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Amp/DAC for DT880/HE4XX/LSR305

jak

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Nov 1, 2019
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Hi there. I currently have a Fiio E10K, a DT880 250 Ohm, and two JBL LSR305 monitors.

I'm in the process of getting HE4XX and I think I'm probably a bit underpowered. So I was considering upgrading.

I want to have both speakers and headphones connected to the amp, but I don't need parallel listening. Adjustable volume for the speakers would be nice.

I'm in Germany. Options I looked at:
- Atom Amp (159€) + Khadas Tone Board (99€) + cables and case ~ 300€
- Atom Amp fed by E10K DAC ~ 159€
- Fiio K5 Pro ~ 149€
- Topping DX3 Pro ~ 219€

The DX3 Pro sounds like a nice little unit but it's too easy to switch from pre-out to line-out and I don't want to risk blowing my ears off. Also it seems very complicated. Bluetooth is a plus. Compared to Atom and K5, much less power. Price is high, only 23% cheaper than Atom + tone board.

The K5 Pro is another nice little box offering the same power as the Atom amp, but measures a lot worse. Also I guess no volume control.

The Atom is basically best in class, and I could start connecting it to the E10K's line out and switch to the tone board later or just get the tone board now.

Not really sure about best bang for buck. I guess the DX3 Pro is not worth it, as a bit more gets me best in class performance. The K5 is half the price of Atom + Khadas and below the magical 200€ line.

Finally, I'm not sure if I shouldn't spend more and go for balanced for the HE4XX, because um, I might be left feeling I could get more out of it sound wise?

I mostly listen to Spotify, and my left ear does not really hear above 6.5-7 kHz (right ear is fairly flat to 14 kHz), so it might all be a bit pointless - like, will I even notice a difference between the K5 Pro and the Atom + Khadas?
 
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jak

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Oh the K5 Pros line out is actually a pre-out according to z reviews, which makes sense given the digital volume control. This means it'd be perfect for my use case (well except that both outputs are on if headphones are plugged in, which you might forget about when listening on your speakers).
 

Ron Texas

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For the LSR305 the DAC needs to put out more than 2v to drive them loud. Either it has to be balanced or have a preamp section to boost the voltage. That's from personal experience. My DX3 pro did not have enough voltage so I used a Grace M9xx.
 
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jak

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For the LSR305 the DAC needs to put out more than 2v to drive them loud. Either it has to be balanced or have a preamp section to boost the voltage. That's from personal experience. My DX3 pro did not have enough voltage so I used a Grace M9xx.

AFAIUI, my E10K delivers 1.5V on its line out and with the controls on the LSR305 set to 7 (IIRC), they get louder than I'd ever want to listen to.
 

Ron Texas

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AFAIUI, my E10K delivers 1.5V on its line out and with the controls on the LSR305 set to 7 (IIRC), they get louder than I'd ever want to listen to.
Do you have them on a desktop?
 
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jak

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Do you have them on a desktop?

Yes that pair is an extreme near field desktop setup, equilateral triangle with sides of 80cm or so.

My other pair runs 4m sides from my Sony TV's line out and also gets loud enough for my listening levels.

Both of them are loud enough that I can hear the bass 3 rooms away.
 
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