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ReverseComet
17
Nov 1, 2017
I ordered my headphones on the 28th and haven't gotten a notification for it's shipment. I did however get my headphone amp/dac for it, so I'm still pretty pumped for these. Just hoping they get shipped this week!
kxrider85
100
Nov 2, 2017
ReverseComethave you had a chance to listen to your aune t1 se mk3 if that's the amp/dac you are referring to? I am thinking about getting one as well. Just curious on your opinion of it if you have any other headphones to test it on.
ReverseComet
17
Nov 2, 2017
kxrider85I am using the Audio Technica ATH-M50x on them. Watching some Game Grumps normally with them, things have a bit more presence. Listening to NSP: The Last Unicorn, it sounds fuller and things stand out a bit more. This is going back and forth from the Aune to just plugging in my headphones into my PC. Along with this, my gain on the Aune is set to about 45% and my PC volume set to about 50%. I also had some minor problems with drivers, but to get it working I just had to go to the Aune website and get the drivers from there. Overall I like it a lot, and according to the Massdrop page they should also power the HD6xxs. Also I'm using the tube they send with the Aune. I don't have any other tubes to test out. Hope this helps! I'd say buy it just because it's the only thing I could find that was less then 200 dollars that could power the HD6xxs other then the Schiit Stack. Plus with the Aune you get can always change the tube to get some different sound from it. Hope this helps you make a decision!
kxrider85
100
Nov 2, 2017
ReverseCometThanks, I appreciate the mini review!
Marlowe
143
Nov 2, 2017
ReverseCometIt probably won't make a much of a difference, but when using an external DAC/amp with your computer, it's generally desirable to set the PC's volume to 100%.
Z0d1Ac
251
Nov 2, 2017
ReverseCometI agree with Marlowe, you should set the pc volume to %100. Never have it lower than %80 because the bit depth will be a lower value than 1. I also recommend you disable all enhancements and try some high quality audio files.
rastus
1391
Nov 2, 2017
ReverseCometThanks for the review, this is what it is all about, the enjoyment of getting the real music to your ears.
If you are not already using a "player" app; as Marlowe and Kxrider have said put the PC master volume, depends on actual PC DSP hardware, to 80% + or the on-board PC DAC basically gets "dumbed-down" to a lower bit rate. 100% is fine as your are not trying to actually use the PC's op-amp; jack out. I used to set it at 95% but that is just me, now I am using Audiogate.
" Reducing volume in software is basically equivalent to reducing the bit depth. In digital audio, the signal is split up into distinct samples (taken thousands of times per second), and bit depth is the number of bits that are used to describe each sample. Attenuating a signal is done by multiplying each sample by a number less than one, with the result being that you're no longer using the full resolution to describe the audio, resulting in reduced dynamic range and signal-to-noise ratio. Specifically, every 6 dB of attenuation is equivalent to reducing the bit depth by one. If you started with, say, 16-bit audio (standard for audio CDs) and reduced the volume by 12 dB, you'd effectively be listening to 14-bit audio instead. Turn the volume down too much and quality will start to suffer noticeably.Another issue is that these calculations will often result in rounding errors, due to the original value of the sample not being a multiple of the factor by which you're dividing the samples. This further degrades the audio quality by introducing what's basically quantisation noise. Again, this mostly happens at lower volume levels. Different programs might use slightly different algorithms for attenuating the signal and resolving those rounding errors, which means there might be some difference in the resulting audible signal between, say, an audio player and the OS, but that doesn't change the fact that in all cases you're still reducing bit depth and essentially wasting a portion of the bandwidth on transmitting zeroes instead of useful information. "
Death by PowerPoint here, actually its fine: http://www.esstech.com/files/3014/4095/4308/digital-vs-analog-volume-control.pdf
To get all the perfect little bits out though, you need to get past the on-board mixer/kernel altogether in the PC by using a player app such as JRiver or FooBar. A free trial is available, https://jriver.com/download.html , and you will want some high rez music like 24/192 and now you can also use DSD 64 (DoP transfer) files with the AuneT1SE. A white paper is here covering why you want to bypass your PC DSP :
http://m.marantz.co.uk/DocumentMaster/master/Marantz_Whitepaper_PC-Audio.pdf
What you are trying to make, by bypassing some normal PC stuff, they were not made for this... is a full music player system using your PC and an out-board better DAC, but a bit cheaper, well most have a PC or Mac handy so that is paid for already, and to keep control over components/software selection. The-all-in one, minus an amp, is done like this; little known fact, Sony speakers move your hair even at low volume, watch video:
https://www.sony.com/electronics/audio-components/hap-z1es
What you are doing with a "player", or open the white paper above for the whole story, well written, looks like boiler plate a few are using:
"Audio handling inside a PC To better understand this, take a look at the audio-handling diagram below – From the Media Player the audio will be send by Direct Sound, the default setting, through the Mixer, while Kernel Streaming, Asio and Wasapi bypasses it. The dedicate driver installed will allow the USB DAC to take the lead for the data request – this is called Asynchronous Mode. Just for the PC environment the Media player, for example JRiver, default setting is Direct Sound and uses the Mixer. So it is necessary to change the setting to Kernel Streaming, WASAPI or ASIO streaming. "
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