Yeah, I’ve noticed the deeper background on all of my headphones even with the Tempotec.
I guess I’m interested in more power even though I don’t need it now because I’m trying to future-proof a bit. I know HiFiMan Sundaras are in my future in the next 12 months, and I know those are pretty hungry for power to really sing.
Yeah, I could go through the churn of buying and selling, but I’m trying to avoid that a bit. My job – I work in auto racing – gets really busy during the summer, so I won’t have as much time to research, buy and sell.
Plus my wife will only take so much spending on audio equipment before she starts to bark. Can’t say I blame her, and she is more permissive than many spouses.
Wonderful headphones. Only reason I don’t still own them is I had a frustrating experience leaving me with no amps that could power them. And I switched to IEMs. I will probably pick them up again if I ever have a desktop setup.
I am not sure even the hip dac will power them to my standards. Others certainly say it does. I am relatively sure the qudelix would not. But I like to go loud from time to time. The signature did it easily.
I avoid this by being the king of returns! but you typically can’t do that over long periods.
I am pretty lucky on this front. My wife is tolerant. But I also am not one of those people that has 27 headphones. I currently have 2 IEMs and I gave that second one to her. Everything else was returned. I took advantage of the 3 month long amazon holiday shopping window for most of this. I wasn’t going to return a lot of it, but then some of it died. So I went IEM and I have enjoyed the sound more.
That’s my story.
Enjoy what you have! I listen to my Zen for hours every day.
I’ve also discovered another terrific use for my Tempotec, even if I step up to a Qudelix or a desktop amp for my headphones: The thing drives my desktop speakers beautifully.
I have a set of Micca PB42x speakers attached to my Lenovo laptop in my office. They’re really nice, well-reviewed powered Chi-fi speakers for $110 that punch well above their weight.
They don’t need amplification, but the DAC in the Tempotec is far better than that in my Lenovo lappy. So, these speakers – aided by a better DAC and a bit more power – have opened up beautifully and sound even better. So, I will swap this gadget between my cans and desktop speakers for the time being.
Now that I’ve figured out how to drive my Sennheiser 560s with the Tempotec and learned it’s enhanced my desktop speakers, I’m very happy with his device.
Funny when you stumble into an alternative use case!
Someone was doing a similar thing with the BTR5 so they could wirelessly drive a set of speakers through bluetooth. (Topping actually makes a dedicated device for that)
Yep, my targets for later in the year – probably during holiday sales – are the Sundaras and Moondrop Blessing 2 Dusk for IEMs.
IEMs have been the revelation for me this year. I was always an over-ear guy. But I couldn’t ignore the praise of the Moondrop Starfields for $110, so I gave them a try. Blown away by the sound for that price.
In fact, I recommend IEMs instead of over-ears or on-ears to anyone looking to spend $125 or less on a quality wired headphone. There’s some real crap coming from anonymous Chi-fi factories in the IEM segment, but there also are some stunning gems that are better pound-for-pound (big boxing fan here) than their over-ear or on-ear counterparts.
Damn, this is a fun hobby. Lots of cool people, too, which makes it even more enjoyable. After all, what’s better than music? Well, maybe more music!
Warning: if you like the engaging type of sound the dusk provides, you may never listen to the sundara again. they are very different. Both wonderful but I clearly tilt toward the dusk. Best value in headphones on the planet. (haven’t heard starfield)
That’s basically what happened to me. Now I am trying to find over ears that compete with the Zen (which is an even more engaging upgraded dusk). Lcd-xc is what I am trying.
Fun hobby! Stupid expensive too. And I return more products because the value isn’t met by the price.
I need to continue to geek out over the qudelix 5k. This thing is, hands down, the best electronic device I have ever used around audio.
The imbalance on the Mobius was being particularly bothersome to me today. I am not sure why, so I switched to my Dunu Zen.
I decided to treat the qudelix 5k / Zen exactly like I was using the mobius just to see what would happen. Well, it worked incredibly well. The built in mic on the qudelix seemed to work at least as well as the boom mic on the mobius.
This means any headphone the qudelix can drive can become my conference headset. There are a lot of fantastic easy to drive low impedance over ear headsets out there.
Why didn’t I try this earlier? Because talking with IEMs used to drive me up a wall. I have since gotten used to it. Also, the qudelix has passthrough (which I am not sure I realized)
This makes me wish I had kept the lcd-xc longer since the qudelix drives it surprisingly well. They may have become fantastic office headphones (don’t need isolation in my office).
Qudelix 5k, seriously the best amp out there. I really want this company to build bigger/better amps. Just take everything in this 9v sized battery and replace the amp and battery (increasing size) to get to 1,000mW @ 32 ohms in a larger clippable form factor. I’ll buy it. (not sure how much of the amazing stuff this thing does is dependent on the specific DAC chip in use, but I would frankly be happy with the same chip)
The N6II is price /performance wise one of the best in the price range. As I stated previously, it’s a question what is the most important aspect for you. For me it’s simple : sound quality first, then flexibility (switchable boards) and usability.
Right now I don’t see any contender in the same range at all.
I get it. Though dx300 once it gets more amp boards should fit that as well I would think.
In theory, the switchable boards future proof for any headphone. But, they are likely releasing a new generation in the not to distant future. So patience may be key.
Also, spending $1900 to drive $800 headphones that work remarkably well directly off a nintendo switch seems silly. Both the lsa hp-2 and dunu zen do not need amping. I suspect the stellia won’t either if I go there. And, if I have to choose between stellia and crazy dap for cost reasons, definitely going stellia. Represents the biggest improvement in sound with the least sacrifice in functionality.
But, the n6ii is a possibility.
What else did you go through before settling on that?
It’s not only the power needed for any IEM or headphone. It’s the quality. Shure you can drive lots of gear from an iPhone, but maybe you shouldn’t. Just saying…
I had Fiio, Acoustic Research, Astell&Kern and Hiby before I settled on Cayin. I’m even selling them now as the only DAPs in my Swiss online store. Its that they meet my needs and personal preferences in sound signature.
For Stellia, it would be a wonderful match! I am using it with Focal clear and Spirit Torino headphones.
On easy to drive headphones, I haven’t heard much advantage to things like the a90 or idsd signature over the qudelix. Over an iphone, yes, but not over the qudelix (particularly balanced)
The signature could drive to a higher volume on the euclid, zen and XC (and others) before getting abrasive. But the qudelix also got there at any sane volume. And, I didn’t have strong feelings about the other sound differences. I liked the a90 more than thx. And I liked cirrus 43198 and burr brown better than a90. At least in the implementations I have heard. Qudelix ess dap sits somewhere between the thx and a90.
But, the difference isn’t worth worrying about. And my two favorite headphones smooth out those differences anyway.
I doubt any amp on the n6ii will feel like a big jump over the signature to me. The question is if the convenience of the dap makes it worth it (the inconvenience of the signature made it not worth it. Small jump in sound quality over the qudelix for massive hit in convenience for these specific headphones)
I’m really hoping now that Apple Music is about to offer a Hi-Fi tier (there’s some hints in 14.6 beta that it might be beyond CD quality too) that they implement/introduce something beyond AAC for Bluetooth.
Knowing Apple they’re more likely to come up with their own solution than implement AptX-HD or LDAC. AAC-HD? ALAC-wireless?
We’ll see what comes of their announcement later this month.
As it is, none of the Bluetooth CODECs can properly handle even 16/44.1 content. LDAC will do it situationally, but it’s still an adaptive/lossy CODEC with a maximum bit-rate well below what’s required for simple Redbook. aptX-HD doesn’t even get close to LDAC, let alone Redbook.
Then there’s no current Bluetooth transmission mode that has the necessary native bandwidth.
So the most likely scenario I can see is that Apple add their UWB (U1) chip to the next iterations of each of the AirPod models and use that for anything lossless, high-resolution or even just beyond AAC.
It’s the sort of move they’d make … driving users to upgrade to the next versions of AirPods in order to take advantage of the better quality offered by lossless/high-res Apple Music. And I can also see them keeping the price the same as it is today for the lossless tier, just to twist the knife a bit for everyone else.
Don’t hold your breath. BT codecs need hardware support. I wouldn’t expect anything like that until they are ready to release a headphone and an iphone. It’s not entirely out of the question, but not a thing. So far, higher quality BT sacrifices usability. Apple would have to somehow address that.
What is way more likely is apple transfers the files themselves into buffer storage on the airpods devices. This is the kind of thing apple could/would do. Still hardware update, but eliminates the need to deal with flaky codecs.
This is basically a guarantee at some point. The question is whether apple will attach strings in some way. I doubt it as there isn’t much left for them to do. I expect their regular tier to get upgraded basically all at once. Should be soon too. No change in price. That’s my bet.
We also don’t want to rely on apple for good sound. Good experience, yes, but not good sound. Having a wireless solution that surpasses ldac is a marketing win for apple more than anything else. Great audio still requires non-apple gear.
but you typically can’t do that over long periods.
they are very different. Both wonderful but I clearly tilt toward the dusk. Best value in headphones on the planet. 