Fluffy
Addicted to Fun and Learning
- Joined
- Sep 14, 2019
- Messages
- 856
- Likes
- 1,425
I Have a Schiit Modi 3 and a Fiio X3 2nd gen. the Fiio doesn't have enough power to drive my Focal Clear or Audeze LCD2C, but it's doing a great job with the Meze 99 Classics. The thing is, I always preferred listening to the Meze via the Fiio instead of the Schiit, who's feeding an Arcam rHead (a much better amplifier overall). I never really given it much thought, and in AB testing I couldn’t really tell them apart, so I guessed it's some expectation bias. Anyway, I continued to use the Fiio for the Meze because why not.
Recently, I felt quite… fatigued, let's say, from the Schiit/Arcam configuration. I don't know why, it just makes my head hurt lately. So I switched over to listening through the Fiio and as always, it felt much more pleasant. This time it really struck me as weird, so I decided to test something I have yet to try – the digital filter of each DAC. I did it by creating a 1 sample impulse in audacity at 44khz, and playing it thorough both DACs, while recording into my Focusrite 2i2 set to capture at 192khz. And here are the results (normalized):
So it appears that Schiit is using a linear phase while Fiio is using something close to minimum phase. I actually never try to test on myself if this is something that I can actually hear, but now I think maybe it could have an effect. The thing is I don't really have a way of blind testing this – it would require a DAC that can switch between these two filters, so to eliminate any other factor.
Can anybody corroborate that these are the filters used in these devices? If so, is this a brand-level decision to go with a specific filter, or it's just due to these particular DACs? And could it be the reason I prefer the Fiio over the Schiit? I'm saying again, I'm really not certain that this is a valid claim and it is probably some placebo effect, but I have no way to blind test this.
Recently, I felt quite… fatigued, let's say, from the Schiit/Arcam configuration. I don't know why, it just makes my head hurt lately. So I switched over to listening through the Fiio and as always, it felt much more pleasant. This time it really struck me as weird, so I decided to test something I have yet to try – the digital filter of each DAC. I did it by creating a 1 sample impulse in audacity at 44khz, and playing it thorough both DACs, while recording into my Focusrite 2i2 set to capture at 192khz. And here are the results (normalized):
So it appears that Schiit is using a linear phase while Fiio is using something close to minimum phase. I actually never try to test on myself if this is something that I can actually hear, but now I think maybe it could have an effect. The thing is I don't really have a way of blind testing this – it would require a DAC that can switch between these two filters, so to eliminate any other factor.
Can anybody corroborate that these are the filters used in these devices? If so, is this a brand-level decision to go with a specific filter, or it's just due to these particular DACs? And could it be the reason I prefer the Fiio over the Schiit? I'm saying again, I'm really not certain that this is a valid claim and it is probably some placebo effect, but I have no way to blind test this.