I'm currently using the iFi Zen Can amplifier with Sennheiser HD650 and HD800 headphones.
This isn't entirely true, the D200's analog output contains more components and uses higher-quality parts. However, this doesn't significantly affect the sound.
more components is often worse, not better if there are more in the signal path.
Also longer PCB traces (larger circuit board) is also usually worse.
How do you know they are higher-quality, the chip labels are all sanded down in the D1.
I saw in one review they said the D200 uses OPA1612 opamps but we don't know what the D1 uses (if it matters) and the D200 also uses some unknown/sanded preamp chips.
what looks obviously good in the D200 to me is the power supply.
View attachment 515057
The D200 has a more sophisticated I/V stage/filtering after the DAC IC and additional buffer stages in conjunction with the volume control ICs. Based on NTTY's measurements for the D200, this seems to be very well implemented, especially for the balanced output. The single-ended output is indeed somewhat weaker.
Both devices use unknown, sanded op-amps directly after the DAC chip.
The transformer is a rather cheap type with simple filtering. I would prefer a good switching power supply with high-quality filtering, but I'd rather have the transformer than a cheap switching power supply soldered directly onto the board.
In a brief initial comparison, I didn't notice any difference in sound, but I will test this more thoroughly in the coming weeks.
In the digital domain, circuits and paths, whether internal or external, are not a problem and have no influence as long as no 1 or 0 is changed. Even if they send the digital signal five times around the world and into space and back.
Of course, components and circuits can influence the analog music signal, just as the signal can be compromised by interference on the circuit boards.
However, with good implementations and developments, this is absolutely negligible and definitely without any audible and usually also measurable influence.
This can also be demonstrated with two simple practical examples.
On ASR, you can find recordings of an 8-way AD/DA loop, i.e., a recording in which the original signal passed through all the components of an analog-to-digital conversion and a digital-to-analog conversion eight times. Audible difference? No.
In the studio, the signal travels countless meters of cable, undergoes many balanced-to-single-channel and single-channel-to-balanced conversions, travels many meters of circuit traces on circuit boards, and passes through tens, thousands, or more components.
And then those few centimeters and components in a well-implemented and developed DAC are supposed to make a noticeable difference?
That definitely belongs in audiophile fantasy land.
