First Post and requesting advice on a good Android compatible USB DAC
Jun 10, 2013 at 10:54 PM Thread Starter Post #1 of 13
biglightbt

biglightbt

New Head-Fier
Joined
Jun 10, 2013
Posts
13
Likes
0
Uhm...Hello I guess?  All akwardness aside I'm here looking for some expert advice on DAC's.  I'm relatively new to the whole audiophile world but have a little bit of experience with terms and have some general knowledge about audio.  I currently have a Samsung Galaxy S4, the I-545 version on Verizon.  My headphones of choice have been Shure SE535s which I'm rather fond of.  Using some terms from that ever helpful automatic "Welcome" message I guess you could describe the unmodified output of the thing rather Veiled, Tubby and Muddy.  It seems like Samsung has designed it to emphasize low frequencies at the cost of decent high frequency response and loss of crispness.
 
As a first step I looked into rooting the phone and changing the audio drivers to something with more customizability than the crappy 5 band EQ android came with.  Even PowerAmp was having difficulty wrangling the phone in.  Eventually I found a sound driver called V4A, or ViPER4Android.  V4A helped greatly but still left me feeling like the 535's were really being held back by the phones dinky internal amplifier.
 
So I guess my question is this:  What would be the best mid-priced USB DAC that could really get my IEMs performing at their best?  The phone is already rooted to software isn't too much of an issue as size and portability are.
 
Hope this wasn't too pompous sounding but I'm terrible at introductions in case you didn't notice.
 
Thanks!
 
Jun 10, 2013 at 11:22 PM Post #2 of 13
Quote:
biglightbt said:
Uhm...Hello I guess?  All akwardness aside I'm here looking for some expert advice on DAC's.  I'm relatively new to the whole audiophile world but have a little bit of experience with terms and have some general knowledge about audio.  I currently have a Samsung Galaxy S4, the I-545 version on Verizon.  My headphones of choice have been Shure SE535s which I'm rather fond of.  Using some terms from that ever helpful automatic "Welcome" message I guess you could describe the unmodified output of the thing rather Veiled, Tubby and Muddy.  It seems like Samsung has designed it to emphasize low frequencies at the cost of decent high frequency response and loss of crispness.
 
As a first step I looked into rooting the phone and changing the audio drivers to something with more customizability than the crappy 5 band EQ android came with.  Even PowerAmp was having difficulty wrangling the phone in.  Eventually I found a sound driver called V4A, or ViPER4Android.  V4A helped greatly but still left me feeling like the 535's were really being held back by the phones dinky internal amplifier.
 
So I guess my question is this:  What would be the best mid-priced USB DAC that could really get my IEMs performing at their best?  The phone is already rooted to software isn't too much of an issue as size and portability are.
 
Hope this wasn't too pompous sounding but I'm terrible at introductions in case you didn't notice.
 
Thanks!
Click to expand...

Wonder what you mean by mid price. Anyways, only limited amount of DAC works with android(there is a tread on that). My recommendation goes to E17(dac/amp) and O2(dac only).
 
Jun 10, 2013 at 11:29 PM Post #4 of 13
Mid priced I guess would be 100-250$.  I know there aren't that many DACs that work with android, I did some poking around on here before I joined and found mention of both the E17 and upcoming E18.  Although if you really think the 535's won't perform better with a better audio source what would you recomend?  I guess if I was going to go all the way with a new set of IEM's 500-600$ would be the price range I would be looking for.  And here I was thinking the 535s were some high end stuff lol, I knew there was better stuff out there but I had always thought they were pretty good. Guess I really am a noob.
 
Jun 10, 2013 at 11:39 PM Post #5 of 13
Quote:
biglightbt said:
Mid priced I guess would be 100-250$.  I know there aren't that many DACs that work with android, I did some poking around on here before I joined and found mention of both the E17 and upcoming E18.  Although if you really think the 535's won't perform better with a better audio source what would you recomend?  I guess if I was going to go all the way with a new set of IEM's 500-600$ would be the price range I would be looking for.  And here I was thinking the 535s were some high end stuff lol, I knew there was better stuff out there but I had always thought they were pretty good. Guess I really am a noob.
Click to expand...

Do you like SE535's sound sig? Than you might like Ortofon iems. But for a higher end iem, I recommend W4. I had a chance to try them yesterday, and was awed by it's clarity and detail.
 
Jun 11, 2013 at 12:09 AM Post #6 of 13
Well thats part of the problem.  Now that I have a GS4 I'm not entirely sure I like the sound sig of the 535's.  When I was using my Razr Maxx they sounded great, even better with the addition of a altoids can CMOY.   On the GS4 though they seem to respond well to equalizer changes and seem to almost sound like whatever you want them to so its hard to tell really, but I can never quite get the boomyness of the bass to go away on the GS4.  Thats why I thought a DAC might be a good solution since the device change seemed to have been 90% of the problem.  Preference wise the only other thing I have that I can compare to reliably are my fathers old Bose 10.2 tower speakers.  They do sound just a bit warm for my tastes but they are damn close to what I would love to have.  In case it makes a difference the Bose speakers are being driven by a Sony STR-GX59ES.
 
You're gonna need to tell me if that Bose/Sony setup is any good though, I'm way too green to make and brand quality/loyalty claims 
rolleyes.gif

 
Jun 11, 2013 at 12:13 AM Post #7 of 13
Quote:
biglightbt said:
Well thats part of the problem.  Now that I have a GS4 I'm not entirely sure I like the sound sig of the 535's.  When I was using my Razr Maxx they sounded great, even better with the addition of a altoids can CMOY.   On the GS4 though they seem to respond well to equalizer changes and seem to almost sound like whatever you want them to so its hard to tell really, but I can never quite get the boomyness of the bass to go away on the GS4.  Thats why I thought a DAC might be a good solution since the device change seemed to have been 90% of the problem.  Preference wise the only other thing I have that I can compare to reliably are my fathers old Bose 10.2 tower speakers.  They do sound just a bit warm for my tastes but they are damn close to what I would love to have.  In case it makes a difference the Bose speakers are being driven by a Sony STR-GX59ES.
 
You're gonna need to tell me if that Bose/Sony setup is any good though, I'm way too green to make and brand quality/loyalty claims 
rolleyes.gif
Click to expand...

I have no idea about speakers at all. But anyways, have you tried EQing the bass down a bit? After all, SE535 isn't a bassy iem. If you are looking for less bass, you might have to look at things like F111.
 
Jun 11, 2013 at 12:31 AM Post #8 of 13
That's kinda what I assumed I needed to do, it really did seem like most of the bass was being introduced in the phone and not the IEMs.  The 535's have never had any problems with uncontrollable bass before.  So perhaps a better question would be this:  What changes to the EQ will produce what effects?  Like what would I reduce to get the bass more punchy and less muffled or add to make vocals come out more without getting tinny?  I guess what I'm asking is what frequency corresponds to each part of the sound as a whole.  
 
Jun 11, 2013 at 12:43 AM Post #9 of 13
Quote:
biglightbt said:
That's kinda what I assumed I needed to do, it really did seem like most of the bass was being introduced in the phone and not the IEMs.  The 535's have never had any problems with uncontrollable bass before.  So perhaps a better question would be this:  What changes to the EQ will produce what effects?  Like what would I reduce to get the bass more punchy and less muffled or add to make vocals come out more without getting tinny?  I guess what I'm asking is what frequency corresponds to each part of the sound as a whole.  
Click to expand...

Can you tell me what frequencies the music player allows you to change?
 
Jun 11, 2013 at 1:02 AM Post #10 of 13
Well, with the addition of the modified sound drivers the possiblities are nearly endless. PowerAmp's application based EQ has 31, 62, 125, 250, 500, 1k, 2k, 4k, 8k, and 16k bands.  V4A has 27, 55, 109, 219, 438, 875, 2k, 4k, 7k, and 14k bands.  Problem is that overuse of the V4A EQ seems to introduce a lot of processing hiss into the audio, but at the same time PowerAmps EQ seems to not have as great an effect on the audio.
 
Jun 11, 2013 at 1:14 AM Post #11 of 13
Quote:
biglightbt said:
Well, with the addition of the modified sound drivers the possiblities are nearly endless. PowerAmp's application based EQ has 31, 62, 125, 250, 500, 1k, 2k, 4k, 8k, and 16k bands.  V4A has 27, 55, 109, 219, 438, 875, 2k, 4k, 7k, and 14k bands.  Problem is that overuse of the V4A EQ seems to introduce a lot of processing hiss into the audio, but at the same time PowerAmps EQ seems to not have as great an effect on the audio.
Click to expand...

I would decrease nothing under 50, and above 1k. Just bring down 62(a bit), 125, 250, 500(a bit) on power amp and see how it goes.
 
Jun 11, 2013 at 2:19 AM Post #12 of 13
I'l give it a crack.  So far all I've been trying was boosting the 4-14kHz range without decreasing anything else.  That could be the root of my problem.
 
So instead of just ploping down here and asking for help you think I should actually, you know, introduce myself or something?
 
Jun 11, 2013 at 3:18 AM Post #13 of 13
Quote:
biglightbt said:
I'l give it a crack.  So far all I've been trying was boosting the 4-14kHz range without decreasing anything else.  That could be the root of my problem.
 
So instead of just ploping down here and asking for help you think I should actually, you know, introduce myself or something?
Click to expand...

Boost decrease the SQ noticeably. I always decrease. Well, I don't really see why you would have to introduce yourself. Maybe update your community profile(the info we since when we click on your name)?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 2 (members: 0, guests: 2)
Back
Top