abhikkp t1_j69eyjx wrote on January 28, 2023 at 6:22 PM

Reply to comment by blorg in These are not the same by disco_g

Very much appreciate how cordial this interaction has been :)

I will read through all of this! On your note about APO -- I don't use any onboard software EQ.

Finally, I have used my IEMs with the iFi Gryphon as well, which has a Burr-Brown chip and is supposed to be "warmer" than other devices but I found literally no difference between the Gryphon and the Apple Dongle in sound quality or frequency response. And even the Gryphon sounds less bassy than my TC44C unless I enable Gryphon's bass boost. Maybe it's just the interaction between my TC44C and my IEMs but that's what I've found in my daily use case.

Nonetheless, clearly, you have a ton of personal experience in the hobby, so I will absolutely respect your expertise and opinion on this matter. I just think my anecdotal experience is also worth sharing!

blorg t1_j69n06x wrote on January 28, 2023 at 7:16 PM

It's not that you'd be deliberately using some sort of software EQ. Rather that some audio "enhancement" (and a bass boost is one of the stock Windows enhancements) got attached to the TC44C but didn't get attached to the others.

If you literally don't hear any tonal difference across a wide range of other different devices, but hear a really distinct one on the TC44C- this really indicates that there is something messing with the sound on that one. Particularly as no other subjective review of the TC44C seems to find it "extremely bassy", they use words like neutral, flat, clean, accurate, transparent, the most I found was one review in the other direction, going with mostly neutral but "slightly bright".

You could measure it yourself, download REW and just do a tone sweep with it and record it, do the same with another DAC to make sure any variance isn't the recording device. If you do do this, don't use exclusive mode, this will ensure it goes through whatever you normally have going on. You'll either see this dramatic difference in the measurement, or you won't.

If you do- it confirms you were hearing something real. I'd suspect if it is there, it's a configuration issue. It's also possible it will measure entirely flat. Either way it's another data point, you can interpret it as you like. If I had ONE thing that sounded radically different than everything else, that sounded the same- I'd wonder why.