What am I hearing?
So, I have two set-ups. One in my bedroom, at my desk, for music and gaming; the other in my living room, for movies and music. Initially my Aune X8/X7s was my beta set-up, home in my living room for less frequent use. The idea being that my SU-8/Singxer SA-1 was ever so slightly better suited for gaming, was a more capable amp overall, and would therefore live on my desk and serve me primarily for competive FPS.
I initially A/B’d each amp and DAC, running SMSL into Aune, Aune into, Singxer, etc., to try and get a sense of what each sounded like and came to a few conclusions but wanted to just start using the things and didn’t spend a great deal of time appreciating the differences. After my father tasked me with upgrading his living room set-up, I rewatched Zeos’s SU-8 vid and swapped my systems round, making my SU-8 the core of my living room audio set-up, not just serving a separate headphone system. It all works well and I’m satisfied to leave it where it is for the convenience of how I have my living room system is now integrated.
Something is nagging at me, that I should have my Aune stack back in my living room, and thus my SMSL/Singxer back on my desk; that each system is better sonically for the tasks I originally purchased them for. I have little time to A/B each system for each purpose and find it challenging to do so even when I do have the time so I wish to ask the more experienced here, what sonically would be the difference between each set-up? From what I can remember from my inital impressions, the Aune system has better bass control/presence for music. I remember A/B’n each amp with the Aune DAC and narrowing the superior bass down to the X8 itself. But outside of that, I can’t remember any other conclusions I came to.
For reference, I tend to use a balanced HD560S for gaming, balanced DT990 600 Ohm for movies and balanced HE500 for music.