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G3n3r1c
216
Dec 31, 2018
First, buy a balanced cable before you decide on an amp. For mobile use I bought this cable with a 2.5mm TRRS connector (it was $20 then, but now it's $25): https://www.ebay.com/itm/223304969187?ViewItem=&item=223304969187 Second, buy a balanced amp/DAC. I personally own a FiiO Q5 for mobile use and feed its line out into a Massdrop THX AAA 789 for home use. They both work great with Sennheiser headphones. The main goal here is to remove background noise -- I find Sennheiser drivers to be particularly sensitive to noise and the balanced cable does wonders.
G3n3r1cI agree a cable upgrade can improve the sound (and possibly shield better from EMI noise), but I’ll just add that many other factors can also introduce noise and need to be sorted first. I’m quite fond of the sound of my FiiO X7, which is basically like your Q5 plus a music player, but I’m not in love with the music player aspect, haha. The FiiO + am2a amp module isn’t noisy with my HD 6XX, but with IEMs I would probably prefer to get the low power amp module. I don’t have the THX AAA 789, but I have found the FiiO’s line-out to be great for feeding full-size desktop amps, and a THX engineering sample AAA amp I heard at a CanJam was stellar and low-noise/distortion as well! You’ve got a really great setup there!
(Edited)
G3n3r1c
216
Jan 7, 2019
EvshrugThanks. I chose the Q5 over a dedicated DAP because I hate getting stuck in yet another unstable (and often proprietary) file system and music player (e.g., X7). The Q5 does an amazing job on wireless too. Per my experience, a balanced amp/cable can completely transform headphones (HD-600s), greatly improve them (Focal Elex), or do nothing at all (Audeze LCD-2C). My take away is that drivers can do strange things with the background noise: Sennheiser generates hiss while Focal exaggerates dynamics and glare. Trial and error to determine the impact. Regarding the HD-600s:
  • On mobile I use the standard FiiO balanced out (module 3A) and it reveals about 98% of their potential. They tend to get fuzzy, plasticy, and lose dynamics once the other bottlenecks are gone.
  • Running the Q5 line-out (3.5mm TRS) into the 789 reveals 100% of the HD-600s potential. This amp is a very slight improvement over the Q5, as the HD-600s are pretty much tapped out. The 789 is still a big improvement for the Elex and HiFiMan HD-560s.
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