[Chessblitzer2017]

Honestly with just a few hours of listening with the es100 I find myself with a reaffirmed stronger bond with the airy spacious soundstage of this Idea. Wonderful little guy.

 

[kevinscottcaja]

How much of an improvent is it over the lightning to 3.5mm dongle ? Have you noticed a dip in battery life ?

Overall, a noticeable improvement over the Apple 3.5mm dongle. Stereo separation is much better, even rivaling my ES100 in balanced mode, if not, even a tad better than my ES100. Feels very holographic sound like you are in a large stage.
Using my FAD E5000 as my primary IEMs, I was immediately blown away on how much details are revealed, treble became more pronounced and bass became leaner, most of all, soundstage became much much more wider. Driving them off my Apple 3.5mm dongle, they sound bassy and overly warm sometimes, but from the iDEA they sound amazing. Trying them off on my UMPro50 v2 and same goes as well, bass became much fuller, sub bass hits much better and I can hear them and treble are more pronounced without being fatiguing. The iDEA pairs really well on warm sounding IEMs and low impedance and low sensitivity IEMs requiring loads of driving power (mWatts).

For battery life, my iPhone X drops about 6% to 8% per hour when screen is off and music playing on HF Player. It drops around 10% to 12% per hour if I'm listening to music and browsing through safari at the same time.

 

[Chessblitzer2017]

@Kevin The es100 doesn't really compete in terms of airiness and space imo and you can "relax" and enjoy the music. Whereas es100 is I'm gonna kickurass 1st row at a concert whatsgoodson. Of the 4 tuning options, none of them really open up things, but can ease up things. Some will prefer the air, some will prefer the kickurarse. This guy prefers that xtra bit of air/breathing room personally, both get the job done. Of course one drains battery, the other doesn't and is super light, you can quickly throw it in your middle jacket pocket(you'll still have the iem cable creeping out) like it's not even there while the other dangles off your smart phone so it's a no brainier there if you're on the move.

 

[Zerohour88]

an update on the Weiliang/Breeze Audio SE4 that I previously posted here:

seems while it performed admirably the few months I have it plugged on the PC (more than enough driving power for my headphones and earbuds), it faltered when being used with the Andromeda. Some audible hissing (either due to high noise floor or mismatched impedance). Either way, if you have sensitive IEMs or gear, its not for you.

 

[Chessblitzer2017]

Is xelento considered 'sensitive', it's 16 ohms

 

[Zerohour88]

Is xelento considered 'sensitive', it's 16 ohms

I would guess so, Andromeda is 12.8 ohms. I'm running it at 1% volume on my PC due to how sensitive it is, haha.

Hissing due to noise floor is a bother on some songs and mostly negligible on others (you can hear it just being plugged in, sadly)

 

[tripside]

Overall, a noticeable improvement over the Apple 3.5mm dongle. Stereo separation is much better, even rivaling my ES100 in balanced mode, if not, even a tad better than my ES100. Feels very holographic sound like you are in a large stage.
Using my FAD E5000 as my primary IEMs, I was immediately blown away on how much details are revealed, treble became more pronounced and bass became leaner, most of all, soundstage became much much more wider. Driving them off my Apple 3.5mm dongle, they sound bassy and overly warm sometimes, but from the iDEA they sound amazing. Trying them off on my UMPro50 v2 and same goes as well, bass became much fuller, sub bass hits much better and I can hear them and treble are more pronounced without being fatiguing. The iDEA pairs really well on warm sounding IEMs and low impedance and low sensitivity IEMs requiring loads of driving power (mWatts).

For battery life, my iPhone X drops about 6% to 8% per hour when screen is off and music playing on HF Player. It drops around 10% to 12% per hour if I'm listening to music and browsing through safari at the same time.

Thanks for the detailed reply. I was on the lookout for something more portable than Fiio Q1 MK2 and this fits the bill.

 

[Aibo]

Is xelento considered 'sensitive', it's 16 ohms

Sensitivity is measured in dB/mW and Xelento has 110 dB/mW. That means they're quite sensitive and can go very loud even with modestly powerful sources.

 

[Zerohour88]

Is xelento considered 'sensitive', it's 16 ohms

Sensitivity is measured in dB/mW and Xelento has 110 dB/mW. That means they're quite sensitive and can go very loud even with modestly powerful sources.

Yeah, that's actually the proper way (in hi-fi glossary) to define "sensitivity". My bad, its not as simple as looking at impedance and determining that its "sensitive". I should've meant that the low impedance makes it sensitive to source or basically hard to match the impedance with just any source (since the general rule is impedance of source is 1/8th of your IEM/headphone).

 

[weissglut]

Hi,

I'm looking for a portable DAC that can drive my Fostex T50RP (50 Ohm, 92dB (1kHz, 1mW), 3000 mW max) headphones. I'm using ReplayGain, so actually I need even a bit more output power than usual.
Is anybody using the Fostex with SMSL IDEA or X4 (or the Sabajs)?

At the moment I have a DragonFly Black 1.5 here. This one has not enough power, therefore I'll send it back. DragonFly Red would be an option, but it is expensive. Also the DragonFly shows some noise coming from the PC USB port. How is filtering on the SMSL?

I want to use the DAC with my PC and with my iPad Pro (without any additional power source).

 

[Zerohour88]

Hi,

I'm looking for a portable DAC that can drive my Fostex T50RP (50 Ohm, 92dB (1kHz, 1mW), 3000 mW max) headphones. I'm using ReplayGain, so actually I need even a bit more output power than usual.
Is anybody using the Fostex with SMSL IDEA or X4 (or the Sabajs)?

At the moment I have a DragonFly Black 1.5 here. This one has not enough power, therefore I'll send it back. DragonFly Red would be an option, but it is expensive. Also the DragonFly shows some noise coming from the PC USB port. How is filtering on the SMSL?

I want to use the DAC with my PC and with my iPad Pro (without any additional power source).

Might want to check out Topping NX4 DSD (for unbalanced), measurements of its output here (you can probably ask them or @amirm if it'll drive the Fostex):
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...sd-dac-and-portable-headphone-amplifier.3507/

 

[weissglut]

Thanks for the suggestion, but a battery powered DAC is not an option. I already have one, but I never use it.

 

[Zerohour88]

Thanks for the suggestion, but a battery powered DAC is not an option. I already have one, but I never use it.

a friend uses the NX4 on his desktop PC permanently to drive his IEMs/NightOwls, so you can go that route. There's the Sabaj DA3 if you don't need a battery though:

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...baj-da3-dac-compared-to-dragonfly-black.3503/

 

[weissglut]

Do you know if the DA3 works with iPhone/iPad?

 

[Zerohour88]

Do you know if the DA3 works with iPhone/iPad?

sorry, no idea, but this conversation posted might be helpful to you:

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...-compared-to-dragonfly-black.3503/#post-84520