Qudelix and humans are not capable of differentiating any resolutions above 16 bit 44.1khz. No human. Ever. On any gear. You can’t even hear half of 44.1khz. High res has no purpose whatsoever for playback.
Regular-Cheetah-8095
joined 1 year ago
Why are you watching any of the idiot YouTube affiliate marketing audio scumbags in the first place? Are you having trouble interpreting measurements, hearing headphones for yourself or developing your own opinions on them?
You can’t even hear half of 44.1khz unless you’re not human. Differentiating bit rates above 16 require lab conditions, being a professional trained listener and being blasted with severe hearing damage levels of audio in 1-2 second snippets - That gets better than a coin flip. Sometimes. There is no exception to this. None. You do not hear anything different because it’s impossible. The human ear has limitations regarding frequencies and resolutions and these would be within those limitations.
Just ask people who post the truther stuff to explain to you how it does it. That’s not trolling, it’s asking for information so you can be as informed as they are. I’m like 0/30 in anyone even trying, they usually just get mad and throw a tantrum and ask what gear you own and tell you you’d understand if you heard the stuff they had.
I mean, I probably went through the totality of their life to date gear in like a average thirty day demo rotation at some point but it’s a lot more fun to pretend I’m new and ask questions until they run out of answers.
Can you explain how? I’m new and I want to learn.
Unless you need more volume with headroom or there’s noise in the signal from an inadequate existing DAC (there isn’t) it won’t make a difference. They’re designed to be audibly transparent, just about every modern amp or DAC is so if they did do anything to the sound, it would be a flaw more than any sort of improvement.
No human on earth can differentiate anything over 16 bit 44.1khz regardless so it doesn’t really matter. There is absolutely no benefit whatsoever for high res. None.
High Res vs 16 bit 44khz - Summarized Citations & Data
Frequency Range of Human Hearing
The dongle has a SINAD of 99 and it’s other measurements add up to be as transparent and clean as any modern DAC, it’s in the upper half of DACs on earth. They’re all designed to be transparent and flat, they are universally flat and clean have been for like 30 years, the problem of “the perfect DAC” in terms of its intended purpose has been solved for $8 or less than $100 if you want something more luxurious or with other features. a lot of what a person thinks they hear (and yes, we are all susceptible to this, I am, the most “golden ear” on earth is as well) is very, very minor differences that don’t equate to “better” amplified by some confirmation bias or / or placebo. It’s okay to have this, it means a person is human and you don’t have to worry about being a KGB cyborg sleeper cell.
There won’t be noise from an Apple dongle because that’s not really possible, at least not in terms of the digital to analog conversion, there could be some other reasons for noise. The dongle is like 60-70 SINAD clicks above the closest DAC thats even borderline approaching levels where it wouldn’t be transparent and clean conversion. You can’t make something that’s audibly transparent more transparent, it’s just transparent or it isn’t transparent and there’s no signal or source the dongle won’t make transparent. You can reliably use it as the control and benchmark for clear conversion of other devices from that. You may have some small differences DAC to DAC but these are going to be quirks or flaws in the DAC, they do have sort of “a sound” in a lot of use cases but it’s more dependent on the chain in totality than it is just the DAC.
I’d consider looking at your EQ stuff before I’d attribute noise or distortion or deficiencies to the DAC, if you haven’t already I’d evaluate them without EQ on and then see if the EQ causes or worsens any differences you don’t like. It’s incredibly rare for a motherboard to have a “better” DAC but if it wasn’t an afterthought in design they’ve been putting more of an emphasis on them.
We’ll try to get one iconic rep from different genres:
Denon AH-9200
Sennheiser HD600
Hifiman HE1000 V2
Koss Porta Pros
Don’t even try me on the Porta Pros. If you’re still relevant after 40 years, you belong on the mountain.
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It’s a neutral reference headphone, an open back headphone that’s meant to play the audio with very little change to the sound as it was recorded. This is the trend of open back headphones and what makes up the majority of “audiophile” style headphones these days, they’re primarily judged on their neutral listening chops, how adherent to the Harman curve they are or can be, tuning and technicals. Rather than accentuated bass and highs like a V-shape or a Harman-tuned pair, it aims to represent bass, mids and highs accurately with their intended prevalence. For the purposes of a neutral listening reference audiophile headphone, the HD600 is among if not the best in the world.
The Porta Pros are a warm bass-rolled open supra-aural headphone. They’re doing two very different designs meant to do very different things. They are not known for being neutral and instead have a throwback sound you’re unlikely to find duplicated elsewhere as supra-aurals are few and far between. If you’re looking for something with less highs and more bass, you could look at headphones with a V or U shaped signature, or something balanced that isn’t as dedicated to neutrality.
You can try using EQ to adjust the 600 to taste but it will never have a bassy sound nor will it shy away from the sort of sterile and clinical reference vibe unless you really lean into changing it up and at that point, you’re better off getting a different pair of headphones. The 600 costs what it costs and has its reputation based on what you’re hearing, its ability to do that type of sound. You could likely sell or return them, research headphones that may have a signature and style more to your liking - AKA not an open back neutral listening headphone or a blind buy based on generalized reputation but from its measurements compared against your preferences - And get better results than trying to change the 600 beyond what some reasonable amounts of EQ can do for them.