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

It depends on the headphones. If they have room for more power, then yes they will perform better. The main things that will happen is they "open up" more, and they will have more low end. Both of those typically require more power to achieve.

The Dac side also matters, but only up to a point. I noticed a big difference in clarity and dynamics going from an external Sound blaster card to a Topping E30. I have not tried anything beyond that, but I have tried other usb c dacs, Qudelix 5k, Ifi Uno, Fiio BTR, BTR 5, etc. They are all within "placebo" difference, basically you might think one is better but it is too close to really care.

The short of it is, from my experience, something in the $50-100 range is a big upgrade from your basic motherboard, laptop (except the macbook pro I had), and phone audio. Past that, it is hard to tell. A quality dac makes a difference over cheap, but that doesn't mean you have to spend a lot. My desktop setup is the Topping E30 with a liquid Spark.

I will add this. My son got the Dakoni Blue planar magentics. They technically work off a phone, but sound shallow and dull. Zero bass. Same from his computer case running off his $400 gaming motherboard "high end" audio. I connected them to my Setup and they opened up a lot and had way more volume, but still didn't have the bass I expcted based on reviews. My Liquid Spark puts out 1.5 watts. We changed to the Topping D30II we bought to go with these, which puts out 2 watts, and they finally had the punch and volume we were looking for. I also bumped the bass up in windows with an EQ we found. They sound amazing now, but requied a butt ton of power. Also, when i did the same thing with my liquid spark, on the harder bass hits it would trip the amp in it and turn off. It was needing more power than I could deliver. On the flip side, my Sony 1AM2s sound very good, but don't change much between the amps or running balanced. They do open up some, but it wasn't enough for me to care. They sound very close running off my setup or just running off an apple dac.

So really comes down to the headphones, and even then I think the amp and power needed make more difference than a dac.