Drop + THX AAA™ 789 Linear Amplifier Discussions | Drop

Free Standard Shipping in the US on orders over $99

Showing 1 of 1589 conversations about:

Drop + THX AAA™ 789 Linear Amplifier

Audiophile

FULL DISCUSSION

A community member

Aug 4, 2020

I bought this from Amazon. The amp is really good. Knobs, buttons, build, aesthetics, inputs, outputs... Everything perfect and just what i wanted to be. But... i'm not sure about the sound. It sounds almost same as Creative soundcard. I feel like soundstage and imaging is slightly better. Not sure. 100% sure bass is worse though. Creative have better slam.

Aug 4, 2020

zstone

Aug 5, 2020

This makes sense. Without having heard exactly what you are hearing, I bet there is less bass with the 789, but the quality of bass production is better with the 789. This amp is very neutral/flat. Your Creative probably had a little bass boost going on. You can always use EQ to add more bass, or get a DAC with a "Loudness" switch (typically applies a V-shaped EQ). I went through what you're going through when I upgraded my subwoofer and balanced out my system. It seemed like less bass, and it was, because it was the right amount of bass instead of too much. But the new sub makes much better/cleaner/more accurate bass. And if I want more of that sweet clean bass, I can just turn the subwoofer up, or use EQ, or hit the Loudness switch. The 789 is known as the cleanest, most neutral headphone amp on the market. It doesn't have its own character, it lets you hear the characteristics of everything else in your audio path more clearly and accurately. Get some free EQ software and add like +2db at 100hz, see if you still feel the same way.

Aug 5, 2020

A community member

Aug 5, 2020

zstoneTBH soundcard is flat and neutral too. It has great measurements. Better than most dac amps. https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/review-and-measurements-of-sound-blasterx-ae-5.9114/ I don't use any dsp. I don't know why there is a difference between two solid state amps that have inaudible noise and flat response. THX have more power too.

Aug 5, 2020

zstone

Aug 5, 2020

The Creative is a sound card that has a headphone amp. The 789 is only a headphone amp. Even without DSP, the Creative is performing the DA conversion. How did you add the 789 to your setup? Are you plugging it into your Creative line out? Your motherboard line out? Or perhaps you also bought a DAC?

Aug 5, 2020

Vote

A community member

Aug 5, 2020

zstoneI've used both the Creative line out and the Topping E30 dac which is another perfect measuring gear. If i'm not imagining things Creative+789 sound harsher, E30+789 sound smoother and airy. Bass is same though. Magic is in the AE5 amp. Headphone is pretty sensitive Ananda btw. AE5: instruments are closer to each other, sweet bass AE5(sabre 9016)+789: harsher, kind of grainy highs E30+789: instruments have air around them, smoother highs, treble is like more precise, treble is present but smooth and calm I can't do AB comparison. It's incredibly hard to compare because audio memory is extremely unreliable. I'm sure about the bass difference. Other differences are more like a feel. I've used these blindly (without knowing which one i'm using) and end up guessing right but still can't be sure. The bass difference is not big or bad though, it's just noticeable.

Aug 5, 2020

zstone

Aug 5, 2020

Super-interesting! You sound more than knowledgeable enough to not be doing something like accidentally having bass boost on in the Creative driver without realizing it. Amir actually shows a slight drop in the lowest frequencies in his frequency response of the AE5. I mean the dip is at the extreme end of what we can even hear, but it's still something Creative may have tried to account for. So while that may suggest to me even more that Creative has some sauce in the software, again it seems like you have checked all that already and are truly observing a difference in color/character in the DACs and or amps. If it's not some sort of EQ/DSP thing then I wonder if it's an impact/speed thing, or where it might be coming from, because I certainly have no idea. Very surprising since Amir shows the 789 as perfectly flat, and the AE5 as having that slight dip in bass. Of course, measurements aren't everything, and looking at graphs can't tell you what something will really sound like, only listening to it will. I hope you find a combination/setup you are happy with!

Aug 5, 2020

A community member

Aug 5, 2020

zstoneThanks! I'm suspecting the distortion/noise. Bass distortion might add warmth and weight. 789 bass is clean and light compared to ae5. Honestly differences are really small. I think this soundcard have great performance and value which is rare for soundcards.

Aug 5, 2020

zstone

Aug 5, 2020

That makes sense, the FFT graphs seem to support your suspicions. If it's only a few db, I wonder if using something like REW software to add say +2db maybe around 100hz, may want to take it lower based on your music preferences and audio tastes, if that would get you back to where you want to be, or if it is indeed like an impact/snappiness thing that throwing more watts at isn't going to fix.

Aug 5, 2020

View Full Discussion