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
After my first 2~3 hours with the HD6XX I decided to try going back to my HD598. Right away I could tell a difference, this surprised me since initially I was thinking they almost sound the same. When doing a direct comparison, the HD598 definitely sounded thinner and less enjoyable overall. With the HD598 I could still sense the changes in the lower frequencies by the way it sounded, but it lacked fullness. Kind of like listening to music in a regular family sedan, vs a luxury vehicle with 2x the amount of speakers. That said, I still would not call these a bass heavy headphone, and compared to my Logitech G933, these cannot provide even half of the deep rumbling bass that those can. (I'm not saying the G933 is a better headphone for music, but don't expect a HUGE amount of bass from these open backed audiophile-grade headphones, they're still tuned for accuracy rather than a V curve). Before directly comparing the HD598 and the HD6XX, I didn't really think there was that much of a difference, but there definitely is.
I find with these types of headphones, if you've just been listening to music with speakers + subwoofer, you need to give your ears 10~20 minutes to adjust, at which point the 'flat' sound will completely disappear and they will sound very rich and full.
Initially I found the clamping force quite strong. I thought I'd get used to it, but after 1 hour I was in pain. This never happened with my HD598. So I decided to *slightly* bend the head band (by the metal portion) and now these are possibly more comfortable than my HD598! The headband padding/design is *definitely* more comfortable. When going back to the HD598 I immediately notice a hot-spot on the top of my head, where with the HD6XX it's divided, and as a result the headband is much less noticeable. The clamping force is still much stronger and the pads are stiffer but I don't find it uncomfortable anymore, these don't move around when I lean back.
FYI, these are noticeably harder to drive. To achieve the same level of volume on the HD6XX as the HD598, I needed to increase Spotify volume slider by about 20% (I'm still not even passing the 12:00 position on my Schitt Magni v1, so this is not a problem). Overall I must say I'm a happy customer.