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
Are they shit compared to external? Should be the same stuff except they're inside a computer? Even got built in DAC.
What's the difference and why is the other better?
Massdrop often has good deals on dacs and amps, I can make some recommendations if you're interested.
they are usually optimised for gaming with plenty of features, not needed for music
I have an external sound blaster dac/amp, and it sounds good. I see no reason, compared to entry level amps/dac, not to use high end internal sound card.
-Advantage of internal Card/entry level compared to dac/amp: plugged to superior PCIe BUS, for heavy audio editing. usually a better Driver
-Disadvantage: Some argue that it is too noisy inside a computer less choices optimized for music ?
If you want something portable, the iFi iDSD BL works great with the HD-6XX. Sometimes you can find it on sale for $350 but normally goes for $550.
The lower end Schiit stack (Modi2 and Magni2 or 3) should have enough power for these. I tried the Modi2 and didn't like it. I upgraded to the Modi Multibit and it is currently my favorite dac.
Many also recommend the Audio-GD products and the low end (NFB-11) also has enough power for these. I haven't tried that one yet so I can't personally recommend it.
If possible it's best to try out the products or order from somewhere with good return policies.
If you do end up with the Little Dot, be sure to read this thread about tube rolling, tons of useful info and some of the better tubes are really affordable: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/little-dot-tube-amps-vacuum-tube-rolling-guide.563884/
And ask loadexfa mentions, there's actually LOTS of RF noise inside of a computer case, which can easily migrate onto the audio signal, although more expensive add-on cards can mitigate that somewhat. But the ideal is digital out (USB, SPDIF, other) to an external devices in order to feed it into an amp and then to your headphones/speakers.