Amp for headphones

[scotview]

I've been a bit immobile for last 5 weeks with a broken tibia and fibula (dangerous game golf !).

To pass the time, I've been listening to music on my new pixel 7A phone which doesn't have an earpiece socket (3.5mm) and on an old Xperia which does have an earpiece socket.

My music is streamed from youtube premium music and I've just taken a months subscription on Amazon prime music unlimited which can stream at high quality. I'm comparing them and so far youtube premium music is winning. Youtube music has the option of watching video, I do enjoy the last scene from Master and Commander, cello and violin.

I'm using cheap but good, wired, minimalist Koss headphones and recently bought a pair of Sony, wireless headphones KPH40.

Haven't missed much in the last 5 weeks, since the weather up here has been like November, but it's been great to test out all the listening permutations with streaming music and headphones. I feel that USB music out from both the Pixel and Xperia has some degree of white noise/hiss, but that's maybe my hearing. I'm hoping the DAC/Amp will bypass any white noise/hiss.

My next move is to maybe buy a small, portable, reasonably priced DAC/Amp. Have any of you guys any experience of using these small headphone amplifiers and any recommendations ? It will probably use USB input to suit the pixel phone.

Thanks in advance.

[Infrasonic]

How much money do you want to spend?

You can get cable/dongle dacs for phones, to go between the phone and the HP's. https://darko.audio/2021/07/5-more-dong ... ideration/

Desktop ...https://darko.audio/?s=dacs

You can get some quite compact streamer dacs... https://darko.audio/?s=streamers

I bought a pair of Focal Bathy's HP's a while back after auditioning them against some other high end candidates and they have the DAC built into the HP's - so just a regular usb cable will work there for high def recordings (24/196 etc)

I've also got a pair of Sony WH-1000XM5's as the noise cancelling is really good on BT and if the traffic is bad around my way the Focals won't cut it there (although they sound better overall).

I run a FiiO R7 streamer - very happy with it. Does all the streaming services, all the BT codecs, DSD et al. Pretty future proofed.

[gpadsa]

I've been a bit immobile for last 5 weeks with a broken tibia and fibula (dangerous game golf !).

Get well soon.

In last month's Gramophone there was a review of headphone amps, the issue with Rachel Podger on the cover - might still be in the library or GP waiting area. mine went with the recycling & I can't find the relevant review online, archive.today does turn up what would be my preference though: a raspberry pi with DAC

gpadsa

[servodude]

I've been a bit immobile for last 5 weeks with a broken tibia and fibula (dangerous game golf !).

To pass the time, I've been listening to music on my new pixel 7A phone which doesn't have an earpiece socket (3.5mm) and on an old Xperia which does have an earpiece socket.

My music is streamed from youtube premium music and I've just taken a months subscription on Amazon prime music unlimited which can stream at high quality. I'm comparing them and so far youtube premium music is winning. Youtube music has the option of watching video, I do enjoy the last scene from Master and Commander, cello and violin.

I'm using cheap but good, wired, minimalist Koss headphones and recently bought a pair of Sony, wireless headphones KPH40.

Haven't missed much in the last 5 weeks, since the weather up here has been like November, but it's been great to test out all the listening permutations with streaming music and headphones. I feel that USB music out from both the Pixel and Xperia has some degree of white noise/hiss, but that's maybe my hearing. I'm hoping the DAC/Amp will bypass any white noise/hiss.

My next move is to maybe buy a small, portable, reasonably priced DAC/Amp. Have any of you guys any experience of using these small headphone amplifiers and any recommendations ? It will probably use USB input to suit the pixel phone.

Thanks in advance.

Contact sports are always risky!

The FiiO stuff is nice (and not very expensive)
I've their E10 somewhere that I was happy with, but I was mostly using it to cope with the load requirements of high impedence headphones

I have not tried it with OTG USB on a phone though; it might be just plug and play, or you might need some app to configure it (it was easy enough to wrangle the PC in to using it)

-sd

[formoverfunction]

Thanks for the interesting posts.

I enjoyed darko audio. New for me.

[Infrasonic]

Thanks for the interesting posts.

I enjoyed darko audio. New for me.

He gets the right balance between audio geekiness and 'real world' priorities - he uses Bluetooth headphones all the time even though they aren't great from an audiophile perspective due to the bandwidth limits of the BT spec. Uses a cable and DAC at home when doing 'serious' listening or is on high end speakers.

Also worth noting he has had his listening rooms acoustically treated and analysed. Never understood people who spend a fortune on hi fi and do nothing with their room treatment...

[scotview]

How much money do you want to spend?

Thanks all for the useful feedback, particularly to Infrasonic, thanks. I had seen some of darko audio's videos and I like his conversational style.

Well, within my Aberdonian financial constraints, I have purchased :

1 FIIO Q11 dac/amp, £90 on Amazon .
2 Pair of Sennheiser HD 560S, Open back reference-grade headphones, £129 on Amazon
3 FAAEAL Balanced Cable for Sennheiser.£22 Amazon USA.

I am pleased with the improvement in sound over my rather bright KOSS headphones. I'm waiting delivery of the balanced cable and will be surprised and pleased if the sound quality is further improved.

What I have noticed is:
1 The sound quality, musical enjoyment is largely dependent on the quality of the original recording (maybe obvious)
2 I think I suffer from intermittent/mild tinnitus which sometimes introduces a hissing sound. So hifi quality is largely dependent on one's hearing.

Thanks again all for the feedback.

[Infrasonic]

'...
What I have noticed is:
1 The sound quality, musical enjoyment is largely dependent on the quality of the original recording (maybe obvious)
2 I think I suffer from intermittent/mild tinnitus which sometimes introduces a hissing sound. So hi fi quality is largely dependent on one's hearing.
...

I'd agree.

I've worked professionally in music since 1982, as a studio/live sound engineer I've heard a lot of the most expensive high end pro gear (£100K+ studio monitoring systems etc.) and am used to hearing the original multitrack/master tapes (all digital these days of course) as a reference point to what we end up listening to as consumers (compressed digital 99% of the time).

With the right set up you can hear the differences between say a low quality codec, or bluetooth HP's versus a decent 24bit/96/192K source plus a decent DAC/Headphone setup. Where it gets much more debatable (especially with age...) is the differences between say 24/96 and all the esoteric higher options. I can't hear it, at least not on the equipment I've auditioned with, which has included some pretty high end DAC/HP combinations.

Most pro sound people have tinnitus, it's an occupational hazard. There is some research evidence however that you can 'evolve' around it as the brain is interpreting the stimuli from the ears. There are some famous older mix engineers who keep churning out stunning mixes despite freely admitting to issues with tinnitus. That's more a 'balance' rather than frequency response specific issue though. All that high end 16K RF noise that I could hear as a kid from TV's etc has long gone...

Be interested to know what you think of the balanced HP cable. In theory it should lower the noise floor, whether it makes an objective difference to the sound however...

[servodude]

'...
What I have noticed is:
1 The sound quality, musical enjoyment is largely dependent on the quality of the original recording (maybe obvious)
2 I think I suffer from intermittent/mild tinnitus which sometimes introduces a hissing sound. So hi fi quality is largely dependent on one's hearing.
...

I'd agree.

I've worked professionally in music since 1982, as a studio/live sound engineer I've heard a lot of the most expensive high end pro gear (£100K+ studio monitoring systems etc.) and am used to hearing the original multitrack/master tapes (all digital these days of course) as a reference point to what we end up listening to as consumers (compressed digital 99% of the time).

With the right set up you can hear the differences between say a low quality codec, or bluetooth HP's versus a decent 24bit/96/192K source plus a decent DAC/Headphone setup. Where it gets much more debatable (especially with age...) is the differences between say 24/96 and all the esoteric higher options. I can't hear it, at least not on the equipment I've auditioned with, which has included some pretty high end DAC/HP combinations.

Most pro sound people have tinnitus, it's an occupational hazard. There is some research evidence however that you can 'evolve' around it as the brain is interpreting the stimuli from the ears. There are some famous older mix engineers who keep churning out stunning mixes despite freely admitting to issues with tinnitus. That's more a 'balance' rather than frequency response specific issue though. All that high end 16K RF noise that I could hear as a kid from TV's etc has long gone...

Be interested to know what you think of the balanced HP cable. In theory it should lower the noise floor, whether it makes an objective difference to the sound however...

I would have thought the effect/benefit of a balanced cable will be down to where it's used? Rejecting external noise rather than providing an inherently better signal path - or are these meaning balanced in a different way from the likes of an XLR?

[Infrasonic]

I would have thought the effect/benefit of a balanced cable will be down to where it's used? Rejecting external noise rather than providing an inherently better signal path - or are these meaning balanced in a different way from the likes of an XLR?

Balanced HP cable is exactly the same, in a non hostile environment however the advantages of balanced versus unbalanced are more moot.

When I used to work with the BBC OB engineers they were all starquad cable rather than standard three core mic cable, because they needed the extra CMR security for hostile environments where lighting/camera gear might be in close proximity.

If you faraday caged your listening room/studio and sorted the AC supply you could quite happily run unbalanced analogue everything without any issues as long as the gear was properly designed. Many people did it that way in the past as it was the cheaper option...