Popular Post DuckToller Posted December 30, 2020 Popular Post Share Posted December 30, 2020 4 hours ago, Muzgotrzep said: Hello. I would like to ask audiophiles and connoisseurs if this set is enough to fully use its potential, or should I buy an amplifier, Dac or something like that? I don't know much about it. Can you help me? First of all, welcome to the forum!!! 2 hours ago, BigWilliam said: Considering the price bracket yes you need at least something with a nice headphone amp. Agree to disagree! 😇 Your A&K has max 12Vrms output, which seems absolutely sufficient to drive your cans. It is a first class device. I'd personally prefer the device to have DAC chips other than the MQA hardware featuring ESS9068 because I haven't found yet an answer on the question if the hardwired MQA filters of the DAC chips (there are 2 of them) can be bypassed and if they degrade the sound quality of other formats like PCM, DXD or DSD. BW unfortunately sounds like he has had a bad day and may not be up to date on the latest Astell & Kern Kann Alpha DAP, DAC and HP amp. Happens. . . 😉 You would need a stationary HP amp only if you listen more hours in a row than the 12-14 hours advertised for that mobile device. The fitting Senn HP amp HDV820 has been reviewed with mediocre results. If you look for a stationary HP amp with DAC, you may want to consider the source (towards the DAC) as an important factor (USB/SPDIF/Wireless/Toslink). If you want to go big, the Benchmark HPA4 comes to mind, it is HPA only, and requires a DAC . pls feel free to raise more questions, here are a lot of more experienced posters around than BW. Cheers, Tom AudioDoctor, Muzgotrzep and The Computer Audiophile 2 1 Link to comment
Popular Post DuckToller Posted December 31, 2020 Popular Post Share Posted December 31, 2020 19 hours ago, Muzgotrzep said: Thank you for your exhaustive explanation. I really appreciate it. Do you think there's a better digital audio player and headphones in this price range? Also I would like to ask if I need an external hp amp to connect hd820 to my av reciever pioneer 922 or there's no need for that? Hi to Ireland & thank you for coming back ;-) In case you read it only tomorrow ... Athbhliain faoi mhaise duit! As you may have noticed, the answer on your initial had been vague but broad. That occurs often, when the OP does not provide sufficient information on his project, his technical environment , objectives & goals etc. These are valuable information that give us forum members the possibility to evaluate your case & expectations and look for proper & meaningful answers to you I think I will discuss with Chris ( @The Computer Audiophile) if it may be useful to offer some sticky guidelines in that forum section ... Imho, one needs some experience in this hobby and in forum conversation related to that in order to formulate a useful request on a technical (and subjective experienced) subject like the choice of a proper headphone set up for xxxx Euros. That's why most of the OP are already excused in the first step ;-) From your 2nd response, I have now extracted the following information and subsequently - if we are going to give you meaningful advice for your new HP system - some more questions arise from that: ! You have an AV Receiver from Pioneer, which had the price of around 700 Euros in 2012. ??? I assume you have a full AV System with it? ??? As you did not mention otherwise, you haven't an individual 2 channel system, perhaps with a streamer and a DAC? ??? It sounds like you haven't bought the two items yet you mentioned in your OP , but you are considering spending up to 4000 Euros for a headphone system? Small notice: Most of the members here would be very inquisitive before they spend such an amount of money on equipment. ??? Do you already have a headphone system ? ??? What was your criteria to select the SENN's and the KANN ALPHA ? ??? Have you already compared High End earphones at a Cam Jam or such? ??? Do you have a preference between open, closed and semi-open headphones? ??? Did you think about the very different experience by SQ from such a resolving system compared to your (assumed) AV system ? ??? What type of music are you listening to ? ??? Is the system intended to be mobile or stationary, or both ? ??? Is it a first entry with financial room for improvement or an endgame request (obviously having up to 4k Euro already on the clock initially and asking about additional HP amp / DAC may indicate you are not unwilling to spend even more ...) Oh my god, in my afterlife I'll turn out to be an attorney ;-) Giving you specific advice on how to best spend your money simply demands consideration about lots of details to show you some solution based on our personal experience and assembled "knowledge". This will be a very subjective journey - and information in the forum may always have a personal bias. There are more objective sources available on the net, however my personal preference is to understand what others experience with gear/music and if that fits with my own observations. Please excuse if that texting does not guide you directly to the best available equipment for your case, I personally feel that clever spending volumes of Euro demands a bit of reflection. In my deducted knowledge from you situation, I can see two options you may want to look at: 1) a mobile solution (assumption arrives from the A&K gear), which indicates that the headphones should provide noise-cancelling and a small footprint for the gear. If you have already a quality phone with you, you could use it as wireless streaming source (or local files from the SD card) with either an USB DAC / HP amp or as many do via BT to something like the Sony WH 1000 XM, because given standard mobile demands you rarely achieve the aural environment to profit from then extraordinary sq you'd buy with the equipment you have enlisted. 2) For a use at home, with or instead of a 2 channel system you may have different requirements: Depending on the source (Records, CD, Local Files on PC , NAS or Internet Streaming like Qobuz) you may need some adequate transport/DAC to your HP amplifier and the exquisite cans. One of the units I would regard as an Swiss knife for your situation is the iFi iDSD pro 4.4, that has streaming, DAC and HP amplifier to offer in a single chassis. And I may regard what people write about the difference between Senn 820 and Senn 800, because the latter is still an exquisite choice for the near ultimate headphone experience. There is however - if you listen to music as well with your surround device - the OKTO RESEARCH DAC pro 8 channel DAC with a stereo headphone amp output, that would allow you to connect to your surround system and the headphones. As a matter of fact, with the iFi iDSD pro and the Sennheiser 800s you could have some Sony NCed cans added without killing your budget completely. (incl. DAC). Anyway, Headphones are very personal devices and other people like Chris (the owner of this place) and @RickyV may tell you that if you stretch your budget a bit, there is only the RAAL way to go (under certain circumstances) ... @gmgravesfor example, is a dedicated lover of STAX headphones and so on... @JoshM, the author of the cited article may have some good ideas for you, and I would call as well @Musicophile to help, because he had been on the search for an proper upgrade on his Sennheiser HD800 not long ago . I noticed that @ShawnC and @audiobomber may a well some sources of valuable experience ... I need to excuse, one of the flaws of an audiophile forum is the need to read a lot ... Personally, I haven't heard a lot of the available phones above 1k Euro, the HifiMan Arya, The LCD4z and the Meze Empyrean, and the last had been my personal favorite (heard the last two with the iFi Pro on a Can Jam in Paris last year). Alternatively, I would be looking for Kennerton Cans from Russia, they have a horn driven model which I am keen to hear when the Covid19 season has faded out. However I would assume that the guys called for have amassed much more dedicated knowledge than me. Yes, I shortened it three times ;-) By the way, happy new year to all of you Cheers, Tom Musicophile and The Computer Audiophile 1 1 Link to comment
DuckToller Posted December 31, 2020 Share Posted December 31, 2020 @The Computer Audiophile Chris, could you please change the first link above to this one ? Thank you! "https://audiophilestyle.com/ca/reviews/a-tale-of-two-sennheisers-the-hd820-and-the-hd800s-r766/" Link to comment
DuckToller Posted December 31, 2020 Share Posted December 31, 2020 1 minute ago, The Computer Audiophile said: Done. Mille Merci and a perfect start into '21 ;-) Link to comment
DuckToller Posted January 1, 2021 Share Posted January 1, 2021 I notice this year, that I forgot to link this: and two more forum contributors came to my who are familiar with Sennheiser 800 and other HE cans: @Blake & @Summit Have a fresh start into 2021 .. Link to comment
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