[AJCxZ0]

Monoprice Monolith M1060C turned up to loud. Currently turned up to loud on my HIFIMAN HE400i.
No such thing as too much power for planar magnetic drivers, but nine o'clock is about the comfortable limit for these low impedance and fairly sensitive headphones.

 

[omegaorgun]

I sent my unit to Zeos to review. Some of the earlier units did not have the B to differentiate them from earlier Wolfson model.

 

[bigjako]

Thank you, KC-130. That was what I was looking for. I spoke to xDuoo support yesterday and they replied to my email saying that the device does not support connecting to phone. I thought this was strange because an Amazon.com customer had answered a question saying he used the USB to lightning successfully on his iPhone. Maybe, the Apple CCK USB3 model might work but am not sure. If anyone using it this way, it would be nice to share their experience.

After a lot of trial and error (and Amazon returns) I have generally figured out how to connect my iPhone 11 or my iPad mini (latest version) to the TA-01B. It required a powered USB hub and a UBC-C-to-lightning adapter to work well. Even with my MacBook's USB-C connector, I could only get it to connect (LINK) if I introduced some intermediary into the USB-C output (from the TA-01B) to the USB-C input on my MacBook. This was the case across two laptops (both Macs) and with my iPhone/iPad. I had to introduce a connector between the two devices.

I did manage to get music playing without the powered USB connector, but it created a lot of clicks and pops. I'm thinking of ways to eliminate the powered USB link in the chain, if only to streamline the number of dongles and adapters and cables in the mix. I think that one of those dongles that lets you charge while connected to lightning for data/music at the same time might work. Then I'll have a little plant-stand setup of the TA, headphone stand and iPad dock that I could tuck in a corner.

Strangely, when I connect without using a powered USB, the volume is louder and (I think) clearer - but the pops and clicks make it untenable. I used some ferrite chokes to try to reduce it, no luck.

Does anyone have experience using this on a multibit dac? I would like to see how it pairs with a (warm) DAC to see if that might help its imaging and separation.

 

[Maxxutk0]

Monoprice Monolith M1060C turned up to loud. Currently turned up to loud on my HIFIMAN HE400i.
No such thing as too much power for planar magnetic drivers, but nine o'clock is about the comfortable limit for these low impedance and fairly sensitive headphones.

Hello there! I would like to ask a question about the combination of xduoo ta 01 and HIFIman HE400se. Would you recommend it as a starter kit for planar headphones or would you rather suggest something better in the same price range? I need a solution which combines both DAC and amp so I decided to pick this xduoo as I have a good deal on eBay and HE400se stealth as a good starting point. What would be your opinion on that? Many thanks and kind regards.

 

[AJCxZ0]

Would you recommend it as a starter kit for planar headphones or would you rather suggest something better in the same price range? I need a solution which combines both DAC and amp so I decided to pick this xduoo as I have a good deal on eBay and HE400se stealth as a good starting point. What would be your opinion on that?

I would not recommend it despite the fact that it should still sound great, but you should enjoy it - especially if you got an extraordinary deal. The HE400se remains a good bargain choice.

Desktop DAC/amp choices have continued to improve so much since the TA-01B including options with tubes. The xDuoo MT-601 and MT-602 are both great bargain options.