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

IMHO, DACs are mostly snake oil. Expensive DACs and good cheap DACs sound identical to my ears.

The amp is what can actually impact the sound, to me. It’s often worth investing in a good amp that complements your headphones, especially with higher end headphones, and less sensitive/higher impedence headphones that might need something beefier to drive them well (Hifiman HE-6 as a notorious example).