The K701 is very easy to drive though with its 62Ω impedance. It is often mentioned the K701 is ‘hard to drive’ which is nonsense. It just doesn’t play very loud directly from a phone and requires quite some volume for the bass to ‘snap’ into the correct level
My Solo Gen3's volume knob can not be used above 2 o clock due to increase in distortions.
Like I said, K701 is not meant to be driven by Focusrite interfaces; there is sound coming up from them, but that doesn't means it sounds as it should be. These cans need an amp able to deliver at least 4V RMS free of distortions to be sure the music will sound loud and free of distortions. Basically, I'm mostly referring to an amp having at least 2X of gain, because in real life we're not feeding the amp with 2V RMS.
Noise level sharply rises above 28 kHz. This is a feature of many DACs where noise in audible band is pushed into ultrasonics. The levels though seem low rising to "only" -85 dB. But that is misleading because FFT analysis artificially lowers the noise output of the device under test.
M2 also has more features as well:
I agree that I wouldn't purchase a Scarlett 2i2 for its headphones amp. But if someone needs a DAC/ADC and several outputs including headphones out, I would recommend it, and advise to try the headphones out before buying an extra amp like a JDS Lab Atom (which I also have in another room).
I didn't notice that.Does the latest version still switch the headphone monitor to mono while recording? The workaround is to use an AP that plays back what you are recording in duplex mode and turn off the headphone monitor.
I didn't notice that.
From the picture, it seems like it isn't there anymore.The EMU 0204 had a stereo/mono button on the front panel, apparently musicians doing an overdub or mix like to use the mono setting (?). I just like to listen when doing vinyl rips.
DSD64 is worse than that. Not as late as 28kHz.it's typical spectre of noise from dsd64 (converted to dsd64) sound, without digital or analog filters at 30-50 khz.
With it's 102dB SINAD it's pretty good; you will 2V RMS with the volume knob at 2 o'clock and 4V RMS with the volume knob at almost 5 o'clock on the balanced TRS outputs. Do not connect mono TRS, because you might destroy the internal opamps from the output buffer! Keep in mind that the headphones amplifier will only work with sensitive monitoring headphones and you will not be able to use it properly with audiophile headphones (this is the noisiest headamp I've ever head and it also has a rather high THD too, so you can't use it with IEMs and not with hard-to-drive cans neither).
The latest Clarett generation would be a bit better in terms of SINAD and headphones amplifiers, but still latest Motu and RME rulez in this area.