£500 budget headphone and amp

TwsT · 2 Feb 2015 at 15:58

that's very poor show from the Z1 my nexus 5 stomps the older X1's as well as my amp does.

se_vietboi · 10 Feb 2015 at 22:54

rids57 said:
Personally with a £500 budget I'd have gone for the HD650 + Schiit Modi 2 Uber + Schiit Vali but that's just me and we may well have different tastes.

Well I just bought a Schiit Modi 2 Uber and Schiit Magni 2 Uber 5 minutes ago. Maybe not too different after all lol. Will report back how it sounds when it arrives in 2 days..which happens to be my birthday

Rroff · 10 Feb 2015 at 23:25

TwsT said:
that's very poor show from the Z1 my nexus 5 stomps the older X1's as well as my amp does.

The Z1 (tablet) is known for having a (more than a) bit of a dull sounding DAC so possible the phone is the same. Listening to music just via spotify on my Z1 tablet and then same headphone on my Toshiba windows tablet is hugely different.

se_vietboi · 12 Feb 2015 at 22:24

Right OK I got it and all is well except I can not get the optical to work. Its connected to the soundcard. The USB works just fine. Any fix?

Marsman · 12 Feb 2015 at 22:42

Are you ticking the SPDIF out box and selecting PCM in the Xonar CP?

se_vietboi · 12 Feb 2015 at 22:51

Marsman said:
Are you ticking the SPDIF out box and selecting PCM in the Xonar CP?

Oh wow thank you! Is it recommended to play it out the optical from the soundcard or the computers USB? Sound card has more interference right?

keikeimok · 14 Feb 2015 at 21:16

se_vietboi said:
Yeah sorry I thought mine didn't contain any accessories only to find they were nicely concealed. I got mine from rainforest. On the other hand this concerns me:

I'll have to charge it first before I give it a spin and make any judgements from there.

Those seems Chinese to me...LOL you went to Hong Kong?

se_vietboi · 15 Feb 2015 at 00:42

Cayin is developed by a Chinese company.

Marsman · 15 Feb 2015 at 02:28

se_vietboi said:
Oh wow thank you! Is it recommended to play it out the optical from the soundcard or the computers USB? Sound card has more interference right?

Well both can be affected (sound card and USB) by interference.

Using optical is the better option because it uses light pulses. As there is no electrical wiring connecting the PC to the DAC interference cannot be transmitted. Even if a sound card/motherboard's analogue outputs are affected, the optical out shouldn't be.

se_vietboi · 15 Feb 2015 at 12:14

That seems to be the general consensus online with S/PDIF coaxial being regarded as the best.

Anyways the sound quality jumped further in terms of quality when paired with the Schiit M&M stack. Background noise has been virtually eliminated, the soundstage got even better and treble got brighter. Loving it

Marsman · 15 Feb 2015 at 12:21

Coaxial can be affected though, as it uses electrical wiring like USB. If there is no interference though, then it doesn't matter really.

andrs08 · 16 Dec 2015 at 21:17

se_vietboi said:
Anyways the sound quality jumped further in terms of quality when paired with the Schiit M&M stack. Background noise has been virtually eliminated, the soundstage got even better and treble got brighter. Loving it

Did you reevaluate the Cayin C5 amp, now through the Dac? (eg. Modi)

What's best for the Fidelio X2?

Marine-RX179 · 16 Dec 2015 at 22:10

keikeimok said:
Those seems Chinese to me...LOL you went to Hong Kong?

Those are simplified Chinese, so it is definitely from mainland China, rather than Hong Kong or Taiwan (which they use traditional Chinese).

hobib_ali · 21 Dec 2015 at 21:52

TALON1973 said:
Ive got the 600's along with 598 and 700's . Personally I thing the 598 are better at picking out instruments than the 600's

ahh mate can you tell me the difference between the 598s and the 650s? i hear the 598 is amazing but not much of a difference between the 650, apparently the 598 sounds a bit more bass minus some mid range sound stage?

I can get the 598s for 129 and the 650s for 225, so is there 101 pounds of sound difference? like is it noticeable?, I run all my head phones from my ZX sound card and the 3.5mm jack on my logitech Z2300 2.1s (i must admit that its much more louder thru the logitech speakers than the ZX)

I wont get a headphone amp as i dont need it.

hobib_ali · 21 Dec 2015 at 21:53

hobib_ali said:
ahh mate can you tell me the difference between the 598s and the 650s? i hear the 598 is amazing but not much of a difference between the 650, apparently the 598 sounds a bit more bass minus some mid range sound stage?

I can get the 598s for 129 and the 650s for 225, so is there 101 pounds of sound difference? like is it noticeable?, I run all my head phones from my ZX sound card and the 3.5mm jack on my logitech Z2300 2.1s (i must admit that its much more louder thru the logitech speakers than the ZX)

I wont get a headphone amp as i dont need it.

also do you own the 518s?

rids57 · 21 Dec 2015 at 22:24

If you are using the output from the Logitechs then there is absolutely no point in getting good headphones because you won't hear the benefit. Good headphones will only shine when you allow them to and that means feeding them with high quality, clean audio and you're not going to get that from an afterthought on a speaker system. The headphone out may be louder from the Z2300s but the quality will be higher from the Zx.

hobib_ali · 21 Dec 2015 at 22:44

rids57 said:
If you are using the output from the Logitechs then there is absolutely no point in getting good headphones because you won't hear the benefit. Good headphones will only shine when you allow them to and that means feeding them with high quality, clean audio and you're not going to get that from an afterthought on a speaker system. The headphone out may be louder from the Z2300s but the quality will be higher from the Zx.

I couldn't tell a difference in sound quality, maybe because the speakers are hooked up to the sound card via its 3.5mm jack connector, i find it convenient connecting the headphones to the logitech speaker controller than the sound card, but i might just use the sound card from now on to focus on the difference, ive plugged in many headphones through the sound card and the logitech, same tracks same volume,and i get the same sound...

rids57 · 21 Dec 2015 at 23:06

At least you're using the Zx DAC, which isn't bad. I would expect the Zx headphone amp to sound better than the headphone output on the speakers, unless it's just a pass through.

hobib_ali · 21 Dec 2015 at 23:36

rids57 said:
At least you're using the Zx DAC, which isn't bad. I would expect the Zx headphone amp to sound better than the headphone output on the speakers, unless it's just a pass through.

do you think the devil sound card is better than the zx?

rids57 · 22 Dec 2015 at 00:01

It does sound a little better than the Zx, which is only a Z with a break out box but the differences will be quite subtle and you'd need good headphones to hear it. Volume wise the HDX is definitely the more powerful as it drives my AKG K702s easily whereas the SB Z struggled.