[ChisChas]

Why not try LCD-4?

Do you mean LCD-4 or LCD-i4's? I thought Audeze's were generally 'difficult' to drive/pair with a DAP? Is this an urban myth? I can't get on with IEM's so I only use full size over ears.

 

[MacedonianHero]

Do you mean LCD-4 or LCD-i4's? I thought Audeze's were generally 'difficult' to drive/pair with a DAP? Is this an urban myth? I can't get on with IEM's so I only use full size over ears.

Definitely not an urban myth. Forget about the LCD-4 and any DAP....just won't get them where they need to be. The LCDi4 sound ok from my FiiO X5 MkIII or (now sold) AK240SS, but really open up with I use the Hugo 2 (and it's 1.2-1.4W of power) to drive them.

 

[ChisChas]

Definitely not an urban myth. Forget about the LCD-4 and any DAP....just won't get them where they need to be. The LCDi4 sound ok from my FiiO X5 MkIII or (now sold) AK240SS, but really open up with I use the Hugo 2 (and it's 1.2-1.4W of power) to drive them.

I did audition a pair of full size Audeze a couple of years ago, I then bought the K812's so clearly the Audezes didn't work for me but my headphones must work with a DAP although I'm also looking at upgrading my DF Red to a Chord H2 or ??? The K812's aren't difficult to drive (the exact opposite of HD800's) and having to buy a special headphone amp/dac to pander/deal with the tricky characteristics of a particular HP has no appeal to me. And the more tilted towards solving/reducing a sonic problem with that pair of HP's probably means that the special amp/dac doesn't work well with other HP's. An example? Having to buy a valve HP amp to soften a too vivid/bright/revealing HP.

I watched another review of the Utops on YouTube by Aornic who ironically recorded it at Audio Sanctuary and during his review up popped the words 'too bright'. I'm going to give the Utops another go but I suspect V2 will see the over bright top end toned down a bit. Now I'd buy that less hot sonic profile straight away as a very expensive but worthwhile SQ upgrade over my K812's.

Listening to Dreadzone 'Eye On The Horizon' album (mainstream reggae), track 7 Yeah Man has a good level of bass (very well reproduced by the K812's, nicely controlled, agile, keeps up with the rest) and a reasonable amount of upper tone drum work. Ok, ideally I'd like 5% more top end and I will see shortly how the Utops deal with this track.

So the Audeze full HP's don't really work with DAP's, I didn't like the TH900's two years ago (all bass & quite tizzy treble, lacking in mid/vocal presence), I certainly didn't enjoy the Ether Flow opens last Friday with the dem Queststyle QP2R DAP (more bass than the K812's but poorly controlled and interfered with the midrange a bit, the bass lacked definition, the mids were AWOL and the treble muted.

Now listening to the next Dreadzone track, My Face and I suspect the Utops will do what they did with 25% of my music on Friday, good bass, nicely done, brilliant mids/vocal but as there is a good amount of treble drumming in this track, I believe the Utops will overdo this element of the sonic column but I will see. Using my MSI laptop on battery power, AQ DF Red + Jitterbug.

Would anyone be willing to listen to this Dreadzone album with K812's or any full HP of their choice and give me some feedback on SQ? Also, the War On Drugs new album 'Deeper Understanding', the latest Pumarosa album and the new one by The Horrors 'V'? Are you happy/unhappy with how your headphone 'performs' and please state what source/amp/external DAC you are using.

 

[ChisChas]

And imagine what a hoot it would be to be demming DAP's & HP amps/dacs at a Show using those Utopia Bling Boys, someone ought to forward a pic to Lewis Hamilton, he would be a perfect customer ha ha

 

[MozartMan1201]

Speaking of DAP's, my LG V20 smartphone has a built-in quad-DAC headphone jack that sounds really sweet, comparable to standalone portable amps that I have tested (Mojo, FiiO, Oppo HA-2, etc.) Moreover, it has IR blaster to control my TV & AVR. I am a believer of 'less is more' when it comes to gadgets. Kudos for LG!

 

[Me x3]

The K812's aren't difficult to drive (the exact opposite of HD800's).

That's more of an urban myth.
K812 needs more current while HD800 needs a little bit more voltage. That's it.
On my FiiO X5 3rd Gen HD800 needs only 8 more volume points to sound as loud as K812.
If I listen to K812 at say 75 out of 120, then 83 out of 120 is pretty much the same level with HD800.
Under those circunstances, the HD800 will drain less current than K812. In other terms it will need 4 times less power than K812.
So the HD800 is still the easier load from the amplifier's perspective.

 

[ChisChas]

That's more of an urban myth.
K812 needs more current while HD800 needs a little bit more voltage. That's it.
On my FiiO X5 3rd Gen HD800 needs only 8 more volume points to sound as loud as K812.
If I listen to K812 at say 75 out of 120, then 83 out of 120 is pretty much the same level with HD800.
Under those circunstances, the HD800 will drain less current than K812. In other terms it will need 4 times less power than K812.
So the HD800 is still the easier load from the amplifier's perspective.

Ok, useful to know. Maybe a 'stoopid' question, current and voltage, do one or both these equate to the Bias & Gain settings on my new Questyle QP2R (which I collected yesterday).
If I'm not concerned about battery duration and just want the best SQ for my K812's, do I use the highest settings in the Bias & Gain options in my QP2R?

 

[ChisChas]

Definitely not an urban myth. Forget about the LCD-4 and any DAP....just won't get them where they need to be. The LCDi4 sound ok from my FiiO X5 MkIII or (now sold) AK240SS, but really open up with I use the Hugo 2 (and it's 1.2-1.4W of power) to drive them.

I also wanted to upgrade my desktop amp/dac (currently DF Red, superb value at £165) and when I collected my new Questyle QP2R yesterday from Audio Sanctuary, I auditioned the Hugo 2 with my K812's. I thought the pairing was amazing and ordered a black one which is arriving with the next batch in 4/5 weeks. The Hugo 2 really upgraded the sound from my K812's, very happy with what I heard using wav music from my laptop.

 

[mmwwmm]

I also wanted to upgrade my desktop amp/dac (currently DF Red, superb value at £165) and when I collected my new Questyle QP2R yesterday from Audio Sanctuary, I auditioned the Hugo 2 with my K812's. I thought the pairing was amazing and ordered a black one which is arriving with the next batch in 4/5 weeks. The Hugo 2 really upgraded the sound from my K812's, very happy with what I heard using wav music from my laptop.

What do you like the most? The questyle or the Hugo 2? Currently I have a Chord Mojo with my K812 and can’t be happier. Extremely organic, detailed and fluid sounding combo (with Forza Audioworks Noir HPC MK2 cable and kaisertone app as player the mids are very liquid sounding AND with delicious clarity). I heartily recommend this cable and app to get that extra liquidity and transparency to the overall sound of the K812/Mojo combo). I just wonder how much better could be the sound with an Hugo2... The sound of the Chord FPG dacs is really something adictive and special.

P.S.: These headphones are really heavily underrated

 

[bosiemoncrieff]

Although I prefer HD800, I think they both require care to get great sound. I multibit dac is a must for both.

 

[Me x3]

Ok, useful to know. Maybe a 'stoopid' question, current and voltage, do one or both these equate to the Bias & Gain settings on my new Questyle QP2R (which I collected yesterday).
If I'm not concerned about battery duration and just want the best SQ for my K812's, do I use the highest settings in the Bias & Gain options in my QP2R?

I'm not very familiarized with the Questyle but I would say high bias (as it's supposed to offer lower distorion) and the lowest gain level that lets you hear the music at your desired levels (if that means high gain, then go high gain)

 

[MacedonianHero]

Well....my first full listening session with my DAVE + K812s and yes, these headphones do scale! As amazing as they are out of my Hugo 2, things have really kicked up a few notches in transparency, sound staging and detail retrieval.

 

[ChisChas]

What do you like the most? The questyle or the Hugo 2? Currently I have a Chord Mojo with my K812 and can’t be happier. Extremely organic, detailed and fluid sounding combo (with Forza Audioworks Noir HPC MK2 cable and kaisertone app as player the mids are very liquid sounding AND with delicious clarity). I heartily recommend this cable and app to get that extra liquidity and transparency to the overall sound of the K812/Mojo combo). I just wonder how much better could be the sound with an Hugo2... The sound of the Chord FPG dacs is really something adictive and special.

P.S.: These headphones are really heavily underrated

Without boring the pants of everyone by going over my story AGAIN, crap they're already starting to yawn, I listened to a properly run in Hugo 2 at my local hi-fi shop on Friday and I wasn't surprised to hear that the Hugo 2 + K812 pairing was really, really nice (I basically decided to buy the Hugo 2 within 10 minutes, the next 50 minutes merely confirmed the first 10). I will use the Hugo 2 as a desktop amp/dac only, I decided two weeks ago I didn't want to revert to a DAP + transportable amp/dac so I also bought an upgrade to my Plenue 1 for downstairs/holidays/planes etc so I can continue to move around my kitchen breakfast room without having to take my HP's off if I wasn't wearing trousers with huge cargo pockets!
The QP2R is a great sounding DAP with the K812's but the SQ is not quite in the same league as a Hugo 2 but why should it be? Why should a beautifully made DAP at £1,300 perform SQ wise as well as a standalone amp/dac at £1,800? The Hugo 2 cannot play a single note of music on its own whilst the QP2R does very well with the 'easy' to drive (for a portable device) K812's. I'm very lucky I was able to upgrade both devices at the same time.
And yes, the K812's are seriously underrated particularly now I've got my thumb out of my whatsit and bought two devices that have substantially lifted the SQ of the K812's. Better late than never.......

 

[ChisChas]

Well....my first full listening session with my DAVE + K812s and yes, these headphones do scale! As amazing as they are out of my Hugo 2, things have really kicked up a few notches in transparency, sound staging and detail retrieval.

Could go off you real quick, you know........When my black Hugo 2 arrives in 4/5 weeks, it will sit on my study desk behind my black MSI laptop and wi-fi will never notice. Wi-fi is not the most observant thankfully but even she would notice a socking great Dave

 

[TokenGesture]

Absolutely love my 812 with Hugo 2. On max cross feed, speaker like, detail, and such transparency.