The Hifiman HE1000se are my daily drivers and known for not being too power hungry. I have two chains in which I listen to them:
- Living Room: Marantz DAC-1 -> Schiit Asgard2
- Desk: Schiit Bifrost2 -> Schiit Lyr3
I wonder whether the HE1000se benefit much from better amps, and if so, what price range we are talking about… Are amps like the Feliks Audio Euforia or the Flux Labs Volot a complete overkill? Is there something worthwhile in between? Or is even the DAC the better component to tackle here?
If we’re talking about correctly implemented DACs and well-designed, low output impedance solid state amplifiers with enough power to reach the required loudness while preserving dynamic range, then no.
Of course, there are other products like tube amps that may produce a different sound signature that may be pleasant to the listener. If you’re interested in that sort of thing, you could give it a try!
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Yes, they will, not necessarily because of a power increase, but higher quality amplifiers will provide “cleaner” power than ones that are built down to a cost due to having a lower noise floor.
I guess people in this sub don’t like hearing about lower noise floors…
Make sure to refil the detergent compartment of your amps so the sound will always be as clean as possible.
Yeah, absolutely. It’s not just about power, it’s about how faithfully your DAC converts 1s and 0s into an analogue signal, and you’ll hear the difference in equipment in things like imaging, instrument separation, soundstage, decay, etc. A good DAC/amp combo will make your headphones sound good, but a great one will make music sound realistic.
If you’re near a city my advice would be to either find an audio store near you that will let you bring in your headphones to try on their equipment or check out if there are any head-fi meetups near you where individuals and sometimes companies bring their stuff for people to try. But if you can afford the Euforia I’d get that first and upgrade the DAC later since you already have good equipment and the amp will probably be more of a noticeable improvement between both components.
Stuff like imaging, instrument separation, soundstage etc. is entirely source dependent. A song has been produced/mixed/mastered in a certain way and once you have the final file/signal, no DAC in this world will „improve it by faithfully converting 1s and 0s“ or whatever that even means. This is way, way, way beyond its ability. The information is either in the source or it isn’t and measurements show that any half decent DAC does nothing to the signal that you can hear and even if it did, it wouldn’t be improvements to the instrument separation lmao
I understand that accepting this would probably mean that you wasted money on expensive gear that does the same job as some dongle at a fraction of the price, but your claims in the first paragraph of your comment are absolutely ridiculous.
If you’re near a city my advice would be to either find an audio store near you that will let you bring in your headphones to try on their equipment or check out if there are any head-fi meetups near you where individuals and sometimes companies bring their stuff for people to try.
That’s what I’m currently looking for… Hamburg ⚓️ people, do you hear me?
But if you can afford the Euforia I’d get that first and upgrade the DAC later since you already have good equipment and the amp will probably be more of a noticeable improvement between both components.
As I got sucked into the head-fi adventure some two years ago (damn!), I’m experiencing this massive rabbit hole of audiophile seductions (being a hobby photographer, I know the “gear acquisition syndrome” all too well) with a limited budget, so I’m not really sure if things like the Euforia are something I could or should afford if there’s something else that gives me more goose bumps for the buck.
Closing the cirlce, I’ll never find out until I tried – which brings us back to the first advice you’ve given. ;-)
Funnily enough I’m also a photographer, so I know that pain well! And yeah, the two hobbies are very similar because you can go a long way on a budget if you’re judicious and patient, but there’s a point where you just hit a technical wall. I remember upgrading from a Canon 85mm 1.4 to a 85mm 1.2L and learning that some high-end gear is not a trick or a placebo, it really is substantially better. I still ended up selling it though, so better certainly isn’t the end all and be all.
I’m definitely not in the market for a Euforia but I did just wipe out my budget on a DX240 and I’m really happy I splurged, it reintroduced me to my library and gives me those goosebumps. I wouldn’t tell anyone to go broke doing this but at the end of the day we love music and want to know how good it can be before we’re dead, so I say dive as deep as you can. :)
If your view of amps is that they should transparently reproduce the input, the state-of-the-art here starts at less than $200. There’s no obvious way from an electrical engineering point of view for an amp to be meaningfully better at this than the last few generations of the Schiit Magni, for example. The huge wrinkle here is that human hearing is really bad at hearing that two things sound the same if there’s any volume difference or bias.
Not all amps are designed to be transparent of course. There’s evidence people like small amounts of certain kinds of distortion.
Totally disagree…haven’t heard a good amp under 300. Have heard magni and it sounds like shit. It’s very congested sonically. Even half deaf person would hear a difference between magni in somethingthing like Holo Audio Bliss. But I I would say you don’t need to spend fortune - mojo 2 is great DAC and amp combo and for an amp Aune s17 Pro is something to beat under 1k.
Half this industry is built on people overestimating the objectivity of their hearing and underestimating their imagination. I’ve done enough blind testing to put infinitely more trust in extremely sensitive lab instruments than casual, uncontrolled listening tests.
You’re right as there is no audible difference between magni and my MacBook Pro 14" 3.5mm output, lol.
no
Hifimans absolutely do, even if you can get the desired volume out of a cheap amp.
They “do” but honestly with anything the scalability is so minimal and not really worth pursuing if you do not like the headphone already, just play with EQ or get a better headphone. (To which EQing might require a decent amp if you’re seriously playing with it a ton, like; adding a lot of dB to some parts of the sound and preamping it down so its not too loud). I think a better DAC would be better suited, to which it would require an amp most likely?
I got the Piety since people said it was good with the HD600, and much better than my Heresy. Differences are quite minimal between the two. Obviously they’re the same price point, but most people I know who have way more expensive sources say even with more expensive amps; they say that source memeing is not worth it, unless you know you’re only getting minimal improvements in things you like.
I think amp decision would probably just be preferences and whatnot anyways, and the most powerful and expensive one will likely not mean the one you like most.
Different amps and dacs handle things slightly different from one another. Perhaps you’ll notice small details between some you prefer over the other.
I have a pair of HE1000SE. I am a believer of synergy between equipment. I prefer class A sound. But not all my class A sounds the same to me. Topping A90 is a little thin on the low end. Audio-GD NFB1 and R27 are my two favorites class A amps. The Lyr+ (AB) is good - I only have tried a handful of 6SN7s. Surprisingly the Musical Paradise MP 301 m3 is a class A and a good match with endless tube rolling options. With that said, something like the Felix might be worth auditioning.