[472837]

I have had several amp's and DAC's, And I have never, EVER had the experience of being able to tell an amp or DAC apart from another one, when it comes to how they sound.

An example:

I have had a cheap, 15$ ADX microphone with a "headphone out"-jack and a 680$ Aune S6 Pro DAC/amp.

I could in no way tell the two apart in sonic qualities - They both sounded...great, I guess?

Is my hearing wierd, or is everydoby else hearing what they want?

 

[Bytor123]

Same here...or, same 'hear'. I can't understand why DACs should sound different unless they are defective.

 

[tesarpa]

Lucky

 

[PointyFox]

I'm pretty sure people are just hearing what they want to. I've never heard a difference between DACs, and only the slightest difference in bass between amps (ignoring changes due to different output impedance on low impedance headphones, tube amps, noise floor, and electrostatic energizers).

 

[geek707]

Same here.
While I can hear the lack of hum, between my Cary and Pass headphone amps, the difference in the sound escapes me. One’s a tube amp and the other is ss, so they should sound different. Right?
AFAICT, talking to true believers, when you can pin them down, the differences are small, very small.
Given what I have experienced with color (colour) in digital printing for people, I put most of these differences as between the ears...
If you’re happy, don’t sweat it, spend your money on music.

 

[bigshot]

Click on the stereo review test in my sig. Even professionals can't tell a difference in a blind test.

It isn't rocket science to create a clean balanced amp. And digital audio is designed from the very beginning to be audibly transparent. If it isn't, it's defective either by manufacture or design. If an amp or DAC sounds different from my other equipment, I would send it back for a refund. I don't want it to sound different, I want it to be calibrated properly.

 

[dazzerfong]

Pretty easy to in specific cases.

IEMs are a fun case for electronics. If your amp's output impedance is high, your bass response goes funky. Also, a lot of computers output a lot of noise and hiss, especially when the power draw skyrockets (e.g. CPU does something intensive). High powered amps also have this effect on IEMs.

For some harder-to-drive headphones, you can reach a volume cap with some anemic amps.

Then you have DACs and amps that sputter when you put your phone next to it.

Basically, what I'm getting to is, you can hear poorly-engineered products quite easily. You're using HD560s, which fit right in between IEMs and hard-to-drive headphones and thus skip the noise issues whilst not being worried about power.

 

[Steve999]

Is my hearing wierd, or is everydoby else hearing what they want?

Both things can be true.

 

[bigshot]

Basically, what I'm getting to is, you can hear poorly-engineered products quite easily. You're using HD560s, which fit right in between IEMs and hard-to-drive headphones and thus skip the noise issues whilst not being worried about power.

That isn't poorly engineered. The amp you're talking about is the wrong amp for the purpose. It certainly works fine for the headphones it was designed to work with. I avoid amps with non-standard requirements like that. I think companies do it deliberately to limit your choices to their brand of amp (Stax). I would rather get something that sounds great that can plug straight into my iPhone. Why make things more complicated and expensive for no reason?

I know... I know... This is Head-Fi. More expensive for no reason is a badge of honor around here.

 

[PointyFox]

That isn't poorly engineered. The amp you're talking about is the wrong amp for the purpose. It certainly works fine for the headphones it was designed to work with. I avoid amps with non-standard requirements like that. I think companies do it deliberately to limit your choices to their brand of amp (Stax). I would rather get something that sounds great that can plug straight into my iPhone. Why make things more complicated and expensive for no reason?

I know... I know... This is Head-Fi. More expensive for no reason is a badge of honor around here.

To be fair, Stax headphones are electrostatic and can't work with traditional headphone amps. It wasn't a choice to make them incompatible.

 

[bigshot]

I still don’t know why people buy them. There are much better options

 

[dazzerfong]

That isn't poorly engineered. The amp you're talking about is the wrong amp for the purpose. It certainly works fine for the headphones it was designed to work with. I avoid amps with non-standard requirements like that. I think companies do it deliberately to limit your choices to their brand of amp (Stax). I would rather get something that sounds great that can plug straight into my iPhone. Why make things more complicated and expensive for no reason?

High output impedance (unless we're talking about tubes) means poor design. There is literally never a good reason to have it in the headphone world, unless you're trying to divide power down using a resistor divider circuits (think speaker amps with a headphone output). Speakers? You tend to match impedance there, as the current draw is much larger there.

High noise is also poor design. That is literally the point of SNR measurements. That being said, computers can get surprisingly decent - my IEMs don't hiss or crackle from the output from my tower PCs.

And then we have interference from RF. Again, poor design because of lack/poor grounding. That's not a non-standard requirement, unless your target market is for hermits who use Faraday cages for their routers.

 

[bigshot]

A product should work. Most audio stuff works perfectly for its intended purpose. Even cheap stuff.

 

[PointyFox]

I still don’t know why people buy them. There are much better options

If there are they weren't at the last few NYC CanJams. The Stax always sound the best to me.

 

[bigshot]

I'm totally happy with my cans. And I can plug them straight into my iPod and they work fine. I use them for everything, even my VR headset. Within 1.5 to 2dB of my ideal response curve with a narrow Q and inaudible levels of distortion. Comfortable too. It isn't impossible to get both convenience AND sound quality. I understand that some people feel that if they don't have four black boxes in front of them with a million fancy cables, they aren't listening to music properly. But that isn't me. I'm not big on unnecessary accessories.