Who's fault? Amp or DAC?
May 27, 2013 at 11:12 PM Thread Starter Post #1 of 6

BillsonChang007

Headphoneus Supremus
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Hello!
 
So it's been a while since I use my iPhone 4 as my main portable player [I have 4]. However, recently when I change back to my iPhone 1 and iNano 3rd, I encountered these problems: [I'm using XBA-4]
 
1] My IEM sound very thin, totally 0 bass with my iNano 3rd and iPhone 1 and the volume is extremely loud! I have to use the lowest possible volume setting on these two devices to make it "listenable" to me but still, it is very loud. 
 
2] With my iPhone 4 and iPad 2, my IEM sound excellent, the bass is tight[can be too much in terms of quantity to me], no more thin sound and much more detailed. However, volume here is very soft! I have to turn up the volume. 
 
These two issues really bother me a lot but I just wanted to know what is the issue here, as I do not want to get an amp for it but it turn out to be the DAC's issue.
 
Billson 
 
May 27, 2013 at 11:23 PM Post #2 of 6
It's likely an impedance issue, which means amp, not DAC.
 
May 28, 2013 at 2:57 PM Post #4 of 6
3rd gen nano has undersized DC blocking capacitors on the output causing severe bass roll-off with low impedance head/earphones. The lower the headphone impedance, the worse the roll-off.
 
Using a seperate amp would help, because the input impedance of an amp is usually around 10 kOhm. But maybe you're better off upgrading your portable player instead.
 
 
On 2: do you use the output limited EU version?
 
May 28, 2013 at 3:00 PM Post #5 of 6
Amp would fix it then.
 
May 29, 2013 at 1:51 AM Post #6 of 6
Quote:
3rd gen nano has undersized DC blocking capacitors on the output causing severe bass roll-off with low impedance head/earphones. The lower the headphone impedance, the worse the roll-off.
 
Using a seperate amp would help, because the input impedance of an amp is usually around 10 kOhm. But maybe you're better off upgrading your portable player instead.
 
 
On 2: do you use the output limited EU version?

what DAP would you recommend for that? FiiO X3? What about the iNano 7th [latest]? Never like the iClassic sound... tried the 80GB and it was too bassy. 
 
Nope, I do not use the output limited EU version
 
Billson :D
 

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