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Why do a lot of people and reviews say that the dacmagic is good then? Are they just all making it up? Also the Denons are well known for sibilance and using my Shure IEM's I dont notice hardly any sibilance.... Sibilance is mainly from bad recordings, The sibilance is still there with the Shures but it is not annoying or peircing at all... Seems to be very dependant on the quality of the recording / bitrate of the audio to me... With good, high bitrate recordings there is almost no sibilance.
I use my Dac for TV and PC use.... Tbh it is a nice little unit and the selling price is £150 on ebay..... By the time I have bought a sound card that will be like £20 saved (xonar STX £130) and I wont be able to plug my TV into the DAC either.... I agree that Dacs are subtle but I dont think saying they are identical to a £50 sound card is true tbh. Maybe similar to a Xonar STX or similar but as I said a Xonar will cost me almost the same and I wont be able to use my TV through it...
Same reason why owners of Bose think they're great, people just don't know any better. We've recently seen a flood of hybrid Chinese amps ranging from the $100 Zero to the $500 Yulong D100; they're all the same... simply put manufacturers have seen that people will pay for fancy LEDs and expensive looking units, the fact remains they're essentially the same thing. You're comparing a DAC to a DAC and headphone amplifier, despite the Xonar STX sounding identical to your Dacmagic it has the addition of a headphone amp, again something you're glossing over. DACs are quite subtle as far as sound signature goes, the difference in sound quality is much harder to discern... I would compare it to an amateur palate trying to taste the difference between frozen and fresh fish. The difference exists more to those experienced with audio, to those skeptics that don't take the time to listen there is none.
And I never found the Denon D2000 as piercing, if anything I would consider it on the side of muddy.
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You really think amps/dacs sounds the same just because they have the same op-amps? Just a question..not trying to start a fight
If this was true, we'd all be using an E9 since they share the same op-amps as the Matrix M-Stage and Headroom Micro Amp. All of them sound completely different. I'm not yet convinced any DAC will sound the same just because of the same chips. I think this is pretty common knowledge now. Maybe some reviewers try to make the differences larger than they really are. Even DACs with the same chipset measure (and sound) completely different usually.
I just can't agree that a $400 DAC would sound the same as a cheap soundcard. Maybe I missed something here. Maybe you've heard both and this is why you say this. I'm sure it's possible.
Well, at least I agree with your last part. I've actually found some DACs to be more of an improvement than switching amps. Some of my headphones don't benefit at all from amp upgrades (like my HD-598).
My HD-650 did seem to sound different with every single amp.
Yes. The op-amp is very much the sound, change the op-amp and you've got a different sounding unit. Not too long since right here on head-fi members were claiming there is nothing better than a Fiio E7/E9 and all other amps and DACs were for bragging rights. In part, this is true. I haven't listened to a Fiio extensively but take a ZERO DAC ($100) and compare it directly to any number of hybrid amps; Matrix M-Stage, Headroom Micro Amp, Yulong D100 they will all sound identical if they share the same op-amp. Some particular hybrid amps might amplify better and differences will be more apparent with demanding phones, the DAC section however won't be affected. You may question why don't we all run the cheapest option, and it all comes down to hyperbole reviews and inexperience. By that I mean people aren't buying multiple units and making a decision based on what they hear, they're reading reviews and buying based on how good the review reads for a particular unit. In addition you have herd behavior, which is why we see a lot of the same setups, trends and FOTMs.
Without going into specifics I've done work for a shampoo company before, there product cost an average of $4 and didn't sell very well. The product was removed, the copy rewritten and bottle redesigned and placed back on the shelf at a luxury $16 and they sold a lot more product. Because of our conditioning we are led to believe the more you spend the better the product you receive, it simply isn't true.
Yeah I had the HD580 (HD600) with a $200 solid-state and $900 tube-amp and they pretty much sounded the same out of each amp. The Sony SA3000 I had at the same time however benefited greatly from the tube amp because of the polarizing nature of the SAs.
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Whilst I am sure that buying a high end dac and amp will improve the sound quality over what I currently have.... I really dont have the money to upgrade that stuff at the moment and for the money I am happy with what I have for now....
Generally the amp and dac I own are not regarded as harsh, bright or sibilant compared to other similar priced products. Also I use the dac for multiple inputs so a soundcard wouldnt really help, would end up costing marginally less then what I already have for similar sound quality and wouldnt have multiple inputs for Tv etc. Also selling the amp is not an option as I use the amp for my external Hifi speakers as well..... Maybe in the future I will buy a full on dedicated headphone setup with a tube amp but not right now.
So basically I am looking for some headphones that will go well with my current equipment at the moment and maybe in the future I will by better amp and dac.....
I understand buying and selling an amp might not be feasible, I'm simply answering as to why you hear sibilance in phones you should otherwise not. Of all the so called piercing phones; DT880, D2000?, HFI-780, PRO900, SA5000 I've only ever heard sibilance if it exists in the recorded or I'm underpowering the headphone.
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If the most important issue is his sensitivity to piercing highs, I find the approach of 'amp first, headphone second' highly dubious. Perhaps that's not what your saying, but I just wanted to share my opinion, which is that the headphones will have an exponentially greater impact on the treble you will be hearing compared to the impact of an amp or DAC and that it seems rather absurd to argue otherwise.
That's not what I said at all...
"What people tend to do is find the headphone they like and tailor it's sound through improving the rest of the audio chain. Headphone synergy with amps is important, it will make or break your listening experience and you're glossing over it."
By this I'm suggesting to find the headphone that bests suits you, overall sound, comfort, power etc and then buy the appropriate amp and source to improve your audio experience. Of course if you're trying to power a 600 Ohm Beyer from an iPod an OTL tube amp is going to make a massive improvement but most people should know this. Because of the OPs experience and integrated amp I'm suggesting that a DT880 or similar might be what he's looking for, but it won't sound it's best until paired with the right amp.
