[AbsolutZeroGI]

I've been moving around this forum a lot over the last few weeks. As you can see, I'm still fairly new at this. My initial began with headphones that don't require an amp because I like moving around my house with my headphones (doing dishes, doing stuff in my garage, folding laundry in the bedroom, etc). Unfortunately, I burned through all of those without being happy with how they sound. The K7xx were close, but still need an amp to get bass out of them. The Fidelio X2s were above average, but I hated the treble response (super sensitive to treble)

So I ended up picking up an HD650. I've been powering it on my Xonar DGX soundcard and my LG V20 for a week now. They've been playing music constantly since I got them to help expedite any burn in that needs to occur. They seem to have loosened up a bit...or I'm just getting used to the sound. Who cares which, they sound better now than they did on day 1.

However, even with a phone with a built-in amp and the sound card, these cans don't sound quite...right to me. Male vocals and instruments that are in that same frequency range sound blown out. Not "grating", "unpleasant", etc. They sound like they're too loud for the driver to handle, even at lower volumes. Like the headphone drivers don't have the agility to render that audio into my ear holes. Reading up, that's supposedly a telltale sign that these puppies aren't getting enough power. I'll listen to Pink Floyd's Comfortably Numb from their Pulse live album (an excellently mastered live recording), and I'll crank up the volume. The lower mids and bass go up, the upper mids stay the same volume. It's frustrating. There's no way this is the "legendary sound" everyone talks about. The problem has to be my set up.

Two examples are the songs "Separate Ways" by Journey. Steve Perry's voice sounds abysmal in the HD650s. Like he yelled too loud into the mic and clipped the audio. Additionally, the track "Beneath the Hollow Moon" from the Bravely Default soundtrack. There's a nice flute/violin duet melody. It sounds like the headphones have trouble processing both instruments. On long note holds on the flute, it gets that same "it sounds like they recorded it too loud" sound that Steve Perry's voice gets.

So, it's time to start diving into the amp rabbit hole. I have a loose grasp on the basics. I need something that puts enough mW into 300 ohm, otherwise I'm maxing out the amp and making them sound worse. Too bad like 50% of all the portable amps on Amazon don't list that info (800mW at 32 ohm? Great, where's the equation to scale that up to 300?). The most powerful I've found in my price range so far is the FiiO E12 Mont Blanc (850mW at 32 ohm) following by the FiiO A5 at 800mW. I can't find anything higher than that and I don't know if that's even powerful enough. It seems like it should be, but I just don't know. I'm not too concerned with "it'll sound warmer" or "it'll sound colder"...I'm looking for "the upper mids don't sound garbled and distorted anymore" lol.

My budget is under $200. My sources are 320kbps (or highest quality VBR) on my personal collection, "up to 320kbps" on Google Play (I have "always high quality" enabled). I appreciate the help. If I still hear the distortion with a proper portable amp, then I'll probably just end up returning the whole set up and try again lol.

fwiw, I did search the forums, Google, etc for this question. Usually the answers gravitate around "well you either have to buy an amp that plugs into a wall or sell your headphones"...if that's the case, at least I still have 21 days to return the headphones. I just wanted to know if anyone actually used portable amps for headphones like this that also don't cost more than the headphones themselves do.

 

[cossix]

Other than the iDSD and Chord Mojo, I've never hear of a portable amp doing the 650 justice. Maybe FiiO A5? I use that with the Momentum 2 but I've honestly never tried it with the 650. Do you absolutely need portable? Magni 2 or O2 is considered the cheapest amp that should be used with the 650 and does pretty well

 

[buke9]

Forget the Mojo as it is out of budget and not very good at all with the 650's. Haven't tried the E-12 or A-5 with them but they should run them fine . The the A-5 is the successor to the E-12 with the noise floor of the E-12a. The 650's are very good headphones but I have not heard them sound good from a portable yet. Doesn't mean they can't just haven't heard it. If you do decide to return them I suggest you look at the HE-400S sort of the same sound profile but much easier to drive. YMMV as always.

 

[AbsolutZeroGI]

Other than the iDSD and Chord Mojo, I've never hear of a portable amp doing the 650 justice. Maybe FiiO A5? I use that with the Momentum 2 but I've honestly never tried it with the 650. Do you absolutely need portable? Magni 2 or O2 is considered the cheapest amp that should be used with the 650 and does pretty well

Yes, I absolutely need portable. I use headphones in way too many rooms of my house far too often to just sit in one spot. If I didn't need portable, I'd have a Shiit Stack or the O2/ODAC and be done with it lol. I have considered that I may need to return these and look around yet again for a decent sounding pair of headphones for under $400 and this time pay attention to power requirements too (the 400S recommended by buke9 may literally be the last option left that I haven't tried that I would want to try). It's just frustrating that with dozens of amp (or dac/amp combos) out there, that there isn't freaking one that HD6xx owners can use.

Forget the Mojo as it is out of budget and not very good at all with the 650's. Haven't tried the E-12 or A-5 with them but they should run them fine . The the A-5 is the successor to the E-12 with the noise floor of the E-12a. The 650's are very good headphones but I have not heard them sound good from a portable yet. Doesn't mean they can't just haven't heard it. If you do decide to return them I suggest you look at the HE-400S sort of the same sound profile but much easier to drive. YMMV as always.

I haven't tried the A5 or the E12 yet, but those are the two most powerful I've found in the sub $200 range (and the A5 is cheaper these days because the E12 isn't sold anymore). The A5 is 800mW at 32 ohm (according to this link, it does 150mW at 300 ohm, whatever that means) and the E12 does 190mW at 300ohm (same link). The thing is is that I have no idea if that's good enough because I literally never see anyone recommend any sub $200 for the HD650. I mean...they can't all suck can they?

*Edit*
To hell with it, ordered the A5 on Amazon. Should be here by Tuesday. If this doesn't work, I guess the HD650s and I just weren't meant to be.

 

[god-bluff]

The Graham Slee Voyager drives my HD600 beautifully as it has with my other higher impedance headphones.

It excels with those more than lower impedance. Superior to a Mojo, which works better with lower impedance phones IMO, with my Beyer DT150 and 990s in fact. Just more engaging and fuller more authoritive in sound somehow. Should be good for HD650 I think

It's nearly £200 though but I paid a third of that some years ago used on eBay and they come up for sale sub £100 regularly

I don't know about in the US though.

Ugly black box but built to last a lifetime with battery life measured in months not hours

 

[serman005]

Yes, I absolutely need portable. I use headphones in way too many rooms of my house far too often to just sit in one spot. If I didn't need portable, I'd have a Shiit Stack or the O2/ODAC and be done with it lol. I have considered that I may need to return these and look around yet again for a decent sounding pair of headphones for under $400 and this time pay attention to power requirements too (the 400S recommended by buke9 may literally be the last option left that I haven't tried that I would want to try). It's just frustrating that with dozens of amp (or dac/amp combos) out there, that there isn't freaking one that HD6xx owners can use.



I haven't tried the A5 or the E12 yet, but those are the two most powerful I've found in the sub $200 range (and the A5 is cheaper these days because the E12 isn't sold anymore). The A5 is 800mW at 32 ohm (according to this link, it does 150mW at 300 ohm, whatever that means) and the E12 does 190mW at 300ohm (same link). The thing is is that I have no idea if that's good enough because I literally never see anyone recommend any sub $200 for the HD650. I mean...they can't all suck can they?

*Edit*
To hell with it, ordered the A5 on Amazon. Should be here by Tuesday. If this doesn't work, I guess the HD650s and I just weren't meant to be.

Let us know how it works out for you.

 

[AbsolutZeroGI]

The Graham Slee Voyager drives my HD600 beautifully as it has with my other higher impedance headphones.

It excels with those more than lower impedance. Superior to a Mojo, which works better with lower impedance phones IMO, with my Beyer DT150 and 990s in fact. Just more engaging and fuller more authoritive in sound somehow. Should be good for HD650 I think

It's nearly £200 though but I paid a third of that some years ago used on eBay and they come up for sale sub £100 regularly

I don't know about in the US though.

Ugly black box but built to last a lifetime with battery life measured in months not hours

The prices seem to vary wildly here in the US. One person has a bit starting today at $105 with a "buy it now" of $195US. There are "buy it now" ones for $253US. Slim pickings here in the States I guess. They're both sold in the UK (the shipping charges are in GBP lol, but hey it's international!) so that must be an "across the ocean" thing.

Let us know how it works out for you.

I most certainly will. Someone has to care about the HD650 peeps who want to actually get up and walk around!

 

[buke9]

I feel your pain on this but most open backed headphones were not meant to be portable hence the lack of portable options.

 

[AbsolutZeroGI]

I feel your pain on this but most open backed headphones were not meant to be portable hence the lack of portable options.

No one thought someone would want to walk into another room with open back headphones?

I understand not having features for travel and whatnot. I don't need collapsing headphones and a travel case, but being chained to one spot feels like an unreasonable compromise to me.

 

[serman005]

You may be surprised--the A5 may work terrifically. ---)

 

[ProtegeManiac]

Is there actually a decent portable amp for the HD650 (under $200)?

There are a lot of decent enough portable amps out there. I use the Ibasso D-Zero as a back up for my HD600, and that has a hair lower sensitivity. If you want it to be a bit better than that, try the Ibasso D14 (has USB input) or PB3 (only has analogue input). Since you'll use a smartphone, I'd try if the D14 works via USB with it.

I've been moving around this forum a lot over the last few weeks. As you can see, I'm still fairly new at this. My initial began with headphones that don't require an amp because I like moving around my house with my headphones (doing dishes, doing stuff in my garage, folding laundry in the bedroom, etc). Unfortunately, I burned through all of those without being happy with how they sound. The K7xx were close, but still need an amp to get bass out of them. The Fidelio X2s were above average, but I hated the treble response (super sensitive to treble)

I'd be more concerned about snagging the cable or how whatever you're doing will raise the noise floor than the quality of the amp. For one, even if the amp can go louder with less distortion, it's not like covering the noise floor - stuff in the garage, clanging iron, silverware, and porcelain plus rushing water - means it's totally not getting in the way of listening. Even your attention span is divided.

I'd just use the HD600 with the V20, or get an IEM for when you're working around the house. I have two - one that's the real beater because I don't want to start shaking my wok or searing on my skillet and have the IEM shell and cable exposed to airborne oil smoke. When I cook at the table I just use a BT speaker.

However, even with a phone with a built-in amp and the sound card, these cans don't sound quite...right to me. Male vocals and instruments that are in that same frequency range sound blown out. Not "grating", "unpleasant", etc. They sound like they're too loud for the driver to handle, even at lower volumes. Like the headphone drivers don't have the agility to render that audio into my ear holes. Reading up, that's supposedly a telltale sign that these puppies aren't getting enough power.

Phones do have a built-in amp, what most phones don't have is a dedicated amplifier chip (let alone a bank of relatively fat caps for it). Some Chinese phones have that but they don't have FCC certification or some other problem, but basically they took a cue from the circuit design of the S:Flo2, this old DAP that had really nice hardware (dedicated DAC chip, output stage, and headphone driver chips - basically, imagine the circuit of a Marantz CDP in something that's kind of like an iPod Touch) but failed in usability.

AFAIK the ESS9218 in the V20 is also an integrated chip, meaning it's basically a DAC with an amp chip integrated into the die, except in this case this is a DAC capable of a lot of audio formats without having to downsample high res into 16/44.1, while the amp side of the chip can go up to 2volts cleaner output (where other such chips would have a lot more noise and distortion). Think of it like APus. Other integrated chips on most other devices are more like an i3 with the Intel HD4000 graphics chip, the Galaxy Note has an AMD A8 with something like the R7 265M chip, and the V20 is more like the upcoming AMD APUs with Ryzen CPUs and Polaris GPUs in one die, but in the end it's nothing like an a Ryzen 7 1700 and RX 580.

In any case, one reason why you'd even need more power is because of the higher noise floor while you're working around the house, and you're pushing that chip with a 300ohm load.

I'll listen to Pink Floyd's Comfortably Numb from their Pulse live album (an excellently mastered live recording), and I'll crank up the volume. The lower mids and bass go up, the upper mids stay the same volume. It's frustrating. There's no way this is the "legendary sound" everyone talks about. The problem has to be my set up.

Two examples are the songs "Separate Ways" by Journey. Steve Perry's voice sounds abysmal in the HD650s. Like he yelled too loud into the mic and clipped the audio. Additionally, the track "Beneath the Hollow Moon" from the Bravely Default soundtrack. There's a nice flute/violin duet melody. It sounds like the headphones have trouble processing both instruments. On long note holds on the flute, it gets that same "it sounds like they recorded it too loud" sound that Steve Perry's voice gets.

So, it's time to start diving into the amp rabbit hole. I have a loose grasp on the basics. I need something that puts enough mW into 300 ohm, otherwise I'm maxing out the amp and making them sound worse. Too bad like 50% of all the portable amps on Amazon don't list that info (800mW at 32 ohm? Great, where's the equation to scale that up to 300?). The most powerful I've found in my price range so far is the FiiO E12 Mont Blanc (850mW at 32 ohm) following by the FiiO A5 at 800mW. I can't find anything higher than that and I don't know if that's even powerful enough. It seems like it should be, but I just don't know. I'm not too concerned with "it'll sound warmer" or "it'll sound colder"...I'm looking for "the upper mids don't sound garbled and distorted anymore" lol.

My budget is under $200. My sources are 320kbps (or highest quality VBR) on my personal collection, "up to 320kbps" on Google Play (I have "always high quality" enabled). I appreciate the help. If I still hear the distortion with a proper portable amp, then I'll probably just end up returning the whole set up and try again lol.

fwiw, I did search the forums, Google, etc for this question. Usually the answers gravitate around "well you either have to buy an amp that plugs into a wall or sell your headphones"...if that's the case, at least I still have 21 days to return the headphones. I just wanted to know if anyone actually used portable amps for headphones like this that also don't cost more than the headphones themselves do.

There's also the possibility that the reason why the bass gets louder faster than the mids is because LG incorporated some kind of DSP into it. Are you using the LG player app? Because I know it enables some kind of software DSP that Bang&Olufsen put into LG phones but doesn't work with other player apps. Not sure how streaming services that tap into the native software works (ie Adapt Sound works on Galaxy phones when using Spotify), but if youre using the LG player app, try some other player and see if it reduces the problem.

If it doesn't, I wouldn't bet much on just an amp either, because to feed it 2v analogue you need to use the analogue output from the V20, so when you crank it up on the V20, it will just apply that EQ again. Use a USB DAC-HPamp, or one that works via BT (like the upcoming Fiio Q1 MkII), to try to get around the software. Unfortunately that also bypasses the DAC in the phone.

Personally though I'd just get an IEM than spend on a portable amp, since that also gives you isolation from the ambient noise.

 

[AbsolutZeroGI]

You may be surprised--the A5 may work terrifically. ---)

I certainly hope so

There are a lot of decent enough portable amps out there. I use the Ibasso D-Zero as a back up for my HD600, and that has a hair lower sensitivity. If you want it to be a bit better than that, try the Ibasso D14 (has USB input) or PB3 (only has analogue input). Since you'll use a smartphone, I'd try if the D14 works via USB with it.

I will look into those if the A5 doesn't work out. I'll likely have to eBay a couple of those, I think Amazon only has the D-Zero.

I'd be more concerned about snagging the cable or how whatever you're doing will raise the noise floor than the quality of the amp. For one, even if the amp can go louder with less distortion, it's not like covering the noise floor - stuff in the garage, clanging iron, silverware, and porcelain plus rushing water - means it's totally not getting in the way of listening. Even your attention span is divided.

I'd just use the HD600 with the V20, or get an IEM for when you're working around the house. I have two - one that's the real beater because I don't want to start shaking my wok or searing on my skillet and have the IEM shell and cable exposed to airborne oil smoke. When I cook at the table I just use a BT speaker.

The open nature of the cans doesn't bother me much. I haven't had any problems with auditory masking. It's not like I'm vacuuming the floor or mowing the lawn in these lol. I'm not a huge fan of IEMs (or earbuds). I have a pair of LG Tone Platinums (LG's aptx-hd bluetooth support is fantastic on the Tone Platinum + V20) for yard work.I just don't enjoy earbuds for long periods of time. I have considered closed cans (since i'm swiftly running out of reasonably priced open cans), but I like velour pads + wide soundstage. Plus, I like being able to hear my dogs if they start barking at the mailman or something

I don't mind the lack of noise isolation is what I'm saying lol. And when noise isolation is needed, I have a perfunctory set of earbuds that I use for the task. I just don't like wearing them frequently when I have a much fuller, much lusher, and much better sounding pair of more comfortable headphones, yknow? The problems I'm describing whether I'm in the quietness of my office or in the kitchen, or garage, or bedroom. It very clearly sounds like you opened up Audacity, shouted into the mic, and rendered it. The distortion doesn't happen at much lower volumes.

Phones do have a built-in amp, what most phones don't have is a dedicated amplifier chip (let alone a bank of relatively fat caps for it). Some Chinese phones have that but they don't have FCC certification or some other problem, but basically they took a cue from the circuit design of the S:Flo2, this old DAP that had really nice hardware (dedicated DAC chip, output stage, and headphone driver chips - basically, imagine the circuit of a Marantz CDP in something that's kind of like an iPod Touch) but failed in usability.

I know all phones have the basics, otherwise they wouldn't output sound I am a mobile phone nerd.

AFAIK the ESS9218 in the V20 is also an integrated chip, meaning it's basically a DAC with an amp chip integrated into the die, except in this case this is a DAC capable of a lot of audio formats without having to downsample high res into 16/44.1, while the amp side of the chip can go up to 2volts cleaner output (where other such chips would have a lot more noise and distortion). Think of it like APus. Other integrated chips on most other devices are more like an i3 with the Intel HD4000 graphics chip, the Galaxy Note has an AMD A8 with something like the R7 265M chip, and the V20 is more like the upcoming AMD APUs with Ryzen CPUs and Polaris GPUs in one die, but in the end it's nothing like an a Ryzen 7 1700 and RX 580.

In any case, one reason why you'd even need more power is because of the higher noise floor while you're working around the house, and you're pushing that chip with a 300ohm load.

This is true. The DAC/amp combo is actually fairly powerful (50-600ohm support, or so it says). Also, fun fact, the Axon 7 doesn't have a dedicated amp chip, just a third party DAC. Hate it when people say "you need amp? Get an Axon 7"...that's just bad info.

There's also the possibility that the reason why the bass gets louder faster than the mids is because LG incorporated some kind of DSP into it. Are you using the LG player app? Because I know it enables some kind of software DSP that Bang&Olufsen put into LG phones but doesn't work with other player apps. Not sure how streaming services that tap into the native software works (ie Adapt Sound works on Galaxy phones when using Spotify), but if youre using the LG player app, try some other player and see if it reduces the problem.

If it doesn't, I wouldn't bet much on just an amp either, because to feed it 2v analogue you need to use the analogue output from the V20, so when you crank it up on the V20, it will just apply that EQ again. Use a USB DAC-HPamp, or one that works via BT (like the upcoming Fiio Q1 MkII), to try to get around the software. Unfortunately that also bypasses the DAC in the phone.

Personally though I'd just get an IEM than spend on a portable amp, since that also gives you isolation from the ambient noise.

The amping is actually pretty clean. It did great work with my Sennheiser 558s and the Fidelio X2. I use the LG Player app, Google Play Music, and occasionally YouTube. The Pink Floyd album is via Google Play Music, the Bravely Default soundtrack is via the LG stock music player app (flat EQ). The amp/dac support is device-wide (The LG V10 had that problem. The V20 did not). It also works with the phone's mics (for recording) and on the bottom-firing speaker. I sound like a commercial, lol, but it's true.

Your info is a just a bit wrong, though. For starters, the B&O integration is only in the Korean version. There is something in the phones for the rest of the world, but that was done by LG engineers.

Second, you have to enable "Hi-Fi Mode" to engage the third party ESS dac/amp. Turning it off defaults to the original Snapdragon 820 integrated DAC, the same one that's used in every other phone with a Snapdragon 820. So I can actually bypass all of the first party software/hardware enhancements if needed. The Axon 7, LG V10, and I think even the HTC 10 all have that option. It saves battery life so people get the option. Sorry, not trying to sound mean or anything, just trying to be helpful

I didn't think anyone would wanna talk mobile tech with me, so I didn't really go into depth there. The "clipping" in some frequencies I hear is just as prevalent with the ess dac/amp turned off as it is with the ess dac/amp turned on. The thing that doesn't get talked about is that the V20 doesn't have manual gain control. It "auto sets" the gain based on what it thinks the proper volume is. Thus, it very well might not be supplying all the power it needs. The HD650s have a very dynamic impedance (it even spikes in the 100hz range), so who knows what the V20 thinks when I plug it in, eh? Since none of my sources power it enough and I know my source is clean (my 558s don't have the Steve Perry voice distortion problem), then I'm really only left with two options. Either my ears just don't like the way these headphones reproduce the sound or they're not getting enough power and distorting at louder volumes.

I figure, I can eliminate one by getting an amp capable of driving these. I wanted a portable one because that means i'm not chained to my desk. Plus, I can put velcro on that sucker and move it between my PC, laptop, Nintendo 3DS, and LG V20 (I keep it and the 3DS in a case so it's easily reversible) so I can get proper amps on everything

Of course, if it still sounds like it does now and it's just my ears hating the sound, then it's all getting returned anyway lol. My 558s are slow, bloaty, and the fidelity isn't top notch, but at least I can listen to Journey and the Bravely Default soundtrack without cringing

*edited for clarification*

 

[ProtegeManiac]

I will look into those if the A5 doesn't work out. I'll likely have to eBay a couple of those, I think Amazon only has the D-Zero.

http://www.ibasso.com/cp_xq_dy.php?id=288

The open nature of the cans doesn't bother me much. I haven't had any problems with auditory masking. It's not like I'm vacuuming the floor or mowing the lawn in these lol.

You listed washing the dishes, which is why I even listed the noise sources in that scenario. And by garage I assume tasks where the cable can get snagged on something, power tools or not. I typically don't even listen any earlier than 9pm since ambient noise is still fairly high at around 45dB.

And when noise isolation is needed, I have a perfunctory set of earbuds that I use for the task. I just don't like wearing them frequently when I have a much fuller, much lusher, and much better sounding pair of more comfortable headphones, yknow?

Well, there are earbuds that have a fuller, lusher sound than those perfunctory earbuds. I have the ASG-1.3, which is kind of like a bassier HD650, and I just EQ the bass down on Neutron or, when I'm on Spotify (which is more often these days when on the go), I just use Adapt Sound.

The problems I'm describing whether I'm in the quietness of my office or in the kitchen, or garage, or bedroom. It very clearly sounds like you opened up Audacity, shouted into the mic, and rendered it. The distortion doesn't happen at much lower volumes.

Yes that's exactly what I imagine is happening. It can be due to the weak amp being forced to go louder (which again won't happen at lower volume), and exacerbated by the possibility of there being some kind EQ that causes it to get to clipping sooner.

I know all phones have the basics, otherwise they wouldn't output sound I am a mobile phone nerd.

It's just that the way you phrased what I quoted up there seemed like you think it has a totally different circuit design, which isn't the case. It just has a better integrated chip, no separate amp circuit (much less a capacitor bank for that).

This is true. The DAC/amp combo is actually fairly powerful (50-600ohm support, or so it says). Also, fun fact, the Axon 7 doesn't have a dedicated amp chip, just a third party DAC. Hate it when people say "you need amp? Get an Axon 7"...that's just bad info.

I can't recall what phone it was but definitely not that ZTE. But there was one with the WM8740 plus an output op-amp for it, plus two op-amps to drive the headphone.

The amping is actually pretty clean. It did great work with my Sennheiser 558s and the Fidelio X2. I use the LG Player app, Google Play Music, and occasionally YouTube. The Pink Floyd album is via Google Play Music, the Bravely Default soundtrack is via the LG stock music player app (flat EQ). The amp/dac support is device-wide (The LG V10 had that problem. The V20 did not). It also works with the phone's mics (for recording) and on the bottom-firing speaker. I sound like a commercial, lol, but it's true.

Your info is a just a bit wrong, though. For starters, the B&O integration is only in the Korean version. There is something in the phones for the rest of the world, but that was done by LG engineers.

Second, you have to enable "Hi-Fi Mode" to engage the third party ESS dac/amp. Turning it off defaults to the original Snapdragon 820 integrated DAC, the same one that's used in every other phone with a Snapdragon 820. So I can actually bypass all of the first party software/hardware enhancements if needed. The Axon 7, LG V10, and I think even the HTC 10 all have that option. It saves battery life so people get the option. Sorry, not trying to sound mean or anything, just trying to be helpful

The "clipping" in some frequencies I hear is just as prevalent with the ess dac/amp turned off as it is with the ess dac/amp turned on. The thing that doesn't get talked about is that the V20 doesn't have manual gain control. It "auto sets" the gain based on what it thinks the proper volume is. Thus, it very well might not be supplying all the power it needs. The HD650s have a very dynamic impedance (it even spikes in the 100hz range), so who knows what the V20 thinks when I plug it in, eh? Since none of my sources power it enough and I know my source is clean (my 558s don't have the Steve Perry voice distortion problem), then I'm really only left with two options. Either my ears just don't like the way these headphones reproduce the sound or they're not getting enough power and distorting at louder volumes.

If you're sure there's nothing interfering with it then it's the ESS9218 that's really lacking for the HD650. Not that I'd use a 2v max output amplifier with my HD600 either, but I really won't bother with cumbersome equipment if I'm not going to focus on using them.

I figure, I can eliminate one by getting an amp capable of driving these. I wanted a portable one because that means i'm not chained to my desk. Plus, I can put velcro on that sucker and move it between my PC, laptop, Nintendo 3DS, and LG V20 (I keep it and the 3DS in a case so it's easily reversible) so I can get proper amps on everything

Of course, if it still sounds like it does now and it's just my ears hating the sound, then it's all getting returned anyway lol. My 558s are slow, bloaty, and the fidelity isn't top notch, but at least I can listen to Journey and the Bravely Default soundtrack without cringing

Get the D14 and use it via USB input with the phone. It also has SPDIF inputs so you can use it with your soundcard in case you want to, and still utilize the soundcard's DSP.

I didn't think anyone would wanna talk mobile tech with me, so I didn't really go into depth there.

Well there was that bit about the LG V20 having an amp...

 

[Me x3]

50mW into 300 Ohm is more than you'll ever use with HD650.
And that's room enough for unhealthy levels.

 

[AbsolutZeroGI]

http://www.ibasso.com/cp_xq_dy.php?id=288




You listed washing the dishes, which is why I even listed the noise sources in that scenario. And by garage I assume tasks where the cable can get snagged on something, power tools or not. I typically don't even listen any earlier than 9pm since ambient noise is still fairly high at around 45dB.





Well, there are earbuds that have a fuller, lusher sound than those perfunctory earbuds. I have the ASG-1.3, which is kind of like a bassier HD650, and I just EQ the bass down on Neutron or, when I'm on Spotify (which is more often these days when on the go), I just use Adapt Sound.




Yes that's exactly what I imagine is happening. It can be due to the weak amp being forced to go louder (which again won't happen at lower volume), and exacerbated by the possibility of there being some kind EQ that causes it to get to clipping sooner.




It's just that the way you phrased what I quoted up there seemed like you think it has a totally different circuit design, which isn't the case. It just has a better integrated chip, no separate amp circuit (much less a capacitor bank for that).




I can't recall what phone it was but definitely not that ZTE. But there was one with the WM8740 plus an output op-amp for it, plus two op-amps to drive the headphone.




If you're sure there's nothing interfering with it then it's the ESS9218 that's really lacking for the HD650. Not that I'd use a 2v max output amplifier with my HD600 either, but I really won't bother with cumbersome equipment if I'm not going to focus on using them.




Get the D14 and use it via USB input with the phone. It also has SPDIF inputs so you can use it with your soundcard in case you want to, and still utilize the soundcard's DSP.





Well there was that bit about the LG V20 having an amp...

I don't know what people here know about mobile phones so I try to simplify. That's my mistake. The DSP could be making it worse as well, I just wanted to quickly correct the B&O thing since that's a region specific feature. The Koreans get all the best features from LG. Hell, the Korean version of the G6 has the amp feature too. The rest of the world? Wireless charging. Ugh.

I have considered using an EQ but global EQs are difficult to find in Android. The best I've found is an app called Neutralizer. Give it a shot, it's actually pretty interesting.

I haven't seen anyone use USB OTG on a USB type C port yet, so that's an option I hadn't considered yet. I saw the Kunlun had fun stuff like media controls, but I dunno if it's powerful enough. The E17 Alpine too. If this A5 works and I decide to keep the setup, that iBasso will likely be the next thing I try. I'd like to end up on a dac/amp combo so I can get consistency across all devices. Portable, of course. Thank you for the suggestion I saw it does 400mw + 400mw at 32 ohm. Dunno how that translates to higher ohm though. I need to learn that math one day...

50mW into 300 Ohm is more than you'll ever use with HD650.
And that's room enough for unhealthy levels.

I did not know that. I went as powerful as possible to give me as much overhead as possible so I could be damn sure I wasn't maxing out the amp. If 50mW at 300ohm works, then I may get a DAC/amp next time around that goes a little lower. Under $200 for portable is rough to shoot for.