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Got my E1DA 9038S. Hooked it up to my Campfire Andromeda Gold and here are my impressions: 1. Sounds amazing. Very detailed and powerful. 2. Even on the lowest volume in iTunes it's pretty loud. If you plan to use it this way, make sure you route all notification sounds to another device (using...

That’s not the same. A hard limit simply means the signal can’t go over a certain amplitude. What other vendors are doing is analog attenuation or switchable DAC reference voltage. These would allow for finer digital volume granularity and potentially even lower output noise.

Just noticed this in section 19.3 of RME’s manual suggesting they do implement analog volume control to some degree: “To maintain an optimum level for devices connected to the analog outputs and to maximize the dynamic range, the ADI-2 DAC internally uses hi-quality electronic switches, which...

Thanks. But RME proudly state that they are using digital volume control. Anyway, I’ve since realized (with help from @Schackmannen) that as long as the noise floor is below 0dbSPL digital volume control (pre dac) works great (even better) than analog (post dac) would.

I think the contrary is correct. A high AMP output impedance (all else being equal) will reduce hiss because the output signal and noise will be reduced when compared to low output impedance.

Allow me to try to explain: Given a headphone's amp noise floor (to get it, take the full scale 0dBFS RMS output voltage and divide by 10^(SNR[dB]/20) ), the amount of power going into the headphones (or IEM) is Vnoise^2 / R where Vnoise is the RMS voltage of the noise as calculated above and R...

@trl congrats on the new purchase. I'm glad it works for you. For me however, there's a big difference between 20 and 7 ohm (nominal) and 3 ohm (bass) of the Andromeda Gold. Check out the web for resistor divider to see the math (it's basically R_iem / (R_iem + R_amp) ). You'll need to square...

@Schackmannen about the Andromeda - please note that I'm using the Andromeda-Gold (special edition...) which is even more sensitive. The regular Andromedas are slightly less fussy but still crazy. I never heard the Andromeda but the Andromeda Gold are amazing IEMs. The best I've ever heard and...

@lxlx I never used the word fail and I think it's unfitting. At 90dBSPL / mw your T800 are 26dB shy of the Campfire Andromeda Gold's 116dBSPL / mw. Also, the impedance ratio of 9.2/7 (average) pushes this further to 27dB (E1DA has practically zero output impedance). No wonder you're happy. I'd...

@trl Thanks for the link. @amirm is assuming IEM impedance that doesn't change with frequency. The impedance of some IEMs (mine included) varied quite a lot depending on frequency. The impedance of the earphone and the output impedance of the AMP (+attenuator + wires) all act as a resistor...

Thanks @trl but the iFi Ear Buddy has a too high output impedance. IEMs often have a very frequency dependant impedance (considerably lower in the bass region) so you must use a very low AMP output resistance (such as E1DA) if you wish to get a flat response.

@Schackmannen You sir are right. Thank you for your patience and valuable input. It’s not every day that I learn something new. Sorry if I was stubborn and slow. Yes, if the dac+amp noise floor is inaudible with your speakers then digital volume control is the best cleanest way. Unfortunately...

@Schackmannen I don’t see where in this analysis you’re taking gain and the resulting quantization noise into account. Lets take an extreme example: Say I have an ideal DAC with zero residual noise but the total gain in my system forces me to use just the upper 4 bits of my signal then my LSB...

@Schackmannen still, even if I don't hear the DAC's noise floor, I argue that if I need to set the digital volume to such a low setting (because the DAC's voltage gain is so high) that it leaves me with 8 bit audio then I'm doing something wrong. This IEM + DAC combination is a poor choice.

@Schackmannen I see now, you meant with the volume turned all the way up, not necessarily while the the music is playing. I agree with that. Sorry to have misunderstood you.

@Schackmannen, thanks, that's interesting to learn. You wrote: "if you didn't hear any noise with the volume turned all the way up, then you won't hear any even if you turn the volume way down." I strongly disagree. It is usually in the quiet passages of music that a listener notices recording...

@IVX : "My DACs are inexpensive and it easy to buy just for trying" - I agree and I don't regret buying it. However, I bought your DAC because of the very low output impedance which is required for the low (and frequency-dependant) impedance of IEMs and because of the SINAD @amirm measured...

@IVX I think you should put some warning in your aliexpress shop for this. I made the same mistake. I’m sure many people will do too. Another option is (in future revisions) to have the IEM mode use a lower gain (not just output power limit).

@amirm you wrote about the multi-tone test: “We have 120 dB separate between intermodulation distortion products and our peak signal which well exceeds our hearing dynamic range.”. Don’t we have to apply the FFT gain (20log10(NFFT)) to properly measure the height of this “grass”?

@amirm you wrote: “We can see why SINAD suffers a bit because once the levels get close to maximum, more distortion sets in than best of the best DACs. If you operate the DAC using its volume control you would avoid this and get all the benefits of the D70.” This implies that the D70 volume...