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June 28, 2019 - 6:47am
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Beginning budget audiophile, need help.
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Hi, I'm probably not qualified to answer most your questions but I have a comment on the headphones. I have the Sennhieser hd660s. I was listening to them through a FIIO x3. It is portable but designed to handle real headphones (as opposed to light weight walkman style headphones). I recently tried running them through a headphone amp and I cant tell you how much better it sounded. Night and day difference. It wasn't a high end or expensive amp, just a FIIO K5. The moral of the story is, with those headphones, it might be worth a try running them through a headphone amp.
yeah i know lol! i tried listening to them on a regular port first and i thought "well these are nice" but i was a little disapointed. then i plugged them into my sound blaster card (which has a amplified headphone port) and wow! what a difference! they almost rivaled my ELAC speakers.
so ive been thinking about getting a headphone amp. but will it be any better than my sound blaster 600ohm amped port card? whats the best headphone amp for under 60$?
I heard vacuum tube amps color the sound, but i want the sound to be like the artist intended, is that true?
i looked up your FIIO K5 amp on the net. it does 300ohm. mine does 600ohm. does that mine better or worse? lol idk
…should be first on your list.
What is your budget?
i'd say around 200$
If possible to the 250-400 range and get a good used (or NOS, in the case of Cambridge Audio) Arcam or Cambridge Audio amp. I've had both and both are simply very good. Not good for the price. Not (insert caveat here). They are just good affordable amps. In both cases newer models may be had with a DAC built in. Both have sophisticated protection circuitry so you don't have to worry about harming your amp or speakers as you might with my second favorite amplification setup under 1000.00 - the Hafler DH-101 or DH-110 preamp and DH-200/220 amplifier both of which can lose a single cap on the driver board and send harmful amounts of DC to your speakers without so much as flipping a breaker (unless your speaker has a DC detection circuit).
Hate to sound like such a Cliff Clayborne! Just want to qualify my recommendation before someone comes on and blast me for sending a newb down the potentially nerve wrecking path of vintage and fix it yourself audio!
I've been getting more into my Sennheiser HD600 headphones. My external sound card sound blaster seems to make a pretty good DAC. So i'm thinking of getting the Schiit Magni 3 Headphone Amp and Preamp. I was surprised to find it at the top of the list of "best headphone amplifier" off of the master switch website.
But I've also been thinking of getting FiiO Q1 Mark II. It was listed off the master switch website as one of the best DAC's and amp. both 100$. What do you guys think?
...DAC and headphone amp if that's your primary use case. Go with the DACMagic Plus:
https://www.crutchfield.com/p_779DACMPLB/Cambridge-Audio-DacMagic-Plus-Black.html
When you're ready to evolve from the desktop to components, the DAC will be a good transition piece.
Ouch 350$ for just a DAC! I think you guys might be too expensive for me lol
...beyond the product name and the price tag.
Just to reset your expectations, Creative doesn't make audiophile-grade products and the DACMagic Plus is toward the less expensive side of things.
more expensive does not equal better sound quality.Audiophile nonsense. Expensive DAC's are placebo snake oil. Dacs are a mature technology. Nothing to be gained from an expensive DAC.In blind testing they will all sound exactly the same. Spend your money on speakers. The only thing that "sounds better".
uh oh! lol. are you saying that everyone's main interest on this board, not to mention an entire industry and all its divisions, are basically placebo?
...says the guy who touts the iPod as audiophile-grade gear.
Check out iFi's selection within your budget:
https://ifi-audio.com/dac/
I never said an IPOD is "audiophile gear"because that terminology doesn't make sense. "Audiophile grade gear"doesn't mean anything at all.Stop making things up. Everything you think is wrong.16bit/44.1khz WAV files on an IPOD have exactly the same sound quality as CD.
Yet, in other threads you go on and on about how good the iPod sounds and you constantly attempt to refute that anything capable beyond CD-quality bit-depth and sample rate -- which is what your beloved iPod supports -- is a waste of money.
Even John Atkinson calls you out in "To the Simple, Everything Appears Simple": https://www.stereophile.com/content/simple-everything-appears-simple