HD600 DAC Recommendation

[TubsAlwaysWins]

Just ordered a pair of HD600s, thinking I may want a DAC for them and thought id ask for recommendations that don't break the bank. 

Not sure if im looking for a desktop DAC or a portable one. I think Ideally one I can make portable. 

 

Not sure if Ill pick one up yet or not, going to try without one for now but considering it. 

 

Thoughts? 

[Cocococo]

There's quite an easy solution if you want a portable dac, Qudelix 5k is the best portable dac out there and works better than the overwhelming majority of desktop dac/amps don't get FiiO, they route power through the battery when used as a USB dac and it kills the battery

[TubsAlwaysWins]

1 hour ago, Cocococo said:

There's quite an easy solution if you want a portable dac, Qudelix 5k is the best portable dac out there and works better than the overwhelming majority of desktop dac/amps don't get FiiO, they route power through the battery when used as a USB dac and it kills the battery

Ill check out the Qudelix 5K.

 

Do you think Ill notice a difference between an USB-C DAC or the headphone out on my laptop vs a DAC? 

Im noticing right of the bat that I want to compare them to how my Pixel Buds Pro sound. Maybe a little less bassy

[Cocococo]

13 minutes ago, TubsAlwaysWins said:

Ill check out the Qudelix 5K.

 

Do you think Ill notice a difference between an USB-C DAC or the headphone out on my laptop vs a DAC? 

Im noticing right of the bat that I want to compare them to how my Pixel Buds Pro sound. Maybe a little less bassy

If your devices all have headphone jacks then there's no point in getting another dac, the Qudelix is just the best Bluetooth dac out there. For a USB-C dongle a Fosi DS1 is pretty untouchable, USA Apple USB-C dongle is great on a budget, if you're not in USA then an Abigail CX1993 is best budget dongle dac (I'd use Qudelix over every desktop headphone amp out there, it's expensive but very much justifies it's price compared to the competition)

[TubsAlwaysWins]

Just now, Cocococo said:

If your devices all have headphone jacks then there's no point in getting another dac, the Qudelix is just the best Bluetooth dac out there. For a USB-C dongle a Fosi DS1 is pretty untouchable, USA Apple USB-C dongle is great on a budget, if you're not in USA then an Abigail CX1993 is best budget dongle dac (I'd use Qudelix over every desktop headphone amp out there, it's expensive but very much justifies it's price compared to the competition)

I think I have the official pixel dongle. 

Im considering the 5K just for the sake of Bluetooth though. For the price of the DS1 I might as well just get the 5K I feel like. 

 

Thanks

[Psittac]

In my experience the HD600/650/6xx scale very well with improvements to the source, perhaps better than any other headphone as the couple audio reviewers I follow claim that it's the one headphone they will always have because it responds well to anything.  Also they LOVE tubes.  Myself, if I had to narrow my selection to 3 headphones they would be a certain keeper.  Don't get me wrong, they'll sound perfectly acceptable with onboard, but of all of the headphones that want a dac and amp, these are the ones. (if I was allowed to keep dac/amp/tube they would be my #1 headphone)

 

What part of the globe do you live on?

 

My opinion on dac/amp's vary from a few people on here, I think that the Apple dongle dac is hot garbage and my experience with fosi was hot garbage, though I only had one of their products, the Fosi Q4.  In my budget escapades I found that the sybasonic SD-Dac was the best sub $100usd solution being on par or slightly better than high end onboard desktop audio.  The Douk U3 is a great little amp but that doesn't address the DAC issue.  But right now the Schiit Heretic is on sale as they're phasing out this form factor, but it's an EXCELLENT amplifier.  You could get that and add their DAC and get amazing bang for the buck, this solution will be end game for the majority of people. (to clarify: you could use a 3.5mm to RCA cable and use the laptop DAC but that isn't best practice but a good stop gap until you get a DAC)

 

If you want to experience the silky goodness that is 6xx and tubes you could try this Xduoo MT-602 and get what is arguably one of the best experiences for listening to music out there at a reasonable price.  It's a hybrid so solid amp and tube pre-amp, but it's the best way to dip your toes.  If you fall in love I'd get a OTL full tube amplifier.  But remember that Tubes typically aren't recommended for daily use.

[TubsAlwaysWins]

19 hours ago, Psittac said:

In my experience the HD600/650/6xx scale very well with improvements to the source, perhaps better than any other headphone as the couple audio reviewers I follow claim that it's the one headphone they will always have because it responds well to anything.  Also they LOVE tubes.  Myself, if I had to narrow my selection to 3 headphones they would be a certain keeper.  Don't get me wrong, they'll sound perfectly acceptable with onboard, but of all of the headphones that want a dac and amp, these are the ones. (if I was allowed to keep dac/amp/tube they would be my #1 headphone)

 

What part of the globe do you live on?

 

My opinion on dac/amp's vary from a few people on here, I think that the Apple dongle dac is hot garbage and my experience with fosi was hot garbage, though I only had one of their products, the Fosi Q4.  In my budget escapades I found that the sybasonic SD-Dac was the best sub $100usd solution being on par or slightly better than high end onboard desktop audio.  The Douk U3 is a great little amp but that doesn't address the DAC issue.  But right now the Schiit Heretic is on sale as they're phasing out this form factor, but it's an EXCELLENT amplifier.  You could get that and add their DAC and get amazing bang for the buck, this solution will be end game for the majority of people. (to clarify: you could use a 3.5mm to RCA cable and use the laptop DAC but that isn't best practice but a good stop gap until you get a DAC)

 

If you want to experience the silky goodness that is 6xx and tubes you could try this Xduoo MT-602 and get what is arguably one of the best experiences for listening to music out there at a reasonable price.  It's a hybrid so solid amp and tube pre-amp, but it's the best way to dip your toes.  If you fall in love I'd get a .  But remember that Tubes typically aren't recommended for daily use.

So If I went with Schiit I would need both the heretic/magni+ and the Modi? Whats the difference between the two? I guess the Modi is what converts it to an analog signal and the heretic/magni+ is what does the amplification? 

 

Ive thought about a tube amp but not sure.

 

How do all of these options compare to something like the Qudelix 5K? 

 

Thanks

[Psittac]

8 hours ago, TubsAlwaysWins said:

So If I went with Schiit I would need both the heretic/magni+ and the Modi? Whats the difference between the two? I guess the Modi is what converts it to an analog signal and the heretic/magni+ is what does the amplification? 

 

Ive thought about a tube amp but not sure.

 

How do all of these options compare to something like the Qudelix 5K? 

 

Thanks

You could just get the magni+ or Heretic for now, not both.  You would want to also add a DAC some day like the Modi.  Heretic is a different design, I honestly couldn't tell you what makes it different other than some people prefer the sound as I think it's supposed to be a little warmer?  The magni+ is going to be a little brighter.  I would google or youtube it to find out the difference, it's been a long time since I've been in the know about the two products.

 

Tube's would be an add on for special listening sessions, something to consider down the road.

 

The schiit stack will have drastically more power than the Qudelix, it's just not possible for something powered by USB to compare to something with an AC outlet.  The Qudelix, while I'm not familiar at all with it, is more for easier to drive headphones and/or portability.  The Qudelix website doesn't offer specs that I can see so it's difficult to say for sure.

 

The Schiit stack is an end game solution to drive just about anything for the majority of people, and it's done with clarity.

[Cocococo]

On 2/24/2024 at 2:01 AM, Psittac said:

The schiit stack will have drastically more power than the Qudelix, it's just not possible for something powered by USB to compare to something with an AC outlet.  The Qudelix, while I'm not familiar at all with it, is more for easier to drive headphones and/or portability.  The Qudelix website doesn't offer specs that I can see so it's difficult to say for sure.

The Schiit stack is an end game solution to drive just about anything for the majority of people, and it's done with clarity.

Honestly if i didn't run speakers of my schiit stack i would've sold it and just use a 5k for all my headphones, it can comfortably run my Hifiman headphones and the few Audeze headphones i've tried, Audeze was actually a better experience with the 5k because of how well they take EQ, and the 5k EQ is insanely good, easy to copy over Oratory presets and save a bunch of presets for the headphones i use most. A Schiit stack does have a lot more power but honestly no headphone out there (excluding the crazy electrostatics with energisers) needs anywhere near the amount of power a schiit stack throws out. 

[Psittac]

7 hours ago, Cocococo said:

Honestly if i didn't run speakers of my schiit stack i would've sold it and just use a 5k for all my headphones, it can comfortably run my Hifiman headphones and the few Audeze headphones i've tried, Audeze was actually a better experience with the 5k because of how well they take EQ, and the 5k EQ is insanely good, easy to copy over Oratory presets and save a bunch of presets for the headphones i use most. A Schiit stack does have a lot more power but honestly no headphone out there (excluding the crazy electrostatics with energisers) needs anywhere near the amount of power a schiit stack throws out. 

I would love to know the math of the claimed volt outputs vs various ohms.  I say claimed because that's the only information they give.  Don't get me wrong, one of the many thing's that baffle me is power requirements, but I remember a regular on here saying that USB simply can only provide so much power, perhaps that wasn't considering USB-C.  At any rate I'm not going to pretend to understand it.  I do know that A/B testing budget solutions bass response was the first to take a hit, however that was on ungodly difficult to drive headphones.  If my wallet wasn't so bound up with friends computers and fish, not to mention paying off my Kef's... I would try the qudelix.  I just have a running ethos of overpowered amp's as well as the headphones that can enjoy them since I have the amp's anyways.  Namely the T50rp and 880-600.  I should figure out a comparison of non-budget amp's, perhap's the schiit fulla vs SMSL SU-9 on difficult to drive headphones.

 

*edit: with that schiit sale, it's still a solid recommendation

[Fosh612]

Qudilex can easily pair with PC!