[Gary_W]

Hi everyone,

I've just bought bought some 1More Quads and I'm very pleased with them. At home I have some HD650 that I got on an Amazon offer a couple of years back which I'm also pleased with.

I'm wanting to upgrade my portable listening. Budget is around £200 UK. I'm considering the Cowon Plenue D and also keeping an eye out for the upcoming Fiio X3iii which is apparently being announced imminently. Thing is, I value stability and the Cowon seems to get more on-line love in terms of 'it works'.

I've read endless threads and reviews on the current Fiio X3ii and the Cowon Plenue. So my question is..... which is the best fit with the HD650? Neither will struggle with the 1Mores. I listen at safe volumes so I'm interested in quality as opposed to blowing my head off

As far as material goes, it's just my CD collection that I've ripped as FLAC using EAC. I've no intention of going higher as everything I own, music wise, is in that format. I listen to a wide range but the bulk of it is indie-ish with the odd dip into acoustic / alt country and electronic I suppose. Think Radiohead, Frightened Rabbit, Tom Waits, The Strokes, Ryan Adams, Hot Chip.

Thank you

Gary

 

[Niouke]

Doesn't the HD650 have a 300ohms impedance? Any DAP at 200€ will have trouble driving them without an additional AMP.

 

[artpiggo]

Agree with first reply, at least I recommend ifi micro idsd. Lower than that is not enough to drive hd650.

If you want to use only with 1 more, I recommend cowon over fiio.

 

[Niouke]

ifi micro idsd seems nice but it doesn't even come close to his budget, I think he wants an autonomous source for 200€..quite frankly anything at this price could be a waste of HD650's..

maybe a Fiio X1ii + FiiO A5 ??

 

[artpiggo]

I have idea now. If you insisted in budget.

I think aune m1s should do it. But you need to recable hd650 to balanced 2.5 plug to get fullest power.

 

[Gary_W]

Thanks for the replies so far.

So basically, at this budget, I need to forget about the HD650?

I just use those at home and at the moment they are plugged into my recording interface which is a Focusrite Safire 24. I've been happy with the results but thought that, with a dedicated DAP, I could do better. But not for this budget it seems. I could perhaps stretch a bit to £250 which would get me a Fiio X5ii but I guess I'd be in a similar boat then with the 650's or would they do better?

Thing is the bulk of use will be portable. If I have to double the budget to do better than the Safire at home at driving the HD650 with a portable device then I'll just stick with a device that will do the job with the 1More Quads

Thanks

Gary

 

[artpiggo]

Thanks for the replies so far.

So basically, at this budget, I need to forget about the HD650?

I just use those at home and at the moment they are plugged into my recording interface which is a Focusrite Safire 24. I've been happy with the results but thought that, with a dedicated DAP, I could do better. But not for this budget it seems. I could perhaps stretch a bit to £250 which would get me a Fiio X5ii but I guess I'd be in a similar boat then with the 650's or would they do better?

Thing is the bulk of use will be portable. If I have to double the budget to do better than the Safire at home at driving the HD650 with a portable device then I'll just stick with a device that will do the job with the 1More Quads

Thanks

Gary

Yes I think that in this budget for portable, you can't find good DAC/AMP/DAP to drive HD650 enough or equal to your home setup. and yes you might need to spend double the budget. so I think just stick with a portable device to match with 1more is better choice and let enjoy HD650 at home.

 

[chillaxing]

At that price range you might want to go with a second hand idsd silver and cheap source, like an old ipod, android phone, fiio xxxxx, etc. idsd can be had for $200-250 in the classifieds and a old android phone can be had for around $100. My lg g3 is still a great source and i can get those all day for around $50

 

[pataburd]

I am having good success matching the 1More Quads with the Emotiva Little Ego dac/amp. The HD650 get amped with the Bada PH-12 or SinglePower MPX3.

 

[Andrew Sedgwick]

My iPhone se works very well with HD650 - plenty of volume & sounds great to my 59 year old ears. So not convinced they are that hard to drive. I also use the chord mojo with HD650 - whilst the mojo can drive to greater volume/weight not convinced they are an ideal match - maybe a bit too laid back for me. Actually prefer the iPhone combination with HD650 at the moment. Prefer the mojo with the momentums.