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Portable amp and/or dac for DT 770

post #1 of 23
12/18/12 at 12:46pm
Thread Starter 

Hi there,

 

I've been lurking head-fi for years on and off, but I never had any questions. Though, I recently got my first serious headphones and want to put together a setup. After snapping two TMA-1 headbands, I traded them for the Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro's (80 ohms). My music sources are my HTC One X and my laptop. They both go plenty hard, but I have the idea the sound could be better. For the HTC it's pretty obvious, and my laptop is a Sony VAIO F12 series. Although it's supposed to be a media laptop, it has a simple realtek chip. I'm not completely sure what I should be looking for now. I think the FiiO E7 would fit my needs, but I'm not sure if I need just an amp or a dac.

So in short:

  • Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro 80 ohms
  • Want better sound from laptop and cell phone
  • Mainly listen to hip hop, but really anything but metal and hard rock
  • Budget is €100 max
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post #2 of 23
12/20/12 at 10:58am

Kinda of cliche but I think the Fiio E17 is the best thing there is for $140 US, or maybe a custom cmoy but those lack many of the E17's features including the DAC.

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post #3 of 23
12/21/12 at 2:57pm
Thread Starter 

I've done some more reading, and it seems like the HTC One X doesn't support external DACs. The Jellybean update does support audio over USB, but it seems that it doesn't use the standard. I guess the E11 should be my pick then?

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post #4 of 23
12/22/12 at 9:57pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by kanyesskirt View Post

I've done some more reading, and it seems like the HTC One X doesn't support external DACs. The Jellybean update does support audio over USB, but it seems that it doesn't use the standard. I guess the E11 should be my pick then?

 

If you want to save some money and are ONLY using it with your phone then yeah but I still like the E17 because it has treble control as well as bass, an off timer, hold slider and you can use it as a DAC with any computer.

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post #5 of 23
12/23/12 at 4:23am
Thread Starter 

Did even more reading this morning. Seems like I'm out of luck with the HTC One X for now. There must be coming out products using Google's implementation of audio over USB, but who knows when? My contract only has a few more months left, so I'll wait, look at what is going on then, and reconsider it all when I get a new phone. Thanks for your help ScaryFatKidGT.

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post #6 of 23
12/23/12 at 11:54am

A Fiio E07K ($89) might be a good choice, you can connect it with USB to your laptop, so as to use the E07K's DAC and amplifier.

and just use the E07K's amplifier feature with your HTC One X.

 

The better the amplifier used with the DT770 Pro 80-Ohm, the better the DT770 Pro 80-Ohm sounds.


Edited by PurpleAngel - 12/26/12 at 7:47am
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post #7 of 23
12/24/12 at 3:27am
Thread Starter 

Right, but isn't that essentially the same as the E17, just a cheaper model?

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post #8 of 23
12/24/12 at 8:17am
Quote:
Originally Posted by kanyesskirt View Post

Right, but isn't that essentially the same as the E17, just a cheaper model?

Yea, the E07K is like a stripped down version of the E17.

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post #9 of 23
12/25/12 at 2:28pm
Quote:

Originally Posted by PurpleAngel View Post
 

Most Realtek audio processors do not come with a built in DAC, so chances are there is a separate DAC chip built into the Sony laptop.

 

That is not true, the codecs contain basically everything in a single chip (including the DAC, ADC, headphone amplifier, and sometimes even a low power speaker amplifier), and minimize the number of components needed on the motherboard. You can see for example what is integrated into the Realtek ALC269 in the "Hardware Features" section of this page.

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post #10 of 23
12/25/12 at 2:37pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by stv014 View Post

 

That is not true, the codecs contain basically everything in a single chip (including the DAC, ADC, headphone amplifier, and sometimes even a low power speaker amplifier), and minimize the number of components needed on the motherboard. You can see for example what is integrated into the Realtek ALC269 in the "Hardware Features" section of this page.

How many different audio processors does Realtek make?

How many of those come with built in DACs?

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post #11 of 23
12/25/12 at 2:48pm

Well, you can check their various HD Audio codecs. Having built-in DACs, ADCs, and headphone amplifier (even if only a very basic one) is a normal feature for these, and motherboard manufacturers obviously also prefer single chip "all in one" solutions.


Edited by stv014 - 12/25/12 at 2:54pm
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post #12 of 23
12/26/12 at 3:06am
Quote:
Originally Posted by PurpleAngel View Post

Most Realtek audio processors do not come with a built in DAC

We've been over this already rolleyes.gif
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post #13 of 23
12/26/12 at 7:44am
Thread Starter 

The more I read, the more complicated it gets. The E18 is supposedly an Android DAC, but it will probably be released Q3 2013. As for now the HTC One X doesn't work with any DAC, although it does have JellyBean 4.1, which should support it. It's also very unclear if future Android phones are going to have any better support for DACs, I can't find anything on that topic. The only working, but still iffy solution, is using a Samsung Galaxy SIII. However I find the Galaxy phones inferior to my One X in terms of design and build quality and it won't be easy to find someone that will swap me anyway. 

tl;dr: Seems like there is no real solution at the moment. Such a shame. Contemplating now if I should just get a good DAC for my laptop. I think that would still be the E17, with my budget.


Edited by kanyesskirt - 12/26/12 at 11:44am
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post #14 of 23
12/26/12 at 12:58pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by stv014 View Post

 

That is not true, the codecs contain basically everything in a single chip (including the DAC, ADC, headphone amplifier, and sometimes even a low power speaker amplifier), and minimize the number of components needed on the motherboard. You can see for example what is integrated into the Realtek ALC269 in the "Hardware Features" section of this page.

Just looked at the Realtek page, never realized they were building DACs into so many of their audio processors (thought it was only a few models).

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post #15 of 23
12/26/12 at 1:38pm
I'll ask again: what do you think those "audio processors" do?
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