Beatz by skezzer. The Proper good audio thread. Headphones, amps, dacs, etc. - The Bear and Badger

MyNameIsKrisG

Hahahaha hahahaha

MyNameIsKrisG

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAJAJAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA

MyNameIsKrisG

Ha!

g.man

...and breeeeeaathe...

MyNameIsKrisG

I'd rather donate them to charity

g.man

That’s what I did with all my collections.

MyNameIsKrisG

I'm not too worried about going down rabbit holes, but if I'm going to sacrifice my collection and go all-digital, I want the reward of it sounding bloody great.

Kow

I don't really understand all this DAC stuff. What's it for?

b0r1s

Digital to analogue converter. Turns the bits and bytes into nice sounds at a higher quality than what’s usually built into your phone / tablet / computer. Plug some headphones into it or hook up speakers and an amp. Need a lossless file or service at CD quality or higher.

MyNameIsKrisG

I had a Sony NW-A306 which is very well reviewed, and honestly think my Galaxy S23 sounds better.

b0r1s

I started down the rabbit hole a couple years ago when Apple announced lossless files on their service. Got the Fiio K5 desktop DAC and some DT990 Pro’s. Not the best headphones ever but way above anything else I’d owned.

I realised watching channels like this: https://youtube.com/@DarkoAudio?si=gJdVyjem86-rxMCv that I’d hardly scratched the surface.

Moot_Geeza

I went down the hole a few years ago too. Loved it but haven't plugged my snazzy headphones into my snazzy amp/dac or lossless Fiio for ages. It's the main reason I can't really scoff at people chasing the 4K dream, much as it's not for me, 'cos I was chasing smaller increments in audio quality for months. Ripping half of my cds again took fucking ages too.

Sounds dreamy when it all hits right though. I've got one pair of closed cans that suit hip hop and some open back HIFIMANS that make country sound like I'm listening to God's jukebox.

Kow

So the DAC goes in between the pc or phone and the headphones?

Moot_Geeza

Yes.

Kow

I have an external soundcard for recording that does up to 96khz audio quality input and output. Is that not capable of doing something similar?

MyNameIsKrisG

I was gifted a pair of XM3's about 5 years ago and I still find myself grinning when listening to certain songs. I don't need anything better.

I'm currently undecided between a pair of Sonos Era 100s or a couple of Homepod 2s.

MyNameIsKrisG

Or a single Era 300, but, urgh ugly.

Minkymu

Kow wrote:

I have an external soundcard for recording that does up to 96khz audio quality input and output. Is that not capable of doing something similar?

possibly however your main issue is the various codecs and compression formats it need to decompile

poprock

Just to go back to the selling CD collections thing … here’s what I did, in case the method is any help to anyone.

I put my entire CD collection into Discogs. Took a while, but the fact that it lets you just scan barcodes helps. Then I got Discogs to rank my collection by current average market value and output as an Excel sheet.

I put the top-valued 100 CDs on eBay, one by one. Most of them sold within a week. Some of them at great prices. (Highest was a fans-only CD-R in a plastic sleeve - Kirstin Hersh playing live with a string quartet. And luckily I had two copies of that …)

Then I put the rest up on Gumtree as a collection for sale in one piece. Around 900 CDs. Sent the Excel sheet to anyone who was interested. Again, within a week I had a few buyers bidding against each other, and the eventual highest-bidding buyer paid for a man with a van to collect them. All I had to do was box them up.

MyNameIsKrisG

I've started cheap - bought an extra Nest Audio and paired it with the old one. It's very good improvement, but certainly only suited to a small room where quality isn't a concern. They are now called "Kitchen Left" and "Kitchen Right", where they shall stay forever more.

Spending that £45 has convinced me that I really need to save up and go properly premium for the living room.

Skerret

https://oswaldsmillaudio.com/mini
get dem

poprock

I’ve had these a year now and still loving them. Carry them every day.

https://gradolabs.com/headphones/wireless/item/126-gt220

Minkymu

This is s rabbit hole. Im now eyeing the Shure Aonic 4 instead of the Aonic 3. Better drivers and a nicer fitting case shape. Of course they are £100 more at £275 ffs

Scan have tgem at £225 which is a handy discount as im getting the mrs to buy then for my xmas prazzie along with the Fiio dac. if i can keep under £300 bonus.

Are scan any good??

b0r1s

I bought computer stuff from them years ago. They used to be a legit company. Their Trust Pilot is 4.8 so assume still ok.

Minkymu

These turned up today. Annoying that the Fiio DAC i ordered at the same time is delayed until 30th December but hey ho what can you do.

First impressions are good. You HAVE to get the right bud fit or the bass is weak. They are transformative once the correct seal is achieved. I went with the 12.08 foam tips supplied (the largest) and wow what a difference. No anc on these but the passive seal is so good i can't hear my own voice with them in. Bass goes through the roof, much better music soundstage and separation also.

Very light. Comfy fit. Waiting on the DAC before i give them an Apple lossless vs Tidal Hifi MQA workout.

Huff....

Facewon

heh, I am here to help Kris, just did some BT speaker purchasing.

My daughter wanted a record player for christmas. So we bought her a cheap BT connected one.

Bought these speakers to go with https://www.jbhifi.com.au/products/marley-get-together-duo-bookshelf-bluetooth-speakers?queryID=6bc2cd69b454e0366de79e769096a492&objectID=511907

And they're actually fine. Wouldn't recommend for audiofile, but they're very solid for a small room.

But what that also meant was that I could pair my IKEA Symphonik speakers as stereo. And they're fucking great. If you're going the Sonos route, go the ikea route for largely the same internals with the same app integrations for half the price.

Facewon

My previous issues with sonos have also been addressed by some updates.

Previously you had to link all your apps to the sonos app and then use the sonos app to select stuff you wanted to play.

Made it a bit annoying as I'm used to navigating tidal and using recently played etc.

Going via sonos meant "starting from scratch" each time.

Recent update has add sonos to your options from other apps.

So if I'm at home and am using tidal I can choose to send to the symphoniks, or my audio chromecast downstairs or by headphones all from the one app.

Seems there's a bunch more functionality been added too which I haven't looked at properly.

Minkymu

So the Fiio DAC finally turned up meaning i can try the penta driver monitors. Very interesting results.

Interesting the amount of different hi/res audio formats there are even on services like tidal.

The Fiio has an rgb light on it which changes colour depending on input khz. Blue is 48khz or below, which the majority of so called lossless apple music came up as, very few tracks went yellow which indicates higher than 48khz. Green is DSA and purple is MQA. MQA does sound nicer.

Apple is louder than tidal.

Tidal sounds nicer imo but the app is shit to search and not as easy to navigate as apple music.

The Daddy

Stuff does sound better through a decent amp/dac, although MQA’s days are numbered, they went into administration earlier this year.

I’ve let my tidal sub lapse, mostly back to Spotify and home rips, although I’ve got a free Apple Music trial going at the mo. Apple sounds much better than Spotify, although Spotify is better for the car, Apple doesn’t seem to have much of a buffer for when reception is dodgy.

I keep nearly buying new headphones but managed to resist, pretty happy with all my current options.

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