Hi,
New here, enjoying reading the awesome reviews and forums.
I hope this is the correct forum for recommendations questions.
I have Beyerdynamic DT-240 headphones, which have quite good sound quality in my opinion, but are not very comfortable to wear (so I'll buy headphones with larger ear cups, for work).
I listen mostly to classical music (mainly flute/recorder and violin concertos, but also piano and other instruments, not much opera), folk (especially Finnish/Polish/Italian/Israeli/Balkan/Celtic), and sometimes older rock and pop (20s to 90s), very rarely anything with low bass that counts. I kinda hate bass, I like to know that it's there and let it support a fuller sound, but not let it overtake the higher frequencies. I also listen to podcasts quite a lot. Sound source is almost exclusively YouTube.
On my MacBook Pro the lows sound muddy and compressed. With a co-worker's Dragonfly Black v1.2 everything opened and sounded way better. Bass was fine (lower volume than mids/highs but way more detailed than with the MBP DAC), but there was a lot of hiss with high pitched instruments (e.g. sopranino recorder) and female voices, even at low volume.
I tend to listen at low volume (the DFB is too loud even at "low volume").
I am looking for a desktop USB DAC AMP at around 100$-150$ mark, for my DT-240 or other not-high impedance headphones that I'll buy sometime in the future (Hifiman HE400i? DT880? some good closed backs for work? not sure).
My current candidates are FiiO K3, FiiO Q1, Topping NX4, TempoTec Sonata iDSD Plus, DacMagic XS, SMSL idea, Sabaj DA2/DA3, and maybe maybe Dragonfly (since it did improve the sound a lot), but I'm open to everything else in the price range.
What do you recommend for sound quality?
Thanks,
Haggai
New here, enjoying reading the awesome reviews and forums.
I hope this is the correct forum for recommendations questions.
I have Beyerdynamic DT-240 headphones, which have quite good sound quality in my opinion, but are not very comfortable to wear (so I'll buy headphones with larger ear cups, for work).
I listen mostly to classical music (mainly flute/recorder and violin concertos, but also piano and other instruments, not much opera), folk (especially Finnish/Polish/Italian/Israeli/Balkan/Celtic), and sometimes older rock and pop (20s to 90s), very rarely anything with low bass that counts. I kinda hate bass, I like to know that it's there and let it support a fuller sound, but not let it overtake the higher frequencies. I also listen to podcasts quite a lot. Sound source is almost exclusively YouTube.
On my MacBook Pro the lows sound muddy and compressed. With a co-worker's Dragonfly Black v1.2 everything opened and sounded way better. Bass was fine (lower volume than mids/highs but way more detailed than with the MBP DAC), but there was a lot of hiss with high pitched instruments (e.g. sopranino recorder) and female voices, even at low volume.
I tend to listen at low volume (the DFB is too loud even at "low volume").
I am looking for a desktop USB DAC AMP at around 100$-150$ mark, for my DT-240 or other not-high impedance headphones that I'll buy sometime in the future (Hifiman HE400i? DT880? some good closed backs for work? not sure).
My current candidates are FiiO K3, FiiO Q1, Topping NX4, TempoTec Sonata iDSD Plus, DacMagic XS, SMSL idea, Sabaj DA2/DA3, and maybe maybe Dragonfly (since it did improve the sound a lot), but I'm open to everything else in the price range.
What do you recommend for sound quality?
Thanks,
Haggai
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