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?
Not really, no. It’s more about usability for me.
I bought a Qudelix 5K to use out and about since I don’t know how much longer I’ll be able to have a phone with a headphone jack, and it’s easier to do chores around the house with that clipped to my shirt instead of my phone in my pocket.
I have an iFi Zen Air DAC at my desk since the headphone jack on my computer is in kind of a goofy location and I also really like ASMR, so sometimes I want to jack my volume up for that. It can be nice to have that extra headroom for cases like that, or if your music is mastered really low for some reason, but I only spent $100 on that.
I fully think that people who proselytize the difference a DAC and/or amp make are just trying to justify the exorbitant money they put into their own stuff. This sub is also rife with people who are always chasing that high of buying new toys, so they never really enjoy what they have and just keep buying new stuff and using this sub to talk themselves into it.
It’s really dependent. Amps have more diminishing returns than headphones so jumping from a $50 to a $500 amp is going to be much less of an improvement than a headphone equivalent. On the other hand, with a good enough amp, there can be significant improvement.
Good enough being already in the 100-200 USD range
No
In my experience it does. Had a qudelix and an ifi for a while, and the jump to k7 was nice. It just sounds better, tighter. But I have a feeling once you get past the 500 dollar stuff it’s much less noticeable.
More powerful amp? Yes. Once I bought a proper amplifier so noticed they were driven much better, especially with EQ. But I haven’t noticed much more out of them than my Schiit Heretic/Modi stack does.
(everything i say is my opinion and none of this is a fact)
as an owner of lots of dacs/amps/headphones … is a $400 amp much better than a $100 one? no.how about $100 and $700 - the amplification part? no…
how about a $200 amp and a $1500 amp - surely, the $1500 amp … amplifies the signal “better” than the $200 one - no… no it doesn’t
when listening to my hipdac, which was $200 - music sounds amazing and perfect… nothing sounds wrong. there is no compromise.
this is the same for music coming out of the apple dongle…
rme adi? which cost 5x as much as my hipdac - everything sounds exactly the same, until you start hitting xbass or fiddling with eq.
my cambridge dacs/amps are also perfect - smsl… perfect - schiit - perfect… etc etc etc.
i don’t have a piece of equipment that is “better” than another from the pure dac and pure amp standpoint - the difference is in the inputs, details, features, smell… touch… etc.
but that’s from my point of view - other people have valid and valuable input on the matter.
No
That 5K is something special. It’s swinging way above its price class. I’ve compared it to ifi, fiiO, Questyle, and it’s no contest. Then I compared it to my $2400 desktop setup and damn… it’s at least playing in the $1000 class in terms of quality (not in terms of power output of course). So it’s a definite “audio hack” in my opinion.
The shit people pay up for is in the “time domain”, “psychoacoustic” realm. I think the 5K has some of that magic
Some do, some not.
Everything you put into the chain will affect the sound in some way. With DACs the differences are extremely small usually. Even using different technologies like DS and R2R, the difference is very small.
With amps in my experience, the differences can vary from imperceptible to small. If you’re talking about solid state vs. tube, you’re much more likely to hear a difference. Comparing two solid state and high quality amps, you may not even notice a difference, but sometimes it’s pretty obvious especially if it’s an integrated amp that is adding some EQ into the chain. Or if comparing an A vs. AB vs. D amp.
Anyone saying “there’s no difference” is probably talking about comparing two amps/DACs using the same technologies. But there’s more of variance when you start talking about different tech. It’s still subtle though IMO, it’s mostly for people who are trying to eek out those last few percentage points if you have sensitive/ trained ears.
Just AB test it when possible, spend a considerable amount of time when testing it, in that way you can objectively make a decision on it.