Upgrade from MXN10?

[brianto]

Hi folks,
Can you give me some help please? I'm not an audiophile or anything like that. I have a pair of Harbeth C7ES 3s, a Hegel H160 amp, and a Cambridge Audio MXN10 streamer set up in my main room. I mainly listen to streamed Apple Music though I have a collection of around 600 or 700 CDs I ripped to disk a while back. Anyway, I'm looking for a headphone set up for my own listening at night. My preferences are for Opera and Jazz. My headphones are Sennheiser HD650s. I already have the MXN10 but I can only use Airplay 2 on that and it is giving me sub CD quality. I'm not sure if I'd be missing much by not having at least CD quality streamed and I'm not sure if the DAC in the MXN10 could be improved in a way that would be meaningful to my ears. I'm also not sure if I should consider using an external amp with it or whether I should look to one of the budget priced DAC/Amp headphone things

I'm not an audiophile and I'm not a scientist/engineer either but from what I read on your site the former is no drawback and the latter group tend to dismiss the notion that DACs or Amps make much difference. Have I got this right? If so should I:
a) just stick with what I have and stick a cheap external amp on it ( recommend please ) and maybe later look to upgrading my heaphones
b) buy a Topping DX5 II or maybe some other similar eg a FiiO K13 R2R or Fosi or something else
c) something else

I'd really be most grateful for your help

EDIT: my budget is about £300. Also, I realise you might suggest ditching Apple Music but I got an annual sub and have 90% of it still to run so I'm very reluctant to do that

 

[DVDdoug]

Correct, most DACs are better than human hearing (in proper blind listening tests). Most headphone amps too (and most other electronics) unless you overdrive an amplifier (or something) into distortion. Often the headphone output from your laptop or phone is good enough as long as it goes loud enough for your particular headphones.

And most "audiophiles" are "nuts" and they "don't believe in" blind listening tests.

That said, the Topping headphone amps have good reviews here but what you have is probably fine.

and it is giving me sub CD quality. I'm not sure if I'd be missing much by not having at least CD quality streamed.

It's probably not THAT bad but if you have CDs or lossless rips it's "nice" to keep it lossless. Lossy compression can be very good and it often sounds identical to the lossy original in a blind listening test or you might have to listen very carefully to hear a difference. ...Actually, if you have MP3s or another lossy format, it's also "nice" to avoid more lossy compression in the streaming/transmission.

Your choice of headphones WILL make a BIG difference. Check the reviews here which can be sorted by "recommended". Note that with headphones there is almost no correlation between price and sound quality. Of course, speakers make a BIG difference too but good speakers do tend to cost more, and the size of the speaker makes a difference, especially with bass.

Some links for you:
Understanding Headphone Measurements (video)
Audiophoolery talks about the few real characteristics of audio quality.
What is a Blind ABX test?.
Controlled Audio Blind Listening Tests (video)

 

[brianto]

Thank you, Doug for that and for the good links. Audiofoolery was an interesting read, and I will go through the headphone measurement video in more detail later. I'm not really that likely to worry about actually doing tests but will give these a look too.

Yes it would be nice as you say to maintain the CD quality of my ripped music as well as Apple streams and ideally I'd like to do that. I'm pretty sure that won't be possible using the MXN10 though and I'm considering just buying a small DAC/Amp to use for my headphones. This would also save me from having to move the MXN10 from my amp in one room and setting it up in another every time I wanted to listen there. I often bypass the MXN10 anyway on my main system and plug my ipad straight into the Hegel amp using the latter's internal DAC and maintaining the quality of my ripped albums -or streamed files.

My HD 6650s are not the highest end phones on the market but I enjoy them for the type of music I listen to and I'm happy to keep them for the time being.

I do have an age-related hearing loss issue and some higher frequencies can sound a bit distorted in my ears. This is particularly the case with choral music and especially acute in female vocals. I have tried a modest EQ and dropped down a couple of the sliders a tad and this has helped make this bearable for me. Looking around I note that the Topping D5II has PEQ and so might be a good option with for me. Alternatively the Fiio K13 R2R at the same price also has a PEQ. I know this has a different tech alleged to make a more "vinyl" sound but I guess I could use EQ to fine tune my preferences in either case. Also the SMSL MDA 1 is a well reviewed unit at this price point. One of the things that makes me hesitant is the issue of reliability. I am in the UK and as I don't fancy having a unit going wrong and having to ship to China for repair it would effectively mean any issues would end the product for me. I discounted Shiit for the same reason as here in the UK it seems to be a problematic brand.

Would you ( or anyone else of course ) care to chip in on these three or suggest others?

 

[brianto]

All righty. Here's an update from me. I have mulled several options over and listened to a couple of DACs. I tried the FiiO and when I compared it to the Topping I preferred the latter, however, as there is also the Topping DX5 II to consider which has been well reviewed here and has PEQ I have now ordered that one. It arrives in January.

I notice a couple of comments and reviews which say that the balanced outputs give better sound quality as Topping apparently have favoured them slightly and as my HD650s are capable of this, I can't resist trying a balanced cable.

I found these cable options on Amazon and also these and I'm going to order one of them. Can some kind person please confirm for my addled old brain that this is the right thing to order and also should I prefer one over the other?

Thank you for your help.