What dac/amp combo should I get for my he4xx?

[HumdrumPenguin]

28 minutes ago, pas008 said:

coloration is subjective

not about driving headphones correctly

Let me put it this way then; to my ears, not enough power normally makes the music sound very thin, with a narrower soundstage.

[pas008]

23 hours ago, HumdrumPenguin said:

Let me put it this way then; to my ears, not enough power normally makes the music sound very thin, with a narrower soundstage.

exactly but we are talking about if what ever he has is enough for him and he4xx

[HumdrumPenguin]

5 hours ago, pas008 said:

exactly but we are talking about if what ever he has is enough for him and he4xx

More than 5 years ago, I used to have a Asus Xonar Essence STX on my PC. That was an excellent sound card really, and it's still somewhere in one of my cabinets, hidden among my stuff. I then bought at the end of 2014 a Sennheiser HD700 and upgraded my PC as well. I remember until today that when I tried running the HD700 from the STX, and then compared it running straight from the Asus Maximus VII Gene, the difference was WAY BEYOND night and day. The sound from the motherboard was total trash, for a lack of better (or worse) word. All the qualities of the headphone were lost (and there weren't that many to start with).

 

Once I moved to my first external amp, I noticed differences between a couple headphones being driven from the amp and the STX, but on the HD700 the sound was curiously the same. Technically, the VII Gene mobo should had been able to drive the headphones, but it simply couldn't. That was no sound coloration, it was just a massive lack of power, power that according to the specs, the board had. What would you call that, if not not being able to drive the headphones properly?

[pas008]

On 2/13/2020 at 5:02 PM, HumdrumPenguin said:

More than 5 years ago, I used to have a Asus Xonar Essence STX on my PC. That was an excellent sound card really, and it's still somewhere in one of my cabinets, hidden among my stuff. I then bought at the end of 2014 a Sennheiser HD700 and upgraded my PC as well. I remember until today that when I tried running the HD700 from the STX, and then compared it running straight from the Asus Maximus VII Gene, the difference was WAY BEYOND night and day. The sound from the motherboard was total trash, for a lack of better (or worse) word. All the qualities of the headphone were lost (and there weren't that many to start with).

 

Once I moved to my first external amp, I noticed differences between a couple headphones being driven from the amp and the STX, but on the HD700 the sound was curiously the same. Technically, the VII Gene mobo should had been able to drive the headphones, but it simply couldn't. That was no sound coloration, it was just a massive lack of power, power that according to the specs, the board had. What would you call that, if not not being able to drive the headphones properly?

we are talking about he4xx  so this story has what merits?

they can be driven easily

we dont know ops devices

 

[HumdrumPenguin]

33 minutes ago, pas008 said:

we are talking about he4xx  so this story has what merits?

they can be driven easily

we dont know ops devices

 

This story is to point out that some headphones need a proper amp to sound what they are supposed to sound, even without coloration, which was my initial argument. I've never heard the he4xx, I just wanted to give some base to what another user said about proper amplification. If that is right or not for this specific headphone, I don't know, but you also generalized with your "math" argument. At this point I really have nothing more to say about it, and I guess we're free to believe in what we want in the end.

[pas008]

9 minutes ago, HumdrumPenguin said:

This story is to point out that some headphones need a proper amp to sound what they are supposed to sound, even without coloration, which was my initial argument. I've never heard the he4xx, I just wanted to give some base to what another user said about proper amplification. If that is right or not for this specific headphone, I don't know, but you also generalized with your "math" argument. At this point I really have nothing more to say about it, and I guess we're free to believe in what we want in the end.

as an owner of q701 and original he400

i know what proper amping is

my point is the he4xx is not a really demanding headphone

[Wadeoreo]

I've owned the he-4xx and there is a noticeable difference between the balanced and single ended, the speed of them is much much better with balanced. And different speed with my phone and my amp idk much about amps and headphones and if the balanced has a different coloration. but I'm pretty sure it has a pretty big difference with more power and has a big amount of potential. Idk if it will change with 2 watts to something lower tho. Also most review talk about the potential and scaling of the he4xx while still being easy to run. Again idk much.