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
POST: 6/15/2017 Hello Everyone,
Some news and updates…
The review process for the NuForce EDC has been taking longer than expected. Some people have samples and some are still waiting for them. In order for more people to have the reviews to make an informed decision, we are going to extend the EDC launch through most of July.
The first drop will close and payment will be captured June 28th. The drop will immediately reopen and run through July 26th. This extension won’t have an impact on the estimated shipping date.
One more thing…
We received feedback from some of the samples that went out. We are slightly changing the EDC connectors from the stock NuForce 0.75mm pin diameter to 0.77 diameter pins and sockets.
What does this mean? It ensures that you can use the EDC with more aftermarket 2-pin cables. You don't have to use proprietary NuForce cables (with the shroud). You can use most 0.77mm 2-pin cables and can also use the new 0.77mm EDC cables with shroud.
Note: You might not get a good connection if you try stock NuForce HEM cables as they have 0.75mm diameter pins.
The EDC pins/sockets will be designed in mass production to work with 0.77mm pins. This tradeoff is important to our community and NuForce has agreed to help us with this change for mass production. Early testing showed that the EDC could accept a range of 2-pin cables, but varying tolerances make this an important change for flexibility with aftermarket cables.
Edited 6/28/2017: Closed initial launch drop and re-opened/extended as planned.
Oftentimes the cables on these types of every day carry items really get chewed up.. Numerous iPhone cables later, my wall charger and the iPhone itself are still relevant and work perfectly fine.
Appreciate the response to reviewer and community feedback for the switch to .77!
At this price point, as long as the sound isn't completely garbage, the value is pretty solid imo. For an EDC use case it fits my needs well :)
To be fair most earbuds are produced at a price point that might make you really concerned about what you're actually paying for... It seems that the research and design that you're really paying for with the EDC model would be absorbed in the cost of other NuForce units.
which speaks to what you said, I think .
If your job is 'sound engineer' then yes, all the granular details matter and they always matter... for the common consumer, we likely won't hear the difference unless going from something like Skull Candy to pretty much anything worthy of the audiophile community. This is further complicated by audio track quality, amps, and DACs which can do quite a bit even for crappy headphones.
As for cost, units are produced at rock-bottom prices, and as mentioned, you're paying for research and development time that went into tuning a particular unit.
This isn't true for every audio company. When the margin needs squeezing, the engineer is likely first to go.