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
Hope you enjoy their sound 👍
You're going to get sooooooooooooo pestered for impressions now 😜
Still listening, Babylon Sisters as I type, I think I can safely say none will be disappointed. I was hoping for an EH set of cans, endless hours, I think I got them.
I have the HD700’s because I wanted no detail left out, yes I have read every review and still wanted everything revealed... well I was hearing it all,, but not with the depth, clarity and ease the Elex brings.
Blade Runner, Rachel’s Song, Vangelis, DSD 2.8, the whispering airy notes (spacey vacuum noise;) gains detail within itself.
The room seems a bit smaller, though at the same time the instruments do not fight each other, they maintain their individuality more firmly. Nora Jones, Come Away With Me, DSD 2.8 studio file, a good sibilance gauntlant test, that I feel my current setup with HD700’s passes, it got better,, as though not a recording, and that is the goal.
You can push the Elex‘s and they just get better, they bloom, it all holds together and nothing gets pushed into each other. In fact, something new; left them blasting on the couch, walking away... they don’t sound like cans left running... they sound like speakers...
Rig: FLAC/DSD---Audiogate (pc)>--<Korg DS-DAC-100>~<modded APPJ PA1502A. switching with HD700’s.
My typical list, damn they all got better, Audiogate set @ 2.8.
Steely Dan, Aja DSD 2.8 & Gaucho DSD 2.8 both for everything, depth, detail, stage Adele, Hello FLAC 24/96 for vocals Roberta Flack, Killing Me Softly FLAC 24/192 1973 remastered for vocals... she is right there... Here is the odd one, but so familiar to me for comparing "fluidity": Fleetwood Mac, Bare Trees (yes, the song track Bare Trees from the album) FLAC 24/192 1972 remastered
The Elex build, look and finish show excellet craftsmanship. Comfort on the head is comfortable, the weight is there, but it feels as though they were made for you.
I hope this helps until you get yours, it will be fun, getting late, later...
Enjoy the Musica! D
His current setup mainly consists of a Ragnarok, HD800 SDR, LCD-4, and 6XX.
In any case, I'm really looking forward to getting the Elex early this week. I'll be pitting it against the MCTH+HD6XX chain I use at work, which I found to be magical (https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/8ab6tw/impressions_of_the_massdrop_x_cavalli_tube_hybrid). Who knows, the Elex may lose. :)
I'm not too worried about that, i think the 650 are too smooth anyway.
I think it is projection, see metal, hear metal... if it were a diamond driver, it would be carbonic?
I have streamed majorly on Spotify and Apple Music (and a Korean music app called Melon, yes I am Korean) where I listened to classical(Beethoven’s symphony no.9, Vivaldi’s), some female vocals (Mostly Sohyang, Adele), some Korean indies, some jazz instrument (Snarky Puppy) and EDM.
My setting: IFI nano bl or modi 2 uber -> CTH or Magni 3 -> Elex. (I also have other sets of headphones: HD6XX, Hifiman 4XX, AKG7XX, TH0XX PH, Nightowl Carbon, to name a few)
Right out of the box, Elex did sound superb. Excellent instrument separation, a huge (not the widest, as Rastus mentioned, compared to AKG7xx but the depth!) soundstage, no sibilance, deep and accurate bass/subbass, and smooth treble (listened to Sohyang’s famous G5, Bb5, C6 belting, and highpitch strings, there was only smoothness not fatigue). And the sound out of Elex is really deep and strong in a way that I cannot describe. (this is not the volume issue or driving force of an amp... it is like for instance I notice a difference between coffee made of mediocre beans and of quality beans, other conditions being equal... not a good analogy though)
Anyways man... you guys will love Elex. No regret whatsoever!
Listening to Snarky Puppy’s “what about me?”, HD6XX shows off its fast bass responses, smooth guitars’ and crisp hi-hats of the drum. Then switching to Elex, I hear a refined version of the band: tighter/heavier bass, stronger resonance of the instruments, superb sound image, and no “veiled“ sound. (although it loses, to my ears, some warmth, compared to 6XX.) And if you define ”Euphonics” as a degree that you are immersed in the music and feel like you lose track of time, Elex easily outperforms Senny in terms of the Euphonics.
Again disclaimer: I might not be an appropriate person to answer your question. YMMV. But anyways this is my impression Elex vs HD6XX.
Interesting to look back in time to see where they were with the HD580; a very nice place, will be hard to give them up. But... I then just put on the Elex’s,,, and a much more comfortable space surrounds you, you just want to settle-in, sit-back and stay there for a very long time... like till 1:50 AM... you will enjoy them:)
what im curious about is, how loud are they pushing their headphones and how good of quality are these songs they are listening to, because the one downside to high end audio is the better more revealing your headphones are the worse bad quality recording sound or the more you will notice defects.
From a re-post: https://www.massdrop.com/buy/massdrop-x-focal-elex-headphones/talk/2066785 :
"Edit: On the Head-Fi forum a Focal rep has come out and said that the "clipping" and distortion that people are hearing at high volumes is a design decision that they employed, but should occur only at very high volumes... These volumes, from what it sounds like, are extraordinarily dangerous to your hearing (though maybe some QC escapes result in lower levels?)... Look, I am not your father, but if you are listening to your headphones at such high levels, please consider your hearing 20 years from now. Just simply not worth it, unless you figure you won't want to listen to music, or even regular speech by then. Hey, you might like sporting some stylish hearing aids! "
The day of reckoning is here, I have finally received my elex, now my very first reaction was quite a shock, i have read many other reviews and what people were saying about them, some claimed were a perfect upgrade to the hd650, some said the hd600 some said they were disappointed because it sounded nothing like them.
My surprise was how shockingly familiar they were, they definitely sound similar to a hd650 in terms of frequency response now there is still burn to be done and more genres of music to cover. But i honestly don't find them any much brighter than the hd650, the simplest way i could use to describe them would be hd650 without the veil and better extension, kind of what i was hoping for.
Now nothing is perfect and i will take a few points off, for starters it is heavier than the hd650 and not as comfortable, but no so much that it is unbearable, i just find the hd650 more comfortable (could be that im just used to them). more time might change my opinion. it has equal detail to the hd650 but provides it without the veil, AT LAST a headphone that can play metal with detail without being congested/bright/piercing/fatiguing. Although due to the nature of metal and how it is recorded, Poor quality metal recordings might be noticeable, things like high hats and cymbals can sound a little artificial (only on poor recordings).
"sounds metallic" debunked I'm not sure what they are listening to but nothing about these is metallic at least to me, now the sound stage is much different to the hd650 in terms of width/size and it is definitely presented differently, most headphones seem to have the same soundstage no matter what you are listening to. but with these, things that are meant to sound wide and big do, but things that aren't don't, basically a dynamic soundstage size that alters depending on the music you are listening to. often sounding 3D holographic.
The "clipping" issue, I tried every song i could even bass boosted ones and played them at the normal volume i listen to music, no clipping or any weird sounds so i raised the volume it took almost max output of my CTH amp before i heard clipping. That is a massive headroom for starters its was already pushing out more bass and much more audible lower bass than my hd650s at my normal listening volume and i still managed to double or maybe even triple the perceived volume level without clipping. maybe i lucked out but its a non issue for me.
I could write a 2000 word essay here but at least for now to finish off ill say, these are the best headphones i've ever owned and i have listened to the LCD2c, LCDx, dt1990, hd800, HE-4xx, Q712, Q812, SRH 1540 to name a few and not one of them gave me the enjoyment out of music these do. If i ever get the desire to buy better headphones i'll be looking at the focal clears and focal utopia.
cheers.