I’m far from saying anything bad about your amplifier.
But first of all “we” are not out equipment so no opinion wrote about a piece of gear is an opinion about a person.
Secondly as @generic properly wrote DCA need power to work properly.
For power I mean high current, an insane amount of current.
My preference for tubes is my preference, I can’t speak about others experience or other preferences. I can tell you only about me.
A lot of people use the Noire on solid state amps and are happy with it.
I only want you to be aware that DCA headphones require a powerfull amp and avoid you a frustrating experience.
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Thank you all for sharing your knowledge, much appreciated. I have a set of OPPO PM3 phones which I have used exclusively for my portable DAP, they are planar magnetic and I just tested them in the headphone jack of my Brio. They sound plenty loud with the volume at 9 or 10 o’clock… is apparent loudness what you are talking about? I’m embarrassed to admit I’m a relative novice and don’t understand the technical jargon, specs and all.
If I look at the specs for my Brio and look at the specs for a headphone, what figures should I be looking at and what numerical range should I look for in a set of phones (since I don’t really want to buy a headphone amp as well unless I’m convinced it’s truly necessary)? I might go further and ask for some suggestions on specific makes and models of phones would match well with my amp, but that’s a question for the purchase advice section. I tried posting there and was informed I need Level 2 trust rating as a forum member to post in that section and I haven’t reached that level.
You have to reach Trust Level 2 before creating a new thread in the Purchase Advice category. This allows for better content and active participation instead of one-off questions that may be asked.
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You can reply/post to existing threads there without reaching Level 2. You only need to be Trust Level 2 to start NEW threads there, and your question isn’t really warranting a thread of its own (this isn’t Reddit etc.) anyway, so it’d get moved to the general thread.
Thus, the best place to post your question(s) is in this (General Purchase Advice) thread, anyway, rather than starting a new, super-specific one (that very few people will likely read).
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Headphone performance often follows from either excess power (headroom) or from matching the electrical characteristics of the amplifier to a particular type/model of headphone. While there are some general principles, it’s also partly trial-and-error. Many headphones will play “loud” on small, weak, and cheap amplifiers. They just won’t sound good, or detailed, or reach their potential. They’ll often sound thin, piercing, rough, and/or shaky on a weaker amp.
All of us are talking about quality output, not just playing loud.
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Thanks again for all your responsive assistance… will go post over in Purchase Advice now…
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Just got my pair of Aeon 2 Noire… LOVE THEM. Currently comparing them to my Focal Elegia I’ve had for over a year. I think I may write a comparison review if there is any interest.
(bought them open box from headphones.com fwiw as well)
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A huge thank you to Dan Clark Audio. My Aron Noire had a problem with an earpad and one year after I’ve bought them from headphones.com Dan kindly sent me for free a spare set of pads.
Are those little things that make you appreciate even more your choice and increase your trust.
A real gentleman: I’ve offered to pay the pads and he declined, I wanted to pay the shipping (from US to EU I know how much it is) and he kindly declined.
Thank you so much
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Any idea on how to eq them with Chord Mojo 2? Much obliged.
EQ usually happens in the digital domain, so that would be on a computer of some kind. There are some devices that allow for analog adjustment, and even digital EQ devices, but it’s most commonly done with software.
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Are you a Roon user? Roon has DSP available.
You could also use a hardware EQ. Schiit Audio makes a couple of them.
I think Nuno_Silva refers to the EQ setting that comes with the Mojo 2, the Mojo 2 has an internal EQ.
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In that case I have no idea.
Yes, I understand what you are saying, but Mojo 2 has got a fully transparent ‘Ultra HD’ digital signal processing EQ, which allows us to eq any headphones.
Yes, I am a Roon user and I have used Roon’s DSP feature, but Mojo’s advantage according to Chord (no pun intended) is that this process is completely transparent and doesn’t degrade the original audio’s signal.
Exactly, that’s what I was trying to say.
Mojo 2’s EQ capability might be “UHD” or high-fidelity*, but it is pretty limited compared to what you can do with the EQ functions in Roon, Equalizer APO or any other “proper” parametric EQ tool.
It has just four pre-set bands (i.e. have a fixed center frequency), with pre-set filter types. Specifically, you get a 20 Hz peak/dip, a 125 Hz low-shelf, a 3 kHz high-shelf and a 20 kHz peak/dip. Q is un-specified, non-adjustable, and looks to be pretty broad. Lift/cut range per band is -9 dB to +9 dB.
This means in most cases it is only going to be able to approximate the EQ profiles that people come up with for other EQ solutions. And for the more involved ones (e.g. some of the 8-band EQs, using 5 or 6 different filter types, I’ve seen for, say, the LCD-5) are likely to be very rough approximations.
And since the parameters are not all known, you can’t just model the EQ you want using similar setups in another tool and transfer the settings to the Mojo 2. The only sure ways to know what you’re getting out of the Mojo 2’s EQ settings are a) to measure them as you adjust or b) do it all by ear.
Which means that, while it is still a useful, if somewhat limited feature, I wouldn’t expect to see people posting EQ settings for Mojo 2 along side the more conventional PEQ settings they post in their reviews. At least not unless Chord publish the full details of their non-adjustable parameters (we don’t know if they’re using a fixed Q, or something adaptive … for example).
*Chord’s “UHD” claim is a bit non-specific as well; I suspect it is just doing its EQ processing at the internally upsampled frequency, and using (correspondingly) high-tap count filters to do it.
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Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and experience regarding this. I understand Roon’s DSP, and any EQ software for the matter, are far more advanced giving the possibility to fine tune headphones more accurately. I was just curious to know if anyone had already tried out this feature, albeit limited since the Mojo2/Poly combo when you’re on the go doesn’t allow to use Roon. I have seen on the Head-Fi forum people sharing tables of this sort and was curious, following Resolve’s experience and knowledge, if he or anyone could share their experience.
That’s very cool! I’ll have to check out the Mojo 2 then.
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Just got the Noire today (thanks big time to headphones_dot_com!).
Right away on the Jotunheim 2 with the SE input I had to crank the volume pot to about midnight (or noon if you prefer). This is now my 2nd closed back since I had received the Radiance a bit ago.
With the Radiance via balanced I can’t turn up the volume pot past 9 without being too loud and aggressive for my taste. Must protect our hearing after all. Now… I am about to show just how much of a noob I still am in this hobby…
I could not believe the stark difference in volume requirement between the two even though it was the same amplifier. I knew the Noire did require more power so I did expect a bit more. Further reading and research into my Jot2 made me realize how much I have been missing out on not doing a proper SE V Balanced comparison on all of my headphones. I had always just gone straight to a balanced connection as I figured it must be better. Big power difference between the two inputs so no surprise on the difference in volume. Ah ah ahhh now…
Now I’m ready to break out the (terrible, just awful) cable I got with the Radiance and try that SE with the Jot2. I should in theory be able to turn up the volume a bit more which can give me a bit more range to test but also see how the dynamics differ, if at all. This is not the sub-forum for the Focal so I will keep that impression to an accurate posting here. However, I continue to learn so much through the hobby via you guys at HPdotCom as well as through my own experiences.
Alright, back to the Noire…which by the way after just a couple hours of listening, I am falling in love with the sound of it! Already ordered an XLR cable for it through periapt to give that a go as well.
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Congrats Ryan @skeeb23 ! Haven’t heard an A2N yet. I love my Aeon Closed X but have an urge for an upgrade!
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