The All Purpose Advice Thread

@shaney777, this belongs in the All Purpose Advice Thread and I will be moving this post there. Please take the time to introduce yourself in the Introduction Thread as well.

To answer your question, I am not aware of Windows Phones being able to output a digital signal to a dac. I own a Lumia 925 with WP 8.1 and wished it were possible. Your best bet would be to get a cheap android tablet to use as your source if you need something portable.

 

Has the sound signature changed from the Sony MDR-SA5000 days? The SA5000 made me realize I was firmly in the warm/dark camp as I despised the sound signature of it

 

Portable as in "transport from place to place and listen at either end" or as in "use on the go/in public"? If it's the latter, you'll have issues since the HD600 is open-backed and will give you no isolation form the outside world and will annoy the hell out of anyone around you.

This hugely limits your options.

Depending on the phone, and which version of Windows it's on, you may only be able to connect an amplifier (via the 3.5mm headphone jack), and not a DAC. And even if it is a current model phone, with the latest build of Windows Phone/Mobile (or whatever the hell they're calling it this week), support for external DACs is VERY limited and is entirely unofficial.

UAC2 support was rumored, but as of the last time I checked it was still limited to UAC1 DACs and even then there are stringent power-limitations which many of the normal candidates simply won't adhere to.

This varies depending on the phone. An amp you can connect via a standard 3.5mm cable. A DAC, for a Windows phone, will require a USB OTG cable, I believe. Assuming you can find a compatible DAC in the first place.

Very likely an issue if you're coming straight out of the headphone jack on a phone.

 

I thought about these but I have always wondered what an Audeze sounds like and if I got a Nighthawk I would still wonder about the LCD-2. They are next on my list for sure

I pulled 3k out of thin air because people kept harping on a dollar amount. I phrased my initial post poorly. I should have said "Can someone recommend a great headphone for dark/warm sound that isn't the HD650 which I already own, forget about price" instead of saying "End Game"

 

Thank you so much for the reply. I am also open to getting an Android or other brand of phone to use. I have a Nexus 7 tablet now, but I wanted something far smaller so that it can be easily carried with the DAC/amp combo attached. I assume this is easier to do with a cheap, unlocked Android phone?

 

Thank you for commenting. I could probably buy an Android phone if it would make things easier. This opens up my options for DACs, right? I'm just not sure where to find like a ranked list of DAC/amp combos that will work with an Android phone. I also don't know which Android phone to get or of it matters.

EDIT: I mean portable as in moving around my house and car rides/trips/hotels, etc.
I know it is hard to hear open headphones when on the interstate, but I always deal with it. Haha!

 

The LG V20 already has a nice DAC/Amp built into it.

 

Android would definitely be easier than Windows as a phone to drive an external DAC. You'd still use an USB OTG cable to do it.

Two concerns/limitations with Android (both apply on some dedicated music players using Android, it's not just a "phone" issue):

• Android's stock-audio implementation (which is what all the standard streaming clients use) uses forced re-sampling - so your external DAC isn't going to be driven to it's best ability. You can get third-party apps that'll bypass the Android audio stack and talk natively to the DAC, but those only generally support locally stored files and, sometimes, Spotify and TIDAL (don't know of one that can talk to Groove Music).

• There are sometimes issues with volume control/level on Android with DACs that don't have their own controls for that (this has come up with the AudioQuest Dragonfly for example).

I'd love to give you a specific recommendation, but I can't - but you will have more luck with Android than with Windows here. iOS devices are even simpler, mostly (certainly not with out their own quirks) but then if you ever want high-resolution content, you're back to needing third-party applications..

 

Thank you for the recommendation! It does look decent! I'm sort of looking for something a little more "tried and true," though. A little more established I guess?

 

...in addition to killing your ears if you try to do anything about it... Open-back / leaky headphones have no place outside.

 

This is very, very valuable information. If I were to get a third-party app and use TIDAL, would my external DAC then be driven to the best of its ability?
I was going to use Groove Music so that I wouldn't have to re-download every song, but if TIDAL is needed, I can do it.

 

Listened to them once at a dealer's, and couldn't get what all the brouhaha was about: they were entirely lifeless, and nothing I'd spend money on. So I can only assume they're strongly dependent on amp synergies. I've driven them with my E12DIY (with a NE5532 opamp), and that didn't take more than two minutes to give them away...

 

USB Audio Player Pro (on the play store) will let you play TIDAL and local music (and Quboz) and talk directly to your DAC, bypassing all the Android-audio nonsense. So, yes, your DAC will get an unmolested data stream and can do it's job properly.

There's a list of supported DACs on their website as well. The player has some quirks (you have to exit it deliberately or won't release the DAC connection) and I had some minor stability issues with it (possibly now fixed, but more annoying than truly problematic), but it does what it claims to do.

 

UAPP is certainly a bit stable than it was- I own both that and HF Player, and tended to use the latter, as though the UI was more clunky, it didn't get into an unrecoverable funk if it lost the USB connection. UAPP actually picks the connection back up now, even on the lock screen- a massive improvement. There are a few more rough edges polished off, too.

I'd suggest trying both UAPP and HF Player, to see which suits you best, if you go Android, @shaney777.

 

Thank you so much! And how can I know if there will be volume control/level issues with the DAC I choose? Maybe do a quick Internet search and see if it has been documented? I am looking at the Chord Mojo and Oppo HA-2 right now.

 

A clunky UI wouldn't bother me too bad, so with that in mind, you believe that HF player is a better bet?

 

If it's on the "supported" list, linked above, you don't have to worry about that (at least with UAPP).

But both of those DACs have their own independent volume controls anyway.

 

The Chord Mojo has big goofy hardware buttons- you won't have any issues with volume control; I'm not even sure that it does software volume control. I go mobile with an old phone banded to a mojo most days. It's a good way to do it. That said, you do really need to have the phone in flight mode, or you'll get terrible interference.

Can I make a totally leftfield suggestion? Instead of pairing a phone with a putative DAC/AMP, have you considered a Shanling M1 DAP? People around here have had a lot of success with using them to drive external DACs over USB, and they're small and cheap. That means no streaming services on the move, but also, far fewer headaches and a lighter load.

I don't know, at this point. UAPP has improved so much lately. However, they're not particularly expensive, so there's nothing to stop you trying both without risking much. There's a free restricted version of HF player, too. The best idea would be to just see which you prefer, if you do go the Android route. There's not a lot in it, but UAPP may just have the edge for a lot of use cases right now (and can work as a UnPnP renderer for Tidal, I believe).

(Neutron also supports USB DACs, but last I tried, a couple of months back, the support was hilariously unreliable and cranky.)

 

Thank you! This is not in line with the direction we've been going, but would you happen to know if I'd need to use a third-party app with iPhone as the source? In other words, could I use the official TIDAL app to play music on an iPhone whilst taking full advantage of the DAC/amp combo? I sort of would like to stay away from third-party apps, as I don't really have the experience or ears to make sure that I am using the app correctly.

 

The main reason I can't use a DAP is because I need online connectivity in order to use a monthly music subscription app. I find it very affordable to pay $10 per month and get unlimited music downloads (versus paying per song).