recstar24

To go along with what you are saying, isn't the whole point of nearfield listening in that it greatly diminishes the effect of room acoustics on the final output from the speakers? In addition, nearfield listening I would imagine could give you a different presentation than what most speaker set-ups could provide. I am with n-maher on this one, might be best/most cost effective to get some nice active monitors and control volume from the software side. However what Voltron is proposing sounds killer and probably beats a lot of speaker rigs out there, hey it outclasses my setup easily:p Those speaker stands do look awesome and I bet they are super rigid and very functional. Don't know of any other desktop monitor speaker stand so kudos for them to price it accordingly.

I was on an airplane and I saw some guy with the weirdest cans ever. They were grado SR-60. They looked cool, I researched them, found head-fi. I think even before that I remember reading about the Grado RS-1 in Maxim. thought those looked cool too.

Anyone care to paraphrase for those of us with no stereophile access;)?

Excellent - if so, sign me up;)

To those individuals that were there, how does this recent turn of events compare to the whole Singlepower debacle way back in 03-04. I was not yet on headfi and have only heard rumblings of the tuberoller debacle, issues with quality control at SP, and essentially the beginning of the amp wars.

If even 10% of the ideas of what Craig concocted saw the light of day the lineup would be absolutely tits-tastic. Unfortunately Craig is such a perfectionist and tweaker that by the time he gets to point B he is already on to something bigger and better. I think in the past year and a half that I have conversed with Craig I am pretty sure i can count maybe 10-15 projects that have never seen the light of day. This includes discrete solid state, hybrids, tubed monoblocks, speakers, phono pre's, USB DAC, etc. - I have heard them all, but they have never seen the light of day. Which IMO is a good thing, to know there is someone out there who will absolutely not release something unless it fully satifies him as a listener and proves it to be somewhat profitable for him as a business. The fact that there is a Xana part deux when taking this into account makes it even more of a miracle that current users can get something as high quality as the Zana. To me it represents true high end sound and build quality, and at that level of performance I believe it really becomes an issue of sound preference. In terms of neutrality and transparency it really is uber-fantastic. For anyone looking at Eddie Current Amps and are not biting the balanced bandwagon I think the Zana can be an end of the line amp for most users who are truly dedicated to pursuing the hi-end. Don't be scurred about biting on the ZD fearing that something better and badder is right there beyond the horizon, because most likely it will not come into fruition. However, I will say that I do hope Craig is able to bring some of his ideas (which by the way are absolutely killer and I truly do feel from an engineering standpoint he is a genius on par with someone like a Nelson pass) to fruition as he offers something unique and a nice breath of fresh air than what is currently out there. Most likely it will be way beyond people's heads and will never be truly appreciated by most users (see HD-25). I will also say that knowing his prototypes will never see the light of day, I make it a habit to consistently offer to buy them;D

Now I don't claim to be the expert on such things, but from my very limited knowledge base, having a truly balanced source would actually be an advantage because whatever common mode noise is on the line going into the input transformer would be completely eliminated. Also I believe you are right about lower RF noise, the input transformer should operate somewhat as a low pass filter below 40 khz or so (depending on the size of the input tranny itself) that would filter out a lot of the high frequency noise and hash that DACs can exhibit.

Awesomeness;)

Considering you are dealing with 120volts, I would say it is best that you realize that "prior"

I am with you Dusty. Meridian has done more for digital in the past 20 years than any other company. Unfortunately they rested on their laurels and took the easy cheap route with the G08. The 508.24 is nothing like the G08 in sound or internals or design. Full discrete output stage, fully balanced dual differential design from the DAC on, beefy power supply, all high quality components, etc. And as 909 mentioned earlier, has a much more flowing, organic presentation than the G08. The bass on the 508.24 is outstanding and makes the G08 bass seem anemic in comparison. Some of the digital active speaker stuff is excellent and they did invent the DVD A standard with MLP Lossless, so you are correct, the RSA comparison is definitely not apt. I think it was mentioned simply because Ray uses the meridian gear. But even Ray has commented how POS the G08 is compared to the 508.24. There is a story how at the meet that was at TTVJ in Montana and the Meridian reps were there, and basically Ray in typical Ray fashion spent the majority of the day bitching how bad the G08 is internally and why it is not like the 508.24.

Ummm...As if Aaron Rodgers is any better...and you forgot, we still have Kyle Orton. hahahaha. Very cool, it is a great rivarly and despite the bias it's a great football town. Sounds like the meet was a blast! Congrats on the 307A.

Random - 4N6 are you originally from Wisconsin? I see the packers avatar and go packers in your signature. If so, then please....get out... (bears fan woot)

Isn't that Wesley?

Well there better be a tube hiding in there transformer coupled for that price tag. Even though I would imagine a big part of the cost is the "R & D" needed to "crack the code"

Yah - hopefully there is enough guts to qualify the pricetag. If its just a pcm2702 and an opamp buffer for the output than pretty much your looking at a $900 bithead

Wavelength Audio, USB DACS, Crimson, Cosecant, Brick, Proton, Tube DACs I was cruising the wavelength audio usb dac site and saw that he is planning on releasing a portable usb/dac headphone amp. But damn look at that price! Even more amazing what Justin is offering.

For a metal chassis !?!?!?!

Actually not sure about that. I have seen at my local parts store your typical silver/steel, black, and brass/gold, that's about it. Not saying they don't exist, I am sure you can get orange or teal or magenta or whatever your heart desires.

Nah man bling gold ALO/RSA style fo sho

I re-read and I hear what you are saying. Like it gets out of the way and doesn't muck up anything, whereas it appears it is mucking up the sound.

yah

"...AT Amp: It is pretty muddy overall and when I listen to more complicated tracks, different guitars sound identical and the lower range like the kick drums and bass are more similar sounding. In hindsight, I realized I couldn't hear a lot of things with it. I don't think this amp is worthy enough to drive my headphones because it simply did the job of providing a DAC but has a horrible amp... ...ummm...I think he just explained right there... Glad your enjoying it!

Does someone want to take a guess whether the USB input converts directly from I2S or does it convert it to SP/DIF?

He definitely has a great voice, probably the closest I have heard to sounding like Sinatra. But to me he lacks soul, kind of like a Jane Monheit sounding like Ella but lacking the heart and soul of the sound. I respect him for his vocal chops though but I would rather listen to Sinatra, Nat, etc.

Oh yeah it would be very easy to balance it out. The CS4398 I believe is dual differential so should be super easy to transformer balance it out.