I connected them all to my machine to test them in a 3 day period before making my decision. The D10 was one of my friends, who loves Topping. Even he notices the jitter. It sounds really good overall. It’s just their are better in the price range. I would do the Khadas over the D10, even with the ESS Hump.
Note: These are minute differences. I probably wouldn’t bother upgrading if I had a D10.
Yeah, huh, I wonder if you had a unit with strong issues then, because I didn’t notice jitter. I did notice it when comparing to a smsl su-8 (very slight difference in jitter besides the improved sound quality), but with normal usage I don’t think most people would notice it.
yeah that is most what everyone suggested first, go get some decent cans first if you want to have the headstart and of course the most important of all as well. I already got a new set of cans though after my previous one broke.
So far the only options that I can access here in my country are the Fiio K1, Fiio A3, and Topping D10. I am not so sure about the Khadas Tone Board since I am not really familiar about their products, also the added fact that some of these sellers of theses DACs are just outright few or even non existent in my country.
So you wouldn’t be able to consider a k5 pro or jds atom or monolith liquid spark? That’s unfortunate. The k3 is good, but for 50 usd more, the k5 pro is a fair bit better.
Is the fiio q1 mk2 available where you live? its a pretty nice unit that is a portable you could use on a desk or on the go
Edit: the Topping A30 is also a nice amp that you could pair with the d10
I am from the Philippines and the mostly available products that we can get here are Shure, Behringer, JBL, Audio Technica, Sennheiser and Sony. Though I can get some through delivery from overseas but there are some even though I can do it from overseas, some of the items you have mentioned are not available yet for delivery, though I guess I could try the 2nd hand market I mean there are times you can find the one that you are looking for.
Yeah, unfortunately none of those brands really have a good budget headphone amp offering.
The 2nd hand market could yield some deals, but there is no way to really tell
Also the fact that it can be a risky deal as well, sometimes it can be like a 50/50 that you’re getting something that is overall working or just complete crap.
Also true, you may have to just wait and see what you can get. I potential option that might be available to you are the Sony walkman NW-A45/B or NW-A55, but they won’t be as powerful as the other options, and might be pricey, so that would preferably be an option if you can’t get ahold of some of the aforementioned options
I will keep that in mind and thanks but so far the Fiios I have mentioned are a bit possible to get, but feel free to provide more suggestions once you guys are like able to find something that can be accessible everywhere not just to my country.
Fiio is still rolling out their international launch for the K5 Pro. I would avoid the other Fiio products. Out of what you mentioned I would get the D10.
Huh, can anybody actually hear the ESS hump?
I am not familiar with Khadas so I cannot say for sure, but so far Topping is at least available to me overseas, but it is going to be a bit pricey for my budget atm. I guess all I can do for now is save up for the mean time or I could wait for some sales going on in order to get a better deal.
Yes. It is noticable with some dac implementations
check out ebay, people sell off their entry and mid level dacs all the time whenever they decide to upgrade or try something different there is always deals on audio gear on ebay. you just have to keep checking in because the good deals don’t last long before others will buy them
Dragonfly black. My first DAC. Easy money.
Damn I look up Audioquest’s Dragonfly and yeah products from them are available here but they are expensive for me atm. Dragonfly Black here costs like $112, while the other one that I might consider, the Dragonfly Red is even more expensive here, which costs $250 hell there is even one here that is even more pricey that costs $420. …yep this hobby is an expensive one.
Well, I am not so sure if we even have eBay here in our country and it can hard for me when you’re living on the rest of the world when you do not have the access on things like the others can, and of course shipping from an another country that is far away can get expensive as well.
For cheaper… FX-Audio DAC-X6?
Also… my 24bit/192khz DAC + 100w per channel 5.1 speaker amp + headphone amp right now is a 500$ Denon AVR-1312 made like 10 years ago… I got it used on eBay for 100$. AVRs are like smartphones: Everytime a new one arrives, the one before is 50% cheaper.
Obviously don’t buy stuff made in the 90’s if you want quality and if you don’t want to hear hiss… but still. You can get a lot of stuff for cheap now. If you prefer little DACs and headphone amps, look for used FiiO, used SMSL, etc!
yeah Fiio is more available for me to get, SMSL however are limited because not all of their products are available here and some are not available for shipping overseas. So far Fiio is the only option I got though FX-AUDIO, I might give that one a try.