[kwkarth]

Quote:

I'm having a helluva hard time discerning the difference between any perceived increase in audio quality w. the valhalla vs. no amp at all, 702s into headphone-out on my laptop
 
I think at the moment I feel that w/ valhalla, things are a bit warmer and maybe 5-10% more bass, but sans-valhalla I can go louder while retaining clarity (the V' still can get muddy when I crank things)
 
Suffice to say, I definitely don't feel I made a $350 upgrade to my audio

What is the driving device to which you refer as "no amp at all?"

 

[Lvivske]

exactly as I said, "702s into headphone-out on my laptop"

 

[kwkarth]

Quote:

exactly as I said, "702s into headphone-out on my laptop"

Amazing!
 

 

[detoxguy]

The Valhalla is an OTL amp which does not drive low impedance headphones well from what I've read. A hybrid or solid state amp matches much better I hear. 

 

[Skylab]

It's pretty hard for me to imagine, too. I have a very high end laptop - Sony Vaio with i7 and solid state drives. And the headphone out is rubbish.

 

[revolink24]

It's pretty hard for me to imagine, too. I have a very high end laptop - Sony Vaio with i7 and solid state drives. And the headphone out is rubbish.

Also, the Valhalla has a fairly high gain (8). Unless something is wrong, I can't possibly imagine the laptop going louder.

 

[Asr]

Quote:

I'm having a helluva hard time discerning the difference between any perceived increase in audio quality w. the valhalla vs. no amp at all, 702s into headphone-out on my laptop  
I think at the moment I feel that w/ valhalla, things are a bit warmer and maybe 5-10% more bass, but sans-valhalla I can go louder while retaining clarity (the V' still can get muddy when I crank things)
 
Suffice to say, I definitely don't feel I made a $350 upgrade to my audio

You kinda need to also upgrade your source to get much benefit - right now, most of what you're hearing is the Valhalla merely amplifying a headphone jack, and most headphone jacks (especially those on laptops) are poor in quality. If you added an external DAC you'd probably hear more of a difference vs the headphone jack.

 

[kingtz]

Quote:

exactly as I said, "702s into headphone-out on my laptop"

Definitely get an external DAC. Even a cheap (relatively in this hobby) $100 DAC like the uDAC will be leaps and bounds better than any laptop onboard sound. Also, I hope you're not listening to anything less than 320kbs. Like they say, "Crap in, crap out".

 

[grokit]

Amplified crap can be even worse than the original crap.
You could try a Hot Audio usb dac as there's no need to put another volume control in the loop.
It should clean up the sound considerably; I've tried three of them and I've seen them used for as low as $40 
Of course they are only $80 new 

 

[elcoholic]

+1 for upgrading your source

 

[jeffreyfranz]

Quote:

Originally Posted by elcoholic /img/forum/go_quote.gif

+1 for upgrading your source

+2--As a previous poster said, amplified crap is just that. You won't really hear a great difference with a source that really is incapable of delivering great dynamics, transparency or soundstaging. Good luck. 

 

[Lvivske]

lol, well I figured that would be the reply
 
I've been shopping for a DAC but haven't decided yet, figured I'd go one component at a time. Yes, I'm basing my opinion on 320k or FLAC. I'm curious how a DAC could magically fix what I'm describing, I really hope this doesn't turn out to be throwing more money at this for negligible improvement.
 
The laptop in question is an HP Envy14 with a SSD

 

[Skylab]

The issue is that amping the headphone out of a laptop is going to amplify all the noise and non-linearities of that headphone out. A DAC will give you a much better line-level analog out to send to your amp. You already shelled out $350 for the Valhalla, so you might as well spend $100 on something like the uDAC, just so you know how you really feel about it. If you don't think the DAC + Valhalla sounds better than the headphone out of the Laptop, the consider yourself lucky, and don't buy any more audio gear

 

[Misterrogers]

Very well put Skylab. In my experience the mantra 'source first' has consistently proven true. I started out jacking my Denon's into my MacPro. Unhappy, I got an amp - now I had louder and more forceful compressed and clipped sounds. Injected a dac, and everything opened up. Up until last week I was playing everything from iTunes (24/96 lossless) - but then I switch to Decibel which further improved the sound. Essentially, I did everything 'ass backwards'. Can't say for sure you'll have the same experience Lvivske, but I encourage you to not make changes downstream until you've worked your way upstream.
 
Mike 

 

[Lvivske]

oh man, so itunes sucks as a player now? what do you mean by decibel being better? (i guess this is similar to others using foobar)
 
 
 
if I buy the udac 2 right now (or should I get something else in the 130-150 price range??) do I need to buy this special usb cable? I figured digital wouldnt need 'special' cabling like analog, but at this point I just want to get this setup done right