In regards to my most recent post, here is a link to my older post, talking about synergy/and or coloration/wire with gain. https://www.head-fi.org/threads/centrance-ampersand-balanced-portable-headphone-amplifier.961161/post-16800379

It’s pretty much wire with gain. But an impedance mismatch with a headphone might color the sound. So far that doesn’t seem to be the case with me. But, vs something like the Palab M1 mini with using balanced HD600 and HD650, the Ampersand is my favorite with HD600, and the Palab is my...

Mine is pretty silent with my very sensitive custom IEM and Westone universal IEM, and my NXears as well. It pairs well with just about every headphone and IEM I have tried with it as well.

I have a Moon Audio Black Dragon 2.5 mm balanced cable, going to 4-pin at the earpieces, and it sounds marvelous with the Roxanne and my CEntrance balanced BlueDAC and balanced HiFiM8 V2. I also have a black dragon cable adapter/pigtail to use them with a 3.5mm single ended amplifier. But the...

Try a UPS on the PC and Ampersand, and see if that cleans up the power. You may find that it isolates the PC from the Ampersand better, or maybe use a UPS that also has it's own USB ports and plug it into the UPS USB port. In my case, I don't get any noise from my MacBook Pro 16" when charging...

I never asked or checked yet, but does the Ampersand have an auto shut off feature when it’s been idle for a while?

I posted the case I use in the HiFiM8 V2 thread, and I have two for my M8 V2 and Ampersand. The elastic band is starting to stretch out and loosen though - it still works unless I try to put something much smaller in the case and then it's too loose. I'm going to look for something that can hold...

I agree that you sometimes lose interest when you have the perfect system, but getting to try new things also can rekindle a lost interest in listening to music in the first place. I think you meant planar magnetic instead of electrostatic?

My gaming PC with ESS DAC on front panel feeding Ampersand.

If the DacPort Pro amplifier is similar to that of the HiFiM8 V2 then I can absolutely believe that. It’s a wonderfully transparent amp. If I had the DACPort Pro I’d still want to try the XLR output as my source if I could, but I’m sure the headphone output is also good. I am still going to...

DACport Pro has dual 3-pin XLR balanced line-out in this form factor, so it would need a bulky adapter to take the line-out down to a 4.4mm balanced plug - maybe they'll do a version with a 4.4mm output? I do think that connecting to a true line-out would be beneficial in many cases, rather...

I don’t use my desktop DAC and amps much either. I just tend to carry my BlueDAC or my HiFiM8 V2 around the house with me to where it is needed. I was more often using my MacBook laptop than I was a using desktop computer, but last summer I built a gaming PC and I keep my HiFiM8 V1 connected...

I think you meant to respond to ChrisLN, as I was saying something very similar.

Yes, those LEDs are definitely very helpful in tuning the input level that we feed it, so that we don’t overdrive the input. I find that it can accept fairly high input levels before the meters go red and you hear distortion.