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m400 vs d90, how much of a difference does output impedance make?

ShiZo

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m400 vs d90, how much of a difference does output impedance make?
 

gvl

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Probably not much, unless you feed an amp with low frequency dependent input impedance.
 

dimitri830

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m400 vs d90, how much of a difference does output impedance make?
Been looking for an answer to this one. Just bought an A90 and thinking of upgrading my DAC, but choosing from M400 and D90 is a pain in the neck. Since my headsets are all bit bright, so I'm leaning towards M400, but some say M400 with A90 is superb combo, and some say M400's high output impedance makes the combo not ideal(guess we saw from Wolf's post). Did you find a proper answer to the question?
 

gvl

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Been looking for an answer to this one. Just bought an A90 and thinking of upgrading my DAC, but choosing from M400 and D90 is a pain in the neck. Since my headsets are all bit bright, so I'm leaning towards M400, but some say M400 with A90 is superb combo, and some say M400's high output impedance makes the combo not ideal(guess we saw from Wolf's post). Did you find a proper answer to the question?

I don't think we have any objective data for the M400/A90 combo and the effects of the high/low impedance for this case. General thoughts are there will be no difference you can detect between the DACs you mentioned. You may find you need to run A90 with higher gain when paired with the M400 to compensate for the less than ideal impedance pairing, higher gain usually means higher distortion and noise but then again likely not audible in this case, provided there is enough gain for your headphones in this scenario anyway. D90 is definitely a safer choice with the A90, stacks better too.
 

dimitri830

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I don't think we have any objective data for the M400/A90 combo and the effects of the high/low impedance for this case. General thoughts are there will be no difference you can detect between the DACs you mentioned. You may find you need to run A90 with higher gain when paired with the M400 to compensate for the less than ideal impedance pairing, higher gain usually means higher distortion and noise but then again likely not audible in this case, provided there is enough gain for your headphones in this scenario anyway. D90 is definitely a safer choice with the A90, stacks better too.
That's very helpful! I think I'll go with a safer choice for the sake of the price. Thank you very much for your detailed explanation and kind advice!
 
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