Dethonray Clarinet - Portable DAC/Amp Discussion + Impression thread

[DingDongMonster]

Ding Dong,

I did a bit of listening with Hermit and Clarinet and I retract my earlier observation, I don’t personally think it works well.

To me the bass becomes over pronounced and unpleasant to my ear.

I swapped back to straight off my M11 Plus LTD and then off my PA10 and both sounded cleaner and better balanced.

Of course that is subjective preference and mileage may vary.

Agreed. Hermit shines on more balanced sources. Very high resolution, but have a good balance on top and low. The Aehta is better for the Clarinet.

 

[fabio19]

How do you recommend that I connect the Clarinet to Luxury&Precision LP6 Ti?

 

[pradiptacr7]

How do you recommend that I connect the Clarinet to Luxury&Precision LP6 Ti?

It has S/P-DIF out that means you can connect through Clarinet's Co-Axial/Optical input. Many can highly recommend that including me

 

[fabio19]

It has S/P-DIF out that means you can connect through Clarinet's Co-Axial/Optical input. Many can highly recommend that including me

Thanks.....as well as giving power.....Clarinet, how does it change (if it does change) the sound of LP6 Ti ?

 

[BS5711]

Thanks.....as well as giving power.....Clarinet, how does it change (if it does change) the sound of LP6 Ti ?

The LP6 will become a digital transport sending the digital data to the Clarinet which will do the digital to analog conversion and the amplification.

The sound will be entirely clarinet.

Unless of course you buy into the notion that digital is something more than digital and that the source of the digital signal somehow changes the sound, in that case you will have to assess for yourself.

In the case of the Clarinet it seems obvious that the coaxial and optical input has been "tuned" in some way to sound different to USB because it certainly seems to be different as others have said.

I have several other DAC/amps that I use with coaxial, optical and USB inputs for different uses and they sound identical with any input except for when the sound is non existent of just messed up with 24/192 over optical from an SMSL PO100 that doesn't seem to like anything over 24/96.

 

[fabio19]

The LP6 will become a digital transport sending the digital data to the Clarinet which will do the digital to analog conversion and the amplification.

The sound will be entirely clarinet.

Unless of course you buy into the notion that digital is something more than digital and that the source of the digital signal somehow changes the sound, in that case you will have to assess for yourself.

In the case of the Clarinet it seems obvious that the coaxial and optical input has been "tuned" in some way to sound different to USB because it certainly seems to be different as others have said.

I have several other DAC/amps that I use with coaxial, optical and USB inputs for different uses and they sound identical with any input except for when the sound is non existent of just messed up with 24/192 over optical from an SMSL PO100 that doesn't seem to like anything over 24/96.

Thank you for your reply. What amp would you recommend me with LP6Ti ? I mean...an amp that sounds as close as possible to LP6 or distorts it as little as possible.

 

[BS5711]

Thank you for your reply. What amp would you recommend me with LP6Ti ? I mean...an amp that sounds as close as possible to LP6 or distorts it as little as possible.

I don’t have a lot of experience with dedicated portable amplifiers.

@DingDongMonster might be able to help here.

 

[fabio19]

Agreed. Hermit shines on more balanced sources. Very high resolution, but have a good balance on top and low. The Aehta is better for the Clarinet.

What amp would you recommend me with LP6Ti ? I mean...an amp that sounds as close as possible to LP6 or distorts it as little as possible.

 

[cobrabucket]

The LP6 will become a digital transport sending the digital data to the Clarinet which will do the digital to analog conversion and the amplification.

The sound will be entirely clarinet.

Unless of course you buy into the notion that digital is something more than digital and that the source of the digital signal somehow changes the sound, in that case you will have to assess for yourself.

In the case of the Clarinet it seems obvious that the coaxial and optical input has been "tuned" in some way to sound different to USB because it certainly seems to be different as others have said.

I have several other DAC/amps that I use with coaxial, optical and USB inputs for different uses and they sound identical with any input except for when the sound is non existent of just messed up with 24/192 over optical from an SMSL PO100 that doesn't seem to like anything over 24/96.

This seems to be the case with my clarinet aa well (anything over 24/96 doesn't play correctly).
When using a PC, I downsample via foobar, but with my DAP, I might have to get creative to play the files correctly.
It's definitely weird bc the Clarinet is supposed to be able to play 24/192...

 

[BS5711]

This seems to be the case with my clarinet aa well (anything over 24/96 doesn't play correctly).
When using a PC, I downsample via foobar, but with my DAP, I might have to get creative to play the files correctly.
It's definitely weird bc the Clarinet is supposed to be able to play 24/192...

It seems to me the Clarinet will play anything (PCM up to 24/192 at least) fine over USB but seems to be limited to 24/96 over coaxial or optical.

That is true from coaxial and optical with my little SMSL PO100 DDC or via coaxial from my FiiO M11 Plus .... literally no sound will play, not just not play correctly.

The SMSL PO100 seems to struggle with 24/192 but luckily Qobuz has very little 24/192 content and it makes no difference to the sound quality anyway so after much messing around to try and figure it out (for the sake of technical correctness only) I just set the Qobuz output to 24/96 if I come upon some 24/192 when using the PO100 and call it good.

Frankly the Clarinet has kind of fallen out of favour with me. It sounds fine of course but it isn't necessary better than other gear I have for me and I find its foibles a bit irritating. Inconsistent volume adjustment, clicks on changing volume, drop in volume at the start of tracks over USB, pops when inserting IEM cable etc.

At the moment it resides in the unused box of gear unfortunately. Frankly it seems a bit unrefined to me, I guess being from a small manufacturer at a modest cost that is probably essentially true, and I prefer to use other gear.

 

[bazhin61]

Greetings.
What is the firmware worth- is it new from 12/30/2024 or did you leave the old one out of the box?

I mean, which firmware has obvious flaws?

 

[DingDongMonster]

I don’t have a lot of experience with dedicated portable amplifiers.

@DingDongMonster might be able to help here.

Sorry. I don’t have experience with Lotoo and L&P. I am mostly on streaming, as I like to explore a lot. End up, some brands are like a blind spot for me and I have no experience.

 

[BS5711]

Greetings.
What is the firmware worth- is it new from 12/30/2024 or did you leave the old one out of the box?

I mean, which firmware has obvious flaws?

The 30th December firmware fixes a bit of a buggy volume behavior during gain changes, low to high gain more specifically. On the orginal firmware flicking the gain switch did nothing until you adjusted the volume knob, the new firmware drops the volume when switching low gain to high then gently ramps the volume back up automatically.

With the factory shipped firmware I had a situation where upon switching gain then touching the volume knob the volume went very high despite that the knob was well down around 9 o'clock. Never had that with the 30th December firmware.

It doesn't seem to do anything to fix a generally slightly imprecise volume knob control. Not really especially noticeable with less sensitive headphones but a tad annoying with more sensitive IEM.

 

[BladeRose]

Greetings.
What is the firmware worth- is it new from 12/30/2024 or did you leave the old one out of the box?

I mean, which firmware has obvious flaws?

Recommend upgrading to the latest version, 12/30.
I received a beta version yesterday, fixed the bug of coax hot plug. Anson said he will release new versions on February 20th to fix volume related bugs and will make a dedicated version to support high-sensitivity IEM.

 

[daorenmi]

Thank you for your reply. What amp would you recommend me with LP6Ti ? I mean...an amp that sounds as close as possible to LP6 or distorts it as little as possible.

It may only be EA4.