coop250 -- My end-to-end balanced headphone setup is wonderful (warning: very addictive!). I noticed a slight increase in detail and a very signficant improvement in imaging over the high-end unbalanced headphone system I had before (both with Transporter as source). I have yet to find a headphone amp with a built-in DAC that sounds better than the Transporter.
I, too, prefer having analog volume control in the headphone pre/amp (and in my Bryston preamp, for that matter). I have never really tried doing a digital/analog vol control listening test, but it always seemed counter-intuitive to me to spend all the time and effort getting bit-perfect rips in EAC only to then start modifying those same bits for volume control in the digital stage... So far, I only have my AKG 701s wired for balanced use. I have read good things about Sennheiser HD650s in balanced mode, and am thinking about getting a set of balanced cables for my pair. I don't have a pair of Grados yet. I noticed that Moon Audio (www.moon-audio.com) sells the GS1000, RS1 & RS2 cabled for balanced usage. I'm very curious about the GS1000. -- muski ------------------------------------------------------------------------ muski's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3670 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=33868 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
