1mii Lavaudio DS400 Review (DAC & HP Amp)

[DatBoomerGuy]

I think you should be ok. Amir said in his review of the DA3, "I did listen to my power hungry Sennheiser HD-650s with the Da3 using unbalanced output and it seemed to have sufficient drive for it toward the end of its volume scale. Sonically I did not detect any faults or signatures." The HD-650 is 300 ohms.

The Sabaj website says 13 mW @ 300 ohms. While it might drive my headphones, I don't think it would drive them well.

Sabaj Audio Official-Sabaj音频官网

Since the establishment of our company, we have been committed to an enterprise integrating audio product design, R&D, production, market operation and service.There are mainly three categories: decoder/headphone amplifier/power amplifier. Our company is composed of a group of members who love...

www.sabaj.com.cn

 

[Nathan Raymond]

The Sabaj website says 13 mW @ 300 ohms. While it might drive my headphones, I don't think it would drive them well.

Sabaj Audio Official-Sabaj音频官网

Since the establishment of our company, we have been committed to an enterprise integrating audio product design, R&D, production, market operation and service.There are mainly three categories: decoder/headphone amplifier/power amplifier. Our company is composed of a group of members who love...

www.sabaj.com.cn

Yeah I agree that sounds low. Let me see if I can find a better solution...

 

[DatBoomerGuy]

Yeah I agree that sounds low. Let me see if I can find a better solution...

I've been trying to get the power output specs for the older FiiO K5 Pro from Fiio...but they say they don't have that info, but they did tell me the newer ESS model has 140mW @ 300 ohms...that's decent. (just out of my budget)

I DID find this info from FiiO:

K5PRO_parameters

K5PRO_parameters,FiiO--Born for Music

fiio.com

Output Power (headphone output）

1.65W(16Ω); 1.5W(32Ω)

I'm not engineer enough to try to extrapolate the power output for 250 ohm headphones based on those numbers.
(simple math says 250 ohms is about 7.8 times as much resistance as 32 ohms...so about 192 mW...but I suspect that's WAY off base.)

FINALLY got a response from FiiO's support team.

Output Power (headphone output）

1.65W(16Ω); 1.5W(32Ω)188mW(300Ω)

Looks like my rough, simple math might have been fairly close. (close enough anyway)

 

[Nathan Raymond]

I've been trying to get the power output specs for the older FiiO K5 Pro from Fiio...but they say they don't have that info, but they did tell me the newer ESS model has 140mW @ 300 ohms...that's decent. (just out of my budget)

I DID find this info from FiiO:

K5PRO_parameters

K5PRO_parameters,FiiO--Born for Music

fiio.com

I'm not engineer enough to try to extrapolate the power output for 250 ohm headphones based on those numbers.
(simple math says 250 ohms is about 7.8 times as much resistance as 32 ohms...so about 192 mW...but I suspect that's WAY off base.)

FINALLY got a response from FiiO's support team.



Looks like my rough, simple math might have been fairly close. (close enough anyway)

I think that'll be plenty of power. Another option, not quite as powerful, could be the AIYIMA DAC-A5pro for $75:

https://www.amazon.com/AIYIMA-DAC-A5pro-Headphone-DAC-ESS9018K2M/dp/B09PMDN86V/

Max power output is 1000mW 32Ω load, so not as high as the FiiO, but decent. I can't find an in-depth review of the AIYIMA, but there is a brief thread here about it with a positive comment:

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/aiyima-dac-a5-pro.36426/post-1303435

I got one and I think it’s excellent for the price. Obviously this is subjective but the output from the headphone Jack and the rca output seem excellent to my ears! As a DAC I doubt it could tell the difference between this and one twice the price . I imagine aiyima saved money by not including a screen and the box which is fairly generic. I cranked up tte volume on the headphones to see could I hear any noise and it was completely silent when playing a silent track.

So overall on a very limited budget this is a good DAC

 

[DatBoomerGuy]

The Aiyima has been on my list. I'm somewhat concerned about their quality, and I had exchanged a few emails with their customer service...left me skeptical. I'm still considering it, but it's down the list.
I'd LOVE to be able to stretch my budget far enough to get the FiiO K5V Pro-ESS($179.99) or the Topping DX3 Pro+($199.99)