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Is the Dragonfly Cobalt enough for the Sennheiser 800 S (alien.top)

submitted 10 months ago by binnedPixel@alien.top to c/headphones@hi-fi.community

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As the titles states, is the Dragonfly Cobalt enough for the Sennheiser 800 S?

I'm afraid that maybe a seperate AMP and even a different DAC would be recommended?

Please enlighten me, thanks!

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[–] pdxbuckets@alien.top 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I wouldn't recommend the Cobalt if you don't have anything yet. If you already have the Cobalt, try it and don't worry about it if it works for you.

Cobalt has very low noise but relatively high distortion. But the emphasis is on "relative." Most of us don't hear the levels of distortion that the Cobalt generates at normal listening levels. It's still way less than 2% THD, and still way less distortion than some pricey tube setups. You may even prefer that distortion. So again, listen to it loud and decide for yourself if it sounds good.

The other issue is that the Cobalt provides about 14mW of clean-ish power. That's enough to drive the 800S to a standard 110dB target. But those cans have rolled off lower bass. If you want to use EQ to juice the bass, you might run out of power. Same if you listen to quiet recordings without software gain adjustment.

[–] binnedPixel@alien.top 1 points 10 months ago

Thanks for the detailed reply!