Nerd
I feel seen lol. I will admit that I kinda had to swallow my pride once I realized that I have a portable “stack”, but I only really use it in hotel rooms or on long flights so I don’t feel bad. It’s also mostly for driving Symphonium IEMs and STORM (and yes, Rikubuds), so yeah, “abandon all pretense, ye who enters…”
haha yeah, DAPs are definitely useful if you are traveling a lot so you do not use up the battery in your phone. But personally just a tws adapter is enough for my outdoor needs, that convenience is unbeatable.
Combine the tws adapter with my own music server and I can walk around with a few TBs worth of music if needed. 
(my library is only around 600gb though)
I appreciate the input brother. I would love to try it out and see if I can tell the difference and hopefully if I don’t at least I would put an end to overthinking.
At one point I was looking at the new Ibasso dx180 and saw that a DAC they sell (DC elite) was only 50 bucks cheaper. I never looked at specs tho to see why.
I also feel somewhat foolish a bit because I would go on YouTube and try to hear sound comparisons on iems… Some people would compare two at a time and I couldn’t tell the difference and was always confused by this
Damn it! I am running pretty low on space in my phone, but do you require some type of connection to listen to your music? Sorry if this is a silly question, but was curious because some of us at times have no service
The ISN H60 is a $350 hybrid IEM with dual 8mm dynamic drivers (face-to-face) for lows, two Sonion BAs for mids, and two Knowles BAs for highs. It has an impedance of 18 ohms and sensitivity of 112 dB/mW at 1kHz. These are my impressions after a few days listening. Thanks to AudioGeek and the EU tour group for sending these along!
I like that ISN took a chance on the tuning here, to good effect. The mids are the star of the show, forward and complemented by nice mid-bass with good thump. The physicality of the mid-bass is really good, while still keeping the bass clean and definied. The presentation tends toward the intimate side, with good instrument separation despite not feeling as spacious as something like the TSMR Shock or Ziigaat Estrella. Vocals have a slightly dark/warm/husky character that I got used to pretty quickly, though the I found the mids-forward signature could get a bit fatiguing during longer sessions. While not particularly bright, there’s a touch of shout in the upper mids and the treble isn’t especially sparkly or airy. However, I’m sensitive to shout, so YMMV. I found the tuning worked well for acoustic/classic-rock type music, but lacked the sub-bass grunt that I look for when listening to hip-hop, pop, and electronic music. Besides missing that bass extension, the bass on this set is great.
Coming from the TSMR Shock and X, the H60 offers a different take on vocal presentation. While the Shock excels in vocal separation, and the X takes a more laid-back approach with thinner male vocals and more sub-bass focus, the H60 brings a warmer, more intimate vocal character.
At this sensitivity, they’re very easy to drive. However, this also meant I could clearly hear the noise floor when listening directly from my iPod 5th gen, though this wasn’t an issue with the Topping G5 or Qudelix 5k. I found my usual Moondrop Springtips (M and S) and Penon Liqueur Black (S) worked well.
The fit was unfortunately a dealbreaker for me. The wide (7mm) nozzles made them uncomfortable after short listening sessions, and I couldn’t manage more than about an hour at a time. The shell also created hot spots where it rested on my concha - though this is highly personal.
If you’re looking for a mids-centric set complimented with very well executed bass (with a focus on the mid-bass, rather than sub-bass), this is definitely a good set to consider.
Also, dont spend more on your sources than your actual transducer…
I have a big post about the server here.
You just need to have mobile data or I guess using public wifi also works if you dont have mobile data. And then using for example Tailscale will allow you to access your NAS from anywhere in the world even if the NAS is not open to the internet (no ports open on it), can also use a VPN on the NAS but that is much more complicated and I believe needs one port open so less secure.
Do note that in that post I wrote I did not have nor knew about tailscale so I just use the cache download function there. I am likely going to buy myself an Orange Pi to use as my VPN (PiVPN) (Along with DNS and some other stuff to offload from my actual NAS) so I can have it on another device for an additional security layer.
Am I totally wrong in understand how DACs work, then? I’ve recently come to understand that DACs do output power, just not to the levels needed for transducers to present sound properly.
I assume that you’re talking about the voltage of the output signal (i.e. 2v, 2.5v, 4.0v, 5.0v). That’s not really what we mean by output power, as in to drive a transducer (headphone or speaker) but rather the strength of what is to be amplified by the amplifier. It’s true that a higher output voltage will make an amplified signal louder by comparison (i.e. you are multiplying watts by 2 vs watts by 4) but it doesn’t actually affect the amplifiers ability to provide current afaik.
Understood, I’ll see my self out now! ha
Noooo. Don’t go dom!! You help and know your stuff
Will you make squig.dac.amp
You have ASR for that and RAA and L7
There are times where I like helping, and then there are times like this where I am simply not knowledgeable at all when it comes to the electrical components and voltage and wattage and yada yada. I’ll leave that technical stuff to the boys that know what they’re talking about!
I just trust my ears and call it a day typically, this time I stepped out of that spot and got swiftly corrected, heh (which I appreciate the clarification).
It’s all good, and we all learn every day! No shame in the game, my dude!
Element 3 would be my buy one thing and walk away device. No volume control issues at low volume due to not having an analog pot when using iems, incredible preamp control that is button triggered and not socket triggered and just good enough all around to do everything to a good level and get on to enjoying the music.
As a current EL Amp2 owner, i’d buy it just for the volume control if they ever released in that form.
funny these get mentioned again, I saw the cases linked below and they’re cheaper and the same size as the GLCON I’ve been using but with a different mesh setup although after getting them i prefer the GLCON mesh setup.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07RKW4FC8?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title&th=1
Looks to be a little smaller inside (2 x 3.9" vs 3 x 6.16") but more choices are always great, especially if they’re cheaper!
Edit: Here’s a size comparison between the GLCON I use for IEMs vs the one I use for my DAC & amp:
@givemebeer Those XINHS and ivipQ cases are great but way too big for my pockets haha; I use those for cable and tip storage most of the time. My preferred buds cases are actually the tiny zippered KBEar ones (fits ~3 pairs of buds or buds & foams very well in a compact package):
pretty much, they lend themselves better to something more compact like buds and tossing a dongle in the other pocket for on the go use. The funny bit is I actually use the GLCON cases of the same size as this and not the larger one.
Its all Xinhs cases from cable orders for the sets that go in larger cases
Trump or Obama?
HFGF or Reddit? 
Apologies for the post as while I completely agree with the sentiment of what you have said - DAC if competent won’t make a difference so stick with one and better to put the money elsewhere, I would prefer to clear up some statements made as this was asked by an OP who wanted to understand this area in more detail.
@domq422 - hope this helps.
DACs do push ouput voltage which in turn pushes power. Many studio DACs allow for higher voltage delivery which in turn powers amps differently. You would need to understand the amp sensitivity to understand how that additional voltage can affect clipping levels and so how the DAC volume would need to be set - which would then affect DR. So yeah you cannot boost the amp past power spec but you can decide how it will function. The way audiophiles talk about DACs being powerful I agree is complete bullshit but there is a reason that line of thinking, along with the idea of synergy developed and it is routed in a reality that gets a lot of studio use just not one really applicable to home use. Doesn’t help people on Head-fi/FB/Reddit constantly referring to dongles by their DACs and thinking the differences are down to chip instead of implementation or amp.
That tuning happens way past 20khz so if you already think that the spec wars was superfluous in pushing for further clean and neutral devices then the idea that a DAC chip change would colour the sound in any meaningful audible way would not align as you would need devices transparent to those levels to be able to detect that (not to mention those accounts of golden ears which I always find novel in their mental gymnastics to deflect to testing - Goldensound & PassionforSound being amusing public examples). Archimago covered a lot of this, if you want to check it out.
Power does not nessitate THD or noise or a coloured output. These are all separate qualities that depend on components and implementation. The pushing of balanced to the lower tier consumer space helped reduce noise and has become a possibility due to the spec wars. Using negative feedback loops (which general use came out of the spec wars) helped deal with THD issues. Lowering output impedance (which general use came out of the spec wars) helped have a potential for low impedance, easy to drive IEMs that made the portable experience much more enjoyable without the sound being unpredictable. Actually having additional headroom is one of the things that prevents noise and THD as you can use gain in a more effective manner. You only have to look at US based Schitt products before the ASR exposure of the inadequacy of their devices and how they acknowledged this and changed - from build to components to actual implementation. The ESS hump implementation being for so long ignored by major western manufacturers when there was a known fix is another good example of this. So is the calling out of the traditional and high end pro market US/EU players in this space that spoke absolute bullshit (PS Audio or TotalDac for example) or suddenly had to change their chips in their devices as they were selling decades old DAC chips for $0000s (Weiss being a good example here).
While the current landscape is convoluted, and especially where DACs are concerned, played out - Topping/SMSL revolutionised home/portable audio giving us real price to performance and component transparency (same could not be said for QC tho - and that is the reason these devices do not reach the studio as they do not come with the same warranties and ease of customer service - be it in communication or return logistics / saying that - neither Schitt or JDS products make that grade also). Sad to see their role being general diminished in audiophile circles without a full understanding of the tech or history.
