Any recommendations on a portable amp in case the "player" can't quite make these shine? I currently have a Pioneer XDP-100R and Galaxy S7 Edge. I have a desktop at home that I am sure will drive these (Emotiva BasX A-100) so I might use this to compare if my portable devices nerf it too much.
TheocratI believe fiio and oppo make amazing portable amps. While I've never owned one, they are some of the most recommended brands for portable amplifiers.
j3n5ES100 is cute but I don't feel like buying one until they fix so you can use more than 16 bit audio when docked to a PC too. Then again I feel like the small USB ports doesn't handle wear all that great so maybe it's bad or annoying to use it as an external sound card too but that's how I think.
This ASUS B450-F board made a lot of noise when using the Sony MDR-EX650AP or CoolerMaster MH751 at first which I wondered whatever it could be impedance related as I didn't know how things worked there but that background noise was removed as I connected the PC to grounded power, however I only have that in the kitchen and that's not where I keep my PC so ..
aliquisMotherboards are prone to picking up electrical fields and what not should the dac not be properly shielded or the motherboard design doesn't do much to help isolate that excess noise. So yeah, as you've already mentioned, a grounded power helped to alleviate that static noise. Have you tried using a usb dac? Sometimes the usb hubs might be better routed. In my case (gigabyte z270x gaming 7), an usb dac connected to the dac-up usb port (supposed to be cleaner signals according to gigabyte) produced far significantly less noise than the motherboard dac.
j3n5I read now that USB Audio class 1 support was built in into Windows 8 and could do up to 24 bit 96 kHz whereas you needed USB class 2 for more than that.
Seem like Windows 10 1703 have USB Audio 2.0 support built in: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/drivers/audio/usb-2-0-audio-drivers
The reply Radsone gave me before was:
"Please understand that as it is the limitation of the Qualcomm chip, it only supports up to 16/48.
This is something we cannot improve from the firmware update.
Unfortunately, only 24bit available in Mac OS. "
How can it do 24 bit with OS X if it's a hardware issue?
Regardless it doesn't do and can't do 24 bit in Windows 10 or with a USB Audio 2.0 driver installed yourself either? Cambridge audio offer one here whatever it work for all equipment I have no idea: https://techsupport.cambridgeaudio.com/hc/en-us/sections/200295012-Cambridge-Audio-USB-Audio-2-0-Windows-driver
TheocratWhen my P1 arrive, I'll be trying them with my FiiO Q5 running hi-res streams (Qoboz) via Bluetooth from my iPhone 10. The Q5 has extra switches for more gain and bass boost, so I figure that is just what the P1 will need. The Q5 is excellent for portability and sounds great (they's a successor model out now - I think it's Qs or something). If that doesn't impress, I might piggyback the Q5 with the Little Bear B-4x tube preamp (running a jumper cable from the Q5's line-out to the input of the Little Bear). That might give the P1s a bit of bass bump and warmth, and more than enough gain.