Assuming you have good headphones driven by a good amp you will certainly notice significant improvements with a much better DAC.
Do I need a headphone or speaker to appreciate high-end DACs?
This is a common opinion I hear on forums:
That to appreciate TOTL DACs you need a very resolving transducer.
My question is, to appreciate such quality, do I need speakers, or will headphones be enough?
Typical TOTL DACs i hear are from dcs, Chord, Mola Mola, Holo, Lampizator, MSB, Rockna, Weiss etc. To enjoy that level of fidelity, do I need speakers?
When I say "enjoy", I dont mean subjectively feeling good. I am asking about the differences being big enough to spot on in blind A/B testing, compared to say, a 200$ Schiit or JDS.
18 responses Add your response
@soix + 1 and with those kinds of DAC's, you'd want great headphones and a great headphone amp to get the greatest benefit. You might even notice the difference more with headphones since room acoustics are not an issue. There are many reasonably priced ones out there... |
I'm of the opinion there's more meaningful difference between DACs when compared on a good 2ch speaker system. With headphones, no matter how resolving, the differences in spatial information / presentation are far less meaningful when it's all being crammed into a headstage. The tonality and smoothness of a DAC are still quite important, of course - and this needs to be carefully matched to your chosen transducer - but there's generally "less" overall difference amongs DACs on headphones than with speakers. |
I concur with your opinion... I hate all headphones... Save the AKG K340 because i have a sounstage out of my head...
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K340 has a very nice headstage. Their unit-to-unit sound variation these days is quite horrible; sounds like you have one of the good pairs left out there. These have already exceeded the quoted lifespan of the electret driver; but if it sounds good now it probably will remain so for quite a while longer. Count yourself lucky! Very nice headphone, and we will never see anything like it again. There are a couple more exceptions that have an unusually large/nice headstage:
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I did not like so much the AKG K340 like all my others headphones when i bought them long ago... It takes me 6 modifications/optimizations on 6 months intensive listenings, but by God! this was worth it... I even read the patent of Dr. Gorike to understand their workings topology... they have a dual acoustic chamber ( with 5 passive tuned Helmholtz resonators like the many i designed myself for my Speakers/room )and they need the right pads then i throw off the thick protective grids over the driver which was there for security not for sound quality... They ask for special amplification too... i returned back the best tube amplifier for headphone the Berning ZOTL i bought for them after 15 minutes...they need an amplification which serve them so good was Berning design it did not work ... i stick with my perfect Sansui model alpha for them... Upgrade was a bad idea... they are extremely sensible to amplification... Anyway i will not resume my 35 pages of journey with them... When they are optimized there is NO COMPARISON between the out of their box state and their optimized state... All my others 10 headphones sound as trash for me compared to them...I only use the K240 sextett with my computer not for music even if it is very good headphone it does not compare at all to the K340, nor the 2 Stax i bought long ago... Which headphone gave a deep bass at 25 hertz with big organ you hear with your toes ? if the recording condition are good as often in classical soundstage is out of my head with natural timbre because of this hybrid use of the 2 cells with 5 helmholtz resonators tuned around them.. i glued 2 type of materials anti resonance and anti-vibration too inside &outside with great results... The use of the right pads are hugely important, their thickness and they way to absorb bass and mid bass ...I tried 5 kind...
The K340 is the only real hybrid made with a cross over done so well that the 2 cells work in the mid frequencies together ... it is not a super tweeter like the Dharma which is not a real hybrid... i am lucky indeed because i dislike headphone but i cannot afford costly speakers... But i will not recommend them to someone who dont know how to optimize them... With all their qualities i am pretty sure no other headphone beat them... By the way the RAAL at 10,000 dollars had no deep bass you can hear with your body (bone resonance) Mine costed me 100 bucks... Few years ago i spoke with a Kennerton representative and ask him why there is no replacement and improvement for the K340. He answer me frankly explaining to me that if we want to make a good profit it will be necessary to create an hybrid of this class to do intensive research and investment... The resulting profit margin will be too thin in the market compared to many other design... it is better and more profitable to stick with simpler design he said... Dr. Gorike was not a mere headphone designer or an engineer, but a real physicist specialized in acoustic, founder of AKG in the golden era where cost did not matter for a dreamer who wanted to created the best headphone as flgship.. it is evident when you read his patent for the K340... No Akg so original could it be replaced the K340 acoustics balance... The K701 i own is completely artificial compared to even the sextett...The K1000 has no deep bass at all ...
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Any headphone must give a natural timbre first... Then it must gave not details but musical balance where no parts is perceived out of balance from the whole... i am afraid of the word "revealing" for speakers as well as for headphones... I prefer natural ( well balanced ratio between frequencies) and holographic ( 3-D spatial perception). My K340 is not revealing it translate well any recording in timbre and holography with perfect bass impact... But we are all different... To each his own for sure...
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Right! But i dislike all headphones and it is a miracle that i stumble on one almost perfect but after 6 months of studying how to optimize it right... There is no easy road without study and experiments in audio... or pay a fortune and buy a bad one million bucks system in some case... But who will dare to say that a million bucks system is bad?
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Your first response is spot-on and exactly the right advice. Many DACs (other gear for that matter) can present well/similarly but only the better ones can offer greater soundstage depth and spacial cues. Utilizing headphones only gets you the sound signature but does nothing to demonstrate the aforementioned attributes, which for me are equally as important! |
@boostedis the other attributes for the most part can be obtained by the RAAL SR1a earphones. That is why some people have sold their speakers and went just with the RAALs. I know 2 people who sold their Magico speakers and went with the simpler phones. This was about 4 years ago and do not know if they are still speaker-less. |
Thank you all for for the responses, it was helpful. @mulveling Yeah, that is the general opinion I am seeing everywhere. That while headphones are enough, speakers are better. |
