (wasn’t a fan of it se) to see how it performs on the zen/hip… probably do that today
1 Like
The triple stack a50,p50,d50s I believe is also under $500
1 Like
FYI I have the DAC-X6 (MKI now?) and I believe its power to be pretty decent, especially if you change the output jumper. They drive my K712 in 12 Ooclock stock, and around 10 o’clock with the jumper mod. Now I do intend to upgrade to the JDS Element line (either the Unit or the Stack), but I will say I’m curious as to how better this little equipment got.
my concern is how the amp will behave with headphones other than the 6xx, as they state that its specifically tuned for them.
1 Like