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
Edit: It seems to be about the perfect headphone, except for the fact that I would prefer no leather and the minor aesthetic differences. I always only purchase headphones over the past few years that I have detacheable cables, so that is a huge plus for me, but this price tag scares me a little, as I only spent $315 on my HD700 as I bought it used, and I negotiated my Amiron Home down to $450 brand new. $700 is a pretty significant price difference for headphones and I am nervous. I just wish there was a way for me to try the headphones before I purchased them so that I could know if it is something I would be willing to drop the money on.
All that said, these come with a nice balanced cable and storage box (it's seriously swanky) and are arguably one of the most dynamic headphones I have heard in this price bracket. For those of us that have had these for a while, you're really getting a cheap Focal Clear with the Elex.
I'm on the tube Holy Grail - second harmonic - siren song road right now, and really kind'a there. The Elex's sounded fine with my little modded APPJ 6V6GT tube SE head amp. But now, as an unexpected bonus, it got even better with my new pre-owned 300B SE amp, that was really intended for speakers... but I can't stop listening with my Elex's. The Cary spec says 4-50Ω for cans and I have asked what is the actual output impedance, no response, but the 80Ω Elex sounds just fine. The Cary 300SEI has the auxiliary 7200uF 250 VDC capacitor power bank, this was what clicked in my head for speakers, did not think it would come so much into play for cans, but it does, that extra 'headspace' power, tapped only when needed... damn... I'm still looking for a new SS amp, eventually, end-game you know lol;) the Audio-gd HE-9 is on the top of the list, it's a small Hoover Dam for cans.
And you really can't go wrong with black:
For amps, I still have my eye on the Darkvoice 336SE as everyone raves about it. If I like it, I may move into something from Woo Audio (firefly's, maybe) as they also get great remarks. I'm more used to tube hybrid's and the tubes in iFi gear so it'll be nice to finally have something with a proper "tubey" sound.
I know many love Audio-GD but if you want an alternative absurdly powerful amp, check out the iFi Pro iCAN: https://ifi-audio.com/products/pro-ican/. I absolutely loved it when I had it (borrowed from a friend) as it has tube and solid state stages and can be operated either balanced or SE with a monstrous 14W of power on tap. It can work for sensitive IEMs to current hungry planars to pushing close to 100W to a 40 ohm speakers (in 20V mode). The thing is an absolute beast. If I had cans or speakers that needed that much power, I would've bought it off him. But, once I finish my headphone buying for the year, I'm going to settle on the Pro iDSD: https://ifi-audio.com/products/pro-idsd/. It still outputs 4W of power and has bluetooth/wireless/NAS functionality and bunch more modern goodies while still maintaining the solid state and tube stages.
I don't know much about motorcycles but is that a Triumph? My dad gave me an old 1970s Triumph Bonneville I was working on restoring but sadly lost it in a house fire. The bike had less than 10k original miles on it and basically sat in a garage for 30 years. That truly hurt as it was in such amazing shape for its age and would have made a wonderful classic restoration. This is the one I had, but in green:
The Pro iDSD, looked at that before, the "Swiss Army Jackknife" of head amps, very nice as it can do almost anything and has true quality components throughout.
I will be interested in your take on the sound stage of the closed Elegia... though I may take the lower cost route to getting a Focal case;)