I need a travel USB DAC/headphone amp, any recommendations?
I need a travel USB DAC/headphone amp, any recommendations?
I'm not always home, but would like to make some music with the headphones when I'm out. The headphone out of my laptop is useless, as it distorts/limits the signal a bit. Not in a minor way either. It kinda sounds nice actually, but that makes it useless for making music obviously. Soundcard is a bit clunky to always carry around.
So, are any of those cheap-ish (say max 100€) portable USB DAC/headphone amps of any use? It'd need to be fairly transparent, not sweeten the signal. Pocket-sized.
Thanks, if anyone can help.
So, are any of those cheap-ish (say max 100€) portable USB DAC/headphone amps of any use? It'd need to be fairly transparent, not sweeten the signal. Pocket-sized.
Thanks, if anyone can help.
"I don't shower every day, but when I do, I do it after listening to some Barfunkel" - Anonymous
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http://soundcloud.com/user4904810
http://www.mixcloud.com/Barfunkel/
Re: I need a travel USB DAC/headphone amp, any recommendations?
I'm not gonna argue your laptop's output is not of the finest quality (there was quite a difference between my old and new macbook, with the old one being better), but have you checked whether the impedance of your headphones match the output impedance of your laptop?
Andy
the lunatics are in the hall...
the lunatics are in the hall...
Re: I need a travel USB DAC/headphone amp, any recommendations?
it’s a bit over your budget, however this one can even drive HD800!
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Apogee-Groov ... 3665320490
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Apogee-Groov ... 3665320490
Re: I need a travel USB DAC/headphone amp, any recommendations?
Doesn't really matter which headphones I use, HD25's distort, K701's distort etc. Could of course be some setting buried really deep that does it, but I haven't found it. My previous Dell of the same series didn't have this problem, I could easily drive K701's with the headphone output.borg wrote: ↑Wed Jul 29, 2020 1:12 pmI'm not gonna argue your laptop's output is not of the finest quality (there was quite a difference between my old and new macbook, with the old one being better), but have you checked whether the impedance of your headphones match the output impedance of your laptop?
"I don't shower every day, but when I do, I do it after listening to some Barfunkel" - Anonymous
http://soundcloud.com/user4904810
http://www.mixcloud.com/Barfunkel/
http://soundcloud.com/user4904810
http://www.mixcloud.com/Barfunkel/
Re: I need a travel USB DAC/headphone amp, any recommendations?
I got one of these https://uk.creative.com/p/sound-blaster ... blaster-e1 used it for my DT990s for a while before I realised my interface kicked out enough anyways.
Was pretty affordable from my memory
Was pretty affordable from my memory