[Piergagn]

Hello guys im planning to build an headphones setup with dac/amp combo next to my seat

I want the setup to be clean and im not going to use à laptop or à pc to grab my music

My question is : can i use my own astell and kern sr25 as the source for the music files to play from into the dac to the amp and in the hd800s ?

 

[max232]

Sure you can. I use a FiiO X7 ,composite out, to a desktop dac/amp. It carries my entire music collection. I hate computer audio.

 

[Piergagn]

Sure you can. I use a FiiO X7 ,composite out, to a desktop dac/amp. It carries my entire music collection. I hate computer audio.

So i can use a 2.5mm to composite balanced out ?

 

[max232]

I'm not familiar with that dap. I'm guessing 3.5mm line out into an amp?

 

[Nolbert0]

If you use the 3.5mm or 2.5mm line out, you'll completely bypass the DAC (digital to analogue converter) and straight into your amp since you're sending a signal that's already covered to analogue. You'd probably want either coax or USB out (depending on what's available on you DAP) for a digital signal that your standalone DAC can process. Otherwise you might as well just listen to your DAP as is.

 

[Piergagn]

If you use the 3.5mm or 2.5mm line out, you'll completely bypass the DAC (digital to analogue converter) and straight into your amp since you're sending a signal that's already covered to analogue. You'd probably want either coax or USB out (depending on what's available on you DAP) for a digital signal that your standalone DAC can process. Otherwise you might as well just listen to your DAP as is.

Ive seen alot of people using them directly in the dap to the amp , isnt there anyway to not use a desktop / laptop

 

[Nolbert0]

of course you can bypass your DAC and still use your amp, but you specifically mentioned "DAC/Amp combo". The 2.5mm will only work if your amp is also balanced, and has an analogue input. You'd probably need the 2.5mm TRRS to balanced XLR adapter to plug it in, if your amp supports it. Depends on what connectors your amp has, of course. Without knowing exactly what you want from it or what the amp will accept, it's difficult to say. How you connect to your DAP to your dac/amp combo (and the connectors/cable you will need for it) will all depend on the input connections you have.

I just looked it up and the SR25 does have a USB out (dunno about coax). if your dac/amp has a USB input, connect the two with a USB cable and the SR25 should function soley as a transport and all the heavy lifting will be done by your desktop dac/amp (just like if you plugged the computer into it) for playback.

tl/dr: just connect it via USB, just like you would from your comupter. So you'll just need a regular USB cable that's type-c to whatever connection the amp has.

 

[Piergagn]

of course you can bypass your DAC and still use your amp, but you specifically mentioned "DAC/Amp combo". The 2.5mm will only work if your amp is also balanced, and has an analogue input. You'd probably need the 2.5mm TRRS to balanced XLR adapter to plug it in, if your amp supports it. Depends on what connectors your amp has, of course. Without knowing exactly what you want from it or what the amp will accept, it's difficult to say. How you connect to your DAP to your dac/amp combo (and the connectors/cable you will need for it) will all depend on the input connections you have.

I just looked it up and the SR25 does have a USB out (dunno about coax). if your dac/amp has a USB input, connect the two with a USB cable and the SR25 should function soley as a transport and all the heavy lifting will be done by your desktop dac/amp (just like if you plugged the computer into it) for playback.

tl/dr: just connect it via USB, just like you would from your comupter. So you'll just need a regular USB cable that's type-c to whatever connection the amp has.

Thanks alot for the précious info i dont have an dac/amp combo i want a set of hd800s and the only that was stopping me was the neccesity of à laptop wich is no longer the case

 

[Nolbert0]

yh. A laptop isn't neccessary at all.

 

[Longfellow78]

Sorry to necro this thread, but I have this exact same question. I have a Fiio M11s DAP, which has a usb-c socket, and a combination, 3.5mm jack/line-out/spidif output.

I would like to connect this to a Loxjie D40 pro dac/amp and have all the processing done by the Loxjie, which has an optical in (spidif?), a USB in, and a Coaxial in. What would be the best way to connect my DAP please to this. I will likely use the USB input to come from my PC, so can/should I output from the M11s using an optical/spidif into the Loxjie? Will this bypass the M11s dac chip and use the offboard one? Thanks!

Say something like this?
https://www.amazon.co.uk/FosPower-T...32&mcid=622ec73fda413fec8dd214f9c6eda62f&th=1

If so, should SPIDIF mode be DOP or D2P? Thanks!

 

[BS5711]

Sorry to necro this thread, but I have this exact same question. I have a Fiio M11s DAP, which has a usb-c socket, and a combination, 3.5mm jack/line-out/spidif output.

I would like to connect this to a Loxjie D40 pro dac/amp and have all the processing done by the Loxjie, which has an optical in (spidif?), a USB in, and a Coaxial in. What would be the best way to connect my DAP please to this. I will likely use the USB input to come from my PC, so can/should I output from the M11s using an optical/spidif into the Loxjie? Will this bypass the M11s dac chip and use the offboard one? Thanks!

Say something like this?


If so, should SPIDIF mode be DOP or D2P? Thanks!

The M11S I believe (having an M11 Plus) doesn’t have optical out only coaxial from the 3.5mm.

Get a cable like this 3.5mm to RCA and plug it into the FiiO 3.5mm and the Loxjie coaxial input and you are good to go. Don’t forget to go into the Audio settings and change the 3.5mm output to SPDIF.

https://www.aliexpress.com/i/32608288360.html

Please note that the FiiO end is very specific and has a wiring set up for the FiiO and other similar cables for other DAPs will not work despite that they are 3.5mm to RCA. You could use the coaxial adapter that I imagine came with the M11 and get a straightforward RCA to RCA 75 ohm coaxial cable from your local electronics store. That will do the same job but is not an elegant solution.

Using either USB or coaxial is digital with the M11S providing transport only with the onboard DAC completely out of the loop. As transport with no DAC or amp activity the M11 battery will last for days in this application.

The DoP versus D2P only matters if you are using DSD, I don’t so I don’t have first hand experience but logically DoP would be a good place to start since D2P is converting DSD to PCM. It looks like the Loxjie does DSD so DoP makes sense but if you aren’t using DSD it doesn’t matter anyway.

 

[Longfellow78]

The M11S I believe (having an M11 Plus) doesn’t have optical out only coaxial from the 3.5mm.

Get a cable like this 3.5mm to RCA and plug it into the FiiO 3.5mm and the Loxjie coaxial input and you are good to go. Don’t forget to go into the Audio settings and change the 3.5mm output to SPDIF.

https://www.aliexpress.com/i/32608288360.html

Please note that the FiiO end is very specific and has a wiring set up for the FiiO and other similar cables for other DAPs will not work despite that they are 3.5mm to RCA. You could use the coaxial adapter that I imagine came with the M11 and get a straightforward RCA to RCA 75 ohm coaxial cable from your local electronics store. That will do the same job but is not an elegant solution.

Using either USB or coaxial is digital with the M11S providing transport only with the onboard DAC completely out of the loop. As transport with no DAC or amp activity the M11 battery will last for days in this application.

The DoP versus D2P only matters if you are using DSD, I don’t so I don’t have first hand experience but logically DoP would be a good place to start since D2P is converting DSD to PCM. It looks like the Loxjie does DSD so DoP makes sense but if you aren’t using DSD it doesn’t matter anyway.

Thank you for that excellent reply. The M11s definately has a spidif out, I'm looking at the manual, it's on the 3.5mm jack. That said - this cable you showed above does look also very neat. I didn't know there was such a thing as a 3.5mm to coaxial cable, but I don't understand how this works as coaxial is digital, but wouldn't the 3.5mm jack be analogue?

In spite of your great reply, I did actually just buy some stuff for a different method. I'm not sure how well it will work. I wanted to have a simple solution with minimal/neat wiring, so I have bought a usb c dock (like for the Steam deck) and plan to plug in a USB cable to the dock, and put this to a switchable USB splitter, into which I will also connect the PC usb out. Then I can switch between the two sources - M11s and PC by switching the USB switch instead of messing about with the setting on the amp, which is clunky I think. This should be faster, and means I only need one USB cable into the Dap, which will be much neater, having a short right angled USBc straight into the dock, and only needing one visible wire when charging, instead of the less elegant optical/coaxial out and one to charge when it needs it.

I don't think that I will damage the dac with this method as long as the volume is down when i hit the USB switch - it will be just like unplugging and replugging a USB cable. I hope it works as it will be neater.

I was thinking about leaving the dap powered on during the day with a battery cap of 80% - I don't think it has battery bypass unfortunately, but I think this will be better for the battery than letting it discharge and charge over and over - I'm not sure?

Do you have any thoughts on my USB switching plan?
Thanks a lot.

 

[BS5711]

Thank you for that excellent reply. The M11s definately has a spidif out, I'm looking at the manual, it's on the 3.5mm jack. That said - this cable you showed above does look also very neat. I didn't know there was such a thing as a 3.5mm to coaxial cable, but I don't understand how this works as coaxial is digital, but wouldn't the 3.5mm jack be analogue?

In spite of your great reply, I did actually just buy some stuff for a different method. I'm not sure how well it will work. I wanted to have a simple solution with minimal/neat wiring, so I have bought a usb c dock (like for the Steam deck) and plan to plug in a USB cable to the dock, and put this to a switchable USB splitter, into which I will also connect the PC usb out. Then I can switch between the two sources - M11s and PC by switching the USB switch instead of messing about with the setting on the amp, which is clunky I think. This should be faster, and means I only need one USB cable into the Dap, which will be much neater, having a short right angled USBc straight into the dock, and only needing one visible wire when charging, instead of the less elegant optical/coaxial out and one to charge when it needs it.

I don't think that I will damage the dac with this method as long as the volume is down when i hit the USB switch - it will be just like unplugging and replugging a USB cable. I hope it works as it will be neater.

I was thinking about leaving the dap powered on during the day with a battery cap of 80% - I don't think it has battery bypass unfortunately, but I think this will be better for the battery than letting it discharge and charge over and over - I'm not sure?

Do you have any thoughts on my USB switching plan?
Thanks a lot.

SPDIF is a collective term for optical and coaxial digital, it is the hardware standards and a protocol.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S/PDIF

Your M11S has SPDIF out but it is the coaxial version not optical, earlier M11 had optical as well as coaxial but that was dropped around the Plus era as best I understand.

The 3.5mm coaxial plugs into the 3.5mm headphone jack but you need to go into the audio setting and change the 3.5mm output from analog (PO or LO) to digital (SPDIF). Changing the settings shuts down the analog output and turns on the digital coaxial output using only two terminals of the 4 terminal 3.5mm.

On some larger recent FiiO devices the coaxial is done with RCA, the M11 doesn't have the real estate for that. See image below, latest Q15 with RCA for coaxial.

The USB hub seems like a fine idea but i would not leave the M11 plugged in constantly unless there is some way on the hub to disable charging to the port that the M11 is plugged into. Constantly charging the battery even with an 80% limit set up is a recipe for short battery life. You could have the hub set up and just pull the M11 USB cable and tuck it away, sounds like you are a neat freak like me, cable management is critically important !

 

[Longfellow78]

SPDIF is a collective term for optical and coaxial digital, it is the hardware standards and a protocol.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S/PDIF

Your M11S has SPDIF out but it is the coaxial version not optical, earlier M11 had optical as well as coaxial but that was dropped around the Plus era as best I understand.

The 3.5mm coaxial plugs into the 3.5mm headphone jack but you need to go into the audio setting and change the 3.5mm output from analog (PO or LO) to digital (SPDIF). Changing the settings shuts down the analog output and turns on the digital coaxial output using only two terminals of the 4 terminal 3.5mm.

On some larger recent FiiO devices the coaxial is done with RCA, the M11 doesn't have the real estate for that. See image below, latest Q15 with RCA for coaxial.

The USB hub seems like a fine idea but i would not leave the M11 plugged in constantly unless there is some way on the hub to disable charging to the port that the M11 is plugged into. Constantly charging the battery even with an 80% limit set up is a recipe for short battery life. You could have the hub set up and just pull the M11 USB cable and tuck it away, sounds like you are a neat freak like me, cable management is critically important !

Ah thank you so much for the detail. That makes perfect sense! I understand now. Yes I will be able to leave the m11s in the doc with the USBc plugged in but can insert or remove the power cable from the dock to charge or not the dap. If leaving it plugged in and topping off the charge to 80% will damage the battery this is disappointing as constantly leaving it on as my main sour source was my plan so I didn't have to mess about with Spotify or playing Flacs from. My home server via PC, just do it all from the dap. But I dont want to shorten the life of the device when the PC is just sitting there all the time. I will need to think about it.

I don't think I need the coaxial anyway with my USB plan which will be nearer with rhe switcher out the way and only one USB c cable needed.

If I'm plugged into the loxjie with USBc will I need to change the output on the dap, or just leave if on default? As that would also be an advantage when putting it in the dock and taking it out for portable play. Thanks!

I'll let you know if it works! Thanks.

Edit: you know I'm really not sure that leaving it plugged in all the time will damage the battery. There is an android system kevel setting that allows capping the battery at 80% after which it stops charging an doesn't go over 80 even when plugged in. Presumably as it uses battery it trickle charges it back to 80. If a low voltage charger is used, e.g. 5v/1a to do this I can't see how that would be bad for the battery vs letting it run down to 10% before boosting it back up to 80 or 100 again. I think batteries get damaged in terms of Full charging cycles. If if it trickle charging between 79 and 80% all the time I think this would improve not degrade battery health.....?

 

[BS5711]

Ah thank you so much for the detail. That makes perfect sense! I understand now. Yes I will be able to leave the m11s in the doc with the USBc plugged in but can insert or remove the power cable from the dock to charge or not the dap. If leaving it plugged in and topping off the charge to 80% will damage the battery this is disappointing as constantly leaving it on as my main sour source was my plan so I didn't have to mess about with Spotify or playing Flacs from. My home server via PC, just do it all from the dap. But I dont want to shorten the life of the device when the PC is just sitting there all the time. I will need to think about it.

I don't think I need the coaxial anyway with my USB plan which will be nearer with rhe switcher out the way and only one USB c cable needed.

If I'm plugged into the loxjie with USBc will I need to change the output on the dap, or just leave if on default? As that would also be an advantage when putting it in the dock and taking it out for portable play. Thanks!

I'll let you know if it works! Thanks.

Edit: you know I'm really not sure that leaving it plugged in all the time will damage the battery. There is an android system kevel setting that allows capping the battery at 80% after which it stops charging an doesn't go over 80 even when plugged in. Presumably as it uses battery it trickle charges it back to 80. If a low voltage charger is used, e.g. 5v/1a to do this I can't see how that would be bad for the battery vs letting it run down to 10% before boosting it back up to 80 or 100 again. I think batteries get damaged in terms of Full charging cycles. If if it trickle charging between 79 and 80% all the time I think this would improve not degrade battery health.....?

When you plug in the USB and connect a DAC the M11 should recognise that a DAC is connected and the output should default to the USB. There is no output option in the settings menu, plug and play more or less.

The volume for the USB output will need to be set manually though, you should set the digital volume to maximum, I assume the M11S is the same as the Plus and maximum is 120, set it to that and adjust the final headphone volume at the analog stage obviously being the amplifier. If you disconnect and reconnect that USB audio device the M11 should recognise it again and set the volume to the same 120 as last time. Occasionally that doesn't work and you need to set the volume manually but that is not a big deal.

Over to you regarding the battery, I don't really understand what the charging management does and if trickling a battery constantly is better or worse for a battery than normal cycling.

Personally I would not take the chance with the battery life because the intended use case that you are describing always seems to be the one that is associated with bulged batteries after say 12 months. On all battery powered devices I typically run them from full to something close to flat and charge them again and I have never had a bulged battery and the battery lifetime on phones, battery powered DACs etc seems to be as good as can reasonably be expected so I have no reason to think that full cycling a battery is hard on it at all.

Using the M11 as digital transport with the screen brightness low or little use of the screen the battery will last literally 3 - 4 full days, I would just use it and let it drain and charge it overnight when needed.