What would be a good portable Dac/Amp to use with my HD6xx and Sony Xperia 1 V cell phone?
I am new to this hobby. I purchased a HD6XX and plan to use it with my Sony Xperia 1 V cell phone, that has a 3.5mm jack. I was wondering if I needed a portable dac/amp or just a portable amp and if so what would one recommend? Any assistance one could provide, would be greatly appreciated. Kind regards, Haz
Mar 7, 2024
Also, I love the amp, and if you are building one, I would think to look into that design and specs. Its really great with a variety of speakers!
Some more information on planar magnetics and damping factor: http://www.head-fi.org/t/617902/effects-of-damping-factor-on-planar-magnetics-orthodynamics
If our HiFI-M8 is any indication, many people like to re-cable their headphones for balanced operation. This way, we could avoid the unfortunate inevitability of people plugging IEMs into the 1/4" jack and blowing them up to pieces...
However, I don't believe that most people looking for a 1/4" jack in such a product would even attempt to plug their IEMs in. Judging by the number of people who are modifying 1/4" jacks into their Mini-x, there's clearly a number of people looking for that setup as well. Considering most people aren't even looking for these types of amps to power dynamic headphones even, I doubt it would take more than a strongly worded disclaimer to keep people from plugging their sensitive phones into the jack. Of course, a 4 pin XLR jack would eliminate this problem completely, but may be a pain for some, especially for mini-x users who are running single-ended setups (running everything balanced myself).
But anyways, making the headphone out XLR is better than no headphone out at all, but there's still the matter of needing an XLR cable for your headphones. The way cables are priced, a $150 cable plus a $250 amp puts it outside of value range, and opens up more competitors' options. Also, the cheaper offerings of planar magnetic headphones (HE-400, HE-500, LCD-2) from companies like Hifiman and Audeze doesn't even include the XLR cable. And Alpha Dogs make you choose TRS or XLR. So people owning those would have to buy a separate XLR cable. Those owning the higher end planars (HE-6, LCD-X, LCD-3) that come with a balanced 4-pin XLR cable would likely prefer multi-thousand dollar amps instead.
That's my take on this anyways. In my opinion, a standard 1/4" would give the most ubiquity and cater to people with midrange planar magnetics looking for a value amp. But of course you don't want people who don't know what works with this special headphone jack blowing up their headphones. If you can make it safe for all headphones through resistor attenuation that would be the best in my opinion. Even if it won't sound good for dynamic headphones, and only work well for planars, at least it's not blowing up people's headphones. Heh, if you really feeling ambitious and want to please everyone, add a second 1/4" jack that's set up with a discrete headphone amp like the N22, and label it appropriately, one for planar magnetics only (still have this resistor attenuated to prevent damage), the other for everything else. That way people can't complain the headphone out sucks for their headphones because they're not using planar magnetics, and give negative reviews even though they're not using it correctly.
Maybe at the end of the day, it's best to not have a headphone out at all, but have it have common grounding, so people can use it the way they do with the Emotiva with a $20 cable to go from speaker tap to 1/4" jack. (http://www.head-fi.org/t/629352/he-500-lcd2-d5000-dt770-sr80-on-a-speaker-amp-emotiva-mini-x-a-100-project/2955#post_10111998) Maybe make it easy for modders to add their own 1/4" jack: stub out internal wires for this mod, and have steps to do this mod on your website, with the purpose of use with planars and a disclaimer written out. I figure anyone who could open up an amp and perform such a mod will be informed enough to use the proper headphone for the amp. Or maybe have the 1/4" jack hidden and requires taking off a plate or something to reveal it. Once again eliminates people who don't know what they're doing or skip reading the manual and any disclaimers.
I really hope you do consider this option! Planar magnetic headphones are becoming quite popular in the Head-Fi community, with the recent releases of the Audeze LCD-X and LCD-XC, and the MrSpeakers Alpha Dogs. Hifiman is coming out with the HE-400i and HE-560 this or next month. Oppo has one coming out in the PM-1, and I think Fostex is even redesigning their classic T50RP.