timiambeing
New Head-Fier
- Joined
- Feb 12, 2013
- Posts
- 42
- Likes
- 75
HI - I currently have a budget to lower mid-range set-up and find myself with around £600-800 to splash out on an incremental upgrade to hopefully up the SQ a notch or two. My current set-up is:
Raspberry Pi 4/Allo DigiOne HAT running coax spdif → Soncoz la-qxd1 DAC → SPL Phonitor One headphone amp → Sennheiser HD600’s
Music listening on my headfi gear is exclusively classical, mostly symphonies - Mahler, Sibelius - I like big dramatic music!
Opinions seem to vary as to where the best use of resources should be put, either streamer, DAC or Amp?
I have played with straight out of the Pi USB compared to the Allo DigiOne HAT and to be completely honest if there is a difference its tiny. I tend to think the Allo DigiOne copes better when other issues might ‘harden’ the sound - maybe mains noise or whatever - let’s say it is more consistently enjoyable than the USB out. I have a Lumin U1 Mini in the main speaker system and I am pretty much sure that was a massive overkill - but it looks great, is similar £££ to the DAC and Amp so I’m not even trying the Pi4 back in that chain!! :O)
As far as the amplification goes, I must say I do love the SPL gear. I ended up with the Phonitor One after the review of the ‘D’ version on the Headphone Show and auditioning the Rupert Neve (it was absolutely awful in my system the HD600’s sounded brash and unlistenable). The rest of the SPL range is too big a leap right now, but I have my eye in the big one with meters!
The Soncoz DAC has good reviews and seems pretty clean and crisp, lots of detail, although somewhere along the way I’m getting some occasional glare in the treble area, which I am particularly sensitive to when at volume. If we are nit picking also the amp is way too powerful for my Senns, I have to drop -10dB in Roon headroom to get the volume knob to 9 o’clock. They have since added a -10dB switch on the rear to newer models, but too be honest I would need -20dB plus to get me to the 12 o’clock recommended position! Maybe a harder to drive more esoteric type of headphone could give me an upgrade in detail and be a little bit more exciting than the Senns, and solve that issue as well?
I haven’t until now considered changing the headphones as the HD 600’s are continually advised for classical music listening, which totally confuses me - as why then would you pay thousands for all those amazing headphones out there? Advice from you guys would be great about that!
So there you are… many thanks in advance for all options, all gratefully received! Bear in mind I am a Brit in the UK, so Schiit is a no go, it’s too expensive to import and the European distributor is always out of stock.
Anyway I’m waffling and limiting the input, just bring me up a notch or two in this terrifically fun hobby and like I say all opinions welcome!
Edit: The Soncoz/SPL link is fully balanced and this does make quite a noticeable difference, so any new DAC or amp would need to take this into consideration…
Oh and I’m tubes and R2R DAC in the main system, which needs 20mins at least to come on song so I usually leave the DAC on, whereas my headfi gear is trundled from room to room and plugged in as needed and can’t be left on 24/7 - that may not be an issue?
Raspberry Pi 4/Allo DigiOne HAT running coax spdif → Soncoz la-qxd1 DAC → SPL Phonitor One headphone amp → Sennheiser HD600’s
Music listening on my headfi gear is exclusively classical, mostly symphonies - Mahler, Sibelius - I like big dramatic music!
Opinions seem to vary as to where the best use of resources should be put, either streamer, DAC or Amp?
I have played with straight out of the Pi USB compared to the Allo DigiOne HAT and to be completely honest if there is a difference its tiny. I tend to think the Allo DigiOne copes better when other issues might ‘harden’ the sound - maybe mains noise or whatever - let’s say it is more consistently enjoyable than the USB out. I have a Lumin U1 Mini in the main speaker system and I am pretty much sure that was a massive overkill - but it looks great, is similar £££ to the DAC and Amp so I’m not even trying the Pi4 back in that chain!! :O)
As far as the amplification goes, I must say I do love the SPL gear. I ended up with the Phonitor One after the review of the ‘D’ version on the Headphone Show and auditioning the Rupert Neve (it was absolutely awful in my system the HD600’s sounded brash and unlistenable). The rest of the SPL range is too big a leap right now, but I have my eye in the big one with meters!
The Soncoz DAC has good reviews and seems pretty clean and crisp, lots of detail, although somewhere along the way I’m getting some occasional glare in the treble area, which I am particularly sensitive to when at volume. If we are nit picking also the amp is way too powerful for my Senns, I have to drop -10dB in Roon headroom to get the volume knob to 9 o’clock. They have since added a -10dB switch on the rear to newer models, but too be honest I would need -20dB plus to get me to the 12 o’clock recommended position! Maybe a harder to drive more esoteric type of headphone could give me an upgrade in detail and be a little bit more exciting than the Senns, and solve that issue as well?
I haven’t until now considered changing the headphones as the HD 600’s are continually advised for classical music listening, which totally confuses me - as why then would you pay thousands for all those amazing headphones out there? Advice from you guys would be great about that!
So there you are… many thanks in advance for all options, all gratefully received! Bear in mind I am a Brit in the UK, so Schiit is a no go, it’s too expensive to import and the European distributor is always out of stock.
Anyway I’m waffling and limiting the input, just bring me up a notch or two in this terrifically fun hobby and like I say all opinions welcome!
Edit: The Soncoz/SPL link is fully balanced and this does make quite a noticeable difference, so any new DAC or amp would need to take this into consideration…
Oh and I’m tubes and R2R DAC in the main system, which needs 20mins at least to come on song so I usually leave the DAC on, whereas my headfi gear is trundled from room to room and plugged in as needed and can’t be left on 24/7 - that may not be an issue?
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