Wanted to get an idea what is considered most important items in your headphone audio chain - source, dac, amplifier, EQ, cables, & headphones?
I assume it is the following headphones, amp, eq, dac (they all sound the same) & finally cables. I am sceptical that Dacs & cables make much audible difference.
My current chain is ipad (using Apple Music) , Fiio F5 pro, & Sennheiser HD800S. I am missing EQ from my chain - Worth investing in something like RME Dac 2 which has eq features?
Headphone,amp,Dac for me. I don’t use EQ myself . I will say the is a difference between my Yggdrasil and Modi 3 , Khadas Tone Board and Dragonfly Red .
I'd agree with the above. If you've got a headphone you don't like, no amp or DAC or anything else is going to transform it into your favorite headphone all of a sudden. So, start with a headphone you like. After that, amps definitely do influence the sound you hear from your headphones, but the differences you can perceive from amp to amp are nowhere near as obvious or drastic as the differences you can perceive from headphone to headphone. Then the differences between DACs are even more subtle than amps.
Regarding EQ, I prefer headphones that sound the way I like right off the rack. Sometimes headphones need a little tweaking to get them right where I like them, and that's fine, too. Like, some days I just feel like pushing +3db to the bass. S'all good. But if a headphone requires more than a subtle tweak to sound good for me, that's a sign to me that I just don't like the headphone and should return or resell it instead of keeping it and heavily distorting all my music just to try and bend a wrong headphone to my will.
"... what is considered most important items in your headphone audio chain?"
The one that sounds the worst ...
Seriously. Typical advice starts with the headphone, but it's possible to reach a level of refinement that results in your headphone sounding like poo. The same things happen with the other devices, until you reach a world-class level, then every change in anything might be noticed.
Yeah, gonna jump on the bandwagon of Headphone ---> Amp -------------------> DAC. Where source comes in is kind of a mystery to me... maybe between the Amp and DAC. But a lot of that depends on where you're currently at. Are you listening to compressed MP3s you got off Napster in 2000? Then source is your biggest problem. But if you're listening to CD-quality or better files/streaming, then source is pretty much done until you reach a particularly expensive level of the rest of your chain.
EQ I don't consider to be part of the chain. It's simply adjustments that can be made regardless of the rest of the links. I have a Lokius that I play with sometimes, and will use EQ on my PC sometimes, but it's not (to me) part of the audio chain so much as it is tweaks/adjustments.
Yeah, if your source is 320kbps MP3s or FLACs, I'd say you're golden until maybe when you're dropping five figures on your setup. Even then, any benefit would be extremely subtle, if even perceptible at all. That's I think when we get into the territory of it being so hard to determine a difference that you're not even enjoying the music anymore.
It can be noted that I have had an IEM for years (not in use) in my collection and all of a sudden changed the tips on it to a wider bore and fell in love with it.
So somehow strange as it would seem EVERYTHING is important. Only we get sidetracked as to the how or why of it all.
Meaning common sense would seem that the headphone/IEM would be the most important. But surprisingly there can be times when something else in the signal chain alters the tone in ways not even dreamed possible. Some may call this synergy? Maybe it’s connected to expectation bias? But still it’s normally unexpected?
Typically too, it can be the effects of two subtle changes. Like (for example) a new sounding firmware in a DAP combined with wider bore tips which bring about a more midrange emphasis to a sound signature. Where before the bass was an issue creating a loss of pace. Now the midrange emphasis brings the midrange forward which diminishes the bass tone focus.
If such a display of audiophilisms (can) take place across the board, it seems possible............though bordering on luck. As cables mean more to some, amps mean more to some. But all and all I would say.........everything in the signal chain matters, but there are a few things that typically matter more.
In my example it really was the change in the headphone that was brought about which created an emphasis on a new sound possibility!
Typically many of us have beliefs which control our actions; like I don’t use EQ, but get corrections with gear/tips/etc etc.
@Redcarmoose has it pegged: everything matters. Since I had to start somewhere, I chose CD transport / DAC ( totl ) then their power / interconnect cabling.
@Redcarmoose has it pegged: everything matters. Since I had to start somewhere, I chose CD transport / DAC ( totl ) then their power / interconnect cabling.
Well, crazy as it seems, the values placed on each piece of equipment seem almost happenstance........a coincidence! Meaning of course everything matters, but we somehow like to have favorites and place value on favorites. Then that value can be moved to a new favorite (new coincidence) as years pass, basically invalidating the original premise? Haha
So how or why things such as this happen, is the basis for audiophile syndrome. Taking a section (of equipment) and placing a style of personality to it. When in fact it (the equipment) does have a personality but it’s maybe not to the extent we give it. Only maybe finding the equipment is the key in overall synergy? Maybe?
The question............is synergy always a coincidence or partially a coincidence? I think it’s controlled except we don’t have complete control? There is always a factor of luck involved!
Dont worry about EQ... EQ is the most useless, even detrimental, part in an audio chain. The point of hifi is the fidelity, the accurate sound that you can hear from your headphones; however, EQ allows you to artificially alter the sound and produce the distribution of sound frequency that you are not supposed to hear from the original music. The priority should be: source>headphones>dac>amp. Of course, thats just my personal opinion
Dont worry about EQ... EQ is the most useless, even detrimental, part in an audio chain. The point of hifi is the fidelity, the accurate sound that you can hear from your headphones; however, EQ allows you to artificially alter the sound and produce the distribution of sound frequency that you are not supposed to hear from the original music. The priority should be: source>headphones>dac>amp. Of course, thats just my personal opinion
See.....I agree with this too. Except there are sooo many audiophiles that EQ. It’s basically a long road that after you reach the end of it you don’t change. You EQ or you don’t!
amp: Here what I'm really looking for something that doesn't screw it up, and since for the most part my dynamic headphones are low impedence/high sensitivity, I just use them with whatever player/source I have (honestly I always felt the idea of a tabletop amp for headphones was kind of silly lol). Of course electrostatic phones need an amp/driver unit, and I had good experiences with so called "low end" amps like the T1S/353X/253S with all my STAX phones.
big gap
(digital) source: I remember early on in my "audiophile" journey I tried out these modern high falutin DACs (even bought a Chord Mojo) and was very saddened when I realized that they didn't sound any better than like even my MacBook or iPhone dongle lol as they mostly sounded the same, could say they sounded a bit worse than some portable CD players I plugged them, but small enough for me to question if it really was a difference at all.
cables: Honestly when I swapped cables on one headphone (the MDR Z7) it sounded better at least initially? This was an experience I didn't even get to with DACs. Again too minor of a change to chalk it up to a real difference rather than just me listening differently at that moment.
Obviously if you have analog sources (vinyl/tape) source becomes more important though.
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