Two rooms with audio in. Really low end stuff.
Current setup in Living room: (Adjusted for high
WAF)
WAF = Wife Acceptance Factor
AMP: Denon 1611EU with Audyssey MultEQ-XT
Streamer: ChromeCast Ultra
Speakers: Front DynaVoice Magic C-4 EX v.3
Front & Back : DynaVoice Magic S-3 EX v.3
Sub: Dynavoice Magic Sub 8 EX v.3
Room: Everything you can imagine as faults in a room. Windows everywhere, Three doors. The equipment is on the left in the room. 25 m2 Area
Two Sofas in 90 degrees, thick carpet.
The Audyssey MultEQ-XT makes a big difference in this excuse for a listening room. Before I had the DynaVoice speakers I had a Harmann Kardon HKTS-7 as speakers with no place to put the sub really. The crossover was a joke, you could hear things in the sub that's not supposed to be there.
Room number two: Workspace/gaming room (VR)/Space for hobbies (RC planes)/Somewhere to but the synth (Yamaha MX49)/listening space
Sub optimal(crappy) room here as well.
Near field listening position
Sub / Amp: Videologic DigiTheathre DTS using the control unit (not the speaker) and sub.
Speakers: DynaVoice Magic S-3 EX v.3 on top of monitors
Headphone amp/dac: Swissonic HAD-1
Streamer: ChromeCast Audio
Headphone: Sony MDR-1A
Used the DTS in 2.1 configuration with the original front speakers until the rubber around the cones gave up. Then I got the DynaVoice Magic S-3 as replacements a year ago.
I got the DTS system originally 1999 as my first 5.1 DTS/Dolby Digital home cinema speakers. Lasted as my home cinema/stereo system until I got the Denon 1611EU(5.1) with the HK HKTS-7 system in 2010. Time to upgrade my computer audio! Moved the DTS system to the computer desk instead.
But most of my time I'm using headphones... (That
WAF again)
My first "good" gaming headphone (don't laugh) was the Steel Series 5H V2 I got in a computer store. At the time I was using the onboard sound from a Nvidia Nforce 2 and got my first headphone amp (The Creative DDTS-30) to get surround sound from the Dolby Digital 5.1 optical out from the mother board. Years later it was time for the next headset upgrade with the Sennheiser PC350. I found out the hard way what a high impedance headset required in power. The Dual AA powered DDTS-30 didn't really cut it anymore. And the onboard amp on the motherboard didn't cope either. So I got a PCIe Asus DGX soundcard. Now I had the power to run the PC350. They also got a sound upgrade with the bass mod and sounded really good after that.
Fast forward and the beloved PC350 died (crappy quality on the volume control), so I had to replace it with something else. Enter the Sennheiser G4me Zero. Should sound similar but with less bass? No not even close, but with some inventive EQ I got it to sound decent. But I was never satisfied with the sound of the Zero. So about two years ago I got the Sony MDR-1a. Wow what a difference, but now I realized that the DGX wasn't that good at all, I had interference from the computer and the sound was dull. Guess what I found in a drawer in my desk? The old DDTS-30 that didn't have the power for the 150 Ohm Sennheisers. But for the efficient MDR-1a I had plenty of power, never had to go above 40 %. The sound was a lot better, no hum, no dull narrow sound stage. The added benefit of having the volume control out side was one good feature as well. The Sony's was the first headphone that I owned that didn't have any volume control. I really don't like the volume control in windows. So I was happy for a while.
Then I got my first Chrome Cast Audio. At first I stupidly just used them as digital transport to the DDTS-30 for the convenience to have a easy to reach volume knob. But then one summer I wanted to listen to my CCA outside. One power bank, one MDR-1a, one CCA and the phone on the table. Portable audio! Wow! This CCA is really good. The Amp is so much better than the DDTS-30.
So I started to listen to music at my desk using the CCA and listen to my computer thru the DDTS-30
Present day: 500 thousand battery changes later and having to unplug the headset time and time. I was fed up with the situation. Time to think about what I needed. Cheap, good sounding and convenient.
So the
Swissonic HAD-1 happened. So know I have convenience, power and the best sound ever.
You know what I dream about know? The Sony Z7..... Down the rabbit hole we go.
Will I need to change DAC and AMP? No! Unless I get some really hard to drive headphones.
Some really bad phone pictures of the "Den", sorry about the mess. It's my all in one space.