[MattTCG]

The STX actually has a pretty decent dac. It'll be fine for now. 

 

[fuzzy1969]

Quote:

yeah it'll be lovely to audition the headset with pair of many combination since i see many recommendation i really hope we could just waltz into some store and get a honest professional advice without them bugging me to buy the most expensive one.  
 
 
 
and don't throw me stone for this question, but is the source mean the format of the song? speaking of format i've tried 192 khz lossless format and compared it with 44.1 khz, not much difference. but saying that without an amp might not mean much. Seen many articles about amp and impedance of a headphone. what exactly amp does? if i'm not mistaken it open up the dynamic range of the signal across the spectrum? how can i choose an amp suited to my needs or its purely subjective and not based on technical data? 

The DAC would be the source, but stuff goes on in the production phase after the material has been recorded which make a big difference sort of 'garbage in garbage out' which is a programmers term but applies to audio as well. Technical data will only tell you so much and quite often has no reflection on how something sounds the best way is to audition stuff or just enjoy what you have until you can find a 'upgrade'. 

 

[Rawdawg3234]

yeah it'll be lovely to audition the headset with pair of many combination since i see many recommendation i really hope we could just waltz into some store and get a honest professional advice without them bugging me to buy the most expensive one.  



and don't throw me stone for this question, but is the source mean the format of the song? speaking of format i've tried 192 khz lossless format and compared it with 44.1 khz, not much difference. but saying that without an amp might not mean much. Seen many articles about amp and impedance of a headphone. what exactly amp does? if i'm not mistaken it open up the dynamic range of the signal across the spectrum? how can i choose an amp suited to my needs or its purely subjective and not based on technical data? 

Exactly. Lets just say the source is the step before hitting your DAC. So if your using FLAC or apple lossless that basically what your source is running. I'm using a wadia dock with my iPod classic so my source would be the wadia/iPod running apple lossless.
If you're running your SACD player than that's your source.

There is loads of technical data and spread sheets about sound, and if you want to buy based on that then there is a specific forum here for technical questions.
To the point and amp is just that, an amp. It boosts your analog signal and every amp does this differently an adds its own signature to the analog signal. Some more than others. The ones that are considered neutral add almost nothing while boosting the signal.

 

[avengernoonzz]

On the topics of DACs. Is there a way to use my ASUS Xonar DG (the built in DAC) for the mean time with the Schiit Valhalla I recently purchased?

If not, what do I need to do to use iPods, Smartphones (Galaxy Nexus for example), etc with the Schiit Valhalla?

 

[fuzzy1969]

Quote:

On the topics of DACs. Is there a way to use my ASUS Xonar DG (the built in DAC) for the mean time with the Schiit Valhalla I recently purchased?
If not, what do I need to do to use iPods, Smartphones (Galaxy Nexus for example), etc with the Schiit Valhalla?

Yes use the line-out to connect to the amp or headphone out at high volume if hasn't got a line out. You can use a portable music player as well.

 

[antberg]

Quote:

After reading these last few pages on this thread, I'm beginning to wonder if I've made a wrong choice choosing the Violectric V100. The curious little hamster in me wants to now try the schiit amps which were second on my list. Any particular reason why violectric doesn't get mentioned more often?

By my reading experience,it is just the fact that Shiit products are just more popular than Violectric's,You should have quite a little monster as an amp,many would tell you greater in terms of technical capabilities than some Shiit amp (and many will say the opposite indeed.).
But by amplifier sounding characteristic ,and sounding preference,that's another matter of opinions.

 

[IEMCrazy]

Quote:

I concur with BobJS, so much to learn from this. Right now I don't think I can handle rolling tubes and/or accidentally breaking tubes in amps.
Soon enough though when I have more stable income

Breaking tubes in amps

  Short of a big power tube that was removed while hot, or with contacts half fused to the amp by being left in it for 30 years , I don't think I've ever heard of a tube breaking in an amp.  A few power tubes may fail catastrophically, but Lyr doesn't use power tubes, the output is SS.  And even amps with power tubes....the catastrophic failures seem much more common on big speaker amps left on 24/7 than elsewhere.  If you're capable of breaking a 6DJ8 short of throwing it on a concrete floor, kindly step away from the audio hobby

  It's like plugging in a power cord that has 8 pins instead of 3....
 
Quote:

and don't throw me stone for this question, but is the source mean the format of the song? speaking of format i've tried 192 khz lossless format and compared it with 44.1 khz, not much difference. but saying that without an amp might not mean much. Seen many articles about amp and impedance of a headphone. what exactly amp does? if i'm not mistaken it open up the dynamic range of the signal across the spectrum? how can i choose an amp suited to my needs or its purely subjective and not based on technical data? 

 
"Source" typically refers to the DAC, CD player, etc.   But people do use them interchangably.  Technically, DAC is the source, and the player device or CD player digitally outputting to a DAC is the transport.  Or if just using an "all in one" (like a CD player with analog outs, etc) that's just the "source."
 
Music formats....16/44.1 vs 24/88-96-192 etc is a broad topic.  In most cases you won't hear a difference.  With some equipment you may hear a difference (not always because it's "better" but because the way it works may perform more optimally with a 96 or 192 feed.)  The original studio master may be entirely different (or by a different recording engineer) on the 44.1 vs 96-192 release, and thus better (or worse!), or they both may be the same but the studio could have (and often does) thoroughly botch the downmix from the 24/192 to 16/44.1.  It's not always "because it's the bigger number" that it's better but because the studio had less opportunity to ruin it before boxing it that its desirably and demonstrably better.  And if the studio didn't botch anything, they should be pretty much identical.  Unless you're doing processing in the digital domain, including digital EQ, in which case the very point of 24/96-192 is being used: Extra headroom for processing. EQ math benefits heavily from the additional wordlength and sample rate.  Which is ultimately what "high res" is really all about: Processing.
 
 
Quote:

On the topics of DACs. Is there a way to use my ASUS Xonar DG (the built in DAC) for the mean time with the Schiit Valhalla I recently purchased?
If not, what do I need to do to use iPods, Smartphones (Galaxy Nexus for example), etc with the Schiit Valhalla?

 
To plug right into the Valhalla? For an iPod an LOD cable is all you need.  Fiio makes cheap ones (L9, L10 I believe are the numbers.)  You'd need an adapter for those since they terminate in a 1/8" TRS plug you need it to go to an RCA pair.  If you want an "all in one cable" some of the custom cable shops such as Moon Audio sell relatively pricy LOD cables.  That would probably be better than a Nexus which would force you to use the internal amp and headphone out into another amp.  Jellybean supports USB audio, but I haven't seen any real docks on the market yet.
 
If you want to go to a DAC such as Bifrost first, that's a different question (you want digital out in that case....the Pure-I20 is good for iPod, but I'm not sure when anything will be available for Android.

 

[fuzzy1969]

I think you have to run the 'pointee' or 'trinty' kernel for usb support under jellybean unless they've added support after 4.1

 

[IEMCrazy]

Quote:

I think you have to run the 'pointee' or 'trinty' kernel for usb support under jellybean unless they've added support after 4.1

 
AFAIK 4.1 officially supports usb audio.  Whether anyone takes advantage of it is a different question entirely.

 

[fuzzy1969]

I doesn't work for all DAC's its mainly geared up for the usb dock, the fiio E17 and quite a few others require the kernels I mentioned I looked into it as I have a Nexus 7
 
http://www.head-fi.org/t/627459/use-a-standard-usb-dac-with-a-nexus-7-step-by-step-guide

 

[IEMCrazy]

Quote:

I doesn't work for all DAC's its mainly geared up for the usb dock, the fiio E17 and quite a few others require the kernels I mentioned I looked into it as I have a Nexus 7
 
http://www.head-fi.org/t/627459/use-a-standard-usb-dac-with-a-nexus-7-step-by-step-guide

 
USB audio out of a portable devices as standard does not imply direct connection to a PC USB interface, largely due to the fact that those devices assume a certain onboard software interface on the hardware side.  "USB audio" support, like for iPods means proprietary docks that can then output S/PDIF. 
 
Obviously with some hackery you can get Android to do what Apple won't, but in terms of stock, it was never expected to plug right into a PC device without proprietary (open source or otherwise) software to do so short of kernel mods. But the idea is digital audio output in one form or another (the dock) is now standard.

 

[fuzzy1969]

Its not so much hackery, android is based on the Linux source code its just a case of compiling in the drivers under a ARM based system taking into account the hardware. Ubuntu is out in the wild running on a Nexus 7 and i would imagine it has full usb support.

 

[Norway]

Can anyone recommend a cheap aftermarket cable for HD 650 which has a 4 pin XLR?

 

[alv4426]

Whats your definition of "cheap"? I don't think anyone sells one mass produced so custom is gonna be the way to go, which is not that cheap.
Quote:

Can anyone recommend a cheap aftermarket cable for HD 650 which has a 4 pin XLR?

 

[Norway]

Quote:

Whats your definition of "cheap"? I don't think anyone sells one mass produced so custom is gonna be the way to go, which is not that cheap.

Then cheap would mean the least expensive off all alternatives