[Sylverant]

Quote:

My ultimate portable rig is the one I have, HTC DNA -> UERM. Done. No need for portable amps and all that. Far too much bulk and you are constantly battling road/travel noise so why bother trying to get those last few %.

I always worry about output impedances on smartphones, since they usually average from 10 to 30Ohms and do weird things with ba iems. Samsung's been a lot better about this lately though, with their phones all having around 4Ohm's impedance, which I find to be just fine for dynamic in ears.

If the DNA really sounds balanced enough in presentation and extension for your UERM, then I might have to go give the Verizon DNA a try with my Klipsch Custom 3 and see whats up.

Edit:
Lately I've been considering a smartphone, but only for this cool little gadget:

Otherwise I'm not particulalry interested in being connected 24/7...but finally, 21st century management!

 

[Maxvla]

There's apparently a dedicated headphone amp in the DNA, and compared to all the other smart phones I've ever heard, this is by far the best. Coincedence? Maybe. I'm usually not one to believe in 'dedicated headphone amps' when the manufacturer is mostly interested in anything but sound quality.

For comedy, I've always wondered what my HD800 sounds like from my phone, but never wanted to bother swapping my balanced cable out. Right now my balanced cable is being repaired so I'm on my stock cable. 1/8 adapter and now I'm plugged in. Honestly... it's noooot bad, LOL. Bass is boomier and not as extended (and highs) as expected, but mids and sense of space is mostly intact. It still sounds like an HD800, smooth and clean. This phone makes my UERM really sing, almost as good as my BHA-1 with balanced IEM cable.

 

[Sylverant]

Good to hear that though. When a smartphone can sound nice with an expensive custom ba you know things are changing.

For now I just want my ba's to sound great; to have decent clarity and show me the whole picture. It's sad that I'm not getting even that, so I can reach for the sky later.

I used to own a Fuze v1 8gb, which I loved for the justice it did to my Custom 3's, due it its great synergy with it. I later sold it after getting the Nano 6G, thinking the sound was better, to realize that the better clarity/imaging came at the expense of bass extension/soundstage and didn't satisfy me like the balance of the Fuze did.

So I recently bought a Clip+, which will be used exclusively in rockbox for the extra battery life and pitch correction. Hopefully the tiny bit of extra warmth/note thickness won't hurt the synergy for me.

 

[Maxvla]

Currently listening to some Streetlight Manifesto (ska) on my phone/HD800 and it's making me tap my foot and really get into it. Got a bit of a silly grin on my face atm.

 

[ardgedee]

My ultimate portable rig is the one I have, HTC DNA -> UERM. Done. No need for portable amps and all that. Far too much bulk and you are constantly battling road/travel noise so why bother trying to get those last few %.

I agree, mostly -- my travel rig is minimal compared to my office rig: iPod -> amp -> earphones, plus ancillaries (cleaning equipment, charger, etc.).

I have a lot of difficulty with the iPod's digital volume control (and other DAPs, for that matter): I tend to listen at low enough volumes to hear amp noise, and the volume control is not granular enough at low volumes to provide the control I need (my comfortable listening range tends to be in the lowest three or four steps, which are silence, a little too quiet, a little too loud, and TOO EFFING LOUD). So the external amp is there, among other reasons, for the ability to listen at lower volumes, not higher volumes.

My office rig is a case with all my portable equipment because there's no added inconvenience to do that rather than carry a minimal system: There's room in the bag, it's a short walk from the car to the office, so why not?

 

[MuppetFace]

Personally, I would never want a smart phone as my portable music player. Too much stuff going on, like incoming calls and texts and... really, the less non-music related stuff my music player does the better. But that's just me.
 
My current portable rig is the one I listed earlier:
 
Sony F806 --> UHA-6S --> FitEar TG 334 (or whatever else I use)
 
Edit:
 
Thinking about picking up the BTG Sunrise cable for the FitEars. Kinda curious about playing around with a new cable.

 

[jgray91]

All of you guys makes me want to just finish this off with just a "summit-fi" portable rig and be done with it!

​

Also with what maxvla said about his HTC DNA -> HD800, I'm wondering what would be the characteristic of non-synergy for the HD800? Not that it will help that i haven't tried it at all even once, but I'm still curious.

 

[driver 8]

Really harsh.  Weird imaging*.  "No bass." "I like my Beyer T1's way more."
 
* Maybe I should elaborate on this: Due to the driver placement (I assume) the HD800's don't have the most cohesive imaging I've ever heard, but it's quite good with a nice setup.  With a bad setup mine sounded large but very thin and there was a lot of unused space.

 

[eke2k6]

Quote:

Lol, the devil's in the detail! 

  Congrats on your bargain buy!
 
 

 
Lol! That's me begging myself to not procrastinate...
 
Thanks!

 

[jgray91]

Lol! That's me begging myself to not procrastinate...

Thanks!

I have a T-shirt that says "STOP PROCRASTINATING" but I don't live in a house of mirrors, so I don't think it's working that well.

Soooo jelly of your bargain DT880. Out of the three beyer I've heard so far (T1, DT1350, and the DT880 pro) the 880 pro is the best one I've heard.

 

[eke2k6]

Quote:

I have a T-shirt that says "STOP PROCRASTINATING" but I don't live in a house of mirrors, so I don't think it's working that well.
 

 
Ha. I have one that says "I put the pro in procrastinate"

 

[MuppetFace]

A poorly driven HD800 to me sounds flat and lifeless. Like cardboard.
 
Also in some cases the extremities aren't properly controlled: lows lack impact and sound anemic, highs are too edgy. Some people pair it with a really woolly tube amp to try to compensate, and while this can counteract (read: muffle) the highs somewhat, ultimate I feel this solution isn't satisfactory for me personally.
 
Trying to think of the best way to articulate my thoughts on the matter...
 
For me, the ideal match for the HD800 is a powerful and more transparent amp. That may seem counter-intuitive to some, but I look at it this way: the ideal amp for the HD800 is one that helps it realize its potential by providing the right conditions and then not interfering too much once it gets there. That's why I prefer to think of amps as working with a transducer like the HD800 rather than outright controlling it, though there is something to the idea of an amp's being able to exert power. What it does with that power however is key. Amps with very distinct colorations (yes, I think amps sound different from one another---sometimes markedly so) can be hit or miss, though synergy isn't just about matching flavors. I'm increasingly convinced that a lot of synergy has to do with how much the components in question fight one another. Balance is good, but if the transducer has to be steamrollered over to achieve it, the results are generally not good to my ears. Alternatively an amp that can't provide the right conditions for a transducer, one that is too restrained, isn't effective either.

 

[drez]

Hmm so maybe speaker amp with lowered gain might be good with HD800 as well as HE6? I'm also undecided whether to keep my preamp or buy an integrated power amp to save moneys. Added to that I've heard some people criticising relay based volume control, which my pre uses, in which case it might be better to buy a power amp rather than integrated so I can ditch my pre later. So confusing.

 

[ardgedee]

I thought the HD 800 worked great through the Violectric HPA100. It's a good, clear, resolving amp but no real powerhouse by current standards (It's also versatile: I've used it happily for everything from IEMs through the HE-6). It might be a good option if you haven't got the budget for a tube amp that complements the HD 800 adequately.

 

[MuppetFace]

Sorry, to clarify, by powerful I wasn't referring to something like a speaker amp (though there's nothing necessarily wrong with using a speaker amp). Personally I don't think the HE-6 even needs a speaker amp. Driving headphones to the right volume, even those like the K1000, is sort of a non-issue for me. What's more important is how well the amp "holds on" so to speak. Power is probably not the best word to use. Control isn't exactly good either, because it's implying the amp is dictating more of the sound than it should.
 
Trying to think of a better way of phrasing it...