FidelityFreak
New Head-Fier
- Joined
- Jul 19, 2009
- Posts
- 37
- Likes
- 1
Hi all
Firstly I was on this forum many years ago when I purchased my first ever FiiO E18 DAC which I then used with my iPod Touch when it had a 3.5mm headphone jack as it was well known the internal DAC's in these were pretty average at the time (Cirrus Logic). My headphones back then were the Sennheiser IE 80's (non-wireless), so that was my starting point. That device is still working and even powered the Sennheiser HD 25 II (Adidas Edition) and the Momentum 3's (I was a Sennheiser product tester back then). Now in 2023 I have decided to return to high end portable audio because in all honesty it appears headphone wise not much has changed, except features being pulled, and pot luck at codecs as each brand their own versions. In my mind all headphone brands should support all audio codecs. My current full size headphone selection is as follows:-
1. Apple AirPods Max
2. Sennheiser Momentum 4 Wireless
3. Focal Bathys
4. Focal Celestee (few weeks).
My current primary music device is the new iPhone 15 Pro Max which I use to listen to Apple Music / Tidal / etc and it seems to do a flawless job however as with Apple they only support a small variety of codecs, and finding Hi Res audio is a bit of hit and miss due to the way the search system works - You have to hunt for them. The audio quality from Apple has been very impressive so far but I do feel the Apple hardware maybe the limiting factor. So today out of the blue I purchased a brand new FiiO M11 Plus ESS Portable High-Resolution Audio Player for around AU$1,000 on special and this will be my first ever DAP / DAC combo. Therefore this is all new to me - hardware / software / features / applications, etc. My full size headphones do support 3.5mm (except for the Apple AirPods Max) so looking forward to hearing the other headphones at their best via bypassing the Apple hardware and hearing the difference, however bluetooth is also fine as well. I imagine this will be a bit of an upgrade over the FiiO E18.
Therefore I will need some guidance no doubt to enjoy this new hardware with my headphones in regards to software setup / features / functions etc - its going to be a learning curve I assume, however I do believe it will be worth the effort.
Firstly I was on this forum many years ago when I purchased my first ever FiiO E18 DAC which I then used with my iPod Touch when it had a 3.5mm headphone jack as it was well known the internal DAC's in these were pretty average at the time (Cirrus Logic). My headphones back then were the Sennheiser IE 80's (non-wireless), so that was my starting point. That device is still working and even powered the Sennheiser HD 25 II (Adidas Edition) and the Momentum 3's (I was a Sennheiser product tester back then). Now in 2023 I have decided to return to high end portable audio because in all honesty it appears headphone wise not much has changed, except features being pulled, and pot luck at codecs as each brand their own versions. In my mind all headphone brands should support all audio codecs. My current full size headphone selection is as follows:-
1. Apple AirPods Max
2. Sennheiser Momentum 4 Wireless
3. Focal Bathys
4. Focal Celestee (few weeks).
My current primary music device is the new iPhone 15 Pro Max which I use to listen to Apple Music / Tidal / etc and it seems to do a flawless job however as with Apple they only support a small variety of codecs, and finding Hi Res audio is a bit of hit and miss due to the way the search system works - You have to hunt for them. The audio quality from Apple has been very impressive so far but I do feel the Apple hardware maybe the limiting factor. So today out of the blue I purchased a brand new FiiO M11 Plus ESS Portable High-Resolution Audio Player for around AU$1,000 on special and this will be my first ever DAP / DAC combo. Therefore this is all new to me - hardware / software / features / applications, etc. My full size headphones do support 3.5mm (except for the Apple AirPods Max) so looking forward to hearing the other headphones at their best via bypassing the Apple hardware and hearing the difference, however bluetooth is also fine as well. I imagine this will be a bit of an upgrade over the FiiO E18.
Therefore I will need some guidance no doubt to enjoy this new hardware with my headphones in regards to software setup / features / functions etc - its going to be a learning curve I assume, however I do believe it will be worth the effort.
