Do I need to upgrade E1DA 9038D - Getting into headphones / IEMs

[Svensson]

I am hoping for experience or views on upgrade options. Have been using E1DA 9038D dongle DAC with Sennheiser HD560S for 2 years. They sound good but I have no other frame of reference. Looking at upgrade options, I have a spare Topping E50 DAC. I am torn between buying the Topping G5 (totally portable) vs buying the Topping L50 to add to my E50 (fairly portable from room to room as needed.

Would I benefit from replacing E1DA 9038D? If so, would it be the G5 or the E50 + L50 that sound better with the HD560's AND with upgraded headphones? Looking at HiFiman Edition XS, but still watching.

Very grateful for thoughts and opinions please.

 

[mmmdc]

Would I benefit from replacing E1DA 9038D?

No. A very large amount of headphones does just fine with the 1V typical outputs can provide, unless you listen at very high volumes (which you really shouldn't) your dongle is already overkill for large parts of the headphone market.

Buy an amp if you need more power, so if you buy headphones that are actually hard to drive. This is easy to look up, search for headphone power calculators and look up sensitivity and impedance of your headphones.

Looking at HiFiman Edition XS, but still watching.

These aren't super hard to drive. They are quite "wide" meaning they will sit rather loose on most heads unless they are quite big. Hifiman QC is as usual a gamble. And they are relatively heavy, I haven't found that to be a huge issue but it's something to be aware of.

These things aside I think its extremely difficult to do better unless you spend twice as much and just sound quality wise I would buy them at full price in a heartbeat. They basically just do everything very well. Very good soundstage and imaging, very detailed, great tuning, awesome bass extension for open backs, perhaps a tad bright for some but that's easy to fix with EQ. Overall in this price class 10/10 in my opinion.

 

[_thelaughingman]

I would feed the E1DA into a good amp like L50 and that'll be a low cost powerhouse setup for you, especially if you're pairing it with the Hifiman Edition XS.

 

[JeffS7444]

Specs suggest it's pretty much state of the art, performance-wise. The main reason to buy something else is because you want additional features (volume control knob, multiple inputs, display, etc) or different form-factor, such as a desktop stack.

Your next-level sonic upgrade would be to incorporate DSP features such as parametric equalization and cross feed.

 

[Svensson]

Thank you @mmmdc @_thelaughingman @JeffS7444 for the assurances and tips. I had wondered what might be better. I might upgrade if I have a lottery win or other windfall. For now, I'll continue to appreciate what I have.