The spark has about equal if not a little less than the magni but sounds cleaner and has less grain.
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Well the Topping D10 and Liquid Spark arrived open the boxes and…no RCA’s. I was going to head by Best Buy to try and find a set; is there anything I should be looking out for when shopping for RCA’s to connect my DAC to the Amp?
Don’t buy overpriced rca’s, make sure it’s under 6ft or less (preferably 3ft tbh for an interconnect), and make sure they seem decent quality
Not sure if it has been said. But the New Schiit Fulla and Schiit Hel are decent DAC/Headphone Amp combos and they also have a mic input. Also cheaper than the ARC, $99 and $189 respectively.
Uh oh. Do you think a 15 foot RCA cable for a sub is a bad idea? Should I bring it down to 6ft?
I think you shouldn’t go over 10ft if you don’t have to tbh, but you can go 15 if you need to. Just the shorter the better, but if you don’t have any options 15 ft is fine for a sub if it’s a decent quality cable
It’s the Amazon’s Basics RCA Cable. The one included with the sub was also 15 ft so I just matched it. Do you think I should bring it down to 10 feet?
If you can then I would recommend it. But you should be fine for the most part tbh, I would only spend for the shorter cable if you actually notice a decrease in performance/quality
Also amazon basics cables are very nice for the money so that’s not a problem
Unless you can hear a humming noise or similar I wouldn’t worry about it.
Longer cables are more prone to interference, and shorter cables are preferable for that reason, but if your not having an issue I wouldn’t change it.
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Checked Best Buy’s site and they’re super overpriced (big surprise) compared to Monoprice. I found on Monoprice a 1.5’ set 1.5’ Premium 2 RCA/2 RCA Cable that appears highly reviewed and very affordable. I will be ordering these unless someone advises otherwise. Also, I will be picking up set of Phillips RCA’s at Target for $2.99 Target cablebecause I can’t wait another 3-4 days for the better quality cable. The $2.99 will be gladly sacrificed so I can listen to these headphones as they were intended until the better cable arrives.
Also, so far I have tried the 4xx’s without an amp and found my computer can actually drive them with the volume at least 1/2 to 3/4 up with some content being too loud maxed out. I’ve read that with the extra juice they should sound different in some way at different frequencies, but already its an interesting experience coming from listening exclusively to closed back headphones my whole life. Another thing I’ve found with the 4xx’s is that they either run big or I have a small head. I’m 6’2" and would consider myself to have a pretty proportional head, however, the pads of the 4xx’s rest right on the top of my ears (at their tightest setting). It’s not bothersome yet, but I am pretty much always aware that they are resting on my ears. Maybe a headband pad might give me enough buffer on top of my head to lift them to a normal ride height. Thoughts?
@nyj585
I asked about the Hel after I watched the Valour review of it, but ultimately decided to go with a dedicated dac/amp for three reasons. #1, I did this in part because it seemed the path of least resistance for trying out tubes in the future. #2, the extra 0.3 juice the liquid spark provided over the Hel could provide a bit of future-proofing. Finally #3, because I use my mic a lot for social gaming (primarily mmo’s/raiding/etc) and I now have more than one headset. I would need something like the Scarlet/Hel/Arc for the mic in, however, the Modmics with cables had to be uncoupled from the headphone cables every time I wanted to swap cans. Instead I opted for the Modmic Wireless which eliminates the need for that port, which opened up other options and eliminated all tedious decoupling. At the sale price the wireless unit was/is $99 which, to me, the premium was worth the freedom. Thank you for the suggestion though, I was super interested in that.
I think the hel is alright personally but I think a liquid spark/atom and a proper dac outperform it imo. And if you wanted an integrated, I think the fiio k5 pro also is higher preforming. I really would only suggest a hel if you want the super sleek form factor and that mic input. Otherwise I would suggest a liquid spark or atom along with a focusrite scarlett solo and use that as the dac and the mic in. That way you get a better mic in and a better headphone sound for like 10 bucks more
Thank you, already opened the modmic so going to stick with this for awhile. I don’t stream or create content so having the absolute best quality mic isn’t as dealbreaker.
I will say, however, that while the liquid spark volume knob and materials in general feel high quality, it’s shape is problematic. I can’t find an aesthetically pleasing way to stack these two units and they may end up just sitting next to each other taking up space.
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Yeah, just noting my opinion on the hel, the modmic wireless seems much more convenient anyway 
How are you liking the 4xx and the spark so far?
Also you could just hide the topping behind something if you wanted to, as there really isn’t anything you need to interact with
Makes sense. I haven’t been able to try the amp yet because of the lack of RCA’s. The included cables were limited to power cables, so nothing to connect to the PC in the amp box , just the power cable/brick, and only the USB cable and power cable included with the DAC. I wanted the full experience so I am on my way now to target for a cheap RCA cable. I won’t be using it long term though, just until the 1.5’ monoprice unit comes in. Did that cable look fine?
Yeah, it looks like it will work just fine
yeah it’s wonky I don’t stack my LS and d10 either
Just got home and have it all hooked up. Put on Tsar B - Escalate and definitely can tell the difference. What a difference from my cheap gaming headset! Going to now binge on different content/genres of music lol. Thanks again everyone for the suggestions and guidance!
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what headphone are you trying out first the 4xx or 58x? just curios
Trying out the 4xx first. Going to try and get some miles on the 4xx before opening up the 58x. To be honest, I am enjoying these so much I may just gift the 58x to my brother who plays competitive FPS’s and is using a $12 headset. I haven’t found a Christmas gift for him yet and it might be a good option as they were described as being very good for competitive FPS and do double duty for music listening which is how he uses his headsets.
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