this post was submitted on 26 Oct 2023
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Headphones

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Do your headphones REALLY perform much better with more expensive DAC/AMP? (alien.top)
submitted 1 year ago by FrankieWilde11@alien.top to c/headphones@hi-fi.community
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I have the Sennheiser HD600, Neumann NDH-30, Audeze LCD-X.

I use these with my SSL2 hp out, and with Qudelix 5K.

I spoke to someone about my impressions and his first question was: which dac/amp? and when I told, he just winked.

So my question is: is the difference this obvious with a more expensive dac/amp combo? Should I spend another 6-800 euro to get one? Do your headphones open up/perform that much better?

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[–] edamane12345@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago

Get a bang for the buck DAC like Gustard X18. I had many DACs ranging low to mid from Topping D90LE, RME Adi-2, and SMSL. X18 was the best one of them all. It was hard to differentiate between Topping and RME. But I was able to tell X18 sounded the best. It had noticeably bigger sound stage.

Amps didn't particularly improve the sound for me past $1k-1.5k USD. Some amps give you a thicker body while some give you leaner sound. It's just preference at that point.