Depends on the headphones. The THX makes highs and upper mids sound flat. It’s a cold amp and the Airist is a bit dark. The combination got me to consider other DACs but for the price, the Airist is a wonderful DAC and I won’t get rid of it.
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I have the Mr. Speaker CX headphones.
I haven’t tried that combination recently as I loaned both my Airist and Ether CX to friend. The ethers were not fully broken in at the time. With that said, the DAC will treat you better than the amp. My best amp with the ether is the RNHP (however that may change with my new setup).
My Ether CX are not yet broken in. I got them last month. I got the THX for future headphones and the DAC as well with the CX headphones. I never heard of the RNHP amp. Why would it not have a front XLR. I remember this maker of this amp from my college. In sound design classes we had things from him but not a headphone amp.
The amp doesn’t need XLR out. You only want that if you have headphones that really need it and require substantial power out. As M0N will attest, when an amp has both XLR out and single ended out, the single ended out tends to suffer (especially with sub $1k amps).
Unless you’re dropping some serious coin, single ended is fine as long as it’s done well. Another amp worth checking out is the Asgard 3 which is a bit warmer and more enjoyable for $300 less.
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If it’s a differential amp then this is the case for sure, if it’s just a balanced out not balanced in it isn’t as large of a difference, but still noticeable, if you have balanced use it for the most part to get the best result
Single ended can be just as good as xlr, it’s moreso dependent on the quality of the amp for real world performance
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I really do how the all the drop stuff looks when it stacks together. Very nice! How do you like the sound so far of the Airist?
Yes the drop look really comes out once you start stacking. The R2R really changes the sound. I like it a lot. Going strait into the 789 the 789 is so sharp and very accurate almost to the point it’s like nothing gets past it. The R2R takes some of the harshness of the 789 away and makes it enjoyible. 
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I think for the money you can’t get a closer sound to vinyl with another DAC.
Now that could be true. It’s what I thought the sec I pressed the power button to the dac. It was like I was playing a song on old record. It’s interesting how a dac can change the sound.
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M0N will tell you, DACs matter.
I would think everything from the song all the way to your ears would matter and can make a change large or small. Also you think it’s worth it to upgrade my XLR cable to a hand made one or no?
XLR only benefits if you need to:
- Longer runs for an interconnect
- Noise rejection of the signal through a mess of electrical noise.
- You want the benefits listed above as a slight pre-amp to drive to a true balanced amp.
In a nutshell… don’t worry about it.
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I did notice I had to go to max gain on my CX to wake them up on the 789. Is that normal?
That’s an odd one… the CX take a ton of power to wake up in general and I swear are designed to be enjoyed at volumes louder than I care too to enjoy them. I found the best way to listen to them on the 887 was to run them balanced exclusively since it was the only way to power them properly. The Ether CX’s in my mind “woke up” better on the RNHP amp with wonderful things in does in the upper mids and highs. I’m waiting to get my CX back and try out on my new GSX-X mini to see if they work like they do more so on the 887 or the RNHP.
Basically, Ether CX is weird. Mr. Speaker/Dan Clark tries try recreate the sound of going to a concert which means blasting your ear balls out like a concert standing too close to the speaker.
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I had the Focal Elegia headphones and they could be driven by my cell phone. Your right about the volume level on the CX. I can have them on and after around a hrs or so will need a break. My Focal headphones I never had to do that I could be in them all day at work.
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Ether CX needs over 200 hours for break in. Maybe over 350 hours.
Yes I got them a few weeks ago. The difference between the Grace sdac and the R2R is like night and day diff. Glad I jumped on the R2R when it came up on EBay.
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The song by Muse Supermassive Black Hole… dam it’s like a new song. With the 789 and this dac I am hearing things in the song I never noticed. Other songs also do the same. What song and bands you play?
O ya Daft Punk and the Tron music… dam… so much more EPIC space and everything.
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