[karma99]

Hello all, great forum here.
I was wondering is it wise to power either one of these headphones via a portable dac/amp. The HD800 and
LCD-3 fazor with the fiio brt5 or the ifi hip dac? I understand I won’t be getting the full 100% potential but for semi portable use around the house is this an okay idea? Will be using my iPhone 12 mini. Thank you for the opinions/ wisdom!!

 

[iFi audio]

Hello all, great forum here.
I was wondering is it wise to power either one of these headphones via a portable dac/amp. The HD800 and
LCD-3 fazor with the fiio brt5 or the ifi hip dac? I understand I won’t be getting the full 100% potential but for semi portable use around the house is this an okay idea? Will be using my iPhone 12 mini. Thank you for the opinions/ wisdom!!

Hi there,

You might want to take a look at our headphone calculator here: https://ifi-audio.com/home/headphone-calculator/

There you cen select your headphones of choice and one of our products plus its settings, and that handy tool will display SPL level achievable, which is a good start to know whether you'll get sound loud enough or not. Good luck

 

[jkwanness]

i got the hipdac with my sundara.. also planning for a portable around the house setup for my pc and phone... I think the hipdac has more power than the BRT5 and that alone should be worth it.. I like the sound very much and considering a idsd signature for even more power.. i'm just worried the improvement might be just marginal for the price i'm paying.. that said, hipdac really sounds great

 

[iFi audio]

i got the hipdac with my sundara.. also planning for a portable around the house setup for my pc and phone... I think the hipdac has more power than the BRT5 and that alone should be worth it.. I like the sound very much and considering a idsd signature for even more power.. i'm just worried the improvement might be just marginal for the price i'm paying.. that said, hipdac really sounds great

I'd say that micro iDSD Signature is quite the upgrade over hip-dac, but if you'd like to try it out I'd contact your local iFi representative and either ask for a demo (not all, but some resellers have them) or return the product if it doesn't meet your expectations

 

[WILLJS]

hip dac all the way, the btr5 has nowhere near the power, and is focussed on on bluetooth features/compatibility. i own the hip dac and the btr3k, which is reviewed even better than the btr5, as far as i can tell, the btr5 is more powerful than the 3k, and has more features, but doesn't sound as refined. the ifi is leaps and bounds ahead of the btr3k or btr5 in terms of sound quality.

 

[iFi audio]

hip dac all the way, the btr5 has nowhere near the power, and is focussed on on bluetooth features/compatibility. i own the hip dac and the btr3k, which is reviewed even better than the btr5, as far as i can tell, the btr5 is more powerful than the 3k, and has more features, but doesn't sound as refined. the ifi is leaps and bounds ahead of the btr3k or btr5 in terms of sound quality.

Thank you very much

 

[WILLJS]

I've been using the hip dac since september 2021, very impressed with it!
i use it with my hifiman re800 silver edition, which sounds great, as the little bit of warmth from the Burr Brown, vs the fiio AK4377A in the BTR3K, fills in the slight midrange dip that the re800 silver's have.

 

[glinty766]

The BTR5 has a bit more power (and balanced) compared to the BTR3, so if the 5 is still affordable, it is technically better. If you are looking for a battery-powered DAC/Amp for desktop or laptop use and occasional phone pairing, the Hip-DAC2 is pretty much better. Depends on what you want to achieve.

 

[WILLJS]

the hip dac two is definately worth the extra money over the original hip dac, at only 20 bucks extra.
the btr5 is far better than the btr3, but the newer version, the btr3k, is reviewed much the same, with some arguing that it has slightly more refinement, also with 2.5mm balanced output.
though it does have less power than the btr5. it still has plenty of punch for iems and most portable headphones, however, as it is designed for portable use.
the btr5 or btr3k, does have bluetooth, which makes it more convenient for some, also cheaper.

 

[WILLJS]

Hi there,

You might want to take a look at our headphone calculator here: https://ifi-audio.com/home/headphone-calculator/

There you cen select your headphones of choice and one of our products plus its settings, and that handy tool will display SPL level achievable, which is a good start to know whether you'll get sound loud enough or not. Good luck

volume isn't the only thing, if an amp doesn't have enough power, it might sound strained or lacking in impact.

 

[WILLJS]

Hello all, great forum here.
I was wondering is it wise to power either one of these headphones via a portable dac/amp. The HD800 and
LCD-3 fazor with the fiio brt5 or the ifi hip dac? I understand I won’t be getting the full 100% potential but for semi portable use around the house is this an okay idea? Will be using my iPhone 12 mini. Thank you for the opinions/ wisdom!!

the hip dac has much more power, and these are some power hungry cans, you'd do better with the hip dac two, however, as it has yet more power and is only $20 AUD extra
it might also be worth investing in balanced cables for your headphones as well, if you don't have them already, as this will helpto get more power out of your amp.

 

[iFi audio]

volume isn't the only thing, if an amp doesn't have enough power, it might sound strained or lacking in impact.

Sure, we agree, going loud is one thing, but some cans need that extra juice to produce impactful and uncompressed sound. Thanks!