[danterikxx]

I am kind of letting go of getting 5.1 out of my PS5 with all sorts of HDMI audio toslink extractor shenanigans. I am just going to get stereo with a good dac/amp.

So now I am looking for a good dac/amp that works with PS5, but is also good for music listening.

I have a pair of PC38x, Audioquest nightowls and might pick up some planars down the road.

At this point I am in between a few devices. I am leaning towards the mayflower arc 2, since it seems to have a decent dac, decent amp, headphone input and works with PS5. Does anyone have experience with it? Are there better options? I know I would get more bang for my buck if I get a seperate dac and amp, but those won't include a mic input. I could of course plug the mic in my controller, but after years of mixamps, I am not looking to have anything plugged in my controller honestly.

The x7 is on sale (250), but I don't think that is going to work with PS5 (in the future) right? The G6 sadly isn't on sale, and 150 seems a hefty price if I am not going to use any of the surround settings.

Another option might be a very cheap gamer dac that works with PS5 (or 3.5 mic input to USB converter?), and a dac/amp stack for my PC. That way I can use the amp for both dacs, and still have high quality music listening on my PC.

Would love to hear what my options are at this point. Have done a lot of research, but most of those threads are outdated at this point (and/or advice UAC2 stuff like the schiit hell)

i have the X7 and it works on the PS5....with a HDMI audio extractor, through optical. Not USB

apparently the new Schiit Hel 2 supports the PS5 even with USB, so you might want to look into that

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

Sure does. Haven't gotten around to testing it, but no reason to think otherwise. Schiit specifically mentioned the PS5 as the reason there is a UAC1/UAC auto switch on the unit. I'll test it tomorrow. For now, bed time.

 

[DenverW]

They're mine, and I'll likely get around to it at some point, sooner than later. First comes the Hel 2, then the Blackshark V2. After that, we'll see how I feel.

The fact that they're yours makes me feel they'll rate well . I wish I hadn't sold my Sony Z7M2; I feel like they had good gaming performance and i'd like to compare them to the teaks. I remember just feeling that musically the teaks were better, and I just didnt give the sony's a fair shake with gaming. Now I regret it.

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

They're super fun and immersive. That's what I wanted first and foremost.

 

[Chastity]

FYI for Redscape owners, it's up to 1.3.9. Settings - About - Check For Update

Not sure if the app autochecks. Updated me from 1.36 to 1.39. His Version List is also a bit outdated, last update is 1.30.

 

[UrsusMajor]

You guys are overstating how much headphones change by your snake oil cables and dac/amps. Even off an entry level amp/dac you get the gist out of any headphone that doesn't require a power plant.

You wanna dismiss my review because I didn't review them to your specifications, that's great, but hyperbolic statements like "OMG YOU DIDN'T EVEN HEAR THE 8XX WITH YOUR GEAR YOU HAVE TO USE X amp or Y dac", is ridiculous, and justification bias.

The gear didn't give me a fair idea? Give me a break. I'm reviewing the headphone, not the combination of what you think is the best possible synergistic combo for them. If anything the Jot2 SE HELPED the bad qualities on it.

Lets just discredit every review out there that doesn't use what you think they should use, because of some magical drastic transformation that headphones go through.

In the decade+ of me using a variety of different amps/dacs and upgrading and downgrading, no headphone regardless of current or voltage requirements or sensitivity has ever, ever done anything but done subtle changes. This is a game of subtleties. Subtle enough that people, even manufacturers of amps/dacs fail their own tests.

You wanna spend $500 on fancy snakeskin diamond venom cables or whatever, please, do you. But don't ever expect logical people to think it's going to transform a headphone to some magical version of it. If anything, an SS amp helps people understand what a headphone is expected to sound like by default. Getting an OTL amp or whatever will help shave off whatever issues you may have with it, but then you're correcting for the headphone, not listening to the headphone how it sounds off most gear.

This is why I'm so apprehensive about buying the HDV820.
Whether the price hike is justified by what might possibly be a minuscule diminished return.

But another part of me is curious to try out what Axel Grell's talented team at Senn believed brought out the very best of the HD800S - and how much exactly it differs from my entry-level Schiit stack

 

[Lay.]

This is why I'm so apprehensive about buying the HDV820.
Whether the price hike is justified by what might possibly be a minuscule diminished return.

But another part of me is curious to try out what Axel Grell's talented team at Senn believed brought out the very best of the HD800S - and how much exactly it differs from my entry-level Schiit stack

The only person in the whole universe that can tell you if the difference is worth the price is you.

Diminishing returns? For shure. I would even argue that you can find diminishing returns between HD 598 and HD 800S for gaming. The gaming experience is not 10 times better. Is it worth for me considering the price. Yes (since I like them for music). Is it worth for someone else? I really can't tell that and nobody can. For most of my gaming friends I would guess it is not worth it but we are not like the most of people here in Head-Fi.

 

[ronfifer]

We should do this exercise where we identify the little brother of the HD800S in terms of competitive gaming in lower price brackets.

Who is the HD800S's little brother between:

A. $150-$300 ?
B. $300-$500 ?
C. $500-$1000 ?
D. $1000-$1500 ?

 

[Qupie]

I'll have time to mess with it tomorrow and Tuesday. Haven't messed with it much yet.

Is that why dac/amps need so much volume? I didn't know it was a bug. Is there a potential fix for this outside of blasting amp volume?

Yes that is the reason (I use my Fiio e18 right now and it needs to be on high gain volume 5 on PS5 (and PS4), while normally I listen at low gain volume 3.5).

AFAIK it has been described as the volume bug, volume issues or swapped channel bug (that can happen too apparently...). It is a problem with PS4 and 5 and has been for years, so I have little hope Sony is going to fix it... There has been little documentation on it AFAIK, other than some reddit posts, it has been somewhat flying under the radar.

JDS labs has found a work around for their PS5 compatible dacs. The best / most concise information you can find is in their blog. "PS4 and PS5 are known to limit USB Audio output volume. All of our UAC1 firmware is locked to max volume as a workaround (you can still adjust volume at your console)." https://blog.jdslabs.com/2020/11/connecting-a-usb-dac-to-ps4-or-ps5/

I hope Schiit implemented something similar in the Hel 2. The headphones I have right now are easy to drive, but only having ~20%-50% (different sources state different %) input volume cannot be good for your signal to noise ratio. I really hope the Hel 2 has taken this into account. Very curious how you are going to like it! (p.s. talking about another opportunity to kickstart a youtube channel.... I haven't seen any reviews on Hel 2 yet, one of the only dacs working with the new generation consoles...)

-------------------

Some more posts discussing this weird bug:

https://www.resetera.com/threads/ps5-usb-dac-compatibility.324235/page-10

https://www.reddit.com/r/PS5/comments/k49qx9/ps5_dac_amp_support_through_usb/

https://www.resetera.com/threads/ps5-usb-dac-compatibility.324235/

 

[Qupie]

We should do this exercise where we identify the little brother of the HD800S in terms of competitive gaming in lower price brackets.

Who is the HD800S's little brother between:

A. $150-$300 ?
B. $300-$500 ?
C. $500-$1000 ?
D. $1000-$1500 ?

Would be curious to see this discussion. Been thinking about buying one in the B price bracket. Have been hearing good stuff about the Sundara and have never owned a planar before

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

A. AKG K702
B. Shure 1840 ($499)
C. ????
D. 8XX

 

[danterikxx]

Ananda?

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

Ananda soundstaging is different. It's taller but not as wide. And it's a fuller sound than any of these. So I wouldn't say it's the right comparison. It's definitely the headphone I'd get at that price range for gaming though.

 

[PhuFighters]

Indeed, things are way overpriced in this hobby these days.
Having owned quite a few D7000 and TH-900, many of them modded, I do think the Arya would be in another league though.

I've actually tried the HD800S,Beyerdynamic T1 2nd gen and the Aryas on COD and The Division 2. In my opinion, it is way easier to pin point sound cues/location with the Aryas and T1 gen 2. When i tested the HD800S, i could hear a lot of details in COD but it was more confusing where it was coming from. I would hear sounds from enemies from my direct left or right but they were directly in front of me. So i'd go Arya-->T1 gen 2-->HD800S when it comes to competive and story driven games. Of course, my opinions only

 

[trix3072]

We should do this exercise where we identify the little brother of the HD800S in terms of competitive gaming in lower price brackets.

Who is the HD800S's little brother between:

A. $150-$300 ?
B. $300-$500 ?
C. $500-$1000 ?
D. $1000-$1500 ?

I'm definitely sure that the king of the C range(500-1000) is going to be the T1 2nd Generation(or the DT1990). A great all-rounder even for RPG games, versatile for most music genres, easy to drive, and has become the bang for the buck in 2021 at the moment. Some even prefer this for competitive games over the HD800s.