Looking for a portable DAC/Headphone Amp, 600ohms

mac_angel

mac_angel

Audioholic Intern
some time in the future, hopefully not too far, I plan on getting a decent set of headphones and I wanted to pick up a portable DAC/Headphone amp to power them. The headphones I'm interested in are Beyerdynamic DT 990 Premium 600 ohm HiFi headphones (I'm not interested in headphone recommendations, thank you). I want to be able to be portable, hook it up to my Samsung S8 (supports 32bit audio along with Neutron Music Player), as well as my computer, so I'd prefer to find a portable DAC/Headphone amp that also supports 32bit audio as well. Prince range, hoping for under $400US (preferably much lower, but willing to spend up to that if I believe it's worth the money)
 
Out-Of-Phase

Out-Of-Phase

Audioholic General
I have the Schiit Jotunheim without a DAC. I use it with the Beyerdynamic DT770 and the Sennheiser HD600 & HD650 headphones.

It works well for me. I got it for around $400.00 without a DAC.

I also recommend the O2 amp and DAC combo. Excellent value per dollar. Very quiet, black background.
 
mac_angel

mac_angel

Audioholic Intern
I have the Schiit Jotunheim without a DAC. I use it with the Beyerdynamic DT770 and the Sennheiser HD600 & HD650 headphones.

It works well for me. I got it for around $400.00 without a DAC.

I also recommend the O2 amp and DAC combo. Excellent value per dollar. Very quiet, black background.
wouldn't work for what I need. Hooking it up to my computer I'd have to use the onboard soundcard, which would nullify any good amp and/or headphones. Also need something portable. Be able to move it around easily from my computer to my mobile phone, take it on trips, etc.
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
Can't help you with the dac/headphone thing as I don't use them but I do have an unrooted Galaxy S4.... but wonder, does Neutron Music Player somehow enable use of the phone as a usb mass storage device? It would be nice to use my phone as such once in a while...is your phone rooted or do the newer phones allow use as a usb mass storage device?
 
slipperybidness

slipperybidness

Audioholic Warlord
Can't help you with the dac/headphone thing as I don't use them but I do have an unrooted Galaxy S4.... but wonder, does Neutron Music Player somehow enable use of the phone as a usb mass storage device? It would be nice to use my phone as such once in a while...is your phone rooted or do the newer phones allow use as a usb mass storage device?
I'm using S6 Active, not rooted and no micro sd slot. There are devices/adapters available that allow you to plug it into the micro-usb port and then plug in and read off a micro sd card.

I believe you can also get "OTG USB" adapters that would allow you to plug in an external HDD via USB.

http://www.meenova.com/st/p/mrg2.html
 
BoredSysAdmin

BoredSysAdmin

Audioholic Slumlord
yea, I was kind of annoyed that people were highjacking my post.
The Fiio A5 doesn't support 600ohms though.
It has a high gain switch and should be able to power 600ohm phones as well. I suggest you order it from somewhere who allow easy returns, like Amazon (30 days). Return if you don't like it.
I used it to power HD600 without any issues and still had plenty of power reserve.
High impedance by itself may not be an issue, as long as phones fairly sensitive
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
yea, I was kind of annoyed that people were highjacking my post.
The Fiio A5 doesn't support 600ohms though.
Just asked you a question, just wanted to know how you planned on getting to the music via usb out of your S8, been a while since I tried. Thanks @slipperybidness will check out the USB OTG thing. I did download the Neutron eval app and had to delete it, it always turned itself on (despite finding and changing that in settings) and placed itself on top of apps running. Highly annoying.
 
Z

Zman7505

Audioholic Intern
If you don't mind preowned u may want to look at a pha3 on eBay a great sounding piece.
 
BoredSysAdmin

BoredSysAdmin

Audioholic Slumlord
still reading, but right off the bat I can tell it was an old article (they should post article dates at the top, not the bottom). And technology has came a long way since then, too.
human ear didn't changed much :)
and the article is from 2012, with corrections in 2014
 
mac_angel

mac_angel

Audioholic Intern
human ear didn't changed much :)
and the article is from 2012, with corrections in 2014
Interesting read, and I'm still going through it now (slow reader, reading over things a few times, plus busy day). Not sure I completely agree with everything in it though. Using the same analogy of light/colour and sound. People can see the difference between 16bit colour, 24bit colour, and 32bit colour. They are even expanding that with HDR. People can also tell the difference between audio the same way. 16bit sound cards are a thing LONG in the past. People can easily tell the difference between the same stages, 16bit audio, 24bit audio, and 32bit audio. That being said, 32bit audio is relatively new, and the Samsung S8 is one of the only cell phones that support it, and even then, I believe you still need an app to play it. It can play smaller bit files and upsample them, same kind of idea as a 1080p being upgraded to 4k. It's not true 4k, but depending on the software/hardware, it does look (or sound in this case) better than the smaller resolution. Many people can also tell the difference between MP3 and FLAC files. If the article was correct, the sampling would be captured perfectly and completely by sampling; an infinite sampling rate is not required. That sounds like he's trying to say that the compression is perfect and uncompresses to a lossless format. Obviously far from the truth.
Another point of contention is the difference in audio from DVD to BlueRay. Yea, you can argue BlueRay is newer, better recording equipment, etc, etc when the audio was created. But on a good system, you will hear a huge difference in audio quality in the same movie, going like for like on the same system. I'm still reading through the article, and I got to the point of him saying 16bit vs 24bit and him saying it's useless. Sorry, I know many people, gamers and audiophiles alike, will disagree with that.
 
BoredSysAdmin

BoredSysAdmin

Audioholic Slumlord
Interesting read, and I'm still going through it now (slow reader, reading over things a few times, plus busy day). Not sure I completely agree with everything in it though. Using the same analogy of light/colour and sound. People can see the difference between 16bit colour, 24bit colour, and 32bit colour. They are even expanding that with HDR. People can also tell the difference between audio the same way. 16bit sound cards are a thing LONG in the past. People can easily tell the difference between the same stages, 16bit audio, 24bit audio, and 32bit audio. That being said, 32bit audio is relatively new, and the Samsung S8 is one of the only cell phones that support it, and even then, I believe you still need an app to play it. It can play smaller bit files and upsample them, same kind of idea as a 1080p being upgraded to 4k. It's not true 4k, but depending on the software/hardware, it does look (or sound in this case) better than the smaller resolution. Many people can also tell the difference between MP3 and FLAC files. If the article was correct, the sampling would be captured perfectly and completely by sampling; an infinite sampling rate is not required. That sounds like he's trying to say that the compression is perfect and uncompresses to a lossless format. Obviously far from the truth.
Another point of contention is the difference in audio from DVD to BlueRay. Yea, you can argue BlueRay is newer, better recording equipment, etc, etc when the audio was created. But on a good system, you will hear a huge difference in audio quality in the same movie, going like for like on the same system. I'm still reading through the article, and I got to the point of him saying 16bit vs 24bit and him saying it's useless. Sorry, I know many people, gamers and audiophiles alike, will disagree with that.
I am going to bet you $1000 that on a good system with same material and matched levels you won't be able to hear the difference on any song between 24 and 32-bit music in blind testing.
Also, 16 bit is old but far from being irrelevant, most modern music doesn't even get to have dynamic range needed out of 16 bit (google: loudness wars)

You're of course entitled to your opinion, but unfortunately, science does not support it.
btw: Color range is not a good example since a human eye is a significantly better instrument than a human ear. Modern tech is still unable to fully capture and reproduce healthy human eye visible color range.
4k resolution is irrelevant again since the ability to see fine details heavily depends on both your eyesight (young people tend to have better than 20/20 vision) and HOW FAR are you from the screen.

https://carltonbale.com/does-4k-resolution-matter/

p.s: I own some very expensive headphones (including Senn's PCX550, Senn hd6xx, AKG K712pro (made in Austria) and also Galaxy S8 smartphone
 
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