Passing the Gear Along

I’v sent the beyerdynamic A20 amp along with the Pro-Ject Box E DAC to a friend for further evaluation. I love the Box E, but the A20 leaves room for improvement.

I did run the Box E into a Bottlehead Crack with Speedball upgrade and loved the synergy with the Sennheiser HD800. The HD800 I had at the time had the Super Dupont Resonator Mod added along with some damping material around the drive which smooths out the treble. If you are looking for a great combo the HD800 / Crack + Speedball / Box E sounded full, tame, and at times too bassy which surprised me because the HD800 is bright sounding. Just be careful not the clip the Crack’s input with the output from the DAC as this leads to noticeable distortion. I ran into this issue using a Chord Mojo I had laying around. I forgot to turn down voltage on the Mojo and it clipped the input on the Crack making it sound almost unlistenable.

A System Test

I found myself entirely too busy at work to listen to my hi-fi rig at home and ended up taking a 4 week break. Upon return I simplified back to the 400i, BUDU, and Bifrost and once again am very pleased with the fidelity coming from this setup. If you are looking for and end-game setup, and a BUDA cannot be found, the Magni 2 Uber will suffice.

If you can return to your rig day after day and never find faults with it you probably have something special.

Another excellent setup is the Bifrost, Mjolnir 2, and the Audeze XC with microsuede pads.This combo offers a soft yet detailed treble, smooth midrange, and clear and defined bass without sounding boomy.

My recent added tracks

A friend recommended that I listen to Spencer Elliot’s Torque and in doing so I found my way over to Stephan Baer. In particular I really enjoy Stephan Baer’s Najongo and Bay of Bengal tracks. The detail in these tracks is hard to find amid other tracks and the slight lack of treble gives them a laid back feel without removing detail.