Both of my headphones have a balanced cable option, so I am considering a balanced amp, a lot of people seem to like them, so I assume a balanced amp should be better than unbalanced. But are there any good budget balanced amps? Are there any balanced amps at a lower price, that would perform...

This question sounds stupid I know, as most people would say a headphone amp should be neutral, but I use my headphones for watching films on netflix sometimes, which means I cannot EQ my headphones to have more bass for films etc. I don't think any headphone amps have tone controls, except for...

Hello, Would there be any point in using balanced connections from DAC > Amp, if I was not using Balanced headphone cable from the balanced output on the amp. eg. Dac > XLR conection > Amp > Single ended headphone output. Is this a pointless waste of time and may as well use a normal RCA...

I am looking at these 2 headphones, can anyone give me an idea of which is the best and what the differences are between these 2? Is one significantly better than the other? Also is it true that you cannot get the Elex shipped to the UK? In that case I would not be able to get them as I am in UK?

What are some active monitors that are good for general use?   I know most of them are designed to be as transparent and flat as possible... but are there any that make good multimedia speakers?   What about Genelec? I noticed they have a crossover at 3000hz, which would probably make them...

I am looking for some desktop speakers for my PC, for general use... I already have good headphones and DAC, but for things like some games, youtube videos and a bit of music (not loud) when I don't feel like using headphones or annoying the neighbors...   I just received some creative...

Hello, Just wondering if an occasional USB dropout is normal for example once or twice a day?   Does anyone have an Async USB dac that never disconnects or dropout at all ever?

Is it normal for an async USB dac to disconnect / USB dropout approx once every few hours?   I have tried a lot of things and it still does this... It will disconnect / reconnect a few times a day...   Is this normal with USB dacs? Or do I have a problem with my DAC or computer?   Thanks

Hello,   I have a NAD D1050, I am happy with the sound and have it connected via USB, my PC has a Haswell 4690k CPU which I think has the USB controllers on the CPU ... so when i read guides saying "putasync DAC on seperate USB hub" I am not sure this applies...   My problem is that approx...

My Sansa Clip+ battery died... had a good 5+ years out of it, but it does not work anymore...   Is the Sansa Clip+ still the king of budget players? Overall was happy with the sound of it... The interface was OK but could be better...  is there anything better out now?   I don't want to...

My sansa clip+ is dying and I think I will get a phone to use as an MP3 player... Not sure I want an iphone as I don't like them, so what other phones in the £100-200 price range have good sound quality and a 3.5mm jack? Something as good or better than the clip+?   Thanks

Out of the headphones you have used / own, If you could keep 3 headphones that you would have to keep forever and never buy any more headphones, Which would you keep?   Mine would be (out of headphones I have owned) :   Over Ear   Shure SRH 1540 - Very good all rounders, comfortable, sound...

I have gone from using SPDIF coaxial to Async USB on the NAD D1050 DAC, I have ordered a better usb cable which may or may not make any difference, is there anything else I can do to optimize the USB connection to get the best possible audio quality? I am just using the USB port on my...

My headphones are about 46ohm impedance, a DAC/AMP I am looking at lists the power output of the headphone amp as "Heaphone Power 50mW/32 ohm", these seems rather low to me, probably even lower than my Xonar STX? Should I look for something more powerful even for high sensitivity headphones...

Has anyone tried both of these and could give me an idea of what the differences are, I just got some SRH 1540 and I like them a lot but I am not sure if I should try out the PSB m4U2 as they have so many good reviews etc.   Which is best in following areas : Best sub bass / bass, best...

I have had the Xonar STX for a couple of years, its good for the money and the RCA output seems very good but I have a feeling that the headphone amp on them is not really getting the best out of my headphones, every pair of headphones I have used with the Xonar STX, always sound decent but a...

Will I get any sound improvement by changing from STX to ST to either the RCA outs or the headphone amp?   I am thinking of swapping anyway because of interference through the PCI-E slot from the graphics card which I think might be lowered / eliminated if I use a standard PCI slot (as it has...

In my new PC I have a GTX 970 graphics card which buzzes during gaming, this is reasonably normal for these cards and I am not bothered about it (I have had 4 and they all buzz), however the buzzing is picked up on my speakers when the amplifier volume is turned up.... here is the strange part...

Few questions for anyone who has compared the two...   1) Which has the biggest / deepest pads? So my ears do not touch the driver, I have found this to be the downfall of a few headphones I have purchased due to ear ache after a couple of hours!   2) I read the NAD has less bass... Is this...

I am looking for a cheap DAC + headphone amp... A lot of the Fiio products seem to only have a single coaxial and single line out on them... So if I connect the single coaxial to a dual RCA cable with an adapter (to output to my speaker amp) and then use the single line in to a headphone amp...

I got a new PC recently with a Gigabyte GTX 970, it has a small amount of actual coil whine from the card which does not bother me much, BUT for some reason it seems to cause noise through my speakers, for example on Skyrim it makes a buzzing noise that changes in tone when moving, or in furmark...

Which of these is the best for virtual surround in gaming and is it a big difference? I have a Xonar STX at the moment and the dolby headphone is pretty good but if I got a card with the creative core 3D or onboard sound with ALC1150 and whatever virtual surround that has through the creative...

http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4952#sp   http://www.soundblaster.com/products/sound-blaster-z.aspx#videos   These 2 soundcards have an "amplified headphone out" and a "front speaker out"...   Is the "front speaker out" the same as a standard "Line out"?   eg. can...

I have a Xonar STX at the moment which has the RCA outs and also a headphone amp, can newer sound cards or good onboard sound connect to headphones and a speaker amp at the same time? Headphones through the amplified headphone jack and speaker amp through the front speakers jack with a 3.5mm >...

This new motherboard I am looking at has a realtek ALC1150 chip which supports Sound Blaster X-Fi MB3 and has an amplifier built in (cannot find the amplifier specs), also has good shielding and capacitors, how would this compare to my Xonar STX with dolby headphone?  how do you think this chip...