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
Bottlehead: Well, to state the obvious, tube vs solid state. So probably a fair bit of sound diff here. While I have no direct experience with the Crack, I have heard other nice tube amps, and I'd be willing to guess "livelier" but "colored" (Crack) vs "crazy accurate" (m920). The m920 is made mostly for sound engineers, after all, so all the GIGO rules apply here. Also, while this is a fading issue as tech gets better, *roughly* tube amps more easily push high-impedance cans, solid state low-impedance cans. Having said that, I have read in numerous places that the Grace unit pushes "mid-high" 300 ohm cans like Sennheisers very, very well. In fact, at expos Mr. Grace himself brings a pair of HD800s as one of the reference phones to listen to the m920 with (see: http://audio-head.com/wrap-up-los-angeles-head-fi-meet-august-2014/) Otherwise I wouldn't be considering this unit. The m920 owner's manual even has a Sennheiser plugged into it on the front cover. 600 ohm Beyerdynamics, don't know. Having said all that, Grace's own website doth proclaim: "The m920 was specifically designed with low impedance headphones in mind." I'm *guessing* that means both will work fine, high and low, given the reviews I've read.
BTW, the m920 can also be remote controlled via a $19 Apple IR remote, FYI.
Subjectively: There's only one way for you to know which setup you would prefer. You would have to listen to both side-by-side. Only you know what sounds best to you. Some people prefer accuracy. Some love harmonics. Some prefer bass, or mids, or treble, or "clarity", or that indescribable "something". There really is no other way for you to know which you would prefer other than listening to both of them live. Not trying to break your bank, but that's the truth.
Having said that, the lucky part is regardless of which setup you preferred neither should be difficult to sell on the second-hand market. Both the Crack (esp with the SB option) and the m920 would, I imagine, be fairly easy to unload on head-fi classifieds or ebay. And at the price point you'd be paying for the m920 - if this drop gets to the lowest point - you probably wouldn't lose much/anything on it. I haven't seen it offered for less than $1795 anywhere, ever. I don't know what you paid for the Crack, but frankly, I'd pay more for a completed Crack, myself, so I don't think you'd lose much there, either. I'm not guaranteeing anything here, mind you, but I don't think you'd lose too much if you had to sell either one. (X-Sabre, couldn't say, but if you threw it in with the Crack you might be able to get a good portion of its price back? Or maybe sell it separate?)
The question really is: Are you willing to potentially lose a couple hundred to definitively find the better sounding system to your own ears.