Hello, I just joined, primarily for the audiophile products. Looking at purchasing the NHT C3 speakers for our new living room. Space is about 15 feet wide by 33 long and they will fire long ways. Space is just for general listening, music room with all equipment is downstairs, so hoping they will fill it with sound nicely. Cheers.
Mar 18, 2024
I plan on using my iPhone 8+ as an audio player sometimes as well. So, I had to buy a special $40 adapter to allow my iPhone's audio output to come though my Lightning port and into the micro USB port of my E17K DAC
So, I plan on hooking my phone up with my Lightning MicroUSB to my E17K DAC, then have the DAC output coming out of a 3.5mm into the O2 RCA ports in the back of the O2 Amp, then out of the output to my Sennheiser HD6XX headphones.
Another part I'm researching, is the amount of power required to drive the HD6XX. From what I've read, the HD6XX has about a 2V RMS maximum input. Which according to what I've read is about a gain of 4X or 12db which is all dependant and relative to the source output signal. I'm not sure what the output of the iphone is. Does anyone have that information? I'm thinking, if I'm using just the iphone + Fiio E17K to drive the headphones (without the not so portable O2 Amp), I'll want the gain to be about 12db. If I'm using my iphone to E17K to my O2, then I would set my E17K to 6db (which equates to approx 2X gain) gain and have my O2 at 2.5x gain which would bring me to about 4.5x gain going into the headphones.
As an alternate, to increase the fidelity of the source signal, I was planning on turning an old PSP into an audio player and decompressing my WMA, MP3, etc, music into WAV or FLAC and then uploading to the PSP. I wonder if that would be sufficient or if I should just buy a dedicated audio player like the Fiio high resolution audio players. I also have spotify which includes a high quality resolution of 320 kbit/s. I think lossless audio is around 1,200-2,700 kbit/s. If playing lossless audio though, wouldn't kind of defeat the purpose of a DAC. I mean, I know even though it's lossless it's still digital but it seems like the sample rate is close enough to analog that one wouldn't be able to tell the difference? If anyone has any good reference sites or documentation that explains all these concepts, I would appreciate.
I'm not totally new to high fidelity audio, but still relatively new. I have an engineering background and education level so these concepts of voltage and impedance are not new to me. I still have a lot to learn as always though. Any suggestions, corrections, concerns are always appreciated.
For my PC, I have an asus Z270E motherboard with a built in amp. I'll have to take a look at the specs to see if hooking my O2 amp up to my motherboard would help or if my motherboard is sufficient. I wouldn't doubt that my motherboard amp already provides sufficient power.
I had once carried Oukitel K1000 pro(10000mah) + OTG + Centrance DacPort slim + Headphones(6xx or DT880 600ohms) but it is a bulk that you need to carry and you will need to make short custom cables and use blue tack to put them all together.
I have been through many other portable configuratuons but in the end I settled with Fiio Q5.
This E11 has BassBoost which I really like. Wasnt able to use with low impedance IEMs and this is my first time pairing with SE846 and hahaha it is good.
Thanks for bringing back my old days back. With this now I can select between Fiio Q5, E11(wired) and also Fiio BTR1.
The Oppo comes with a short Lighting to USB cable to connect and stack the iPhone. Seems like you could have connected your Fiio E17K with a less expensive Lightning to Micro USB cable? On the other hand, might be time to ditch the E17K for a new Q5 and skip all the cable hassles for good? I think about doing that from time to time, myself!
My phone and my ipod classic can get good sounds out of the HD650 but they are maxed out and it still sounds veiled, adding an MF amp helps a lot so the O2 amp is a good idea. I did put in an order for an FX audio Dac X6 cos it was cheap and has amp which on paper should drive the HD6XX, also easily upgraded with better PSU, op amp and capacitors.
Again only your ears and your musical preferences are important when choosing equipment. My advise start stock changing one component at a time and decide if its better for you. Not all upgrades are actually better some are just changes in flavour, more like a side grade, and too many upgrades could spoil what was good about a piece of equipment. Enjoy