I have a focal utopia (with the standard unbalanced 4m long cable) and a Fiio M11 plus limited edition DAP.
I bought the DAP first and then tried several headphones in a shop, ending up with the Utopia (second hand), which clearly sounded the best to me of what I tried.
I now kind of regret buying the dap first though, mainly for 2 reasons:
- I suppose you pay for the mobility, losing out on better sound quality at the same price. And the mobility isn’t necessary, I would never take the Utopia out of the house just because of their value, and with the cable I could reach anywhere. The cable itself is so long that it actually really hinders mobility in the house.
- I need an adapter to fit the cable in the DAP, which also can’t be good.
Mainly I want to improve the ease of use, and if I can get an improvement in sound quality at the same time that would be great.
I think I can either sell the DAP and buy a stationary setup instead. It’d need a streamer too though so I can control it on my phone.
Or I could buy a shorter cable, and thinner so I dont need the adapter. I see these exist, which are also balanced, and much cheaper than the stock one which is not balanced. I don’t have any idea though whether this would improve the sound quality or at least not make it worse.
I don’t want to spend more than a few 100 euros at most (plus the resale value of the Fiio in the first case).
What would you advise?
I bought the DAP first and then tried several headphones in a shop, ending up with the Utopia (second hand), which clearly sounded the best to me of what I tried.
I now kind of regret buying the dap first though, mainly for 2 reasons:
- I suppose you pay for the mobility, losing out on better sound quality at the same price. And the mobility isn’t necessary, I would never take the Utopia out of the house just because of their value, and with the cable I could reach anywhere. The cable itself is so long that it actually really hinders mobility in the house.
- I need an adapter to fit the cable in the DAP, which also can’t be good.
Mainly I want to improve the ease of use, and if I can get an improvement in sound quality at the same time that would be great.
I think I can either sell the DAP and buy a stationary setup instead. It’d need a streamer too though so I can control it on my phone.
Or I could buy a shorter cable, and thinner so I dont need the adapter. I see these exist, which are also balanced, and much cheaper than the stock one which is not balanced. I don’t have any idea though whether this would improve the sound quality or at least not make it worse.
I don’t want to spend more than a few 100 euros at most (plus the resale value of the Fiio in the first case).
What would you advise?
