mathesar
New Head-Fier
I recently bought a Douk U3 Mini headphone amp from Amazon, was only $30 with decent reviews so figured i'd give it a shot, My trusty 15 yr old Go-Vibe v4 amp needs repair due to broken DC port(center pin came out).
The Douk comes with a USB power cord to supply power but some reviews mention you should use a higher volt DC adapter for better sound quality?
I currently have 3 ways to power it but not sure which is ideal: USB cable it comes with which would be 5V, I also have the SPC9707 12V 400mA Regulated power brick from my GoVibe V4 and a GPE603-140400W 14V 4,000mA Switching mode power brick but haven't tried this one yet.
The Douk manual says it accepts "5 - 20V" DC input but doesn't mention anything about amp ratings etc.
headphone amp is being used on PC if that helps
Any ideas appreciated! (couple photos attached)
EDIT: I figured everything out just needed to do more googlin' the14V GPE 12V SPC9707 adapter is working great actually surprised how good this amp sounds but will have to try other op amps since it has a pluggable socket.
UPDATE: After a more careful comparison I now realize the 14V GPE switching adapter was not the right call, with the amp powered on and no audio playing there was a subtle but noticeable hiss and when comparing the same movie scene & music several times also realized the switching adapter had slightly reduced highs so things were more muffled on the upper end, so the 12V SPC9707 Regulated adapter is superior in this application, also there's zero hiss with no audio playing.
I shouldn't of questioned it in the first place considering the SPC regulated adapter was recommended by the person who built & sold me the Go Vibe v4 I believe his username was tigger on this forum also known as Norm but looks like he hasn't been active for a long time.
Also I recently bought a Muses8920D op amp from digikey and installed it yesterday, this opamp sounds great and was a definite upgrade over the stock NE5532, sound stage is probably the biggest improvement with the 8920.
anyhow I just wanted to update in case anyone happens to stumble upon this thread in the future lol.
8920 op amp installed & digikey part# info, wasn't sure if barcode revealed any personal info so marked it out but guessing its just product info.
The Douk comes with a USB power cord to supply power but some reviews mention you should use a higher volt DC adapter for better sound quality?
I currently have 3 ways to power it but not sure which is ideal: USB cable it comes with which would be 5V, I also have the SPC9707 12V 400mA Regulated power brick from my GoVibe V4 and a GPE603-140400W 14V 4,000mA Switching mode power brick but haven't tried this one yet.
The Douk manual says it accepts "5 - 20V" DC input but doesn't mention anything about amp ratings etc.
headphone amp is being used on PC if that helps
Any ideas appreciated! (couple photos attached)
EDIT: I figured everything out just needed to do more googlin' the
UPDATE: After a more careful comparison I now realize the 14V GPE switching adapter was not the right call, with the amp powered on and no audio playing there was a subtle but noticeable hiss and when comparing the same movie scene & music several times also realized the switching adapter had slightly reduced highs so things were more muffled on the upper end, so the 12V SPC9707 Regulated adapter is superior in this application, also there's zero hiss with no audio playing.
I shouldn't of questioned it in the first place considering the SPC regulated adapter was recommended by the person who built & sold me the Go Vibe v4 I believe his username was tigger on this forum also known as Norm but looks like he hasn't been active for a long time.
Also I recently bought a Muses8920D op amp from digikey and installed it yesterday, this opamp sounds great and was a definite upgrade over the stock NE5532, sound stage is probably the biggest improvement with the 8920.
anyhow I just wanted to update in case anyone happens to stumble upon this thread in the future lol.
8920 op amp installed & digikey part# info, wasn't sure if barcode revealed any personal info so marked it out but guessing its just product info.
Last edited: