holden4th
500+ Head-Fier
I recently purchased a used pair of the legendary HD580s and I really love what they are doing. They are replacing my Shure 840s as my main set of cans for listening at home. I no longer need closed back here and the more open presentation is very appealing. I have this trait where I try to do my homework before buying anything and chose the 580s over the 600s because the difference is apparently minimal and therefore I would get a better price. I think I did.
I do a lot of listening from my PC and much of that homework told me that I would need a really good DAC/amp to make these babies sing but I am starting to question that so your advice would be appreciated. I already had the Nuforce uDAC-2 and was impressed with what it did to my Shure's. But all the literature I read said that this DAC/Amp wouldn't really be able to drive the 580s to their best performance yet I am sitting here listening to Jean-Michel Jarre and the volume control on this little device is at about 10:30am and loud enough for me. The music is involving and sounds so much better than my Shures. Turning it up to almost full I do hear distortion (clipping?) so is the uDAC doing the job or do I need a somewhat better amp to drive my cans?
I ran some music out of my MP3 player (Sansa View 16Gb) connected to my PA2V2 and it took a lot more juice to drive the 580s in this mode so the uDAC seems to be better at providing the power for the Senns.
That all said, I want these cans to sound really good so should I upgrade from the Nuforce? I am aware of the law of diminishing returns with audio equipment so I don't want to splash out on something that costs twice as much as these HPs cost me ($135). Research suggests that the eponymous Total Bithead, iBasso and the Fiio E7 are worth investigating. The E7 seems to have about the same power as my Nuforce so I don't really see that as a possibility but could be persuaded. Are there any others I should consider? My price limit is about $200. I'd prefer portability but that doesn't have to be a given.
Your thoughts please.
I do a lot of listening from my PC and much of that homework told me that I would need a really good DAC/amp to make these babies sing but I am starting to question that so your advice would be appreciated. I already had the Nuforce uDAC-2 and was impressed with what it did to my Shure's. But all the literature I read said that this DAC/Amp wouldn't really be able to drive the 580s to their best performance yet I am sitting here listening to Jean-Michel Jarre and the volume control on this little device is at about 10:30am and loud enough for me. The music is involving and sounds so much better than my Shures. Turning it up to almost full I do hear distortion (clipping?) so is the uDAC doing the job or do I need a somewhat better amp to drive my cans?
I ran some music out of my MP3 player (Sansa View 16Gb) connected to my PA2V2 and it took a lot more juice to drive the 580s in this mode so the uDAC seems to be better at providing the power for the Senns.
That all said, I want these cans to sound really good so should I upgrade from the Nuforce? I am aware of the law of diminishing returns with audio equipment so I don't want to splash out on something that costs twice as much as these HPs cost me ($135). Research suggests that the eponymous Total Bithead, iBasso and the Fiio E7 are worth investigating. The E7 seems to have about the same power as my Nuforce so I don't really see that as a possibility but could be persuaded. Are there any others I should consider? My price limit is about $200. I'd prefer portability but that doesn't have to be a given.
Your thoughts please.
