Hi,
I'm new to the forum.
I recently bought an Ifi zen dac because I thought It would have improved the sound coming out of my PC/smartphone (Dell Inspiron with Realtek soundcard/Google Pixel 4a).
I'm currently using Tidal Hi-Fi as my main streaming service and sometimes I listen to some high-res albums from hdtracks. Unfortunately I only have a pair of (cheap) headphones which are the Sennheiser HD 280 pro, with 64 ohms of impedance.
The main problem with this dac/amp is that I don't notice any improvement in my listening experience, or at least any improvement that I consider worth of spending 150 euros, and I don't know if that's because the zen dac is not a good value dac as many people have stated or because I'm using the wrong headphones or maybe because my ears are not well trained.
All that I was able to notice was a good amount of volume gain, especially when using Tidal from my PC, and a bit of boost in sound clarity. I'm not an audiophile, thus It is not easy for me to explain all of this in technical terms, but I felt like the music was too full/loud and without good separation.
I know this could mainly be due to the headphones and thus my question:
Should I return the zen Dac and maybe try with something else like the Fiio K5 pro or just change headphones?
Thanks in advance to anyone who will take the time to read this post. Cheers from Italy!
P.S. the knob of the zen dac sometimes makes a little resistance at around 11 o'clock which can be frustrating.
I'm new to the forum.
I recently bought an Ifi zen dac because I thought It would have improved the sound coming out of my PC/smartphone (Dell Inspiron with Realtek soundcard/Google Pixel 4a).
I'm currently using Tidal Hi-Fi as my main streaming service and sometimes I listen to some high-res albums from hdtracks. Unfortunately I only have a pair of (cheap) headphones which are the Sennheiser HD 280 pro, with 64 ohms of impedance.
The main problem with this dac/amp is that I don't notice any improvement in my listening experience, or at least any improvement that I consider worth of spending 150 euros, and I don't know if that's because the zen dac is not a good value dac as many people have stated or because I'm using the wrong headphones or maybe because my ears are not well trained.
All that I was able to notice was a good amount of volume gain, especially when using Tidal from my PC, and a bit of boost in sound clarity. I'm not an audiophile, thus It is not easy for me to explain all of this in technical terms, but I felt like the music was too full/loud and without good separation.
I know this could mainly be due to the headphones and thus my question:
Should I return the zen Dac and maybe try with something else like the Fiio K5 pro or just change headphones?
Thanks in advance to anyone who will take the time to read this post. Cheers from Italy!
P.S. the knob of the zen dac sometimes makes a little resistance at around 11 o'clock which can be frustrating.