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New to the headphone game and need some solid advice from fellow audiophiles

post #1 of 6
1/19/12 at 5:20pm
Thread Starter 

Hello All,

 

This is my first post here, so far it seems as though this a very knowledgeable group of posters which is refreshing to say the least. Anywho, to the point, I just purchased a set of ATH-M50s' and am primarily going to be using them attached to my PC. I have been looking a lot into this and have seen the suggestion of using DACs and amps to get the best quality from good headphones; my question is which friggin' ones should I look into? I am most certainly an audiophile and appreciate nothing more than good sounding music, but when it comes to digital to analog converters and amps for headphones I am practically clueless.

 

I have heard that Fiio makes some very reasonably priced amps/DACs that have the potential to greatly improve the audio quality of my new headphones, but which ones and why? Also, when purchasing a DAC, do they come with software/drivers for the PC or is it all stand alone? Examples of combinations of DACs/amps and how they are setup would be great.

 

Any suggestions as to what I should consider would be greatly appreciated.

 

PS What's the real deal with burning these things in (ATH-M50s), is 100 hrs of moderate level audio playback reasonable, should it be longer? Are there certain genres which are more suited towards burning them in?

 

Thanks for your time,

James

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post #2 of 6
1/19/12 at 6:40pm

Fiio makes fairly decent products for what they are and their price bracket.  Are there better products out there with better performance?  Sure.  But you could spend a lot of money and not make a very large improvement.  I think Fiio is a good starting point for this hobby.  Once you decide this hobby is for you, and you understand more about your listening preferences, you can move into different gear.

 

Headphone burn in is controversial, but I believe it exists.  It is subtle and only makes minor changes to the sound.  It refines it, and doesn't change it from once voice to another.  I say for most headphones, things should be settled down by 50 hours.  Anything beyond that is beyond human detection and memory.

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post #3 of 6
1/19/12 at 6:48pm
Thread Starter 

Thanks for the response. I was mainly thinking of waiting for the E17 or perhaps going for the Maverick TubeMagic D1 - any ideas on places to buy these?

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post #4 of 6
1/19/12 at 6:50pm

Skip the Maverick D1.  I had one.  It was horrid.  Most regretful and disappointing audio purchase I ever made.  The headphone jack had so much background noise that it basically unusable. 

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post #5 of 6
1/20/12 at 7:27am
Thread Starter 

Thanks for all the information, really appreciate it. I will stay away from the Maverick - think I'll stick with Fiio for my intial purchase.

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post #6 of 6
1/20/12 at 8:29am

Forgive me if I am way off base, but I have been a crazy man audiophile for most of my adult life (even if there are those that would argue I have not begun an adult life).  I have been tied to physical format (lots of vinyl, CDs, SACDs and DVD-A discs), and being a semi-serious musician I value excellent sound quality.  The point is just to give you my experience, and if not relevant, you can easily disregard. 

Over the past ten years I have auditioned some 10 CD players and ended up with the Ayre C5xe.  Absolutely fabulous, and when compared to my brother's Marantz it made us both do a double take.

To your point.  Over the past couple years I have ripped some 600 CDs to J River Media Center, using flac.  The difference in JRMC vs iTunes is noticeable, and flac over any version of mp3 is substantial. So there is your first criteria.  Next, I auditioned the Wyred4Sound Dac2, connected to a PC via USB.  I figured there would be no way it could best my Ayre, but here are my findings:

 

1.  Normal CD vs flac:  Almost a dead heat.  Slight edge on micro dynamics to the CD

2.  Normal CD to high res download (same piece at 24bit/96khz):  The W4S came out ahead.  Not overwhelming, but easily audible and preferable.  More lifelike sound of instruments, a little more weight and bass was immense.

3.  SACD vs flac from CD layer:  The Ayre (playing the SACD layer) edged out the W4S, but by a slim margin, and if you did not have the two together to listen side by side you would not notice.

 

So, my heartiest recommendation of the Wyred4Sound Dac1 or 2.  Now, neither have headphone output, but at that level it would make sense to have an outboard headphone amp anyway.  The DAC makes a significant difference, 2nd only to having at least a lossless source.

 

I am rather new to headfi too, so just my $0.0002 worth, and hope it helps someone out there.

 

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