I drank some koolaid about if you move past noon you should up the gain... I think it was because of classical recordings...
Do you all have a go to dac recommendation besides odac? (Just checking if there is cheaper \better)
And is there a portable dap that measures well?
I've kind of got burned out and just want to land on some affordable answers that i don't need to worry about "oh this is better" or "your stuff sucks"... I've let it take the fun away and now i have a laptop w a bunch of flac files, a hd600, a hd650.... And a fiio x3... I'm kind of " meh" about. Supposedly it's better via lineout.
I have no idea where that "past noon up the gain" comes from.
I'm guessing it's one of those "we need headroom" stuff that somebody told to you, but it doesn't make a lot of sense in practice. if only because volume knobs aren't all the same and the attenuation at 12 o clock on one amp is unlikely to be the same as on another amp. making that kind of statement meaningless.
to me most DACs are DACs. I went for the odac because it was fitting in the same box as the O2 and took less space. no other reason really. the main differences you will get are the maximum voltage output they have, and if plugged into USB, how well they handle it(some being very sensitive to the USB noises from the computer, others having limits when it comes to high sample rate, others needing a specific driver to work...) but else, even a cheap DAC can sound real good.
portable stuff are obviously the cool stuff in practice, but they usually have less power than desktop stuff for obvious reason. they often also have lower overall specs.
and about good measurements, some stuff measure pretty well, but with a given load only. so when plugged into an IEM they wouldn't be as good as when plugged into a 50ohm headphone. if you wish to use non portable headphones, going portable isn't really a great idea. the X3 is one of the most powerful DAP you can hope to get, a great many others will not have enough power to drive the hd650 loud. so you go back to needing an amp ^_^.
now about the O2, most of the tests nwavguy conducted where done using a hd650, so it's really not a problem of power. there is no doubt that the O2 is ok to drive the hd650 pretty darn loud.
as I said I'm pretty loud(more than I ever actually use) with the knob at 12 o clock and gain 1X .
the O2 has default low gain at 2.5X so if fed by a 2V DAC, that's up to 5V, that's about 117db into a hd650. I don't know how loud imackler listens to music, but my guts are telling me it should be enough ^_^.
so the problem is obviously what's feeding the O2 and not the O2 itself. and also the user mistaking the gain setting for a volume knob
. as at least for the O2, the gain value should be set to compensate for a DAC being too weak. and not really to increase loudness into a headphone.
using the FIIO X3's LO that's 1.7V going into the O2, with the 2.5X gain that's a maximum of 113db. so even that would be good to drive the HD650, and in fact we could get close to 112db using the X3 alone.
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Try the Cayin C5 with the Sennheiser 650. Pairs well and has heaps of power.
for the cayin I could never find max power output into 300 or 600ohm. having a super power at low impedance doesn't actually mean it will also be powerful into high impedance. I suspect it is, but I'm at a point in my audio life, if a manufacturer can't give me the values I need, I look somewhere else.
I insist on this because I have a real life example with me. the fiio X1 and my leckerton amp. at low impedance the X1 is actually more powerful, but at 300ohm the leckerton is now the clear winner. that's why I ask for specs into several loads so often like an old ranting granny.
