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
So far I have only used this with my Dr.Dac3 as a source, which I know, using an HPA as a source for an HPA isn't how you're supposed to do it, but should work fine as long as I keep the input volume level under the distortion threshold.
Don't really notice much of the "tube character", but considering the amp is setup to use the tube as a buffer rather than the power amp stage I am not too surprised (I haven't reverse engineered the circuit yet, but I would guess it is setup as a cathode follower). Plus, all that really means is that it is NOT adding much distortion (which is really what "benefit" tubes have, distorting your signals). With that said, it does sound very good, and has no problem driving my AKG K7xx or BD DT880 600 Ohm.
I would guess much of the quality, or lack thereof, from the sound out of this will be down to the source you feed it, with a clean input I am getting a clean output, and no buzzing or hissing even at full volume with the AKGs (dont have any IEMs handy, will try later).
My only complaint is purely aesthetic and my opinion only, which is the blue LED under the tube. I would rather just see the very slight orange glow from the actual heaters in the tube, plus blue doesn't match my setup. Like I said, purely my opinion only, and I already plan to de-solder the LED to fix that anyhow.
If you look at the photo of the tube, the amp is not this amp either. The ECC82 tube (the one installed in the amp in the product photos, and the one I got) is the only 12AU7 type Gold Lion tube available. While I do think the picture of the gold lion tube should have been of the actual one for this amp, I do not think they messed up. The ECC82 is the correct tube for this amplifier, and is WAY better than the Shu Guan that they said it comes with in the description.
With all that said, I wouldn't be disappointed to receive another spare Gold Lion ECC82 if they do decide to ship everyone a second tube.
At least it was installed by default for me, can't comment for others.
Now that this is cleared up, for an amp newbie, what would be additional easy upgrades? Someone earlier mentioned a better power supply?
In terms of other upgrades, there really arent any other easily swappable components. The power supply could help if the standard one is really noisy, I will throw it on the scope when I get home to find out, but i have a feeling it is fine, plus they have one hell of a decoupling cap which should eliminate most if not all ripple. So probably not worth it, even if it was only $5, but I will check. I'm not really an audiophile either (audiophool, no offense guys), I'm an engineer who likes to listen to music and play with electronics, so I'm sure some will disagree with me and claim that a better power supply revolutionizes the outside the box synergy and unlocks the full depth of sound, or something like that.