bjurasz
New Head-Fier
This has been bugging me. And I believe I've done enough listening to have an idea what is going on. Wondering if anyone else have these headphones and have similar thoughts.
First off, I've had these for a few years and I'm very happy. Typical of PSB speakers, I find them neutral and accurate. I also have zero listener fatigue. I can listen for 60-90 minutes and not tire of them. I also find them comfortable. In bluetooth wireless mode they sound very good, even though as an iPhone user I get relegated to ACC 256kbps mode.
So once I switched to Apple Music from Spotify shortly after Lossless music came long I started to want better sound. That meant going to a wire and using an external DAC/Amp. I chose a Dragonfly Red. And I can hear a difference in sound using this approach. But it was not as drastic as I was hoping for.
So my next step was to feed a digital signal by wire directly into the headphones rather than an analog signal by wire. These headphones will do USB audio, so.... I get a Lightening-to-Micro-USB cable only to discover that, while it works it works only briefly. The iPhone complains rather quickly that the headphones are asking for too much current and things stop.
So.... USB-C to Micro USB and connect to my MacBook. Much better now as this actually works. And, lo and behold, I'm getting the sound quality change that I expected all along. This makes me question why? Why would the DAC/amp in the headphones be better than the Red? I would expect those two to be relatively similar, in all honesty. So I'm wondering if there is something else going on and I now think it is the RoomFeel technology that PSB puts into these.
On my original M4U-2's (which were passive only), Room Feel was built into the acoustics of the setup. The drivers, the construction, etc. But I think on these the Room Feel is done digitally, and is therefore not available when running passive. If I'm correct on this it explains my issue. Unfortunate, because listening from the MacBook is not as convenient as from the iPhone.
Does anyone have thoughts on this?
Curious how the Grado GW-100's sound in passive mode with an external DAC/Amp now.
Thanks.
First off, I've had these for a few years and I'm very happy. Typical of PSB speakers, I find them neutral and accurate. I also have zero listener fatigue. I can listen for 60-90 minutes and not tire of them. I also find them comfortable. In bluetooth wireless mode they sound very good, even though as an iPhone user I get relegated to ACC 256kbps mode.
So once I switched to Apple Music from Spotify shortly after Lossless music came long I started to want better sound. That meant going to a wire and using an external DAC/Amp. I chose a Dragonfly Red. And I can hear a difference in sound using this approach. But it was not as drastic as I was hoping for.
So my next step was to feed a digital signal by wire directly into the headphones rather than an analog signal by wire. These headphones will do USB audio, so.... I get a Lightening-to-Micro-USB cable only to discover that, while it works it works only briefly. The iPhone complains rather quickly that the headphones are asking for too much current and things stop.
So.... USB-C to Micro USB and connect to my MacBook. Much better now as this actually works. And, lo and behold, I'm getting the sound quality change that I expected all along. This makes me question why? Why would the DAC/amp in the headphones be better than the Red? I would expect those two to be relatively similar, in all honesty. So I'm wondering if there is something else going on and I now think it is the RoomFeel technology that PSB puts into these.
On my original M4U-2's (which were passive only), Room Feel was built into the acoustics of the setup. The drivers, the construction, etc. But I think on these the Room Feel is done digitally, and is therefore not available when running passive. If I'm correct on this it explains my issue. Unfortunate, because listening from the MacBook is not as convenient as from the iPhone.
Does anyone have thoughts on this?
Curious how the Grado GW-100's sound in passive mode with an external DAC/Amp now.
Thanks.
