Fighterboy89
New Head-Fier
- Joined
- Jan 24, 2013
- Posts
- 25
- Likes
- 12
OK so here's the deal:
When I was introduced to the world of hi-fi, I was overwhelmed. Fixed up my music library and the minimum bit rate mp3's are now at least 192kb/s for pop whatnot, masterpieces and epic TV/movie scores 320 or nothing. Also being a PC gamer, I wanted to get great sound for my games (positional audio) and listen to some binaural recordings from time to time i.e. "ASMR" videos. So I thought hey, why not buy a good pair of headphones? I went for the HD 600's. And boy do I not regret these babies not one bit! No wonder why they are always recommended so much!! The bass is well presented, the mids are to die for!! and the highs are not too harsh. Perfect balance IMO. And then, of course, I read about the important of dacs/amps and how those cheap dacs are messing up the dynamics in my music. So I went for one of the most recommended ones out there: The FiiO E10 Olympus (which is the 3rd revision with gold plated jack). And boy was it a jump from my cheap ass ivy bridge socket motherboard dac. Then I started using the line out with my Creative Inspire T10 2.0 loud speakers and OMG!! The sound was so crisp! That is literally the only way I can describe it. You know how when something sounds muddier than another? That's what I mean by crisper and more detailed. The realism in the claps and snaps in "IDGAF" by Watsky were really good and the guitar strings in "Whistle" by Flo Rida sounded very forward! And the bass was very airy, especially when I listened to soundtracks like "Paradise" by Coldplay or "CPU Mood", "The Massacre" and "DuckSquash" by FantomenK. Or, the mids oh the mids. Everything I listened to sounded different! After a few months, I decided to go a wee bit more hardcore by buying the Schiit stack (magni+modi). And I was... disappointed to say the least.
Since my speakers only have a 3.5mm TRS connector I had to connect them to the magni. And I dunno what happened but the sound was not necessarily bad but it was muddier? A little bit less forward with the mids? Harsher highs? I thought hey there's no way $200 equipment is going to sound worse than an $80 USB powered amp/dac.
So that's lead me to my questions (and forgive me if nothing makes sense so far, I'm just using my intuition, it's all subjective):
1) Why magni/modi combo sounded so muddy? Is it because I am sending an amplified signal to already amplified speakers? Does that make the signal less clean than a pure line out?? Is it simply that I prefer a different sound signature? Or should I maybe try RCA to TRS adapters to connect my speakers directly to the modi vs the magni?
2) Is FiiO E10 neutral or are they manipulating the sound (forward mids, etc...)? If so, is that because of the dac itself or dac implementation around it?
3) Can anybody with an engineering/science degree maybe explain this? Please touch on the several points I mentioned in the paragraph. :/
Thanks!
Edit: Speaking of FiiO, anybody know when their new "E10K" desktop amp/dacs coming around?
When I was introduced to the world of hi-fi, I was overwhelmed. Fixed up my music library and the minimum bit rate mp3's are now at least 192kb/s for pop whatnot, masterpieces and epic TV/movie scores 320 or nothing. Also being a PC gamer, I wanted to get great sound for my games (positional audio) and listen to some binaural recordings from time to time i.e. "ASMR" videos. So I thought hey, why not buy a good pair of headphones? I went for the HD 600's. And boy do I not regret these babies not one bit! No wonder why they are always recommended so much!! The bass is well presented, the mids are to die for!! and the highs are not too harsh. Perfect balance IMO. And then, of course, I read about the important of dacs/amps and how those cheap dacs are messing up the dynamics in my music. So I went for one of the most recommended ones out there: The FiiO E10 Olympus (which is the 3rd revision with gold plated jack). And boy was it a jump from my cheap ass ivy bridge socket motherboard dac. Then I started using the line out with my Creative Inspire T10 2.0 loud speakers and OMG!! The sound was so crisp! That is literally the only way I can describe it. You know how when something sounds muddier than another? That's what I mean by crisper and more detailed. The realism in the claps and snaps in "IDGAF" by Watsky were really good and the guitar strings in "Whistle" by Flo Rida sounded very forward! And the bass was very airy, especially when I listened to soundtracks like "Paradise" by Coldplay or "CPU Mood", "The Massacre" and "DuckSquash" by FantomenK. Or, the mids oh the mids. Everything I listened to sounded different! After a few months, I decided to go a wee bit more hardcore by buying the Schiit stack (magni+modi). And I was... disappointed to say the least.
Since my speakers only have a 3.5mm TRS connector I had to connect them to the magni. And I dunno what happened but the sound was not necessarily bad but it was muddier? A little bit less forward with the mids? Harsher highs? I thought hey there's no way $200 equipment is going to sound worse than an $80 USB powered amp/dac.
So that's lead me to my questions (and forgive me if nothing makes sense so far, I'm just using my intuition, it's all subjective):
1) Why magni/modi combo sounded so muddy? Is it because I am sending an amplified signal to already amplified speakers? Does that make the signal less clean than a pure line out?? Is it simply that I prefer a different sound signature? Or should I maybe try RCA to TRS adapters to connect my speakers directly to the modi vs the magni?
2) Is FiiO E10 neutral or are they manipulating the sound (forward mids, etc...)? If so, is that because of the dac itself or dac implementation around it?
3) Can anybody with an engineering/science degree maybe explain this? Please touch on the several points I mentioned in the paragraph. :/
Thanks!
Edit: Speaking of FiiO, anybody know when their new "E10K" desktop amp/dacs coming around?
