I have heard that there are many people who swear by this dac for most headphones, and even a few in the tech forum I frequent. But why isn’t it the bee’s knees? is this something that can be proven scientifically like through a graph? I really don’t understand amplifiers, even today; so, I just have a few extremely overpowered amplifiers. But I do know that if I plug my DT880-600 into a schiit Fulla the bass is non-existent and the mid’s sound thin. I attempted my own best effort at showing why this is by testing budget amp’s on 3 different headphones but all I could do in the end was state that the bass was bloomy or boomy and in one extreme case I think I smelled hot electronics.
Are there video’s that explain the importance of properly driving headphones? What happens when they are underpowered?
I know there used to be a quip where people would say “if it’s loud enough it has enough power”, but I know that isn’t true. I’m guessing because an impedance and perhaps even sensitivity isn’t static on a load and some frequencies are easier to drive than others. I would just appreciate some advice or a video explaining why headphones should be properly powered.
OMG. I owned the Fulla. I REALLY did not like the sound. It sounds very harsh to me. The actual quality of the case and knobs are very cheap(the volume knob squeeks when I turn it ). I bought the ZenDAC V 2 to replace it-which sounds great. To be fair to that company, they seem to get good reviews on more expensive products. They can not compete in the value market- in my experience.
Don’t forget to think about the role of the DT 880 in this. Something about blood from a stone.
600 ohms impedance is asking a lot from a Fulla or a dongle. When an amp isn’t up to the task, the bass is the first thing to suffer in my experience.
Does the Fulla even have an external power supply? If not it is essentially a dongle amp and is limited by the amount of power it can draw from the USB connection.
Nope. It does have a 2nd USB input so you can separate power from data, but that really doesn’t help. It provides only 40 mW into 300 ohms, and even less into 600 ohms.
The DT 880 600 Ohm sounds great on my Bottlehead Crack / OTL amp. IMO, these headphones reach their potential with that amp and the midrange is second to none.
I doubt that 99.9% of amp designers give 600 Ohm headphones a second thought. They are a tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny niche.
For me there are two things that show themselves when I know something is underpowered or isn’t rated for what im asking it to do, one is volume first, and second is usually audible distortion and/or clipping. Most often that happens on bass notes because it takes more power to move the driver on lower frequencies. One other thing to consider is the noise floor, if you hear feedback when nothing is playing when you change volume or even a steady tone or hiss (comes in various forms in my experience) then the amp isn’t “clean” enough for the headphone iem or speaker you are pairing it with.
). I bought the ZenDAC V 2 to replace it-which sounds great. To be fair to that company, they seem to get good reviews on more expensive products. They can not compete in the value market- in my experience.
