What did you buy today? (Part 1)

Man, these look as great as they sound. Especially when on sale. Got em for like 100$ shipped.

Edit: It’s Monoprice M650’s

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Just got the Edition XX. People were not joking, the cable is laughably bad. Like I can’t understand how they would sell anything costing more than $50 dollars with this cable. It is sooo bad I can’t help but laugh rather than be mad or disappointed :rofl:

Too early to give impressions, but cymbals sound very weird. Might just be that one track and I’m not sure if it’s weird in a good or bad way. (Using crappy onboard source/amp though…)

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Got my Empire Ears ESR in today. Think they look good sitting next to my Zeus’, was very surprised how much smaller the ESR is than the Zeus. Makes sense considering you’re fitting 3BAs into a shell compared to 14BAs haha. So far I think they’re ok but definitely prefer the detail and resolution of the Zeus.

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Noble Savants also came in. Don’t like them very much from what i’ve heard of them, kind of remind me of an IEM version of the 6XX/650 with how mid-forward and warm they are. Bought these just to try them so figure they’ll be posted for sale shortly.

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which one’s? any mods done to them?

Oops. Monoprice M650s. Stock.

Ive often wondered about those. is it a planar? is it dark?

OK, so after some 10 days of listening time on the Soekris dac1321, I can say that I’m happy with my purchase. I listened to all of my headphones on this setup, but the majority of my listening was with my HD650, so all of my observations are mainly using the HD650 as my reference.

1st things 1st, for an r2r dac the soekris is very analytical sounding. This kind of separates it from many r2r dacs, at least at it’s price point.

I initially had my Soekris hooked up to my Archel 2.5…the sound was good but sort of cold and soulless. Last night I swapped the Archel 2.5 out for the JDS LABS EL AMP 1 and the sound immediately improved. The El Amp has a way of making the top end of the treble smoother without sacrificing detail. This was a perfect complementary amp for the Soekris. I’d imagine warmer amps would be a good pairing for the Soekris.

I also have the Soekris hooked up to my Hagerman Audio Labs Tuba. This is another really nice pairing. Nothing but smooth, warm, yet accurate sound all the way.

Part of me wants to buy a higher tiered amp to see how well it scales because of how good it sounded paired with my RNHP and my Asgard 3.

So what sets the Soekris dac1321 apart? The FPGA filters are nice, but they are very subtle. They can be customized, but it is a very technical process that I’ve decided not to get into.

The Soekris stands apart to me as an upgrade to any Delta Sigma dac that I’ve heard under the $500 range. It is accurate like DS dacs, but as usual, it does spacial recreation much better and more natural sounding than DS dacs.

The Soekris dac1321 also has the bitrate displayed on the front of the unit, which is always a nice feature IMO. It also lets you customize the line out volume, which becomes the default unless you decide to change it. This includes turning off the unit as it remains the default…but r2r dacs benefit from staying turned on anyways.

Sound wise, the Soekris also has some of the most natural and real percussion I’ve heard off of a dac. I’ve been a drummer for 18 years and a bassist for 12, so I’d like to think that my experience lends some credibility towards my observation. The vocals are excellent and don’t have the same thin nature that I’ve heard on many DS dacs. The treble is extremely detailed considering how smooth it sounds. I didn’t personally hear any anomalies, artifacts or portions of the audible frequency range that sounded flawed or missing. Most r2r dacs are slightly colored, but the soekris is so slightly colored, it could be hard to distinguish it from some DS dacs if the spacial recreation and natural sounding percussion didn’t give it away.

Overall, I can enthusiastically recommend the Soekris dac1321 without reservation. It is well worth it’s price tag IMO.

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Something arrived today…

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Nice purchase! Look forward to your thoughts :+1:

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Excellent write up!

The Soekris wasn’t on my radar, but I’d love to listen to it some time. I’m glad you’re enjoying it.

Cheers!

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Thank you kind sir.

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Thank you for taking the time to write up your impressions and for doing it so well. This helps very much with the shopping and decision process in attempting to mate up different pieces and what to expect. Bravo good buddy, very nice and again congratulations on the buy.

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Thanks for taking the time to provide your observations. It is just a matter of time before I acquire a Soekris DAC, as it is the last piece of my chain that I have been trying to obtain. I am looking forward when I do get one in hopefully in the summer.

It also helps that we share some similar equipment with the tube amp and headphones you used for your reference.

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Have you ever heard a Bifrost 2?

I looked at Soekris, but didn’t want an amp but I do want balanced.

Curious on your thoughts.

I own a Bifrost 2. I personally think it is the better DAC as it’s more refined, has balanced out, and the soundstage is is slightly wider…but the Soekris is no slouch. They both are great and I could recommend either one without pause.

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Cool. Thanks!

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I bought a set of Beyerdynamic 177x off @db_Cooper on 4/30 that arrived today. Specifically wanted them for gaming and so far they’ve been great. First time I’ve ever bought anything off any non-Amazon site so was a bit nervous for such a large purchase.

I also dropped off a set of Fostex T60RP for UPS return, they weren’t as nice as the Beyer’s for gaming, too high pitched to the point of pain. I planned on sending those into ModHouse for the Argon mod and trying other pads to tame the higher treble, but each cup creaked if I moved too fast in them and had a studdering driver on low frequency test tones. Talked with Ryan at ModHouse and he recommended the return, and looking around led me to here and the Beyer’s.

Beyer’s are much better for the sound without the painful treble but still has better imaging than my HD6xx’s for games.

db_Cooper was prompt to message me about the 177x’s and offered a really fair price with all the original packaging, accessories, and threw in a custom cable and Dekoni pads (so far like them the best of the three but time will tell) with it. He dropped it off to shipping the next day and covered 2-day shipping!

@M0N was also helpful with the 177x recommendation for the headphones. Looks like M0N is involved with several people’s recommendations on this board!

Wanted to take a minute to thank db_Cooper and M0N publicly and let the community know you’ve got some great and helpful people here.

Thanks guys for all the help!

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Nice, glad you are enjoying them :+1:

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Yeah I think you will like it… I really enjoy mine…