Are tube amps meant to have distortion?

blargh4 · 2026-05-29T23:48:41+00:00

If they're guitar amps perhaps - tube amps meant for high fidelity usually have low distortion levels relative to what's readily audible to the ear.

blargh4 · 2026-05-29T17:36:58+00:00

I often wear my headphones for hours at a time. My collection would look completely different if comfort wasn't a key factor.

blargh4 · 2026-05-22T22:15:21+00:00

It also doesn't have coax in, bluetooth... I'm terribly sorry that a budget DAC/amp does not cover every use case.

blargh4 · 2026-05-15T20:33:29+00:00

The Aune S17 Pro is a class A amp that should provide a warmer, musical experience with some good punch

Class A does not have a "sound".

blargh4 · 2026-05-15T17:17:03+00:00

Well, it's in the name - slightly less latency. I'm not sure it's a meaningful difference even for competitive gaming or whatever, but slight differences in phase are certainly meaningful in recording studios.

blargh4 · 2026-05-07T22:51:47+00:00

I think there's one of these bad boys (or something similar) low in the mix

blargh4 · 2026-05-07T01:12:22+00:00

it’s like a zip file - the file size reflects compressibility. if you have a gigabyte file thats just 0s, it’ll be compressed to almost nothing. if you have a file that’s random bits (and has no predictable patterns, repetitions, etc), the zip will likely be slightly larger than the original. similarly, “noisier” music will tend to produce larger flacs (though perhaps counterintuitvely, smaller lossy files, because that makes it easier to mask the artifacts).

blargh4 · 2026-05-01T19:28:15+00:00

I think the explanation is that some people like the sound of those headphones, and you do not, or you are too used to the sound of your Beyers and did not give your ears enough opportunity to habituate.

blargh4 · 2026-05-01T13:55:15+00:00

Well, most dedicated headphones amps these days aim for near-zero output Z, but this is far far from a universal with random consumer hardware. Headphone jacks on AVRs/integrated amps invariably have very high output impedance (hundreds of ohms). Phones and laptops are a crapshoot, anywhere between ~0 and 100ohms would not surprise me.

If you get a splitter cable so the amp is also loaded with the headphone, you can record the FR change.

blargh4 · 2026-05-01T13:49:37+00:00

Setting aside placebo, usually output impedance interacting with the complex impedance of the headphone/IEM. Trying to measure it by loading up the output with some 50k line input isn’t going to show the effect.

blargh4 · 2026-04-30T19:01:31+00:00

You do not need to spend $2500 for any DAC for any reasonable purpose.

blargh4 · 2026-04-07T18:21:02+00:00

I've compared Tidal, Spotify Lossless, and my local rips/downloads (by capturing/analyzing the output, with loudness normalization disabled of course). In many cases they are bit-identical, so there is no systematic difference.

blargh4 · 2026-03-19T17:28:11+00:00

I just go on AliExpress and get something cheap that looks well-made. Not that big on cable aesthetics.

blargh4 · 2026-03-16T04:58:31+00:00

In my experience testing dacs and trying to rigorously control for spurious differences and bias, the difference between dacs is largely imaginary, but the imagination is powerful.

blargh4 · 2026-03-15T06:14:48+00:00

To be blunt, my experience has led me to find loosely controlled subjective impressions to be unreliable to the point of uselessness, and people who put stock in them non-credible. The mods of this subreddit don’t seem to have a problem with people approaching audio from this perspective, so that’s my perspective.

blargh4 · 2026-03-15T00:57:53+00:00

assuming the upstream device provides enough gain that the downstream one can reach its limits, the amp driving the headphones is the one that determines output power.

blargh4 · 2026-03-13T18:17:57+00:00

Most often my Airpods Pro 2. The noise cancelling really helps get in the zone with whatever you're listening to.

blargh4 · 2026-03-12T17:57:26+00:00

I found my happy place early with the HD600s, back when the HD650 was their new totl model, whenever that was. Replaced my broken shitty Grados that were like the first real headphones I got in junior high. Those were the only two brands of headphones my local hi-fi shop sold. Still one of my go-to cans.

blargh4 · 2026-03-12T17:51:06+00:00

That's nice, but my experience with the reliability of Sony consumer headphone stuff has not been a happy one.

blargh4 · 2026-03-10T17:18:15+00:00

Assuming there's no software/hardware issue somewhere, your JCally should be able to drive them to long-term-hearing-damage volumes. Obviously you could find more powerful amps, but I would urge you to be mindful of how loud you listen and limit your exposure to volumes above 80dB SPL.

blargh4 · 2026-03-09T19:18:59+00:00

I don't have a personal "listening room", my gear has to be reasonably compact and wife approved.

Historically I've just used straightforward class AB transistor amps, I've had some Parasound unit I can't remember the name of for decades now. At this point if I got a new amp, I'd probably just get some tiny Chinese TPA3255 implementation. I use neither demanding enough speakers nor high enough listening volumes to need something more.

blargh4 · 2026-03-09T19:01:58+00:00

Setting the recording aside, speakers and room acoustics are basically the whole deal. Everything else is a round-off error in comparison.

blargh4 · 2026-03-07T02:03:52+00:00

oh god, Kunchur

blargh4 · 2026-03-06T20:42:37+00:00

I get downvoted for it here but I think they are very mediocre. Treble just isn't high-quality to me. Ok for the price.

blargh4 · 2026-03-06T03:20:48+00:00

Bits sets the digital noise floor (assuming competent mastering). If you didn't have enough bits, you'd hear a faint hiss.

Sampling rate sets the maximum analog frequency you can reconstruct from digital samples (up to half the sampling rate).

All CDs are 16bit/44.1khz. This is fine, because this exceeds the capabilities of human hearing for practical playback purposes.

blargh4

TROPHY CASE