[Jefecesti]

For IEMs I d say DAPs are usually superior to desktop gear and desktop gear superior for headphones whereas with easy to drive cans like don’t know my Denon AH D 9200 a decent DAP isn’t worse either

Sorry to hear what happened to you. Hopefully you can recover better over time and wish you good health !

A DAP is very convenient while going for a short walk. At the desk, it depends. If you are only listening to music, you can use the same DAP. For IEMs, it should suffice. For more powerful headphones, you can use your external AMPs if you feel the DAP is not sufficient to drive them. I don’t know why you would need an external DAC + the DAP. That makes no sense to me.

For anything other than music, like watching videos or playing games etc. I wouldn’t use a DAP at all, whether on move or at the desk due to the latency. When I’m at my desk I use my laptop with an IFI DAC/AMP, works perfectly for everything and not just music.

Looks like you made me answer my own question. Cheers !

As always in life - it depends. On your use case.

Besides technicalities mentioned before using headphones with the usual 3m long cables and desktop gear while sitting on the couch is great. With IEM and its usual 1,2m long cables (and given the fact that a headphone is easier taken of and put back on for a short break or in order to go for a drink in the fridge) I like a portable DAP much better. A good DAP like the 320 can also handle most headphones without problems and drive them adequate.

Listening in bed at night a DAP is easier to handle than a phone since it has dedicated buttons for play, pause and especially for going forth and back trackwise so that the display can stay turned off.

That may also be an advantage when on the go. And do you think about travelling?

For true mobile use the 320 might be to big and heavy though. I would prefer something like a Shanling M1Pro or M0Pro when on my way. Or a high quality dongle with a phone in order to be able to stream from Roon and Qobuz everywhere even when out of reach of a WiFi...

I have bought and sold DAP various times. The main reason to rebuy a DAP lately had to do with another decision: to acquire various IEM and use those more often from now on instead of my 2 main headphones. Different flavours are a blessing so why restrict myself to the same meal each day?

Until you start singing along with the songs...
Cheers!
-HK sends

Thank you all for support and thoughtfull feedback!

It’s fun to read your interesting discussions, which do slightly affect on buying more hifi-stuff. =)

 

[nioh]

I'm the opposite, I found amp 11mk2 severely superior to amp13 and couldn't be bothered with the other amps, and found that the wm1a is far livlier than the dx320 it's all subjective it seems

You and me have a very similar taste
I also love AMP11MK2S and didn’t like the AMP13 so didn’t bother getting the AMP14.
I see now you have a WM1A and not M2. From what I’ve read, M2‘s performance is terrible

One thing I found strange though. You talk about WM1A and Cayin N6ii and you even had the DX320 for a while but then you mention pairing it with MDR-1AM2. I have the MDR-1AM2 too and it’s amazing. But why flagship DAPs and puny headphones ?

 

[nioh]

As a newcomer to DX320, I've been enjoying listening to my collection via an SD card. Out of curiosity, I also bought the AMP14. Being able to try out different amps is a really neat feature that pushed me towards this DAP. That said, if you plan on streaming music, AMP14 is useless. Others already shared this, but the amount of electrical noise is ridiculous. I turns hi-res digital audio into scratchy vinyl. It's tolerable when music is playing, but when a soft passage comes up, or a dramatic pause in an emotional piece, the joy and immersion of listening to high-quality music is immediately shattered by crackling sounds of this amp card. I might switch back to the stock amp, so that I have the freedom to listen to my collection or stream something new. Will see.

Have you tried streaming with 2.4Ghz Wifi ? With the AMP13 I also have these interferences and crackling, but only on 5Ghz.

 

[Jefecesti]

As a newcomer to DX320, I've been enjoying listening to my collection via an SD card. Out of curiosity, I also bought the AMP14. Being able to try out different amps is a really neat feature that pushed me towards this DAP. That said, if you plan on streaming music, AMP14 is useless. Others already shared this, but the amount of electrical noise is ridiculous. I turns hi-res digital audio into scratchy vinyl. It's tolerable when music is playing, but when a soft passage comes up, or a dramatic pause in an emotional piece, the joy and immersion of listening to high-quality music is immediately shattered by crackling sounds of this amp card. I might switch back to the stock amp, so that I have the freedom to listen to my collection or stream something new. Will see.

For most streaming apps you can download the music you’re about to listen, which takes about few seconds. After that just offline the DX320. I do it with the amp13 and it’s very easy and convenient.

 

[samandhi]

Have you tried streaming with 2.4Ghz Wifi ? With the AMP13 I also have these interferences and crackling, but only on 5Ghz.

And usually only when it is actively downloading (like it does only in the beginning of the song when buffering). At least that is my experience. Once it is done buffering, it is totally black for me.

 

[justsomesonyfan]

You and me have a very similar taste
I also love AMP11MK2S and didn’t like the AMP13 so didn’t bother getting the AMP14.
I see now you have a WM1A and not M2. From what I’ve read, M2‘s performance is terrible

One thing I found strange though. You talk about WM1A and Cayin N6ii and you even had the DX320 for a while but then you mention pairing it with MDR-1AM2. I have the MDR-1AM2 too and it’s amazing. But why flagship DAPs and puny headphones ?

I've ventured far too deep into audio and destroyed my wallet, even now when experimenting I'm using funds from purely audio sales / trades.

I'll be honest, the mdr 1am2 is great, and was pretty good with most, however it seriously shines with the wm1a to the point where I can't see myself caring enough about trying anything else, maybe mdr z1r eventually? but I've read the 1am2 is 90% there in SQ, and considering the huge price difference, and how insanely light and comfortable the 1am2, I feel I'd take them anyways.

comfort is very underrated, ier z1r is one of the best iems I've heard but I couldn't keep them because after 30+ minutes my ears would bleed (and I had a great fit!! but they're far too heavy!)

 

[Wikinaut]

Have you tried streaming with 2.4Ghz Wifi ? With the AMP13 I also have these interferences and crackling, but only on 5Ghz.

For most streaming apps you can download the music you’re about to listen, which takes about few seconds. After that just offline the DX320. I do it with the amp13 and it’s very easy and convenient.

Two great suggestions I will try out! As you could tell, I was rather frustrated. Fingers crossed one of these work. Obviously, the offline mode will work. It's just a bit inconvenient.

 

[samandhi]

Two great suggestions I will try out! As you could tell, I was rather frustrated. Fingers crossed one of these work. Obviously, the offline mode will work. It's just a bit inconvenient.

Even if you switch to 2.4GHz you will still get SOME noise with the tube amp cards. But you should not be getting it all the time. As mentioned earlier, it should really only make that noise when actively downloading something, then it stops when the download stops.

Having said that, there were a couple people on here that DID have constant noise when WiFi was on. Maybe your head gear is just TOO good/revealing for this???

 

[NAD Fi]

Sadly this also reduces the performance. I use this on my LG V30 (yes I still have the good old Quad ESS DAC phone) and it makes everything a bit sluggish. Haven’t tried it on the Dx320.

Apps can be exempted from Battery Optimizer, I typically exempt music streaming apps and haven’t had any issues.

 

[Whitigir]

Man, streaming hi-res that has scratchy vinyl sound would be an amazing feature , wouldn’t it ?

 

[crbc]

Chris this is a great post. I apologize for asking but how would you compare the sound to the great home units you mentioned in your post? Thanks

Excerpt from my post 5999 - "The reason I have practically never posted on Head-fi is because I do not consider myself skilled enough to describe audio sound character differences. So please don’t ask me for such. That said, the reason I recounted my audio history above is as testimony about my life-long exposure and quest for terrific quality audio."

But since you did anyway ),

The BHSE/Chord Hugo/Stax SR-009 combo as anyone would expect - outstanding. But I so much prefer the lighter weight and lighter clamping pressure of the Senn HD800 and HD-800s < I've had both. And of course, the portability - to be able to walk around or lie back in bed or in a recliner vs being shackled by a long cord to a stationary rig. Having not had the BHSE/Stax for a few years, my recall is dim as to exact differences to DX320. Plus my 74-year old ears unfortunately do not hear the high's as when I was younger, though I have been careful to avoid exposure to sustained "Loud" in order to minimize hearing degradation.

Of course, audio via a well-configured speaker system is much different than thru any headphone rig. I love my surround sound SACD's and Blu-ray music concerts in my media room on a 16' wide screen with extremely immersive sound and perfectly calibrated dual SVS SB-3000 subs in a carefully acoustically-treated room.

My DX320/Senn HD-800s combo will never deliver the bass slam of my media room. The Senn HD800s is known to be somewhat bass modest. I sampled successive Audeze headphone versions for their touted bass delivery, but sold them off because they felt too heavy and clamped too hard for me = fatigue. I can listen to the Senn HD-800s for hours and hours without fatigue. I sample many genre's - rock, pop, classic, jazz, new age - but sample fav's are Alison Krauss and Union Station and Steely Dan.

I love the DX-320 / Senn HD-800s combo for the comfort, and the exposure to the intricate detail of headphones vs. speakers. Such a different perspective than via speakers. Senn HD-800s mid-bass delivery is adequate for me. The rest is just awesome with stock Amp 11mk2, but the Amp 11-MUSE-XF simply somehow enhances everything - dynamics, details, musicality. I expected to prefer Amp 13 or 14 over stock 11mk2, for their tube warmth, but slightly prefer the AMP 11mk2. I swapped all 4 of my Amp modules in and out for this past week to contrast, but I keep wanting my Amp 11-MUSE-XF back in my DX320 - it has IMO, the best characteristics of all 4, but greatly heightened! Improvement is not subtle.

I've only had one pair of iem's - Dunu SP6. I didn't care much for the "feel" of the tips, maybe because I have small ears. So I sent off ear impressions to 64 Audio for a12t ciem's and am 5 weeks into the 7 week production time estimate. I expect, I'll use these on airplanes mostly. It's been fun getting back into headphones. The technology and offerings have advanced so much since I last hacked around with such 10+/- years ago!

 

[NAD Fi]

Welcome to the forum, I also love the HD8XX and DX320 pairing.

 

[NAD Fi]

Even if you switch to 2.4GHz you will still get SOME noise with the tube amp cards. But you should not be getting it all the time. As mentioned earlier, it should really only make that noise when actively downloading something, then it stops when the download stops.

Having said that, there were a couple people on here that DID have constant noise when WiFi was on. Maybe your head gear is just TOO good/revealing for this???

The more I follow this thread the more I am convinced I have a golden Amp14 card. No wifi interference for me, background is pitch black when streaming on 2.4ghz. Tube module also stays put.

 

[Wikinaut]

Sorry, I must be daft. I can’t find how to limit network access to 2.4GHz. Where is that setting?!?

 

[nioh]

Sorry, I must be daft. I can’t find how to limit network access to 2.4GHz. Where is that setting?!?

You cannot do that on the DX320. You might be able to do that on your router. Some routers allow splitting the Wi-Fi SSID into 2 separate SSIDs, one for 2.4 and the other for 5. In other words you have different names for the 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz. You can then connect your DX320 to the 2.4ghz SSID.