Advice/recs on portable DAC/amp

[PirateFreder]

I'm about to buy my first DAC/amp and wanna make sure I haven't overlooked anything. I'm a nomad so I'm after the best all-rounder as my one and only.

-comfortably pocketable
-battery powered
-plenty of power for demanding tribrid IEMs or headphones if I decide to go back to them
-ideally it would be desktop level performance
-excellent sound that leans towards neutral/resolving, I'd rather make changes to sound with EQ or swapping IEMs
-flexible budget but not trying to spend multiple thousands
-I don't like that iFi products have a noise floor on IEMs
-I've looked at bigger ones like Xduoo, Dethonray Honey, etc and I'd rather have it be a bit more compact

I've arrived at the Mojo 2, seems like everything else on that level is awkwardly large...except the Pegasus which is BT only . Do y'all have any alternate suggestions or thoughts?

Also, I've been having trouble finding an answer to this. Do EQ apps on Android, e.g. Poweramp, work with USB DACs or do you have to do that on the DAC?

 

[surfgeorge]

Mojo 2 is excellent in terms of SQ, but if you really want to pocket it and listen on the go I would recommend pairing it with the Poly. Otherwise you have cables sticking out from both sides of the Mojo and honestly I don't trust the mechanical stability and longevity of the micro-USB connector.

Regarding EQ - for sure the Mojo 2 can process digital data which has been altered by EQ upstream.
BUT - you give up some SQ. The CHORD DACs has very sophisticated algorithms and puts a lot of processing power into upsampling and reconstructing the original wave form. There's a statement that the Mojo original had about 500 times the processing power of a conventional DAC architecture (Also the reason why they are getting warm...)
Upstream processing messes up the original data and introduces errors which cannot be removed in the Mojo.

Short answer - it's technically possible to EQ (and upsample) upstream, but you will loose SQ.

 

[Fírnen]

I'm about to buy my first DAC/amp and wanna make sure I haven't overlooked anything. I'm a nomad so I'm after the best all-rounder as my one and only.

-comfortably pocketable
-battery powered
-plenty of power for demanding tribrid IEMs or headphones if I decide to go back to them
-ideally it would be desktop level performance
-excellent sound that leans towards neutral/resolving, I'd rather make changes to sound with EQ or swapping IEMs
-flexible budget but not trying to spend multiple thousands
-I don't like that iFi products have a noise floor on IEMs

Hard to go much more compact than the FiiO BTR5 or BTR7; great multi-function DAC/AMP. I have a BTR5, and have found the battery life to be a little lacking; getting a BTR7 in a couple days. It has a bigger battery, has more power output, all the same features the BTR5 had and more.

Love the BTR5, I use it almost every day at work. Many options for how to use it. You can use it via bluetooth, as a USB DAC through your computer, or directly to your phone as a dongle. It's also super tiny, smaller than my car key. The BTR7 is only slightly larger. Two outputs, 3.5mm and balanced 2.5mm.

-Battery powered
-Very small
-Enough power for all but one of my own headphones (Sennheiser HD660S)
-Neutral sound
-Cheap

You could go bigger, I also have the M17; seems like the bang for the buck sharply falls off though, loads of power but overall SQ is not hugely improved if you were already adequately powered by something like a BTR5. Tried the M11S, same story. For portables, I think if I did it over I would just buy the BTR7 and save the ~$1300 I spent on the M17. Really a deceptively powerful device, this BTR5. Battery life is a bit meh, I get maybe 4 hours. BTR7 is nearly double the battery size though, so once I get that I should be set lol.

 

[PirateFreder]

Mojo 2 is excellent in terms of SQ, but if you really want to pocket it and listen on the go I would recommend pairing it with the Poly. Otherwise you have cables sticking out from both sides of the Mojo and honestly I don't trust the mechanical stability and longevity of the micro-USB connector.

Regarding EQ - for sure the Mojo 2 can process digital data which has been altered by EQ upstream.
BUT - you give up some SQ. The CHORD DACs has very sophisticated algorithms and puts a lot of processing power into upsampling and reconstructing the original wave form. There's a statement that the Mojo original had about 500 times the processing power of a conventional DAC architecture (Also the reason why they are getting warm...)
Upstream processing messes up the original data and introduces errors which cannot be removed in the Mojo.

Short answer - it's technically possible to EQ (and upsample) upstream, but you will loose SQ.

Ah ok, I wasn't aware of that. I wasn't even sure if the EQ on a phone was able to alter the stream when it was running out to a DAC over USB. Well thankfully I'm not crazy about EQ, it's just a good tool to have in the arsenal and I was thinking about retaining the precision that Poweramp offers. That's good to know that it's something to be avoided, I had no idea.

As for the USB, I'll certainly keep that in mind, however they have added USB-C to the 2 and that is infinitely more durable.

Thanks for the insight!

 

[PirateFreder]

Hard to go much more compact than the FiiO BTR5 or BTR7; great multi-function DAC/AMP. I have a BTR5, and have found the battery life to be a little lacking; getting a BTR7 in a couple days. It has a bigger battery, has more power output, all the same features the BTR5 had and more.......

I didn't realize just how compact those are!! I had looked at the BTR7 as well as the Earmen Colibri and both seem like excellent options. I might grab something smaller like that in the future, if I find myself often using something that takes less power, right now I'm looking to get something a bit beefier without being cumbersome. As far as Fiio goes, I stumbled upon the sadly discontinued Q5s-TC, that seems to be their best fit for what I'm after so if I see a good deal on one of those I'll grab it; too bad they look to be hard to find at a good price. Not looking to mess with DAPs, I've never used one but I don't personally find any appeal in them, I love my Xperia Pro-I.

Thanks for the suggestions and info!