what headphones do you own thread - i own dt150's :)

[darreny]

I've been toying with the idea of a headphone amp for a while now or new headphones. Amps I'd like to try are bottlehead crack, THX AAA variant maybe the smsl and ifi 6xx signature. Headphones dt1990, hifiman Ananda or Arya and hd800.

Currently used hd650 hooked up to a essence stx soundcard

 

[Flor_Fina]

Ok so sad news, not even a full 24 hours and the DX3 Pro+ has DIED

Earlier went to slap on some tunes as I WFH and got no audio, was connected via USB to PC and the sampling rate indicator that would otherwise display when turning on a Topping was showing 96KHz for some reason even though Windows is set to 48KHz. I disconnected the USB, connected the optical and switched to the optical source input and saw the flashing source indicator which happens when no source input is detected, plugged the optical back into the MX3s and instantly connected to that. So the DX is no longer recognising source inputs and is dead.

Did a factory reset, still no source signal detection.

Why me, WHY!

Edit* Dropped off at Tesco to return to Amazon for refund. Oh well, least I know now that the HD650s do indeed scale with higher higher being fed to them. I will explore HP amp options again and see what's the highest power output I can get for similar money, the Fiio K7 looks compelling, it's bigger, but has more power than the DX3 Pro+ and is cheaper. Time to watch some reviews...

Drop + THX AAA™ 789 Linear Amplifier | Audiophile Amp

The Drop + THX AAA™ 789 is a linear amplifier. It features THX AAA and feed-forward topology, which reduces distortion by 20 to 40 dB for fatigue-free listening

drop.com

 

[BananaDunka]

^^ RCA in is useless to me, I need either optical or USB input. I'm most likely picking up the Fiio K7, 520mW x2 and a no nonsense styling and BFVD (Big ****** Volume DIal)

Edit*

This baby:

 

[Flor_Fina]

iFi Zen Dac is one of the go-to's under 200

 

[BananaDunka]

Zen Dac does look excellent too, fewer connection options though but it's got unique components inside. I see they do a Zen Dac v3 too which looks really cool.

 

[Flor_Fina]

Outside option perhaps? https://store.hifiman.com/index.php...um=landingpage&utm_campaign=Clearance20240419

 

[darreny]

Ha

Zen Dac does look excellent too, fewer connection options though but it's got unique components inside. I see they do a Zen Dac v3 too which looks really cool

Take a look at the bottlehead crack. Many love it for the hd650. Scratch that as it's amp only so phono connection

 

[BananaDunka]

I think I have found the one!!

Schiit Audio: Audio Products Designed and Built in Texas and California

www.schiit.com

Schitt updated the Magni which is now the Magni Unity, it has 450mW p/c at 300 ohms, so more powerful than the DX3 Pro+ and others. Also small, also some other impressive specs and price is very appealing too. Before the update you would have needed to stack it with the Modi DAC but not any more it seems.

E: Cheap audio guy (one of my favs) has reviewed it too:

Edit2 * I can also connect the RCA out from the Magni to the MX3s, so when headphones aren't connected it's just feeding the line out to the speakers, easy and no faffing with Windows device output selection if the primary source is USB-C from the PC to Magni's USB input.

 

[Purgatory]

Ok so sad news, not even a full 24 hours and the DX3 Pro+ has DIED

Earlier went to slap on some tunes as I WFH and got no audio, was connected via USB to PC and the sampling rate indicator that would otherwise display when turning on a Topping was showing 96KHz for some reason even though Windows is set to 48KHz. I disconnected the USB, connected the optical and switched to the optical source input and saw the flashing source indicator which happens when no source input is detected, plugged the optical back into the MX3s and instantly connected to that. So the DX is no longer recognising source inputs and is dead.

Did a factory reset, still no source signal detection.

Why me, WHY!

Edit* Dropped off at Tesco to return to Amazon for refund. Oh well, least I know now that the HD650s do indeed scale with higher higher being fed to them. I will explore HP amp options again and see what's the highest power output I can get for similar money, the Fiio K7 looks compelling, it's bigger, but has more power than the DX3 Pro+ and is cheaper. Time to watch some reviews...

Get yourself one of the Fiio K9 models, there is a Pro range and a standard range, I use the K9 Pro Ess and love it for headphones and active speakers and even liked it so much I purchased a Cambridge Audio CXC V2 CD transport to go with it and it sounds great and makes my CD's really shine, this coming from a OPPO 203 that has great sound output too and was shocked how much better it sounded even from the optical, maybe just a good pairing as the OPPO really does sound good on its analogue and digital outputs too.

The 4 K9 models are :-

Pro models :-

K9 Pro ESS £700 :- https://www.fiio.com/k9proess

K9 Po AKM £620 at time but they don't make them anymore :- https://www.fiio.com/K9PRO


Regular models :-

K9 ESS £475 :- https://www.fiio.com/K9


K9 AKM £500 :- https://www.fiio.com/K9AKM


Last week I ordered the K19 and sent it back as was no better than the K9 Pro ESS and actually sounded worse in some cases and had way too much power on the headphone amp 8W per channel and I have 32-55ohm Focal headphones that don't need that sort of power and would damage them if I wasn't careful with the volume knob.. scary amount of power for headphones and will kill them if not careful and can easily run speakers that amp in that, I wanted to try it and wanted to treat myself but in end it saved me £1200 that trial and I wanted it to play with the PEQ it had built in which was nice but the software is still a bit naff on android and PC and it worked well once set but overall I didn't feel it was an upgrade from the K9 Pro ESS sound quality wise and well got sent back for a refund.


Ones I rate are the K9 series if you want to buy an all in one device and keep it for a long time, the K7 is a more budget end amp/dac and is very good for the money but remember £150ish if on offer for the none BT version and £189 for the K7 BT, big price difference from the K9.

Out of all the K9's right now I would get the regular K9 AKM for £500 and save £200 from the K9 Pro ESS as it even has the Pro USB C on the side too.

Fun reading for the K19 https://www.fiio.com/k19 remember this is £1200 and honestly would rather buy 2 K9 Pro ESS than have that. The filters on the K9 Pro ESS were enough for me to select a sound profile I liked and has been rock solid and made me love CD's again with the CXC transport.

https://www.fiio.com/k7 info here too. Ace little amp for the money if you don't need balanced XLR speaker outputs, the headphone amp is balanced.

Good review from this guy on the K9's and he's spot on with the reviews.

K9 Pro ESS

K9 ESS

K9 AKM

K19 review he did too.

Z Review on youtube did a review of the K9 Pro AKM and K9 Pro ESS, he liked the ESS one better, don't want to add his videos here as he swears a lot as anyone that watches his videos will know, so find them on youtube if you want to watch them.​

 

[Purgatory]

I think I have found the one!!

Schiit Audio: Audio Products Designed and Built in Texas and California

www.schiit.com

Schitt updated the Magni which is now the Magni Unity, it has 450mW p/c at 300 ohms, so more powerful than the DX3 Pro+ and others. Also small, also some other impressive specs and price is very appealing too. Before the update you would have needed to stack it with the Modi DAC but not any more it seems.

E: Cheap audio guy (one of my favs) has reviewed it too:

Edit2 * I can also connect the RCA out from the Magni to the MX3s, so when headphones aren't connected it's just feeding the line out to the speakers, easy and no faffing with Windows device output selection if the primary source is USB-C from the PC to Magni's USB input.

The magni-unity is highly rated too for the price and one I recommend to people wanting a decent dac/amp for not a lot of money when they don't want balanced headphone out and the K7 BT when they want wireless BT and balanced headphone out or regular K7 when they don't use BT but want balanced headphone out.

 

[BananaDunka]

I realised quickly after watching more reviews that the K7 (K7 BT too since they are the same) has one major flaw for my use case, the ring LED around the dial cannot be turned off and appears quite distracting, I use my workstation in dim lighting a lot and like that on the Toppings you have a display off/auto off and dim levels, so bright LEDs to me would be an annoyance, Schitt had that on their old HP amps too but in the later models changed it to an internal LED that glows through the top vents which is kinda cool. So the K7 is off the list for me and I am looking at either the Magni Unity with the DAC board along with the Pyst cables from them to RCA up to the Topping MX3s.

Some reviews rate the Magni Unity as end game too as a pure HP amp so I think I'd be fine with that as a higher powered HP amp vs the MX3s I have currently which is primarily used for the passive speakers and for that purpose I don't think it can be beaten given its sub £200 price and it smashes audio better than the £800 and £640 NAD Class D amps I had previously.

I also like the look of the Asgard 3 with the multibit DAC card, though it's a bigger unit and I only want it in black, and annoyingly the black comes with a silver volume knob.... WTF is this Schitt??? They have black volume knobs for sale but only for the Magni class products, none for the Asgard, so based on that alone I do not want to buy an Asgard as the knob just looks whack being silver when the rest is black.

The Magni Unity with the DAC card option comes to $189 which is rather excellent and I can stack it on top of my Topping so desk space is retained

I don't mind spending a bit more hence why the Asgard was considered, but the aesthetics must tick my use-case boxes like how Topping does really.

This has whole saga also made me realise how companies like Topping can make an all in one amp so well (MX3s) and yet fall short on later "Pro" models with missing features or issues. I'll likely be keeping the MX3s for life for as long as I am using passive speakers, this little thing sounds so clean and full of life and has a capable headphones amp unless there's a desire for more power if you have headphones that scale each time you feed them more power like the Senn HDs.

 

[Purgatory]

I realised quickly after watching more reviews that the K7 (K7 BT too since they are the same) has one major flaw for my use case, the ring LED around the dial cannot be turned off and appears quite distracting, I use my workstation in dim lighting a lot and like that on the Toppings you have a display off/auto off and dim levels, so bright LEDs to me would be an annoyance, Schitt had that on their old HP amps too but in the later models changed it to an internal LED that glows through the top vents which is kinda cool. So the K7 is off the list for me and I am looking at either the Magni Unity with the DAC board along with the Pyst cables from them to RCA up to the Topping MX3s.

Some reviews rate the Magni Unity as end game too as a pure HP amp so I think I'd be fine with that as a higher powered HP amp vs the MX3s I have currently which is primarily used for the passive speakers and for that purpose I don't think it can be beaten given its sub £200 price and it smashes audio better than the £800 and £640 NAD Class D amps I had previously.

I also like the look of the Asgard 3 with the multibit DAC card, though it's a bigger unit and I only want it in black, and annoyingly the black comes with a silver volume knob.... WTF is this Schitt??? They have black volume knobs for sale but only for the Magni class products, none for the Asgard, so based on that alone I do not want to buy an Asgard as the knob just looks whack being silver when the rest is black.

The Magni Unity with the DAC card option comes to $189 which is rather excellent and I can stack it on top of my Topping so desk space is retained

I don't mind spending a bit more hence why the Asgard was considered, but the aesthetics must tick my use-case boxes like how Topping does really.

This has whole saga also made me realise how companies like Topping can make an all in one amp so well (MX3s) and yet fall short on later "Pro" models with missing features or issues. I'll likely be keeping the MX3s for life for as long as I am using passive speakers, this little thing sounds so clean and full of life and has a capable headphones amp unless there's a desire for more power if you have headphones that scale each time you feed them more power like the Senn HDs.

The K7 and BT version can turn the LED dial off on the latest XMOS Firmware.

16. Can I turn off the RGB indicator or change its colour?-FIIO---BORN FOR MUSIC

www.fiio.com

 

[BananaDunka]

The K7 stacked on top of the Topping in the BG here looks cool

Gonna order off Amazon shortly and will give it a go tomorrow then.

 

[Purgatory]

The K7 stacked on top of the Topping in the BG here looks cool


Gonna order off Amazon shortly and will give it a go tomorrow then.

With audio gear only way to know is test it out and if not to your liking send it back, I don't mess about with audio gear that doesn't do what I need or sounds not like what I thought. K7 for the money is a bargain really, but you have to like how it sounds with your gear. Audio gear needs synergy between devices and really matters, one device can sound ace on one other thing but sound horrible on another.

Just think about speakers and amps, how an amp can sound ace with your last speakers and you "update" to better specification speakers and sounds worse... We have all been there if we play with audio gear, same applies to headphones as you know.

Hope you like it when you get it and give it a while to warm up to judge it as the THX amps like to warm up to sound their best.

 

[BananaDunka]

With audio gear only way to know is test it out and if not to your liking send it back, I don't mess about with audio gear that doesn't do what I need or sounds not like what I thought. K7 for the money is a bargain really, but you have to like how it sounds with your gear. Audio gear needs synergy between devices and really matters, one device can sound ace on one other thing but sound horrible on another.

Just think about speakers and amps, how an amp can sound ace with your last speakers and you "update" to better specification speakers and sounds worse... We have all been there if we play with audio gear, same applies to headphones as you know.

Hope you like it when you get it and give it a while to warm up to judge it as the THX amps like to warm up to sound their best.

Yeah I discovered this years ago when I found out that the /only/sound signature I preferred was the analogue "NAD sound" which for years I only found NAD and Rotel amps to deliver hence owning NADs all this time and one Rotel, so colour me surprised when I came across Topping which seemed to have that same signature when I got fed up with the QC issues of modern NAD D series amps once they warranty expire.

If the K7 keeps that same signature then I'll be more than happy, the K7 also has volume dial decouple when in DAC mode with the line-out so the MX3s being fed a 100% signal via RCA will be ideal although it might be better if I keep the K7 USB to PC since the MX is optical. I won't be using headphones every day so seems pointless keeping it on just to feed the line out so the speakers work. Just toggle output device in Windows accordingly like I was doing above with the DX and MX stack.

 

[BananaDunka]

There was discussion of HD600 series cables the other day, I found a Linsoul cable that's basically exactly the same as the Custom Cans one I got, just in limited colours, you can pick your terminations too and they're £50 not the £82 that the Custom Cans ones cost:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B09P2X3LMG/ref=ox_sc_saved_image_1?smid=A166SV9QJZG8W0&psc=1

If I like the K7 then I'll be ordering a 4.4mm balanced one of those

All of the alternative cheaper cables seem to have the same trait, microphonics in the cable when the cable taps against the desk and stuff which I cannot stand. These lightweight paracord hand made cables don't have that issue, but you do pay a premium for that....

 

[Eddie99]

There was discussion of HD600 series cables the other day, I found a Linsoul cable that's basically exactly the same as the Custom Cans one I got, just in limited colours, you can pick your terminations too and they're £50 not the £82 that the Custom Cans ones cost:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B09P2X3LMG/ref=ox_sc_saved_image_1?smid=A166SV9QJZG8W0&psc=1

If I like the K7 then I'll be ordering a 4.4mm balanced one of those

All of the alternative cheaper cables seem to have the same trait, microphonics in the cable when the cable taps against the desk and stuff which I cannot stand. These lightweight paracord hand made cables don't have that issue, but you do pay a premium for that....

I tried the Linsoul and it was awful, I could hear every little movement when it rubbed against my shirt. This cheap cable from Amazon and Openheart cable from Aliexpress are both much better for microphonics. The HD 650 is just not very good in that regard due to the cheap plastic earcups, even a small movement of the earpad or headband is much more noticeable than the Sundara.

 

[BananaDunka]

Hmm that's interesting as there is definitely no micropjhonics issue with the Custom Can cable! And I'm very sensitive to it. Maybe I'll just have to stick to Custom cans then as I am really a big fan of the weight (lack of) of their cables and the terminations. I've had that Amazon cable before and found nit to be too all over the place as the cable is stiffer than I like and you can just place it anywhere due to that stiffness. The Ali Express one I've not tried before but it looks to be stiff sheathing and thick so probably have the same weighty quirks of the stock cable.


For £15 though I'll give it a go!

 

[rids57]

Hmm that's interesting as there is definitely no micropjhonics issue with the Custom Can cable! And I'm very sensitive to it. Maybe I'll just have to stick to Custom cans then as I am really a big fan of the weight (lack of) of their cables and the terminations. I've had that Amazon cable before and found nit to be too all over the place as the cable is stiffer than I like and you can just place it anywhere due to that stiffness. The Ali Express one I've not tried before but it looks to be stiff sheathing and thick so probably have the same weighty quirks of the stock cable.


For £15 though I'll give it a go!

I'm using the Linsoul GranVia balanced cable on my HD800S and I don't find microphonics to be much of a problem, it looks and feels great too, very pleased with the £66 it cost me for the 2M length with XLR plug

 

[von Humboldt]

Would an audiophile noob such as myself notice the difference between balanced and single ended? I suspect my ears aren't that sophisticated!