solderdude
Grand Contributor
There are plenty of (portable) efficient headphones around that can be driven from dongle type DAC's and phones.
The E1DA will make those play 6 dB louder which is significant.
I would not drive a HD650 from a phone or dongle but plenty of people do and like it, they probably don't play loud.
The E1DA will play the same headphone about 6dB louder as well so certainly with higher impedance headphones this makes sense.
So there are portable phones that can serve both situations (home and dongle only)
The E1DA is simply better at this because of the balanced option.
In this case (where little voltage is present) balanced makes a lot of sense.
The E1DA will make those play 6 dB louder which is significant.
I would not drive a HD650 from a phone or dongle but plenty of people do and like it, they probably don't play loud.
The E1DA will play the same headphone about 6dB louder as well so certainly with higher impedance headphones this makes sense.
So there are portable phones that can serve both situations (home and dongle only)
The E1DA is simply better at this because of the balanced option.
In this case (where little voltage is present) balanced makes a lot of sense.