Hello. What is the alternative to K5 Pro? I bought it, listened for two weeks and returned it back. It sounds very beautiful and powerful. But I didn’t like the soft sound of Fiio and AK4493 for Drum-n-bass. But i like format of combo.
Now i use Xonar U7 with CS4398 and it sounds ok. I want to upgrade the source. Maybe K5 and some DAC will be better? Headphones are damped Takstar pro 82 just for now.
Can you define what you mean by a "soft sound"?
I've read people's subjective views on the Sabaj Da3
portable DAC/Headphone amp and the general idea (<not a pun*) is that it sounds a bit punchy compared to other options. Measurements haven't shown a source for this type of sound 'signature' and listening tests were very likely sighted and maybe not level matched very well or at all.
Generally, people say less favourable things about the sound signature of the ESS DAC chips vs TI Burr Brown or AKM. In my limited experience comparing a budget ESS based DAC against a TI Burr Brown based CD player, once level matched no differences were observable.
* "idea" there is a product by SMSL with this name that is more or less a clone of a sibling Sabaj product.
From
DIY Audio Heaven:
Basically saying that a higher amp output impedance will skew to have more bass - but the overall volume will be A LOT lower.
K5 Pro has a pretty low output impedance.