LikeGoodAudio
New Head-Fier
- Joined
- Jun 6, 2013
- Posts
- 11
- Likes
- 0
Trying to get a sense of what kind of sound improvements I might achieve over my iPhone or iMac by getting a separate DA converter and/or amp. I tried the following test and wondered if it is a good way of establishing comparable sonic improvement you can get with a DA/Amp, or if I'm expecting too much out of a headphone amp.
Grado SR80i headphones
CD: The Police, Zenyatta Mondatta
A: CD played on a Panasonic blu-ray player connected via HDMI to a Integra DHC 9.9 with the specs below, using the Stereo listening mode
B: CD played on an iMac with i5 processor
C: CD ripped to iPhone 4 in lossless format
B&C were similar. A was significantly better than B or C: More relaxed sound, better depth and separation of sounds, and overall easier on the ears.
I was wondering if the sound improvements I experienced with A could be achieved with a dedicated headphone amp or DA connected to the iMac or iPhone. How much might I have to spend to get similar sound quality? Would any of the Fiio products get me there?
Integra DHC-9.9 selected specs
http://filedepot.onkyousa.com/Files/own_manuals/SN_29344765A_DHC-9.9_En_web.pdf?CFID=2603656&CFTOKEN=87344043&jsessionid=f0303c409b5a1abe8fc91d455942557c3c4b
• THX Ultra2 Plus*3 Certified
• Burr-Brown 192 kHz/24-bit D/A Converters
• Three-TI (Aureus) 32-Bit DSP Chips
• Neural Surround*4, THX-Neural
• Theater-Dimensional*5 virtual surround sound
• DSD Direct
• Re-EQ*6 function
THANK YOU!!!
Grado SR80i headphones
CD: The Police, Zenyatta Mondatta
A: CD played on a Panasonic blu-ray player connected via HDMI to a Integra DHC 9.9 with the specs below, using the Stereo listening mode
B: CD played on an iMac with i5 processor
C: CD ripped to iPhone 4 in lossless format
B&C were similar. A was significantly better than B or C: More relaxed sound, better depth and separation of sounds, and overall easier on the ears.
I was wondering if the sound improvements I experienced with A could be achieved with a dedicated headphone amp or DA connected to the iMac or iPhone. How much might I have to spend to get similar sound quality? Would any of the Fiio products get me there?
Integra DHC-9.9 selected specs
http://filedepot.onkyousa.com/Files/own_manuals/SN_29344765A_DHC-9.9_En_web.pdf?CFID=2603656&CFTOKEN=87344043&jsessionid=f0303c409b5a1abe8fc91d455942557c3c4b
• THX Ultra2 Plus*3 Certified
• Burr-Brown 192 kHz/24-bit D/A Converters
• Three-TI (Aureus) 32-Bit DSP Chips
• Neural Surround*4, THX-Neural
• Theater-Dimensional*5 virtual surround sound
• DSD Direct
• Re-EQ*6 function
THANK YOU!!!