Budget DAC?
Dec 10, 2019 at 12:08 PM Post #106 of 121
Holy crap, with how clear and how much detail this DAC has even at 24/48, I was listening to my music through the surround sound virtualization I had already set up which adds crossfeed, reverb, and some EQ settings to simulate more natural sound and wow, this is the best my music has EVER sounded. Honestly, even for music I'll take 16/48 with a good HRIR vs 32/384 without a good HRIR.

Right now I am trying to see if I can modify the Khadas driver as the XMOS USB to I2S or SPDIF that it uses seems like it has a multichannel option, the standard USB Audio 2.0 driver just doesn't seem to support it.

Anyway, If I can solve the disconnection issues, I believe I have found a shell for it to go into. An Altoids tin.
 
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Dec 10, 2019 at 12:51 PM Post #107 of 121
Hi!
Sorry if I'm not on a good topic.

My question: is it worth starting with this budget "audiophile" set (~ $ 150): ATH M40X headphones + Fiio E10K Dac + Amp
or not and save even more on this set (~ $ 350): beyerdynamic dt 770 pro 250 ohm headphones + FiiO K5 Pro dac + amp?

Any other suggestions for playing HI-RES audio on PC?

Thank you in advance for your help!
 
Dec 10, 2019 at 1:45 PM Post #108 of 121
honestly, you might actually like the M40X over the DT770s, I've never done a side by side comparison of the two but many people will agree the M40X sounds just as good, if not better than the M50X which is almost always compared against DT770s as they're both top sellers in the ~$150 range. And as I am learning, high bitrates and sampling rates don't mean much past a point.

But I will tell you what I've learned up till this point in all the research and looking at reviews that I've done.

It seems the Khadas Tone Board, Loxjie D10, and Schiit Modi are top options for the $100 mark, with all of these getting very high marks from a lot of reviewers. I touched the RCA jacks to my headphone plug on my Khadas to see how it sounded connected straight to the DAC, and the khadas provided PLENTY of power for my 32ohm headphones that my amp isn't even necessary for my SHP9500s. In fact, I am thinking of buying a 3.5mm to RCA detachable headphone cable so I have one less piece of equipment on my desk (but I really like that volume knob).

If I were to get something else (the main reason I went with the Khadas was it was on sale for $20 off and because I wanted to try DSD the Schiit can't do, and the Loxjie was just too odd looking for me) then I would probably get a Modi or a Loxjie since I've realized DSD and 32-bit is functionally useless to my ears specifically, and if I really couldn't tolerate the Loxjies shape I could always just got it and stuff the circuits into a proper project box.

Just looking at other people opinions, reviews from people who have heard them all, multiple reviewers, as well as actual tests, people seem to like the Loxie, Modi, and Khadas in that order but they're all close and the best in the $100 range. At least, that's my impression. If you're going with a higher impedance headphones, you could just get the Loxjie which out of the three has a built-in amp, or if you go with the M40X or DT770 32ohm headphones you could probably skip the amp entirely and get either of them. This Khadas sounded at least as good plugged directly into it as it did amplified through my SMSL SAM-II amp.
 
Dec 10, 2019 at 2:59 PM Post #110 of 121
I have the OL Amp ($99) from JDS Labs but based on that I would suggest the OL DAC ($99). If I didn't have the iFi Nano BL already I would def hop on that.
 
Dec 10, 2019 at 4:00 PM Post #111 of 121
I forgot about the OLDAC. I ignored that one because I wanted to see if 32-bit or DSD would make a difference for me, understanding that it doesn't, the 24/192 the OLDAC provides is plenty. I need to check that one out. A Schiit stack and a JDS stack both cost about the same and have similar specs, and both US made.
 
Dec 10, 2019 at 4:33 PM Post #112 of 121
I have had the Magni 3 and I liked it but I did end up selling it. The OL Amp I enjoy much more and has actually been tested to perform better than the Magni 3 numbers wise. Of course I believe there is a new M3 just released with upgraded numbers IIRC.

I had the El Amp earlier in the year and really liked it but wanted something with a smaller footprint, I had bought it just before the OL Amp was released or I would have got that and saved myself a bit of money.
 
Dec 10, 2019 at 5:13 PM Post #113 of 121
jason41987 said:
Also, finding music at those bitrates is really difficult, the only thing I could even find in DSD was done by some random small artists specifically as a tech demo of DSD itself. All pointless. But out of curiosity, a standard CD quality FLAC file is what? 16/48? So you'll never achieve better than that without having to look for music in formats that practically don't even exist. The difference I noticed between FLAC music and spotify I probably could have heard at 16/48 as well.
Click to expand...

if you rip your own flac, the bit rate is on you

but as i rip cd and the sample is 44.1, that's what i use - essentially cd quality (but much smaller files)
 
Dec 11, 2019 at 5:53 AM Post #117 of 121
Is there any way to actually test DACs side by side, like record an audio file after they are processed and compare the two? I am trying to do some side by side comparisons of audio sources to test the difference.

What I've tried to do is used Audacity with WASAPI to record the same song coming out of both devices, then using that plugin with Foobar I listened to the two recordings side by side because I wanted to hear just how different onboard audio sounded compared to the DAC. In hearing the two audio samples it sounded like the onboard audio on my PC had all the music, and vocals coming from the same area all blended together when compared to the track recorded from the DAC. I used the DAC in the highest bitrate possible to listen to both recordings, and both were constrained to 16/48 through the surround sound processing. This left the only variable between the two tracks being the DACs themselves.

Also after listening to the same track over, and over, and over again, I swapped headphones. My onboard audio sounds better through my SHP9500s than my DAC sounds through my $20 Monoprice headphones, by far. Previously, both headphones sounded fairly similar to me. So if my testing methods were correct then I have confirmed a very clear, and very noticeable difference to my ears between onboard and the DAC where I couldn't detect a difference before between 320k MP3s and 24/192hz FLACs or DSDs. The reason I wanted to do this test with the audio devices and headphones was to confirm that I can actually notice differences, and that I am not simply missing something in the sampling rate comparisons from earlier.

I can hear a very clear difference between onboard Realtek HD Audio and the Khadas Tone Board, and I can hear a very clear difference between SHP9500s and Monoprice 8323, So I am convinced the reason I CAN'T hear a huge difference between 24/192 and 320kbs MP3 is because there isn't one,
 
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Dec 11, 2019 at 12:42 PM Post #118 of 121
So, I swapped out the cable for a new one. I went from the device disconnecting every 5-10 minutes, to not having a single disconnection since switching the cable in the last 6 hours I've been using it.
 
Dec 11, 2019 at 3:15 PM Post #119 of 121
jason41987 said:
Is there any way to actually test DACs side by side, like record an audio file after they are processed and compare the two? I am trying to do some side by side comparisons of audio sources to test the difference.
Click to expand...

You may want to check out the "sound science" subforum for this sort of thing, there are definitely folks there who get up to that stuff.
 
Dec 12, 2019 at 5:41 AM Post #120 of 121
Whelp, now it's time for me to shop for some new headphones to go with my DAC. Any idea what a good matchup with the Khadas might be? I have about a $200 budget since I saved a decent amount getting the Khadas on sale. I am looking at DT880/990, HDxx, HExx, and K7xx.
 
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