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
If you're not amplifying the signal with the tube, there is no point. You're just adding the distortion inherent to the tube to whatever else in your chain you're already using to amplify. So if you're not REPLACING a transistor with a tube for the various steps in your signal chain, you are not gaining sound quality, period. In the case of this thing, you're also adding the distortion of an extra volume knob, and the bass and treble controls.
That said, the smaller version of this [FX Audio TUBE-01] was apparently tested by this Amazon reviewer and shown to, in fact, provide true signal amplification. Again: not the exact same device, and I can't verify that this person tested in an accurate way (and the Amazon review page is acting up slightly - hence the screenshot instead of a link). Still, it might be worth considering that this unit truly is what it says.
Either way, it's tricky to find units at this price point. The way I see things, if you're curious; you should probably go for it. You'll either get what you paid for - no biggie; or you get a unit that pleasantly punches above its price.
@dnogs Since I'm about the furthest thing from an expert on these things, please correct me and I'll edit as needed. I try to keep my spreading of misinformation to a minimum where possible. ^_^
I have it and I had Tube-01 previously. This one is better, but tube rolling is a must: the best for me are GE Jan series (aliexpress has 80'ies stock cheaper than Riveraudio, which didnt care to answer my quote mails - I am from Europe) and Mullards.
Whats interesting, with my Stax Sr-007MkI and SR-009 I can clearly hear the loss of the detail - even with best tubes (and I had AEG diamonds), but when on speakers (B&W 705S), this is inaudible - and the overall sound is more "pleasant" I cannot explain this, but I've decided that even if that's some kind of placebo, than for the money - why not :)