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If you had to break it down by percentage, how important would you rate source, dac, amp, and headphones/IEMs, in creating the best sound possible? (alien.top)

submitted 10 months ago by 42dudes@alien.top to c/headphones@hi-fi.community

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With all the hyperbolic reviews of gear, I find it hard sometimes to quantify how important various components of a hifi setup are to achieving the best sound possible.

What do you spend the bulk of your budget on, and what can you get away with skimping on until you've got extra cash lying around, to get those diminishing returns on the last few % of upgrade for your rig?

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[–] ku1185@alien.top 1 points 10 months ago

Don't quantify it. That's about as useful as quantifying how a hamburger tastes.

[–] sverek@alien.top 1 points 10 months ago (2 children)

For Mid-Fi:

Source: YAAR!
DAC: 5%
AMP: 20%
Headphones: 75%

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

source pretty much can bottleneck the entire setup but its the easiest thing to acquire. after that headphones become the most important by a large margin because dac and amp exist only to support the headphones that need them

[–] 42dudes@alien.top 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

So you don't think the source matters with Mid-fi?

Spotify does the trick and until you're into a pricy signal chain, with a pair of prime headphones, you won't see a real advantage from a better (lossless?) source?

[–] sverek@alien.top 1 points 10 months ago (2 children)

I can't comment on Spotify or other streaming service, since there no way to verify the sound quality. If I have CD or sound file, I can at least verify the numbers.

Talking about numbers and formats, I can't tell difference between MP3 192kbit and FLAC (source file).

[–] Comma20@alien.top 1 points 10 months ago

Spotify VBR => Corda Stack => HD800.

I can only tell the difference on songs that I've extremely familiar with and am specifically looking for rather than general listening. So I don't think it matters in a meaningful way once you hit a well encoded VBR. The specific characteristics are probably more exacerbated at 192kbit (and 128kbit), but I don't I would be able to do it in a statistically significant way on unknown tracks for 192kbit either.

Maybe I stand a chance at 128kbit.

[–] 42dudes@alien.top 1 points 10 months ago

I can tell between mp3 and FLAC on my nicest studio monitors, but even then, its not a big difference.

[–] quick6ilver@alien.top 1 points 10 months ago

Differences in one correlates with the other.

E.g minor differences in dac quality wil not be perceived in a low quality source

Minor changes in amp characteristics will not be apparent if ur drivers arent precise

So in most cases, you need the best source & best listening device, then amp,. -- invest in power/quality, based on the listening device capabilities & power requirements also a dac if that is necessary.

[–] mvw2@alien.top 1 points 10 months ago

90% IEM

7% amp

2% DAC

1% everything else.

[–] Phatboyaa_131@alien.top 1 points 10 months ago

For me the transducer will always my utmost priority. If my current dac/amp cannot drive it properly, then it becomes my second priority. I'm assuming the source is the type of file you play. If it is, as long as it meets 320 kbps mp3 or equivalent then it's fine since I really can't discern the difference of higher bitrate than that.