General Headphone Audio

Oh I'd hedge more on the amp not effectively driving the Susvara rather than any of the others considering loud ess is perfect on other headphones even with the same amp.

Many have said Susvara actually need high current loads to drive it to loud volumes effectively as opposed to just wattage, that could be why I guess as even -10dB wasn't loud enough and that was in high gain.
 
mrk said:
Oh I'd hedge more on the amp not effectively driving the Susvara rather than any of the others considering loud ess is perfect on other headphones even with the same amp.

Many have said Susvara actually need high current loads to drive it to loud volumes effectively as opposed to just wattage, that could be why I guess as even -10dB wasn't loud enough and that was in high gain.
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The spec says its current limited to 1.4amps or something insane so I doubt its that. db arent linear so if 0db is its peak and it doesnt for example, have 10db of gain making the voluem dial max out at +10db rather than 0 then at -10db it should still only be supplying 400mw so you had plenty of headroom to go louder. So unless the amp was faulty/not matching its spec the volume at that level should have been very loud.

The amp I'm currently running the he6sev2 off (which has the same sensitivity rating) is as far as I can tell current limited to around 120ma, I'm running that at -25db for a comfortable listening level and at -5db it shakes me head.
 
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Speaking of DX5 II, can you guys goolge "Topping DX5 II firmware" and tell me what is the latest version and if you can access the page?

Google says v1.62 (last version was v1.57), and top link takes you to a page that seemingly has been removed?

It is also not showing on the Topping firmware page.

Downloads - TOPPING

www.toppingaudio.com www.toppingaudio.com
 
Raymond Lin said:
Speaking of DX5 II, can you guys goolge "Topping DX5 II firmware" and tell me what is the latest version and if you can access the page?

Google says v1.62 (last version was v1.57), and top link takes you to a page that seemingly has been removed?

It is also not showing on the Topping firmware page.

Downloads - TOPPING

www.toppingaudio.com www.toppingaudio.com
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Cant find it either, every link to a download page says its not there.
 
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Angst said:
The spec says its current limited to 1.4amps or something insane so I doubt its that. db arent linear so if 0db is its peak and it doesnt for example, have 10db of gain making the voluem dial max out at +10db rather than 0 then at -10db it should still only be supplying 400mw so you had plenty of headroom to go louder. So unless the amp was faulty/not matching its spec the volume at that level should have been very loud.

The amp I'm currently running the he6sev2 off (which has the same sensitivity rating) is as far as I can tell current limited to around 120ma, I'm running that at -25db for a comfortable listening level and at -5db it shakes me head.
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-5?!

With the X9 even on low gain the LCD-5 and all Hifimans I've had would be way too loud for comfortable listening at anything higher than -25dB, on high gain I never really increase volume beyond -30 for daily listening, that's in bypass mode too as you have additional preamp gain settings to play in the PEQ, along with and a dedicated loudness section outside of it.
 
mrk said:
-5?!

With the X9 even on low gain the LCD-5 and all Hifimans I've had would be way too loud for comfortable listening at anything higher than -25dB, on high gain I never really increase volume beyond -30 for daily listening, that's in bypass mode too as you have additional preamp gain settings to play in the PEQ, along with and a dedicated loudness section outside of it.
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The dB volume level is relative to the amps max rated output so not comparable across amps.
 
Yeah which is around 3400mW, not the ASR measured figures which were wrong and Amir never went back to correct the mistake lol.
 
mrk said:
Yeah which is around 3400mW, not the ASR measured figures which were wrong and Amir never went back to correct the mistake lol.
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So -30db on that amp at that impedance would be 3.4mw? Which takes me back to show me headphones that need over 2w :)
I agree the susvara need a lot but when the manufacturer says 2w is what the need for peak then there's pretty much nothing out there that needs 2w let alone more than 2w without blowing ear drums or the drivers themselves.
 
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Took delivery of the k15 this morning. Initial observations are firstly that it does have memory of playback levels between outputs so no idea what the guy on headfi was on about and secondly that on the max gain mode the he6sev2 are comfortable at around 20% volume.


fjzJKvb.jpeg
 
Raymond Lin said:
Some reviewer said the Xduoo XA-02 doesn't have memory volume either but when i got mine, it does.
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Guess the old adage is true, never trust strangers on the internet :D.

New observation, where is my bass? the k15 needs a 4db bass shelf adding to have roughly the same amount as the audiolab dac does without any eq.
 
DX5 II arrived today, no customs charge woohoo!

On the down side, completely forgot about the plug, so I need an adapter.

Also, do they not include the usb cable with this unit?!
 
Angst said:
Took delivery of the k15 this morning. Initial observations are firstly that it does have memory of playback levels between outputs so no idea what the guy on headfi was on about and secondly that on the max gain mode the he6sev2 are comfortable at around 20% volume.
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Reminds me of the Roland SC-55 and other similar MIDI boxes. Much prefer the looks on this to the K13, but that shouldn't be a criteria really.

One thing your picture has done, is forced me to work out how to configure Fedora Linux so that Pipewire audio defaults to 44.1kHz, rather than 48kHz. Although by editing allowed rates in the config file for both it means Fedora now switches between 44.1 PCM for local FLAC & Spotify files and 48.0 PCM for Youtube etc.

Wrong forum, but as a Linux noob - way to go me!
 
I just used a spare kettle lead I have laying around, even though I asked them to send me a UK plug...and they replied saying they would. The only thing they included was an adaptor instead lol

As for the USB cable, I don't remember.
 
I now realise that I was too harsh on the k11 R2R, before I didn't understand what the **** people were on about when they talked about the "R2R" sound and how different it was. To me it just sounded very similar but with worse technicalities. It is now clear that the reason for me not hearing a difference was that my ESS based DAC was actually colouring the sound in much the same way.
 
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Angst said:
I now realise that I was too harsh on the k11 R2R, before I didn't understand what the **** people were on about when they talked about the "R2R" sound and how different it was. To me it just sounded very similar but with worse technicalities. It is now clear that the reason for me not hearing a difference was that my ESS based DAC was actually colouring the sound in much the same way.
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But this can also be interpreted as there are other ways to get the same sound without R2R?
 
Raymond Lin said:
But this can also be interpreted as there are other ways to get the same sound without R2R?
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Yes basically. A bit of eq will do very similar(think like a S curve in photography). Or in the audiolab dacs case all the custom filtering they've put in around the dac chip etc has achieved it. If anything its better to achieve it that way as it doesn't come along with the technical limitations or the r2r design.
 
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I have been meaning to do this but I want to move my Marantz CD6000 Ki Sign CD player closer to the X9 and play the same songs, using the Marantz's analogue out into the X9 vs the optical out into the X9 and see if i can pick out any difference.

Marantz spec
  • Digital Converter: 2 x SM5872BS
  • CD Mechanism: CDM-12.1
  • Frequency Response: 5Hz - 20kHz
  • Dynamic Range: 98 dB
  • Signal to Noise Ratio: 110 dB
  • Total Harmonic Distortion (THD): 0.0025%
Those numbers are crap compared to modern equipment but would be fun to see.
 
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