What dac options would recommend to pair with the rnhp new or used at 350 and less?
Most likely a smsl su8, enog 2 pro, the smsl m300 mkii looks pretty sweet
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I haven’t heard much about the smsl 300, how does it compare to the others, also I know these are an unbalanced dac, but what about the artist r2r, El Dac II, and Aune X8?
So the airist r2r is a solid r2r pick, a good entry into r2r if you wanted to try something different. The el dac ii is pretty sweet and is a great unbalanced dac. The aune x8 is good but nothing special to me personally.
The m300 mk2 is new and I haven’t heard it yet so I can’t quite comment on it yet
I like the Airist R-2R especially for the wonderful things it does to the bass and details. However, for the current issues I’m hearing about with Elex I would suggest against the Airist R-2R for this particular case. I would totally recommend a Topping D50(s?) or SMSL M300. SMSL-SU8 should be fine as well because I’ll be completely honest here, any DAC you get will be temporary. The SMSL-SU8 has some filters that may help simulate what you may want in your sound better than som other options. The RNHP + Bifrost 2 is an unholy combination that just seems to impress me.
I have not tried out the RNHP with the Airist since it will be on lone for some time as someone is building a new speaker set from scratch (Martin Logans) and has never heard an R-2R DAC. I’ll report on that later this summer when my gear is all at home and ready for testing. I have tested a Schiit Fulla 3 DAC output with the RNHP and it’s more enjoyable than it was with my Schiit Heresy (should sound identical to the Atom) or THX 887. The Fulla 3 should be identical to the Modi 3.
My introduction to hifi was a long, but exponential one. There are other audio purchases in between, but there are the important ones that lead me to this point. It goes something like this.
- 2004: Needed new earbuds that didn’t fall off my ear. Hear about these IEM things that musicians use. Bought the Shure 210. This was the first time I’ve heard so much difference in sound, and from then on, I could not go back to cheap audio gear.
- 2009: Realised I couldn’t play games in IEMs forever no matter how good they sounded. Bought a Logitech G35, with it’s virtual surround sound. Whether it was placebo or true, I liked how well it was for gaming, but more importantly, I actually didn’t like how it made music sound, so I always turned it off when listening to music.
- 2013: The Logitech G35 was already wearing down. Not knowing that they sold replacement pads, I previously glued fabric to the pads to get rid of the icky peeling pleather. I needed something more for gaming, then I happened onto the Audiotechnical A700X. I bought it because people said it was great for both music and gaming. I didn’t care about bass back then, but words like detail and imaging stuck out for me. Until today I feel it’s one of the best headphones I’ve ever worn. I still have it. In fact, it’s been modded to have a 3.5mm detachable cable.
- 2017: I felt like there could be more with the A700X, and it had been years. So on a whim, I bought the Massdrop x Fostex T-X0. I didn’t know much about Fostex, so I did a lot of research, learning about it’s original T50RP lineage. This was also the same time, I found Z Reviews. This was the point of no return. During this year I also bought the O2 amp, and eventually the Grace SDAC in order to try and power the T-X0. I liked the headphones, but because I had no great reference before hand, I didn’t understand what muddy bass was. I just felt that it sounded wider and less detailed then the A700X
- 2018: Zeos gave the T-X0 a shitty review, so I converted them to Argons. Also learned that T50RP’s and their mods needed power. So I bought the Aune X7S. Also bought Hifiman HE4XX and the AKGK7XX during this time too, obviously thanks to the Zeos effect. Not content with the X7S powering my Argons, and because shipping a Emotiva BasX to Australia is balls expensive, I settled for a Audio-Gd NFB 11.32 for cheap. Except that it wasn’t an NFB 11.32 but an NFB 12.1. I settled for it because it still gave 1.8W at 32ohm, single ended, which i was fine with driving my Argons. That was quickly superseded by the THX AAA 789, which I purchased on Christmas Eve right after Zeo’s review.
From there it’s down the rabbit hole of headphone/IEM purchases (and sales) and trying to understand what kind of sound signature I want. I settled between either V-shaped and neutral. I’m not a rich person, so everything has been limited to under $500 AUD (bout $300+ USD). I also do a lot modding (specifically Koss stuff) and I’ve written a how-to here in the forums on modding the KPH30i. This is my current gear so far that I’m comfortable with, but who knows what I might get later on.
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If you have a balanced amp with balanced inputs, will getting unbalanced dacs vs balanced dacs of a similar price result in similar performance or will balanced dacs perform better than unbalanced dacs?
bruh put these pics in the endgame snapshot thread really sweet stuff. it’s like, bruh it’s 2016 yeah
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So it depends, but typically devices with balanced in will benefit from a balanced device moreso than the unbalanced in
I have a SU8 Paired with it and it sounds great. Sometimes you can find the SU8 on sale for 185$. I got mine for that much off Drop
Ok i got a few questions for you sir. The T-X0, how was it different from the t50rp? How did you like it after it got converted into the Argons?
In the picture of the amps what is that box on the lower left hand corner?
In the picture of the headphones what audio technica headphone on the far left is that?
I see you have the Verum One’s! how do you like it?
I definitely liked it better. It was more detailed. The low end cleared up, but it wasn’t until I recently put it on the TA-20 with Mullards that it’s really starting to shine.
Little Bear MC3 3x3 XLR/RCA switcher
Far left or right? The headphone on the far left are the Sivga 006. The one on the right is the A700X modified to 3.5mm detachable, and leather headstrap from the T-X0.
It’s good, but it needs a clean amp and plenty of power to run. It’s a little on the bright side, and just wide enough that the detail doesn’t become fatiguing. Was my main for a while before I got the HE5SE.
I think what I would be looking for in the future is something with more sound stage, more forward mids, more slam, and about the same or slightly warmer signature. I don’t really know the audible difference in details yet, so no idea what I would look for in that quality.
Maybe you should look into the bassy wood cup headphones? The Fostex-EMU-Denon’s They are similar but the Fostex are more fun/existing the Denons are more natural neutral and the EMU’s are in between from what i hear. The Drop made Fostex’s. the TR-X00/TH-X00 are no longer sold and you’d have to find them used.
The Massdrop TR-X00/TH-X00 are in order of bassyness: the Ebony, Mahogany and Purple heart. Theres also the 610. The Denons are the AH-D5200, AH-D7200 and AH-D9200. And the EMU’s are just 1 model.
Or the Audeze headphones might also be good for you. The LCD 2’s
@M0N Would you say for headphones that have too tight of a clamp force you can always, usually, sometimes, or almost never safely stretch it out to reduce it to a comfortable amount?
It really depends on the headphone. With the focals more use will wear them in more but I wouldn’t suggest stretching them whatsoever. With sennheisers you can stretch them and bend the metal on the headband slider to reduce clamp. With hifiman you can bend the older style headband (older comfort strap style on the he400i) to reduce clamp, but not on the new style. So it really just depends
I personally think it a higher tier setup for listening imo, the rnhp is a fair bit better amp than the adi2 fs imo. The adi2 is a solid dac but for actual listening I really prefer the bifrost 2
If you go with Audeze LCD 2’s, X, or the 3 I think this setup is the best signal chain you could ask for.
@M0N Ok, I just realized plugging my headphones into my laptop for the first time since I have a 4 pin xlr to 3.5m adapter now, that it says “Which device did you plug in? Headphone, Speaker Out, S/PDIF-Out” so I guess maybe I could use the enog2 pro after all.