plumpudding2

plumpudding2 t1_j6nhi2v wrote

Reply to Using speaker amp to drive headphones?? by Mean-Difference-197

Lots of people plugging their low sensitivity planars into speaker amps using banana to xlr adapters (any cable maker will be able to make one of these for you). Just gotta be extra careful with the volume as you don't want to blow up your headphones.

https://soundnews.net/headphones/full-size/the-ultimate-hifiman-susvara-review/

this guy recommends driving the Susvara with a speaker amplifier and gives some tips for doing so safely.

2

plumpudding2 t1_j5t2y01 wrote

Reply to Comparison question: Modi+ vs Topping DACs by entivoo

you can try HQplayer (it has a free trial) and upsample a music file with an apodizing filter. Some recordings have analog-digital conversion errors baked in that can cause treble glare/harshness, which apodizing upsampling should fix. Try it out and see if it goes away!

0

plumpudding2 t1_j5q6qun wrote

Reply to RME ADI-2 FS totally worth by [deleted]

The RME ADI-2 is a fantastic piece of gear. If you want an upgrade that is significant enough you'll have to go spend 10 grand or something like that. One nice thing to do is to buy a powerbank with a similar size (so it can stack) and a 15 volt output, you'll have endgame on the go!

3

plumpudding2 t1_iydndd9 wrote

Reply to Is this min-maxing obsession or are there benefits to be had by tweaking things on the OS or digital side and using 'audiophile' footers? by Orangutan_Ulti

I kind of like HQPlayer myself, it uses your CPU horsepower instead of the chip inside your dac to do the music upsampling with much heavier digital filters.
For me the differences are subtle but nice, for 44.1khz content digital filters can have quite an impact as the nyquist frequency is so close to the audio band.
But don't believe my claims, you can listen for yourself! It has a free trial mode with the only limitation that it has to be restarted every 30 minutes.

1

plumpudding2 t1_iydkj5y wrote

Reply to Going from the Sennheiser HD 560S to the HD 800S by Lapralapso

I recently bought a second hand HD800 for 500 bucks, and I regularly see them for 550-650. One of the best deals in audio ever, from that point on there's only different and not really meaningfully better.

So If 1600 bucks is a lot of money for you I urge you to check the second hand market!!

1

plumpudding2 t1_iu4u9fv wrote

Reply to comment by Yammy_Lyfe in Honest question, did we hit peak headphone a while back? by Yammy_Lyfe

The fact that they're closed back sold it for me too, during daytime it can be quite noisy with neighbors or street traffic and then the isolation it provides is a godsend.

I run them on a Ferrum Oor + Hypsos combo which I'm veryhappy with. The designer has stated they'll perform at their best with at least 500 mW at 23 ohms, which can even be reached by a high quality portable amp. Some people swear that you need Susvara tier amplification for them to shine though..

I also should mention that I've been recommended low output impedance tube amp pairings to add some euphonic distortion back in, as these headphones have less distortion than some dacs or amps.

Isolation is excellent, if you play at ear bleeding levels some sound might leak out, but in my own experience absolutely no sound leakage at normal listening volume.

3

plumpudding2 t1_iu3jj77 wrote

Reply to Honest question, did we hit peak headphone a while back? by Yammy_Lyfe

They're not everyone's cup of tea but Dan Clark has been really innovating with his Stealth and Expanse headphones. The acoustic metamaterial tuning system is true innovation in the headphone world imo, and the Stealth is the first closed back to sound as open as a small staged open back.

2

plumpudding2 t1_iu1hv2n wrote

Reply to is UAPP worth it? by deadbushpotato23

UAPP is money well spent, it's one of the only solutions beside ROON that can provide parametric EQ and other DSP without changing the source sample rate.

1