[squidman]

MQA has been skewered in the audio press for the past couple of years. TIDAL went to true lossless hi-res in the Spring. It still has MQA files on its premium service but is moving to replace them.

If one has MQA capability fine but buying anything new - it’s not going to useful unless you’ve got some stashed away on a drive somewhere.

Well I downgraded my Tidal subscription actually, to normal hi-fi, good to know these things. In any case Schiit Audio don't support MQA. It's all analogue from their entry-level dac. RCA out and RCA in. Still the best hi-fi on a budget solution if you ask me. Untill then on a Fiio q1 portable DAC/amp. Did the job for many years. Smaller than a pack of cigarettes. Cool little gadget. Will be following head-fi.org for all things hi-fi of course, including next pair of iem's. Great community! Keep it up!

 

[squidman]

Well plugged in my tiny tiny Fiio Q1 portable dac/amp, and Hi-fi man to portable amp, and already a big difference! Bit of a problem with it dropping out with loose USB cables, but still problem with loose cables. Keeps dropping out. Micro-usb to pc of course, not the best connection. Will hang on to that Fiio q1 as just have cheap oneplus mobile, no good dac there, (but lots of memory! 256gb and 12gb!), already 60gb are taken by ripped cd's on there. Only have cough 50gb left on it. A cheapy but works fine if you need lots of memory. But yeah even the tiny Fiio helped with the cans. Still sticking with the Schiit Magni+ and the other one. One last gasp at obtaining hi-fi sound on a budget! Sennheiser 600 could be a thing though in the future.

 

[squidman]

Yeah, hi-fi man HE-4xx sounded immediately better. About the same as my old k612's. Those have a broken plug which is tragic, no way to switch cables. Very poor design. They work, but plug may or may not break inside of the amp or pc, no way of knowing. Will never go back to cans which don't have replaceable cables again. DT770's I'm looking at you! Second pair here. Or AKG k612s as well. Not good.

 

[bagwell359]

Well I downgraded my Tidal subscription actually, to normal hi-fi, good to know these things. In any case Schiit Audio don't support MQA. It's all analogue from their entry-level dac. RCA out and RCA in. Still the best hi-fi on a budget solution if you ask me. Untill then on a Fiio q1 portable DAC/amp. Did the job for many years. Smaller than a pack of cigarettes. Cool little gadget. Will be following head-fi.org for all things hi-fi of course, including next pair of iem's. Great community! Keep it up!

Good to see people getting excited about music and playback technology. Agree on Schiit - my only DAC and main amp are from them.

 

[squidman]

Well ordered the magni + and the other one from Europe, 412 Euros so not exactly cheap, and will have to pay 25% VAT on top of that as well. Oh well. Being a hi-fier is never cheap regardless! But see that I am on the lower end of the scale. I pretty much draw the line at thousands of dollars for a pair of cans or amplifiers, then I think it's mostly bull. Yeah 4-5 hundred bucks ok. And maybe 1000 for custom iem's that are molded to your ear, with 6 or more speakers! The rest..well just hi-fi snobbery. We'll see how these work out! Doubt I can hear the difference. But that as much monies as I'm willing to throw at it.

 

[squidman]

Well I went with Schiit Audio Magni+ and the other one, for a combo, for around 425 Euro. Or around 4800 nok. As budget as I could afford. Gotta say my micro-amp the FiiO Q1 sounds pretty good out of the desktop though! Miles better than motherboard. Guess next big hifi-purchase will be in-ears with balanced armatures, six or so of them. Pretty happy with my Chinese in-ears so far. Of course should get custom job done!

 

[squidman]

Then again maybe I have to invest in a pair of Sennheiser hd600's as they're so famous! But have like 4-5 pairs of cans here already.

 

[BrokeAudiophileMan]

Was expecting better cans for the monies, nearly 300 usd or something. Quality was fine, but still had better sound out of old akg k612's out of the box. Tried both straight from computer and from an old asus sound card. I'm not sure how obsolete that is, listening to a sound card on the computer. Still have a DAC for my mobile, that's how old I am! So basically no punch, and no real bass, but not bad. About equivalent to my closed back cans which are a dt-770 pro and an akg k271 mk ii. Worse than the aforementioned akg k612's by quite a bit. But then have replaceable cables! So that helps, even if it takes 3 months from china! So was sold on the hype of planar backed cans, and that turned out to be mostly bull. So well, not terrible cans by any means, and pretty comfy, but not mind-blowing either by a long way. Not worth the monies if you ask me. Oh well, I tried planar magnetic cans, and they were found wanting! Will stick with AKG or Sennheiser or something next time. Have enough cans to keep me going though here for a while! Always good to be back on head-fi!

It sounds like you didn't feed them enough power. If I plug my HE400SE (similar cans same company) into say, an apple dongle, or even my dongle dac/amp or my PC, its going to sound quiet, lack any semblance of dynamics, and be generally terrible. Most planar magnetic headphones need tons of power to sound good. If you feed the cheaper "round frame" hifiman stuff enough power it has a very "big" sound that's very enjoyable. I've never disliked a Hifiman I've listened to, but they react terribly to low power.


I think you'd really open up a whole new world if you threw $200 at a Fiio K7 desktop amp and a 4.4mm balanced cable for those Hifimans. The K7 has a built in DAC and sounds spectacular for the price. I used to have a $600 Schiit stack with an asgaard and some dac and this sounds better at 1/3 the price. You'll have enough power for those Hifimans and other stuff down the line like HD600's which sound absolutely spectacular on a K7 and are also infamous for needing tons of power to sound good.
K7 puts out almost 2000mW balanced out and over 1000mW unbalanced out.

 

[BrokeAudiophileMan]

Well I went with Schiit Audio Magni+ and the other one, for a combo, for around 425 Euro. Or around 4800 nok. As budget as I could afford. Gotta say my micro-amp the FiiO Q1 sounds pretty good out of the desktop though! Miles better than motherboard. Guess next big hifi-purchase will be in-ears with balanced armatures, six or so of them. Pretty happy with my Chinese in-ears so far. Of course should get custom job done!

Get the Fiio K7. It's best in class in my opinion. It's going to sound much better than the Schiit equivalent at the same price which would be the base modi/magni stack. I find schiit DAC's to sound very bright and not make for good times.

 

[BrokeAudiophileMan]

Then again maybe I have to invest in a pair of Sennheiser hd600's as they're so famous! But have like 4-5 pairs of cans here already.

Super sorry for making 3 posts and not making it all one post (i don't know how)
You really have to get HD600s. They are spectacularly good. Get something with tons of juice to feed them first though. All the other HD6XX are inferior to the 600 I think. 6XX/650 (too warm) 660S 660S2 (weirdo tuning). 600 is best.

 

[squidman]

Well already gone ahead and got the entry level Schiit stack, as they had the best reviews online. K5/K7 also available here, but not for the same prices. Well K7 3700 nok or around 342 USD for K7. Then again I just paid 4800 nok or 450 usd for my Schiit stack, before even paying 25% VAT. Still Fiio was not really mentioned in online reviews, while Schiit stack got top reviews every where I looked. Pretty sure both are good. Yeah may pick up old hd600's, but not exactly cheap at around 3800 nok or 350 usd. We'll see. Maybe if I win the lottery. Or eat noodles for a month. Thanks for the tips!

 

[bagwell359]

Get the Fiio K7. It's best in class in my opinion. It's going to sound much better than the Schiit equivalent at the same price which would be the base modi/magni stack. I find schiit DAC's to sound very bright and not make for good times.

Which Schiit DAC's do you mean - probably not the Gungnir MB or the Yggy. Do any Schiit MB DAC's fit into your list? Please specify.

 

[squidman]

I ordered the entry level Schiit stack Modi+ and Magni+ as they got the best reviews on hi-fi sites. Fiio k5 or K7 was also possible. But had a budget of 4-500 euros. And nearly broke that limit at 425 euro (and will have to pay 25% VAT on that on import!). So well it is what it is, may have been better off with FiiO, but all the review sites gave Schiit rave reviews so went with that. But still super-happy with FiiO Q1's did the job for a long while. With both full-on cans or in-ear iem's. It is what it is. But Schiit got better reviews than FiiO's. Of course around 50% more expensive. Well, in things hi-fi, expense is rarely an issue! Hope they work out alright, going for the budget solution, but must still be better than mobo audio. Just hope the can drive my Hi-fi man hx-4xx cans well enough listening to Tidal. Not really a hi-fier here, going for cheapest possible hi-fi solution.

 

[squidman]

Otherwise, of course, I would just buy a Studio DAC and be done with it. Plenty available for cheap around 100 euros. So already going with Schiit or FiiO or others, and planar magnetic headphones, already getting into the hi-fi zone. If I can hear the difference is another matter. Recognize that I am in the cheap end of the zone of course. So be it.

 

[squidman]

Well could have gone for the FiiO k5 or k7 for a lot cheaper, but the reviews weren't there. And Schiit Audio had great reviews. So pulled the plug and went for them, although almost twice as expensive. We'll see, stack cost me almost 4800 nok or USD 442 before VAT which is another 25%. So we'll see. But very happy with my tiny cigarette-pack sized FiiO Q1 for mobiles, just wondering how to connect it to modern cell-phones with USB-C. Need micro-usb cable to USB-C. Another ebay thing. Great little thing though!!