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
The overall fit is fine, even though they look much larger in person than any review I saw. It looks huge on my bald head, kinda like the head gear the kid wore in the Willy Wonka movie remake.....These are definitely stay at home types as I wouldn't be caught dead wearing these anywhere else, saying they are ugly is being kind....but at least they are sturdy and seem very well made. I HATE the cord they include, why oh why do headphone companies insist on using such a looooooong cord? They are just overkill IMHO. At least include a shorter one in the box....guess I'm asking too much for $49.99...or not.
As for the sound, I'm running these with my LG V30 with it's quad DAC setup, and it's more than enough to push these hard enough to get at least ok sound. For semi open backs, these really don't have much of a soundstage, my closed back ATH-M40x's have a better one. That pissed me off as the main reason I got these is for the perceived soundstage improvement that an open back headset is supposed to give you....but no, there's very little of that if at all with these. The signature, at least as of 8 hours in, is pretty upper register based, not a surprise here, but the mids were a bit muddled to my ears, not too effective at playing back my high end FLAC files. The lows were there....barely. A source that's well EQ'd would definitely do these justice. I used the aforementioned phone with Poweramp, and it allows for good sound sculpting, a good thing as these sound pretty dull without it. I seriously can't see what anyone on here sees in these, they aren't very good at anything IMHO....
These are barely worth the money asked for here, they have a limited soundstage that just doesn't work out too well for the type of headphone it's being pushed at being by Massdrop (Monitors? Seriously??) There are much, much better at a similar price or just above. Sorry I got these as now I have to pack them and hope I find someone who I can pawn it off on...sorry folks, these really aren't that good at all.
As sound goes, you're not say wrong, but I feel hate, say not hate, say unsatisfaction, pouring. No good argue came out where say not hate, say unsatisfaction resided. I do have pros and cons, but still processing. I don't own a headphone amp, but I hope that Ill get the feel of the m220pro's sound on headphone preamp soon.
Now, Im not feeling buyers remorse (too much, I do feel it with every purchase), but I know that I would be bummed out if I hadn't made it. Im not US citizen, but European, and not even good-country-part-of-Europe, its the shtitty one. Why shtitty? Well, a pair of ATH-m40s would set me minimum 170US, and AKG-K240-MKII 175US, both before shipping. Also, another day Amazon asked me for a total of 122US (36cost+53shipp+33tax) for Monoprice Retros and also Monoprice does not deliver. Yes, Monoprices price is about... how big is infinity? Massdrop does.
Also, Massdrop, waiting on ATH-m40s drop.
Despite what I wrote, and I stick to it, I honestly don't think these are being marketed properly. They don't have the soundstage of a real full open set of cans, not even close. They don't have a level enough signature to be useful monitors either. They do, after a fair bit of messing around with both a DAC and an EQ, have a decent enough sound for a $50.00 set of headphones....but they are not any better in any way than any other closed back, same price set of headphones already out there.
This is Massdrop, not Amazon. We expect better here, not the same stuff re-badged or in this case, poorly marketed. These aren't horrible for what they are, but Massdrop needs to be punished for putting these above any other in their price class...they simply aren't that good. As I said, they are barely worth what they are asking for them...and that's that.
Oh, and if and when Massdrop drops the ATH M40's, do not hesitate, jump on that as fast as you can, GREAT set of cans for a very fair price, period, especially when you pair them with some great Brainwavz Hybrid pads, best around $27.00 add on you will ever do :)
If you meant for the M220's...nope, not gonna put one there, don't like them enough to bother, sorry.
I like the idea of trying to mod the M220's...but I'm hoping they will be gone before I get the itch to do so, I have these up for sale in many places to be rid of them.