/tech/ - Technology★

I just have an ODAC. Most headphones (not 300ohms ones) don't need an amp at all.

According to the measurements of the guy who designed the Objective 2 Amp the only difference in sound characteristics stems from output impedance, and even then it's a matter of your headphones wether you can even detect that.

Get whatever looks best to you, has the I/O you need, has an alright power supply and doesn't cost to much and you're set.

>>826134

>>826134

>only difference in sound characteristics stems from output impedance

Well that's all boloney.

Sure output impedance matters in driving the coils, and if they are under-driven or over-driven there will be a diminished listening experience, but there is a lot more involved before the input even reaches the amplifier that affects the linearity of the system.

>>826130

>(not 300ohms ones)

Yeah I guess this is the first thing people notice. My 250 ohm headphones are hard to drive, 600ohm ones are even harder. You hear almost nothing if you plug them straight into the mainboard.

There are a huge amount of factors that go into whether or not you can hear a difference.

Is your built in sound card actually not shit ?

Are your headphones detailed enough to show the differences ?

Do your headphones need an amp just because of the impedance ?

Is the music you listen to lossless ? Even if it's lossless is there enough detail present to showcase the difference ?

How well have you trained your ears ? Can you identify compression when you hear it ?

The reason DAC/AMP combos are a thing is because MOST build in sound cards are shit and MOST higher end headphones need an amp to be driven properly.

If you don't have well trained ears and good familiarity with the test tracks you use then you won't hear a difference. If you listen to over produced music you will not hear a difference. I would not recommend a DAC/AMP combo to most people. It's only a benefit if you listen to the right kind of music where reproduction matters. Also good quality speakers systems while more expensive up front are a much better value over time compared to headphones.

These USB DACs should be called USB amplifiers, because the Cirrus Logic chip in them is probably as good as the DAC on your onboard soundcard. This isn't 1992 anymore, and if you want a DAC that really makes a difference, you have to spend thousands for a Lynx or a Lavry, which is definitely overblown for playing 320kbps mp3s or 44100s/16b FLAC.

Moreover, they often cost as much as an audio interface to make music, so instead of falling for this meme, invest that money into a pair of good studio monitor or hi-fi system and a Focusrite if you really want to see the sound coming out of an USB device (and record stuff)

What the fuck did you just say?

I've been an active member in the audiophaggot community for 20+ years and I own multiple discussion forums. If you say anything remotely negative about Schiit products or head-fi, I'll track you down and make your life miserable kiddo.

I have a Schiit Fulla 2 dac/amp, it cost 100 burgers, and it works well. I could hear high frequency noise when my headphones were plugged into my front panel's 3.5mm jack, and now I can't. For listening to music that was objectively mastered extremely well, I can notice a difference with my sennheisers.

However, the primary reason I sprung for this product was not just because it has a DAC that's in many more expensive products (their product page makes this claim, but I personally investigated) it's because it has a simultaenously functional line-level output which goes to my home theatre amp, so I can emulate games on my TV using my actual sound system, from my computer. It's also small, micro usb powered which is convenient, and has low power draw.

I have a schiit stack as well. I also have a yamaha r-s202 receiver, little dot mk 3, and some beyer dynamic dt990s, akg, and sennheiser headphones, and pioneer bs22 speakers. I've tried several others over the years. I've learned that the vast majority of audiophile fuckery is pretentious snobbery. once you get into that entry level o2/schiit range, you're good. Going up from that point requires such a stupid amount of money, you may as well go buy a new car.

Only thing I haven't tried yet is a good set of planar magnetic headphones, been eyballing the alpha dogs and the hifimans for a while now, if a couple anon's vouch for em, I'd probably pull the trigger.

>>826745

You tried any expensive headphones? Like the Sennheiser hd 800 and other headphones in that price range. Because I once tried it at a friends place, and it is hard to judge them when you can't directly compare them to your own gear. Well, at least for me.

I've never used one, but from what I read when researching whether it made sense to buy one or not it's only worth it if your headphones have high impedance. So if your headphones are cheap like $100 don't bother. So are you sure the rest of your setup is good enough to need an amp? Also, people joke about gold cables but really shit cables with no shielding make a difference, so make sure your cables aren't complete shit.

Also if you were much younger back then, there are high-frequency sounds you can't hear anymore, although I doubt that makes difference for music.

>all these audiophile idiots buying $100 (((USB))) DACs that can't even do hardware mixing while I'm using a 20 year old Aureal sound card I found in the trash and get perfectly good sound

Can you guys recommend me some music to test my equipment? I still have some of those jazz tracks from the last audio thread that some anon uploaded to mega.

>>826749

not that guy, but i tried some stax sr007 while in japan a few years ago and i was absolutely blown away compared to my usual akg k701 ans adam a5x

>>826096 (OP)

I have literally never been able to hear the difference between something like $100 speakers and $1,000 speakers.

Like yeah sure the difference between cheap $10 logitech speakers and some bomb-ass seinheisers but I just must have bad ears.

>>828121

Logitech is like Bose and Beats, but worse. Are you not able to tell the difference between one of those 5.1/7.1 $220 Logitech speakers and a normal decent $300 by any other set, like klipsch for example?

>>826096 (OP)

While I do think a lot of them are memes I do want a new one for one of my IEMs. Looking at the HA-2 now.

>>828064

>$15 gold cable

You sure it isn't just some junk metal?

Fake silver cables exists, they're just aluminum cables.

>>828064

Also r8 the flc 8s please, might be my next upgrade

Gold tips do not increase audio quality. My setup uses cord I took from a lamp from a dumpster and it fucking rocks. What matters more is connection strength and shielding. Also headphones are for cucks. A decent Sony receiver (the heavier it weighs the better it is) with speakers that match the wattage output is the best sound you can get next to actually hanging out by a campfire with the musician as they perform. Burn flacs to cd and play with a professional rack mount dedicated CD player (same rule applies that the heavier the component the higher the quality, also don't fuck around with multi-disk changer trash), otherwise you will always get increased noise in the signal trying to play from your computer because the components in your PC will interfere.

Flac -> disk - > CD player - > receiver - > speakers with matching wattage - > medium sized room - > ears - > brain - > dopamine - > euphoria

For bonus points electrify your components from a power conditioner first.

>>828977

Sounds really autistic.

Instead you could just get a good DAC and amp and plug the speakers in, then play from a computer or a transport. CDs are only meaningful when you want to play the original copy.

Hell modern receivers have optical input anyway.

>>827076

damn, that shit sounds sexy, you got more like that?

>>826210

An oscilloscope is going to tell you nothing about the distortion performance of audio gear unless you've got the shittiest crap imaginable. You're using an 8-bit-at-best sensor to measure the performance of a 12+-bit output.