Portable Dac/amp?

[K352]

I have a budget of 100 usd and I need a portable dac/amp for my soon to be k7xx, it needs to have a 3.5mm to put it in my phone/ps4. If it has a usb port can anyone verify it works with the ps4 (The ps4 has shit usb 2.0 ports)

[KaminKevCrew]

Why don't you wait for the K7XX and actually make sure that you need a DAC/amp? It's not likely that a $100 DAC/amp is going to actually sound any better than what you have, so all you'd really be looking for is more volume. Because of that, you should wait until you have them, to make sure that you're getting an adequate volume. If not, get something for them. 

 

Also, because you're mainly going to look at something that will be louder, might I suggest something like a CMOY pocket amp? It's portable, and you can either buy one from a company like JDS labs, or you can make one yourself for far less than $50, assuming you already have the tools necessary.

[K352]

38 minutes ago, KaminKevCrew said:

Why don't you wait for the K7XX and actually make sure that you need a DAC/amp? It's not likely that a $100 DAC/amp is going to actually sound any better than what you have, so all you'd really be looking for is more volume. Because of that, you should wait until you have them, to make sure that you're getting an adequate volume. If not, get something for them. 

 

Also, because you're mainly going to look at something that will be louder, might I suggest something like a CMOY pocket amp? It's portable, and you can either buy one from a company like JDS labs, or you can make one yourself for far less than $50, assuming you already have the tools necessary.

99% of all reviews read about K7XXs say that these headphones are bad without a dac/amp.

[Dackzy]

2 hours ago, K352 said:

99% of all reviews read about K7XXs say that these headphones are bad without a dac/amp.

99% of reviewers are also baised and let their brain trick them. Reviewers  says that the K612 NEEDS a external headphone amp, but I ran them with no problem from my onboard for over a year and TBH I can hear the difference between my onboard and a asgard 2, but it is far from as big as some reviewers let you believe, it is far from a must have.

 

Also just so I am sure here. You are going to use them with your phone and PS4, what about your PC? And why with your phone? They are open headphones, so they leak and the K7xx leak quite a bit.

[K352]

9 hours ago, Dackzy said:

99% of reviewers are also baised and let their brain trick them. Reviewers  says that the K612 NEEDS a external headphone amp, but I ran them with no problem from my onboard for over a year and TBH I can hear the difference between my onboard and a asgard 2, but it is far from as big as some reviewers let you believe, it is far from a must have.

 

Also just so I am sure here. You are going to use them with your phone and PS4, what about your PC? And why with your phone? They are open headphones, so they leak and the K7xx leak quite a bit.

I believe you about the dac/amp part but I have a laptop not a pc, I will almost always be using it on my laptop then my phone and occasionally my ps4. I wont use them in public but in car rides and when im lying in bed etc. 

[Jacona]

Well if you do end up getting something then the Fulla 2 is a pretty great entry level Amp/Dac, especially if you choose to get some active speakers later on. 

[Guest]

2 hours ago, K352 said:

I believe you about the dac/amp part but I have a laptop not a pc, I will almost always be using it on my laptop then my phone and occasionally my ps4. I wont use them in public but in car rides and when im lying in bed etc. 

 

Open headphones and car rides do not work. Period. You NEED isolation in a moving vehicle.

[spwath]

6 hours ago, SSL said:

 

Open headphones and car rides do not work. Period. You NEED isolation in a moving vehicle.

unless you blast it so loud you slowly lose your hearing.

but that is also a bad idea

[K352]

7 hours ago, SSL said:

 

Open headphones and car rides do not work. Period. You NEED isolation in a moving vehicle.

my last pair were open, and I survived 5 hour long rides cross country with them.

[Dackzy]

@K352 You could get the old Schiit Fulla, it is much more portable than the new one.

[mehtech]

On 2/15/2017 at 7:23 AM, K352 said:

99% of all reviews read about K7XXs say that these headphones are bad without a dac/amp.

Imho, the K7xx won't sound bad if you drive them straight out of a phone. It's just that you won't be able to fully experience what they are really capable of. 

[KaminKevCrew]

12 minutes ago, mehtech said:

what they are really capable of. 

What does that even actually mean???

[mehtech]

30 minutes ago, KaminKevCrew said:

What does that even actually mean???

It's like using a 1070 with a Core 2 Quad. That being said, I don't know what phone OP uses, depending on the phone, I might agree with you that a $100 dac-amp won't improve the SQ by much. In theory, any DAC devices capable of bypassing the phone's master clock i.e. asynchronous would improve the resolution by a substantial margin. The amp part doesn't really do much in the case of a $100 amp.

[K352]

8 hours ago, mehtech said:

It's like using a 1070 with a Core 2 Quad. That being said, I don't know what phone OP uses, depending on the phone, I might agree with you that a $100 dac-amp won't improve the SQ by much. In theory, any DAC devices capable of bypassing the phone's master clock i.e. asynchronous would improve the resolution by a substantial margin. The amp part doesn't really do much in the case of a $100 amp.

I use a Google Pixel XL and my laptop is the Aorus X5 V6.

[KaminKevCrew]

12 hours ago, mehtech said:

It's like using a 1070 with a Core 2 Quad. That being said, I don't know what phone OP uses, depending on the phone, I might agree with you that a $100 dac-amp won't improve the SQ by much. In theory, any DAC devices capable of bypassing the phone's master clock i.e. asynchronous would improve the resolution by a substantial margin. The amp part doesn't really do much in the case of a $100 amp.

All an asynchronous DAC does is reclock the music. Too bad jitter hasn't been a substantial issue since the 80s. Oh, and who's to say that a $100 DAC/amp combo would even have a more accurate clock than the source? It may not. And yeah, all an amp does is add volume (if that - some "amps" in the $100 range are laughable), when we're talking about the $100-ish range (only real exception, possibly, being the fulla 2. Though I haven't heard one to date.)

 

If someone is going to buy a DAC, there really isn't a good reason to worry about it until you're spending on something like a Modi 2 MB. Before that, you're not really going to get much of anything in the way of audible improvements, as they're pretty much all about cleaning up what would otherwise be noisy audio. And considering the fact that OP spent $200 on their headphones, there's no reason to spend that much on a DAC.

 

3 hours ago, K352 said:

I use a Google Pixel XL and my laptop is the Aorus X5 V6.

Both have pretty decent audio, AFAIK. I had the Gen 1 X7, and that was decent. I can't imagine it's gotten worse. 

 

The Pixel XL also has a pretty decent sound section. 

[mehtech]

4 hours ago, K352 said:

I use a Google Pixel XL and my laptop is the Aorus X5 V6.

 If there aren't any headphones shops around where you live, your best bet would be the Audioquest Dragonfly Black from Amazon. Just get a refund if you don't think it's worth it. It sounds quite a bit better than a macbook pro, if that means anything to you. I didn't use it to drive a $200 pair of headphones though. Also, buying a $100 amp is like buying one of those shitty Nvidia GT210 in the old days. They are better than Intel graphics but the performance/dollar ratio is quite low, just fyi.

[K352]

1 hour ago, KaminKevCrew said:

If someone is going to buy a DAC, there really isn't a good reason to worry about it until you're spending on something like a Modi 2 MB.

 

I had the Gen 1 X7, and that was decent. I can't imagine it's gotten worse. 

The X5 is swag (though I havent tried really high quality stuff)

 

1 hour ago, mehtech said:

 If there aren't any headphones shops around where you live

All turtle beaches and astro's. No actual high quality headphone shops

 

1 hour ago, mehtech said:

buying a $100 amp is like buying one of those shitty Nvidia GT210 in the old days. They are better than Intel graphics but the performance/dollar ratio is quite low, just fyi.

Now it looks like rip amp/dac. looks like I'll only buy one if volume is too low...