I am currently using a IFI ZEN DAC to power my HIFIman Sundara i have it plugged up via a custom hart audio cables 4.4 pentaconn connection plugged into the balanced output on the zen dac. I am just trying to get the best out of these headphones as i can. Would i be better off with staying with my zen dac or getting a schiit stack or atom stack with non balanced output?? willing to spend 350$ to get the most out of my headphones thanks for reading
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welcome to HFG!
the Zen DAC is my daily driver for my Nighthawk Carbon’s, also on the balanced output. they’re awesome!
that said, audio is a journey, so if you want to try something else for the sake of something else, go for it. however, I would say try other headphones first as the Zen DAC is well regarded. perhaps buy the optional power supply, like I did.
thanks its good to be here, and yes audio is a journey I started out with a pair of sennheiser 598hd SE with a schiit fulla 3 then moved on to my current setup the Sundara with IFI ZEN DAC
Now i only bought the ZEN DAC after watching the video review by zreviews and considering it was better than the fulla 3 and the fact that it was a AMP and DAC in one unit.
I did not actually think about buying the power supply as it was able to just to run off PC power thanks for your input.
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hey just wanted to give you an update i bought the 5v power brick in december and as of writing this today my zen dac appears to be broken.
when i plug my head phones into the balanced or unbalanced port i get crazy loud noises constantly i thought it was my cable tried another one and still did same thing, thought it might be my headphones so tried another pair and still same problem i even tried running the unit off of usb like i did before and still the same sound problem…
i’m not sure what happened but i think my unit is dead for output audio.
did you disconnect the power and see what happened when just hooked up via USB?
that was the last thing i did; i thought it was cable at first so i replaced it with another and still got the noises. Then i thought it might be my headphones going bad so i tried with a different pair and still the same noise then of course as a last result i unplugged the power source and tried just usb like i was using before and still the same noises.
i put in a support ticket with ifi so we will see what happens.