What would be a good portable Dac/Amp to use with my HD6xx and Sony Xperia 1 V cell phone?
I am new to this hobby. I purchased a HD6XX and plan to use it with my Sony Xperia 1 V cell phone, that has a 3.5mm jack. I was wondering if I needed a portable dac/amp or just a portable amp and if so what would one recommend? Any assistance one could provide, would be greatly appreciated. Kind regards, Haz
Mar 7, 2024
Seems like there's some confusion around my previous update regarding the maximum drop quantity increase.
We were told there would be 580 units in the incoming shipment, but we were later informed 1000 would be in the shipment instead. In the course of global import/export, it's pretty common, even for public companies like Harman, to get a couple hundred units more than expected.
So to be clear, all 1000 units (the expected 580, and the unexpected 420) are arriving in the same shipment and will all ship at the same time. That said, the shipment hasn't arrived yet, and as we reach the end of the drop, we have a choice.
We can let the drop end tonight, save 100 units for the next drop (when the next shipment arrives next month) or we can extend the drop by a day and let more people join without any impact on anyone's fulfillment schedule.
Given that, extending the drop by a day seems like the best option. If any mean-spirited audiophiles would like to debate this, please come to my office(100 Bush St, San Francisco, CA) and we can settle this via duel. Pistols at dawn is preferred.
Best,
The reason why most people are upset (myself included) is because when we ordered the product page said you had the units at the warehouse ready to ship as soon as the drop is over. I get that this business model means that products take time to get to us, but the constant delays are frustrating. The fact of the matter is that you are competing with Amazon, which also has good deals on products and prime shipping. We stick with you to the extent that you offer us good products in a fun way at good prices. When you start failing at customer service or seemingly lying to your customers that's when we start taking our business elsewhere.
580 units at the warehouse ready to ship when the drop ends to me meant that I'd get my headphones soon after the drop ends (I don't live far from your warehouse) and that I could get them even earlier if the drop ended early. The original listing meant to me that you could have shipped out the 580 units early and relaunched a new drop with the 420 extra and everyone would have been happy. Even some communication would have been nice, or at least immediately correcting and notifying everyone of the mistake in the posting if the headphones weren't, in fact, at your warehouse.
This also directly effects my immediate purchasing decisions from Massdrop. I was considering the K553 drop because I will likely need some closed back headphones for use when my wife complains of sound leaking from my headphones. However, I wanted to try the K7xx before making any decision. Under the terms I was originally led to believe existed I probably would have had the headphones now or soon. Now I'm not sure if I will have them before the K553 drop ends and I will shop elsewhere if I need closed backs.
Community members keep throwing out specs and characteristics like impedance, gain, warm, bright, dark, flat etc. I have no understanding of these terms as I have no background with high-end audiophile gear.
I am sure many other potential buyers has this same issue. I never purchase any electronic based on price alone as I want to make sure I get the best option required for my needs. This time I am having great difficulty deciding on even a AMP as the comments here and forums like head-fi don't really help much as people just tend to throw out brand names without much info.
It would be nice if someone from Massdrop can make a detailed guide on selecting a AMP and/or a DAC separately.
Regards,
Testbrah
I decided against the nfb15 because its gotten varying reviews, and with shipping+customs it works out to about $300 which isnt what i want to spend. Also for some reason its been discontinued and old units are being sold. dropped the schiit amps+dacs because they were working out too expensive too. and too big on my desk. i kept seeing people say the cheaper models are good value but "you would do better by climbing higher up the ladder" and that doesnt work for my pocket right now. Completely dropped schiit when i read some reviews between the aune and magni/modi that leaned towards the aune, and a review of the asgard2 that left the american reviewer torn to not be able to sing praises of an american product. The O2 amp+dac was what i was really leaning towards, being designed by someone who left comprehensive notes and is supposed to be an invisible part of your chain. But, it is a $100 more and could be too bland.
either way. i wont be buying anything until i get my k7xx's and try them out direct first. then i decide whether or not i buy the T1
From what I have read, a good solid state amp with a low output impedance is your best bet. Tube amps have warm up time, and can change the sound(which some people like) solid states are also way cheaper and more power efficient.
A sound card is usually an amp/dac often with gaming features and software.
And for a dac, (digital to analogue converter) usually something external from the computer is better, to avoid electrical interference.
In my case, my laptop had a hissing electrical noise out of the headphone jack. So I bought a creative sound blaster omni, a USB sound card to solve the problem. I also wanted the other features, like sbx headphone surround, and the eq. It also has a headphone amp and a pretty decent dac built in.
For a while that was good enough. Then I decided to upgrade again just to see if it would make a difference. I bought the schitt Magni 2 uber(headphone amp), and modi2 uber(external dac). Of those two the Magni made the biggest difference. The sound became more detailed, better separation of details, and more impactful, especially in the bass.
The modi... Well there was a difference, but it took a lot of concentration to hear it. The main difference between the two dacs is that the omni was powered by USB, and the modi2 uber uses a plug in. The omni would occasionally have lesser quality because of unsteady USB power, especially when the laptop was running on battery power.
So now my setup is: omni>(digital optical out)modi>magni. I get the universal eq, and headphone surround, optical out to the modi, which sends a nice clean signal to the Magni.
The two most recommended bang for buck discrete dac amp combos are the schitt modi and Magni, and the odac and o2. But you don't really even need to spend that much. I got a pretty good performance boost just from the $70 omni.
Unless you have some glaring issue like electrical noise, or a noisy signal, you could probably skip getting a dac as long as the one in your computer is good enough, (most aren't for me).
A good amp with low output impedance, is your best bet. It just insures that your headphones get all the clean, even power they need to perform their best.
I bought all of these products from amazon, my logic was that if I didn't hear an improvement I would just return them (30days).
All of my headphones sound better on the Magni, but it depends on the headphone. For some it makes almost no difference like the m40x it can run almost the same on anything. But for the he400, and hd558, the improvement is noticeable.