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
Second, output impedance isn't a cut and dried issue. See, for example, https://www.innerfidelity.com/content/musings-headphone-amplifier-output-impedance It'll also give you a bit of that OTL tube sound, if it's something you're into. That said, if you're using the amp for IEMs with crossovers, it's going to seriously mess with the FR. For planars or high-impedance cans (eg, DT880, HD6x0) it won't matter. Even the TH-x00 will be fine, because they don't have that big impedance bump in the midbass that most dynamics do.
Third, I can think of several other reasons. It has both 1/4" and 1/8" jacks, which is nice if you have a bunch of different headphones and switch between them, as I do. It has 3 gain levels, 0dB, 9dB, and 18dB, vs the magni's 6dB and 17dB. It doesn't get anywhere near as hot as the magni, especially when running on low power (my magni 3 hits 100deg easily, the A30 is typically 10deg cooler). It has a loop out instead of a preamp out, which means I don't have to use cable splitters. Oh and one last thing, it turns on instantly unlike schiit amps. My magni 3 is only delayed for a few seconds, so it doesn't really matter, but my old magni took like 10+ sec before it would start making noise. That gets old pretty fast. I know I could just leave it on all the time, but since mine gets so hot I try not to.