[Gals]

Hi,

Anyone tried pairing a portable DAC and found the combination to be a significant upgrade ?

Was thinking mainly of one of the following (but any other great ones would be welcome as well....)

1. Oppo HA-2
2. Cayin C5D
3. JDS Labs C5D
4. Sony PHA-1a

Altough having full size headphones (Grado sr325i) that IMHO don't work too well with unamped Sony a15 and it could be nice to have those powered a little bit - I will probably use the combination mostly with IEMs, currently enjoying my Vosonic GR07BE but might upgrade for a refined pair someday soon....(suggestions anyone?)

Any upgrade should lead to better controled bass, punchier lows and sub lows, very detailed highs and sweet vocals.

Any ideas ?
Thanks a lot,
G.

 

[Raketen]

Just got a JDS Labs C5D myself, though I've only tested it as an amp via headphone out (have a LOD coming)- With my Beyerdynamic DT770 and DT1350 (both relatively easy to drive but slightly inadequate straight from A17), I'd say it is fairly transparent, a tinge darker, helps improve imaging a bit vs straight out of A17.
 
Its a nice piece of hardware, but I can't say I have any interest in using it as a DAC for the A17, imo the Walkman's SQ is preferable compared to the C5D as DAC with my laptop- at least with headphones the walkman can drive well (c5d even kinda ruins my ATH-IM02 which pairs great with a17, shrinking soundstage to claustrophobia, darkens sound considerably and makes already elevated mids sound too forward- I get much less change when using as amp with A17- not sure why, saw a few comments on the C5D thread of similar problems with a few multi-BA iem that can be improved with different OPAMP )

 

[Mmet]

guys ... i want to know the exact color degree of the red and blue dignis case ! ... as i don't trust photos for that mission .. photos even bright or dark ... cold or warm !! i have the silver A-15 and confused between the Black ,red and blue colors of Dignis cases !

 

[Eddy Flycatcher]

I've been using the Sony MDR-EX650AP in ears (the brass ones) and I would like to upgrade them, I have been reading about the XBA H3, but I'm afraid they are to bassy for me. I like bass (I'm a bassplayer) but I once listened to BeyerDynamic Custom One Pro's and they made classical piano music sound terrible, whenever the pianist pressed one of the pedals (sustain, dampening) it sounded like there was an earthquake 

 . My favoerite headphone at the moment is the NAD Viso HP50, so I am looking for some Sony in ears that sound like that (not 100%) I will be using them to listen to the A17 straight out of the HP out.

 

[goody]

  guys ... i want to know the exact color degree of the red and blue dignis case ! ... as i don't trust photos for that mission .. photos even bright or dark ... cold or warm !! i have the silver A-15 and confused between the Black ,red and blue colors of Dignis cases !

i have the black dignis case and i really like it ...its a nice tight fit and it is really well made

 

[gerelmx1986]

  I've been using the Sony MDR-EX650AP in ears (the brass ones) and I would like to upgrade them, I have been reading about the XBA H3, but I'm afraid they are to bassy for me. I like bass (I'm a bassplayer) but I once listened to BeyerDynamic Custom One Pro's and they made classical piano music sound terrible, whenever the pianist pressed one of the pedals (sustain, dampening) it sounded like there was an earthquake 

 . My favoerite headphone at the moment is the NAD Viso HP50, so I am looking for some Sony in ears that sound like that (not 100%) I will be using them to listen to the A17 straight out of the HP out.

Remove psponge filters and you're done megabass goes away, burrrrrn them for 200 hour or more yeah i did that and they took even longer to improve

 

[gerelmx1986]

  I explain how I do it http://www.head-fi.org/t/762787/measuring-output-of-iems#post_11508108
but it really depends on what tools you have at your disposal.
 
maybe you'd find something interesting about tinnitus here http://www.head-fi.org/t/758167/tinnitus
I think the general good idea is to go see an audiologist. and just as important as how loud, check how long you spend with music or other loud sounds.
I have a very small tinnitus that goes loud when I fall asleep with music, when I spend like 15hours with headphones (rare, but it does happen).
and also something I just noticed recently, when I go running with music. but not so much when listening to audiobooks???? I'm guessing somebody speaking represents a lot less energy than music and has a lot more silences, but it was kind of a surprise.

Thanks for the info i think the volume i listen to is pretty safe? vol. 7 to 10, rarely 11 and even rares above 11 unless recording is too qiet

 

[gerelmx1986]

Did a more testing on how low i canl listen, turns out vol. 03 (perhaps the album i amlistening to is dynamically compressed) but you lose bass details on those low levels (using mdr-1r)
 
maybe this question is more for @castleofargh and @zilch0md can some one who onw an A10 non-eu version or well if you have EU no prob. but my question if some one can measure the dB SPL of each volume step e.g from vol 00 to 30 and post it?
 
by dB SPL i menat this-->
 
TRUE Durante's Requiem album is super loud (dynamic compression), now listening to some Dvorak greatest hits and i need more vol. (nope i'm not a fan of the dynamic normalizer

) using vol. 07 as usual and is clear safe volume level

 

[castleofargh]

  Did a more testing on how low i canl listen, turns out vol. 03 (perhaps the album i amlistening to is dynamically compressed) but you lose bass details on those low levels (using mdr-1r)
 
maybe this question is more for @castleofargh and @zilch0md can some one who onw an A10 non-eu version or well if you have EU no prob. but my question if some one can measure the dB SPL of each volume step e.g from vol 00 to 30 and post it?
 
by dB SPL i menat this-->
 
TRUE Durante's Requiem album is super loud (dynamic compression), now listening to some Dvorak greatest hits and i need more vol. (nope i'm not a fan of the dynamic normalizer

) using vol. 07 as usual and is clear safe volume level

as I explained in the link, all you can get from the sony is a max voltage, not a db value. it's each headphone that decides how loud the sound will be when fed that voltage. I've put the A15 aside to test if the battery is drained in 2weeks, if possible I would like to avoid having to turn it on before being done to avoid starting over ^_^.
get a headphone that has measurements on innerfidelity or golden ears, because impedance variations might change the result by a few db. get your nominal volume level on the A10 using that headphone, and if somebody can measure the output of the sony at that setting(maybe beg ClieOS) on a non euro version, I can always look at the number and mess it up to give you a little idea.

 

[gerelmx1986]

as I explained in the link, all you can get from the sony is a max voltage, not a db value. it's each headphone that decides how loud the sound will be when fed that voltage. I've put the A15 aside to test if the battery is drained in 2weeks, if possible I would like to avoid having to turn it on before being done to avoid starting over ^_^.
get a headphone that has measurements on innerfidelity or golden ears, because impedance variations might change the result by a few db. get your nominal volume level on the A10 using that headphone, and if somebody can measure the output of the sony at that setting(maybe beg ClieOS) on a non euro version, I can always look at the number and mess it up to give you a little idea.

And how well does the Dynamic normalizer works? I knwo is for the differences of volumes between tracks but i wa swondering f.e if it affects the volume of to say Dvoraks symphony no. 9 or what ever symphonic work as those are highly dinamyc, that's my concern of the dynamic normalizer and i don't use it

 
so if i get a loud track i inmediately push the vol -

 

[castleofargh]

 

as I explained in the link, all you can get from the sony is a max voltage, not a db value. it's each headphone that decides how loud the sound will be when fed that voltage. I've put the A15 aside to test if the battery is drained in 2weeks, if possible I would like to avoid having to turn it on before being done to avoid starting over ^_^.
get a headphone that has measurements on innerfidelity or golden ears, because impedance variations might change the result by a few db. get your nominal volume level on the A10 using that headphone, and if somebody can measure the output of the sony at that setting(maybe beg ClieOS) on a non euro version, I can always look at the number and mess it up to give you a little idea.

And how well does the Dynamic normalizer works? I knwo is for the differences of volumes between tracks but i wa swondering f.e if it affects the volume of to say Dvoraks symphony no. 9 or what ever symphonic work as those are highly dinamyc, that's my concern of the dynamic normalizer and i don't use it

 
so if i get a loud track i inmediately push the vol -

it's like a replay gain, just with different settings and it doesn't care for the metadata on the track. they should have never called it dynamic anything.
but on a side note, if you're not able to tell if something changes by yourself in the actual dynamic of the track, maybe you shouldn't worry about it?

 
to me it works much better than nothing at all... and that's about it ^_^.
replay gain per track used on a sansa clip works better at making me feel like everything sounds the same.
and anything that works with EBU R128 feels even better than replay gain. I really hope that will come up in every DAP soon. or even better, that they will force it on CDs and radio stations to say a big F U to loudness war.
 
now it is very very obvious to me that by not using any way to normalize the perceived loudness, you end up listening louder overall. because when one song is too quiet you will have the sense of pushing up to hear it. but when a song is a little too loud, most of the time you won't really notice it and the song will have to be real loud compared to the previous one to make you react and turn down the volume level.
I can't make any claim about sound quality changes from using those gain tools(as at least they take some signals lower thus making the DAP's noise floor higher relatively speaking), but I do use them. in fact I encoded some tracks with a hard gain (not in the metadata but in the music) to use with the fiio X1 because it has no replay gain function.

 

[Raketen]

Yeah, it seems to work pretty well, much less annoying than simlar things i've heard (anyone who has experienced the atrocity that is windows' loudness equalization knows how bad it can get). I still leave it off, though, and if I'm shuffling, keep my thumb on the volume rocker.

 

[gerelmx1986]

  Yeah, it seems to work pretty well, much less annoying than simlar things i've heard (anyone who has experienced the atrocity that is windows' loudness equalization knows how bad it can get). I still leave it off, though, and if I'm shuffling, keep my thumb on the volume rocker.

Thanks, because I remember when i had the iPod, you had to run the Soundcheck first on iTunes and the  transfer the soundChecked songs to the iPod.
 
I will give the DN a shot

 

[Eddy Flycatcher]

 
 
I will give the DN a shot

I already tried it, it's terrible, especially on Rock based songs, bassdrum sounds like a Bongo...haven't tried it with Classical music, but I fear the worst.

 

[gerelmx1986]

I already tried it, it's terrible, especially on Rock based songs, bassdrum sounds like a Bongo...haven't tried it with Classical music, but I fear the worst.

Trying it rught now, so far good, but let me try it more just the few track with it, seems to be working like the iPod soundcheck withut extra processing on MediaGo, but is kind of weird it raised the volume so i have it down to 04 from 07