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Headphones, amp and dacs advice

MalinYamato

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Hi, I am an audiophile lady with very musical ears, but I don't know the tech stuff behind to be able to find an optimal mix between phones, amps, and DACS to maximize the quality of sound within a certain budget.

First, I do understand that phones are the most important part of the chain but how about dacs and amps? What are the impacts of amp respective dacs with respect to SQ? Where should I put the money? Currently, I own Denon AH-D9200, Sundara, and Argon from Madhouse and plan to get Arya by HFM, a focal Stelia or Aen Flow 2 Noir.

My portfolio of amp and dacs are quite budget variants such as:
DACS: SMSL M500 and Kathas Tone Pro 2
AMP: IFI Zen Can Signature v2 HFM
Portables: IFI GO Blu and BTR5

What should I do next to improve the sound? My wild guess is to buy a better amp... I have looked at
  • Geshelli E2,
  • Shiit Magny Hersey,
  • Shiit Magnius
  • Topping L50,
  • topping a30pro,
  • SMSL HO200,
  • SMSL SH8s. I want them as small and light as possible ...
 
Last edited:

RickSanchez

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Your SMSL M500 is excellent. Your amp probably isn't -- at least for low impedance headphones -- assuming that your "v2" is the same as the one measured by Amir.

That said the best thing you can do if you're looking to change up the sound to line up more with your personal preferences is to learn about headphone EQ. If you're using Windows as your source you should look at EqualizerAPO + Peace (which are free), and look at the headphone reviews on ASR where most reviews have EQ filters listed after Amir's measurements. Those filters are very close to a Harman curve target, so you can start there and then adjust to your tastes.

Here are alternatives for EQ software across multiple OSes:

Other resources for setting filters/EQ:
 
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MalinYamato

MalinYamato

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Your SMSL M500 is excellent. Your amp probably isn't -- at least for low impedance headphones -- assuming that your "v2" is the same as the one measured by Amir.

That said the best thing you can do if you're looking to change up the sound to line up more with your personal preferences is to learn about headphone EQ. If you're using Windows as your source you should look at EqualizerAPO + Peace (which are free), and look at the headphone reviews on ASR where most reviews have EQ filters listed after Amir's measurements. Those filters are very close to a Harman curve target, so you can start there and then adjust to your tastes.

Here are alternatives for EQ software across multiple OSes:

Other resources for setting filters/EQ:
thank you for your reply. I run Volumio3 on my Raspberry PI 4 and feed the bitstream to my DAC via USB. Is there a way to intercept the signal and modify it with an EQ and then send the result out to the DAC?
 
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RickSanchez

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I'm not a Volumio user myself (I sometimes use moOde on my RPi4). It's my understanding that Volumio has a library of plug-ins, and some of those will handle parametric EQ. For example:
  • I think FusionDsp might be a good option for Volumio3? That said it appears it is still in beta so it may not be completely stable. Still worth playing around with.
It's worth opening another thread on ASR to ask about EQ plug-ins for Volumio3. I know there are a lot of members here with the same setup as you who can provide more info than I can. But an EQ plug-in for Volumio3 is by far the easiest path for you to play around with EQ: no extra hardware is needed.
 
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MalinYamato

MalinYamato

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I pulled the trigger and bought a Singxer SA-1 Class-A instead of a jotunheim 2 , Topping A30pro, SMSL SH8s Topping A90, or Geshelli E2.
It weighs 2 pounds less and is cheaper than jotunheim 2 . I plan to use Tone Board 2 (or perhaps SMSL M500) as a DAC that feeds into Singxer SA-1

Singxer SA-1 -- got a v good review by Amir-san :)
Singxer SA-1 Review Balanced Headphone Amplifier.jpg


I have the following setups and I am currently using the one on the right.
Raspberry PI 4 with Volumio3 and display --> Tone Board 2 --> Zen Can Signature HFM v2
Raspberry PI 4 with Volumio3 and display --> M500 --> Zen Can Signature HFM v2

3024-4032-max (2).jpg
20220213_105619.jpg
 
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RickSanchez

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That’s an excellent headphone amp, and one that will work well with any headphones you have now or purchase in the future. If you use it with the SMSL M500 you can use balanced XLR interconnects between the two; that should eliminate any possible ground loop issues.
 
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