[themissingelf]

At home I enjoy a pair of Grado 325e and Shure SRH1540s through a Schitt Modi and Magni3...

At work I use a pair of AKG K52s plugged straight into my work laptop...

Source material for both is usually Spotify Premium.

I would like to improve the "at work" listening experience and I'm debating between an AudioQuest Red or spending the a similar sum on better headphones...

Grateful for any thoughts.

 

[Nitreb]

At home I enjoy a pair of Grado 325e and Shure SRH1540s through a Schitt Modi and Magni3...

At work I use a pair of AKG K52s plugged straight into my work laptop...

Source material for both is usually Spotify Premium.

I would like to improve the "at work" listening experience and I'm debating between an AudioQuest Red or spending the a similar sum on better headphones...

Grateful for any thoughts.

I have the original AQ Dragonfly and use it at home on my desktop computer. The only difference I hear between plugging my headphones in the Dragonfly or in the desktop jack is a slight hum from the desktop jack; with the Dragonfly I don't hear that hum. Personally, I would spend my money on a better pair of headphones or earphones, or buy the Dragonfly Black instead of the Red.

 

[themissingelf]

Thank you. I thought the Red was supposed to be better than the Black?

 

[Nitreb]

Thank you. I thought the Red was supposed to be better than the Black?

Technically, the Red has a higher-specs DAC and more output power than the Black so that in can drive more power-hungry headphones - It probably sounds different, but does it sound better? I don't know. "Better" is a very subjective term. The Red's specs are objectively better than the Black's, but I doubt I would hear a difference between the two based only on the differences in harmonic distortion and signal-to-noise levels; I believe it's under the threshold of audibility for both. For example, I'm not convinced that there's an audible difference between 0.01% TDH and 0,001% TDH. The only way to find out if you like the Red better than the Black is to listen to them, but beware of expectation bias. As I said, buying better headphones is a safer bet.