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 E3 and E5 really aren't bad units for the money, especially considering the fact that they have bluetooth functionality as well as being DACs and AMPs and let you use any set of headphones as a BT headset, though the E5 is a bit large to have clipped to your collar.
So now that I've received my Jotunheim and balanced cable for my HE-4XX, I have come to the conclusion that even "highly efficient" planar drivers still need gobs of power to perform to their best. Now I would rate the HE-4XX driven by a cellphone as acceptable, driven by a portable amp like the E3 as "Good" and driven by a proper desktop amp (balanced preferably for maximum power capability) as Best.
The most noticeable difference in sound going from underpowered, to adequate, to fully driven is the lack of punch and slightly muddy transient response when under driven, VS punchy bass and extremely good transient response that prior to getting my pair of HE-4XX I only expected out of my best balanced armature IEMs (my 4XXs are my first planar cans).
I'm going to read into that as: something in the E3 class of amps (and decent BT adapters) is underpowered, in the E5 class (portable or semi portable) is going to be pretty good, especially with hi-gain turned on, and I'm going to get closer to a theoretical 'best' with a desktop unit, for me the X7. This is something that I'm ok with.
I'm sure balanced headphones are the bee's knees, but I have a feeling were walking into Emperor's New Clothes territory, especially for a headphone that by all reports doesn't really need a Titanic amount of power. I would like to see a good nearly empirical review of this (and balanced setups in general), but it's this is a very subjective ecosystem. My X7 doesn't do balanced headphone output, but I have thought about bodging together a stereo speaker banana plug to 4-pin XLR adapter "just to see what the fuss is about" regarding balanced gear. I saw a reviewer in some article do something similar, and as long as I don't crank the volume should be ok. I just can't bring myself to pay $150 for new cables for headphones that cost a smidge more than that.
I'd say a good single ended amp will get you 90-95% of the way to what most planar headphones can do, high power afforded by balanced drive just gets you the last little bit of performance. With normal dynamic drivers that most headphones use, the improvement is more like the last 1-2% on top of a good single ended amp as all you get is slightly faster transients from the larger voltage swing. Speaking of which, measuring amp sag on planar vs dynamic drivers with an oscilloscope would be an interesting thing to do.
On the cost of cables, yea I totally agree that $100+ for cables is crazy, hell I think $50 is too much in most cases. Which is why I made my own! https://imgur.com/PHLmOsc https://imgur.com/gallery/32H6lzR Those were around $20-25 in cable and connector cost if you are willing and able to solder up a set. I'm thinking I might end up making a few every so often and selling em for $40 or so as I've already decided to make several pair for friends as xmas gifts.
Oh and a note on my outlook on audio stuff, accuracy and efficiency are the most important things in my book.
I might add this on and try balanced output without committing to a new amp. Source: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/creative-sound-blaster-x7-detailed-review-impressions.756102/
In regards to my cables, I'm really liking these 4 pin mini XLR connectors, they are small and light enough that I can have a short stub cable on the headphones and make my adapter as long or as short as I want, I kinda hope they become more common and end up replacing the full size XLR for balanced headphones.
I think the dragonfly red also sounds great. It has more "fun" sound to me. Get the 3.0 camera kit though. The old one had so many pops and clicks. It was bearable. Also the red doesn't get as loud as the nano black label that's why I kept Nano.
If I didn't have a he4xx and just used my momentum 2s, the dragonfly red would be my choice. It's portable and you don't have worry about charging. Although it will drain phone battery faster. But that's what battery banks are for.
I think for most people, the dragonfly red will fullfill their needs. But I think it still depends on what headphones your planning to use it with. Btw, if you decide to get a schiit, get a stack instead.