It's a very good volume knob and I'm glad I have it

And some times that all you need

That is why I got a Fiio e10k and I don't regret it. Knobs rule (plus better bass due to low impedance output).

jokes on you its a schitt so its only $100 and its got a scratchy pot so yeah!

I literally just bought a topping l30 II, with the sole purpose off controlling the volume with a cool ass knob

Kinda the same with audio interfaces

HEY! I also got pre-amp function, various headphone outputs, balanced input/outputs, AND A SHINY VOLUME KNOB TO TOP IT ALL OFF.

it also comes with built in lottery, with a bit of luck you get a free headphones-firework

Schiit, they do that?

yeah, you sometimes see people post about it, they get really excited when it happens

The low noise floor is noticable as well, but to be fair you also get that on cheaper amps.

A cheap 50 dollar amp for my planars is what convinced me to get more into this hobby. I for sure heard a big difference

Then using a 100 usd tube amp changed things dramatically again. It warms up the sound to a huge degree. I bought the biggest tube with the most harmonic distortion on Amazon. It's very pleasant to listen to

Today, I'm going to test the 125 usd Schiit amp with my pure BA iems that i dont necessarily want to sound warm... if I ordered the right cable adapter. Hopefully the pairing is good, I'm expecting big things

Sole* purpose

That is until you buy yourself something like HE6SEv2

JDS Labs EL AMP II for The best knob.

Thanks man, I've always thought that it was soul purpose as in the main thing in a living creature thus Soul purpose would mean main purpose haha, cheers :)

That would be cool too honestly ahah

that feeling

Yeah that one is pretty, and I bet it feels great

The whole amps don’t make a difference thing is one of the dumbest large takes i’ve heard in a long time. Can’t believe this view point is semi popular

Until you try to run your 600ohm 93db/mw cans through a PC output and have it set to 75%to be at listenable volumes with destroyed detail

Most modern solid state amps don’t make much of an audible diffrence to most headphones. As long as you have enough volume headroom and the distortion is under audible levels (which almost all amps are, unless they are meant to distort), most solid state amps are going to sound the same.

Basically they 100% make a diffrence, but those diffrences are usually so small, they don’t matter to the normal person with normal ears

highly disagree having tried multiple different solid state amplifiers. A lot of them sound similar but most of them have discernible differences. I think it’s more of the headphone benefiting from more power or current rather than the actual sound of the amplifier. But to say there is no difference just means you haven’t tried multiple amps in multiple price points on headphones that scale well. A perfect example of amps making a difference are on the hifiman susvara. When I tried susvara for the first time I heard it on dcs lina. I thought it sounded like dogshit. Later that day I tried it on a benchmark hpa4 and I was blown away. To this day it’s still the best sounding thing i’ve heard. Amps make a difference more at the mid to high end. From seeing peoples profiles it seems most people who say this only own one or two cheap amplifiers or are fairly new to the headphone space.

e10k output not as clean as apple dongle but it has headphone out, line out, and a volume knob so can't complain.

did you test them blind?

no I was just like ooo this one looks cool. Most of the time It’s like ehh not much difference from zen can but sometimes there would be a really big difference like when I tried hpa4, nautilus, and iha6.

maybe it's just an IEmagni thing but I've never experienced the scratchiness or crackling everyone talks about.

Wish my volume knob was only $300

Yeah, but my knob is bigger than your knob

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i got a 2nd hand amp so it came like that for me

It also makes a cool clicking sound when I turn it on and off.

Yknow, I actually did just that. I saw them on sale for 69% off and thought to myself "nice". Actually I'd always wanted a pair of og he6's and the idea of owning a pair or something of similar power hungriness in the future was one of the reasons I ended up with a Schiit Jotunheim. Perhaps I don't listen to headphones enough anymore or my music isn't mastered well enough or the Jotunheim isn't good enough, or whichever reason, but I wasn't really that impressed with them over the he400i I've had for years. The he6sev2 is definitely better, but not by enough that I really care. Especially not since my living conditions have changed and I have a pair of Vanatoo T1E's to sing to me at my desk. The he6's are definitely going back since I can't be bothered keeping them in their stock form and even for the discounted price I'm not super interested in having to mod them to not be uncomfortable after long sessions.

So you’re telling me if you had a DAC/AMP and a phone with an Apple dongle and you could pick both to listen to, without cost, you wouldn’t plug into the amp? Regardless, the volume is honestly what I paid for anyway

The only way a headphone can benefit from more power is either having more headroom, or you just cranking it up louder than usual. Which for most headphones, from the low to high end, can be achieve with amps in the 100-200 dollar range/

Quick question but have you tried multiple different amps in different price points with multiple headphones?

Bad bait

It's not a "take", it's an observation. And it's an observation that goes against the bias that people who've bought expensive amps are inclined towards. Of course we want our expensive new amp to be an upgrade, that's why we bought it, but then you do an AB test with your "inferior" old unit, and what the hell is this, they sound the same? Or maybe like, if you squint really hard and channel every ounce of your attention into the headphones, it's maybe slightly different?

If you go from a $100 headphone to a $500 headphone, the difference is earth shattering, then you go from a $100 amp to a $500 amp, and you're scratching your head and checking the return policy. Or you just shrug and accept it as the price of a nicer volume knob (and the peace of mind that you're not "wasting the potential" of your headphones).

How very dare you. The input switching button is just as essential.

Couldn't say I've tried the highest ends of audio amplifiers, but i've tried amps from the apple dongle to the balanced output of a thx 789. From the lighting apple dongle, I can definitely hear a difference from let's say my e10k-tc, since even with Iems, I have to max out my phone to get decent volumes.

But when comparing the e10k to other higher end and expensive amps, the only time I heard a meaningful difference was when the e10k either wasn't loud enough or had no headroom. This is with both iems, and open backs (though I don't own anymore open backs, as I sold them).

My question to you though would be have your volume matched, and blind tested your amps? Without that, placebo can very well be in play.

I haven’t bought any expensive amps. I’m running zen can right now. I’ve gone out and tried different amps without knowing the price or anything and different amps i’ve tried have sounded different from each other. I get what you are saying about buyers remorse but I try everything out before I buy it. I don’t have any investment into any of the amps i’ve tried so why would I have any buyers remorse and placebo myself into hearing something that’s not there. Literally I would just see a amp, not know what it is, try it out, gather my thoughts on it, and then afterwards find out what it’s worth. I thought nautilus was meh even though it’s a $10,000 amplifier. There is no reason for me to placebo myself when I don’t know what it is in the first place.

i’ll definitely do some blind test when I get a new amplifier. My experience is just trying stuff at stores.

It was 350 dollars, and a DAC/Amp, not just an amplifier.

My Fosi Audio DS1 cost me $60. No knob, though. Just volume buttons.

It sucks that mine started having channel imbalance issues :(

Nice copium, brother.

Lol, the volume knob on my ud501 feels nicer, yet the ifi micro sounds a lot better anyway (used as an amp)

and a high/low gain switch, a must have if you want it to both have low noise floor for an IEM and be able to drive low sensitivity headphones

Literally the reason I’m eventually going to get the JDS Element.

I’ve never even touched high gain on my Atom.

Happened to me. Not exactly headphone fireworks, but Schiit amp fireworks (Heresy). Really excited about it, yeah!

Got an Aune X7S for double the money (European prices) and never looked back. Sound is definitely better with the Aune, but whether it is 2x better - I'd say it's subjective. In hindsight, for the improvement in sound and build quality - I'd say it's worth the difference (for me).

AK L1000 and Element III volume knobs are worth bank.

Not me running my dt 1990s off nzxt motherboard audio

Is there an improvement if it inaudible

yes

Bass boost

The L30 had a smooth ass knob. But I switched to the DX3 Pro+ for the bluetooth and way way smaller wall adapter. Did not notice anything different in sound.

You’re not one of those people who spends every waking minute playing with their knob are you?

Really? I have a Topping DX3 Pro+ and a Fiio BTR7 and I can't hear the difference. I don't have great ears tho.

I'm sorry to hear that, I really love to have a knob and would miss it hardly :/

It also looks cool

That's good to know, it seemed smooth on the pics, but that wall adapter be thicc indeed. Plugging it on the power strip will be a challenge. My first thought was to go for the DX3 pro+, or the fiio k7, but I Already own a soundblaster g6, which already has a pretty good dac built in. Honestly, I've always wanted a lil dac/amp "stack" so I plan on getting a red E30II to go with my black L30II once my g6 dies (not that I wish for it to die)

The person was making a comment about the HE6SEv2's power necessity, which the Jotunheim has more than enough for through the balanced out.

If you went single-ended then that'd be an issue. Not to say you'll like it anyway.

Once you've done that you are well and trully past the diminishing return point. You should be able to happily keep that setup without missing out

And the earth is flat. They picture it like a sphere just to make it look fun.

Been known to do it sleeping as well

I'm not, I just appreciate having a smooth knob instead of imprecise buttons

If you keep playing with the knob you’re gonna grow hair on your palms.

wym playing

Nvm then….

The only explanation I can muster for this “electronics don’t make a difference” trope is that people have never heard anything outside the clutch of low end products that all share the same chips and topologies.

I mean shit, you can flip a switch on a lot of amps and it won’t even sound like itself anymore, and it’s the same unit!

And I don’t need a blindfold to know the difference between whisky and applesauce either

I think I'm at end game, but there will be overtime when the Fiio FA11 is released lol

It's already a bit silly to buy a whole new amp to pair with one iem. Thank you for warning me tho, the allure of expensive gear is strong

Yeah I realized, I guess I went on a tangent there. The he6 I couldn't take even to half way through the volume pot and I was like "huh. Guess they aren't that power hungry after all" I was pretty underwhelmed by the legendary power draw.... Right up until I plugged my trusty 400i into it without adjusting the volume down. Nearly blew my ears out. It'd been a while since I'd used headphones so I forgot just how little room on the volume pot the 400i had on high gain.

Either way, I did like them, just not enough to keep them through cost and comfort.

Seriously though, what is a dac/amp that is powerful enough to drive higher-end headphones and does not cost a fortune?

I’ve been wanting to upgrade for a while now but i have no idea how to choose a dac/amp

250 Ohms would like a word with you..

Yeah. Out of all the DACs i own, when i swap between them, i can kinda tell that it's different but not if it is better or worse. However, the e10k has a noticeably higher noise for and lower resolution than other dacs. Not a significant amount but it's still there. I still use it on my desktop setup tho, it was the cheapest thing that i could get that had a line out and headphone out ($35). How you feel on that day probably affects the listening experience more than dac tho.

I blew out two different IEMs at two different periods of time on my Jotunheim, forgetting I had one plugged in and hanging to the floor when I plugged a planar into the balanced out and turned up the dial.

I just stopped using IEMs on it lmao, I'm too irresponsible.

The Schiit Magni has has plenty of power/current/voltage for 99.9% of the conventional headphones (ie not estat or something with similarly exotic amplification requirements) out there. There are corner cases where that might not be enough to drive them loud and have headroom left, like the insanely inefficient Hifiman Susvara, but I'm guessing you're not pairing $6000 cans with a $100 amp.

My zen dac knob is so satisfying to use though.

Not if you are driving 600Ohm beyers.

You forgot about the flip switches.

I got the K7, it uses a laptop style charger where the wall plig is normal and there's a box in the middle of the cable

Really funny because the Atom has one of the worst knobs

It also came with a remote...

He'll go blind too, I'm loving Braille Android. Now I'm off to wax my palms 😜

Haha. I thought mechanical keyboards were a different hobby with all the lube.

The differences aren’t things like details or timbre. Although that could happen. The biggest differences I hear in scaling up is the stage becoming deeper/wider more holographic and much darker background and a sense of effortless performance. It’s so obvious. It’s not even in the realm of placebo it’s like a slap in the face. But a good one lol

This has never happened to me. You have my empathy sir

you’re buying the wrong applesauce

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It's called an upgrade path

I blind-tested, to the best of my ability, my Enleum AMP-23R against an Atom amp (made of plastic!) with Hifiman’s Susvara and couldn’t tell a difference. I have mild hearing damage but it shouldn’t be that bad.

Besides the Susvara, I also tried Focal’s Clear and Audeze’s LCD-5. The Clear isn’t said to “scale” particularly well and I’m not familiar enough with LCD-5 to have heard differences there. This was done in my quietest room, which is acoustically treated and quite silent.

That said, I am not a practiced listener by any means and my audio pursuits are based on feelings of “this sounds like live”. I did this test alongside an upgrade-chaser with more discerning ears and we came to the conclusion that it didn’t make an audio difference but they look or feel nice. Our findings weren’t upsetting, I primarily upgrade for aesthetics and wasn’t aware that it was meant to sound better.

Correct, but I paid $70!

yes AND I WANT MORE KNOBS

And both make a great balanced breakfast.

Jokes on you my one's only a USB and it makes the shhhh sound go ____

Mine also has a red light to tell when its on... that's pretty cool.

I can also switch sources with the push of a button. Also powerful enough to be preamp for my stereo. Importen things for me. Before this I had to constantly switch cables.

Soul

No

This post smells like apple dongle, moondrop chu endgame lossy music listening pleb

Jokes on me, my tinnitus is the noise floor.

My Asgard 2 has a far better knob than my atom tbh.

The big knob was the only reason why I bought the JDS Labs Element II.

I'm glad I have my scarlett solo.

What is considered a fortune?

I’m waiting on geshelli making my case orange to go with my new orange pc build. Until they do I have my dt880’s plugged in to the little dongle dac that came with my motherboard and it’s surprisingly not shit. It’s full volume for gaming but everything footstepswise is like cheating as it should be. Apple Music isn’t loud enough but YouTube, tidal and my own collection are all at good volume (admittedly with nowhere left to go). Can’t wait for the added orange power!

You, sir or madam, are what everyone should aspire to become in this hobby. Someone who actually listens to gear instead of reading graphs, or parroting the same narrative without having much experience in said parroted narrative.

My gear isn’t the typical stuff you usually find. I got the Elekit TU-8200 tube amp and the Questyle CAS192D DAC. I also have a Peachtree Audio DAC•iT^x and a myriad of other amps. Why do I have such relatively esoteric gear? Because I listened to a bunch of different crap when I first started. That’s how I knew that DACs do in fact make a difference and how I learned that tube amps aren’t just distortion galore. My favorite solid state amps sounded similar to tube amps so I was like… I’ll just get a tube amp that’s easy to fix!

yeah stop reading graphs and just listen to stuff and figure out what you like.

I'm pretty sure knob can be a euphemism for dick. So playing with your know means playing with you dick

Does the new TC version have the same issues?

Either way, 200mw output is not to be sneezed at.

Wow you figured it out lol !

Hard Agree!

We've already hit the audibility improvement threshold when it comes to modern DACs and AMPs. And we are wayy past what can be called diminishing returns territory here.

There's nothing that can be further improved in a modern DAC or AMP that can 'sound' good.

I'm just repeating words at this point.

The only way to 'listen' to a DAC/AMP is by using probes.

Don't come at me pointing to a review of a Good DAC or AMP that was done by listening to it.

If you see a review on the Internet that derives its conclusion from listening to a headphone on a DACAMP, it's at best inaccurate and at worst fraudulent and misleading.

We have reached point of diminishing returns but fortunately not audibility threshold limit with headphones. So that's where everybody is pouring their money.

We save money on amps and dacs ig 😔

I haven’t tried loads of stuff, but what I have tried, definitely goes against this.

Ok it’s hard for me to relate, because I do extensive research to formulate opinions. It’s just how I’m wired 🤷‍♂️

Ha, my 200$ dollar amp even got that volume knob.

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and that bass boost, delicious

Mine stopped scratching after I unplugged the amp and rotated the volume knob from end to end 20 times or so

edit:typo

As an owner of HE6SEv2 I can say that without EQ this headphone is not worth it. I'd rather listen to Sundara in stock. But with EQ it becomes really good. If you don't want do deal with EQ/physical mods, don't even bother

Do you find having to use 3.5mm annoying? I wanted to sidegrade from a schiit magni/apple dongle, for the bluetooth and additional control/inputs. But i find the 3.5mm headphone port to be a deal breaker. If it was quarter inch it would be the perfect dac/amp. Im thinking of going for the DX5 instead but im not sure if its worth the additional $200+

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Well not the whole d, just the end

Anyone make any $300 amplifier volume knob for controlling a pc's volume? :3

I'd slob all over that knob all day any day

This hobby needs experience. Amplifier is amplifier. Though, you need to know things behind it. Class D, Class AB, Class A. These has different tech behind it and also power consumption. The quality of the power supply as well. These are the things that make the amplifier sounds differently.

And selectable output, and the equalizer, and the spectrum analyzer..

Show the proof to back up your claim if you're so convinced. A scientific ABX test with significant results does not exist to my knowledge.

Yeah i have to do this about once a month to get rid of scratching, but it works so whatever, lol

Hence the word 'amplifier', and not 'qualityfier'.

Huh. I hadn't thought about eq, I'm interested to give that a go before I send them back. I'm definitely not up for physical mods but I'd like to hear hese sound their best. What do you do for them eq wise?

I like chunky volume knobs. Real talk Thats actually something I look for in amps. Makes it feel expensive and substancial Lolol.

Aside from tube amps I never experienced noise floor on any price amps.

I mean, some people swear the dongle is all you need.

JDS labs knobs are fantastic.

Only $300? Can't get a decent volume knob for peanuts.

My Sennheiser HD6XX has to low volume on it, but as a DAC it's pretty good...

Laughs in 600ohm Beyerdynamic DT880.

Yup, that's what I meant by you also get that on cheaper amps.

The only things I've had bad experiences with when it comes to noise floor is Pc audio and certain audio interface. For example the Focusrite on sensitive iems is pretty bad.

I was just agreeing. Double dipping if you will LoL.

Not at all. Might just be me, but I previously had a HarmonicDyne Zeus used on the L30 - and it was so annoying! It terminated in 4.4, and you had to use an adapter to 3.5mm, then an adapter to quarter inch. It was one giant dong. Now both my HD600 and Salnotes Zero terminate in 3.5, and I just simply don't find anything wrong when plugging it in.

Imagine my surprise when I plugged my HD6XX in my trashy Asus mobo and they worked just fine

the only noticeable difference in sound for amps and dacs is when you pass the 300-500 dollar minimum, where companies actually start to make their own things rather than source the same akm/ess chip and put a knob on it

Well, you can start from oratory1990 EQ preset. Not my personal favorite, but an improvement for sure, and you can go from there and adjust it as you please. I can give some of mine and the other's people EQ profiles later, you can check them as well.