Looking for a cheap portable USB/DAC Headphone combo...

[WAD62]

Hi Chaps,

Looks like I'm going to have to chase some contract work down in the big sh1tty, so I'll be living out of a bag during the week.

I'm looking for a cheap (£50 to £60 or so), portable USB/DAC Class-T headphone amp, if it's also a power amp so much the better. I'll be playing FLAC back on a Windows 7 laptop, with only a USB option.

I'm looking for something better than my old creative live 24bit 5.1 usb soundcard, probably not hard to achieve...;)

I don't have time to wait for Chinese/Hong Kong options from ebay, so a UK supplier would be desirable.

All input gratefully received...:)

Edit; Anyone got any experience of this?

Topping TP30 Portable T Digital Amplifier USB DAC

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Genuine-Local-UK-Seller-Topping-TP30-Portable-T-Digital-Amplifier-USB-DAC-/250929628373?pt=UK_AudioTVElectronics_HomeAudioHiF i_Amplifiers&hash=item3a6c9244d5#ht_4081wt_970

[bobbasrah]

No idea Will, but that Topping you pointed to was up to 16/48 input I think as opposed to the 24 bit you have, whether that is an issue or not.
Is a T amp really necessary, and were there not problems raised previoulsy regarding drive impedance for T amps? Maybe I'm getting it bass ackward though....
My cheapo DAC drives 600 ohm fine with a opamp, although not to deafening levels...
A lot of UK sellers/agents around the London area it seems, maybe could shorten delivery options perhaps.
Bob

[WAD62]

No idea Will, but that Topping you pointed to was up to 16/48 input I think as opposed to the 24 bit you have, whether that is an issue or not.
Is a T amp really necessary, and were there not problems raised previoulsy regarding drive impedance for T amps? Maybe I'm getting it bass ackward though....
My cheapo DAC drives 600 ohm fine with a opamp, although not to deafening levels...
A lot of UK sellers/agents around the London area it seems, maybe could shorten delivery options perhaps.
Bob

I just spotted the 16/48 limitation Bob, as you rightly pointed out I may be better off sticking with the creative for the time being, as it at least provides 24 bit USB drivers...;)

Mind you bit depth and sample rate aren't everything, the quality of the headphone amp will come into the equation too :)

[bobbasrah]

Yep, no question, but it depends also how deaf you are and how much worse you want to... I SAID....
Impedance of the cans may be an issue..
Think one of the lads here uses the Fiio E7, same limitation I think, but about 50 quid and has rechargeable Lion batteries, seems well thought of.... Google it out...

[WAD62]

Yep, no question, but it depends also how deaf you are and how much worse you want to... I SAID....
Impedance of the cans may be an issue..
Think one of the lads here uses the Fiio E7, same limitation I think, but about 50 quid and has rechargeable Lion batteries, seems well thought of.... Google it out...

Pardon...!!! ;)

I've got a couple of choices re. the headphones, some old Sennheiser 580s, or my Koss portapro's, it would be nice to have something powerful enough to drive the Sennheisers

Yes I'd spotted it on Amazon, looks interesting, couldn't find any detailed specs for it, I'll have a rummage around...:)

[wee tee cee]

Will,
I aint no Headphone connoisseur running hd202s but my own experience of the E7 was that it coloured the frequency extremes...boosting bass/treble.Only after buying it did I pick up on the description on Amazon.Reckon it would be a great bit of kit if it just did the digital conversion and amplified uncoloured.The increase in battery life for a walkman and the ability to go much louder were positives.
I passed it onto Stan Beresford and cant help but wonder If he might come up with something sonically more honest.I certainly would be interested.
What about a small/second hand COWON player....the sonics live up to the reviews.
Regards Tony.

[WAD62]

Will,
What about a small/second hand COWON player....the sonics live up to the reviews.
Regards Tony.

Hi Tony, cheers for the input, I was looking for something to use in conjunction with my laptop in place of my Creative USB soundcard...perhaps I'll stick with that for the meantime :)

[twelvebears]

I've one of these and it's really rather good:

http://headfonics.com/2011/10/fiio-e10-review-a-lot-of-boxes-have-been-ticked/

[WAD62]

I've one of these and it's really rather good:

http://headfonics.com/2011/10/fiio-e10-review-a-lot-of-boxes-have-been-ticked/

That looks just the job Steve, if only it was available, out of stock on amazon and ebay...bugger! :doh:

how much did you pay for yours, out of interest :)

Edit; Found it @ £59, ordered...exactly what I wanted, cheers Steve :cool:

[bobbasrah]

Wow, that's a very good price Will.... I was quite intrigued by this new model at a RRP 150 quid, so 60 is a steal that early in. Care to expand?
Glad you are sorted out though before your sojourn to the shitty. (Very Sean Connery...)

Steve - What have you compared this to, and what impedances can it drive?? Xmas is coming....

[WAD62]

Well the little tinker arrived this morning...less than 24 hours turnaround!!!

I bought it from these guys, who are listed as registered dealers on the FiiO site

http://www.advancedmp3players.co.uk/shop/Gadgets.4/FiiO.406/5510035/Fiio_E10_USB_DAC_Headphone_Amplifier.13282.html

It's tiny!!!! Have a look at the rubbish photos, and my hands aren't that big :lol:

And comes in its own protective tin, about the size of a Golden Virginia tobacco tin.

Doesn't seem too happy with ASIO4ALL, but works very well with WASAPI, and I've now got it working with WASAPI exclusive mode, so I can deactivate the volume.

So I'm currently listening to...

FLAC(16/44.1) -> FFSoX(resampler 24/96 & ReplayGain) -> Winamp -> WASAPI Excluisive Mode -> FiiO E10 HD SPDIF Out -> Sennheiser 580s

Very nice too, OK not as nice as my Beresford TC-7510 (that was my other 'portable' option :doh:), but not far off, a fantastic little portable device.

Got the bass boost turned off (no need), the gain set to low, and it's driving the Sennheisers very nicely at 1/3 volume

Cheers again Steve, good steer :cool:

[bobbasrah]

Sounds good solution indeed, especially at that price. So how does it compare to the Creative then? (Dejavu.....)

You can always feed the optical out to another DAC or DAC/amp.... or try Foobar on Asio/Wasapi with no alteration to the data stream for comparisons sake....
Have fun

[WAD62]

Sounds good solution indeed, especially at that price. So how does it compare to the Creative then? (Dejavu.....)

You can always feed the optical out to another DAC or DAC/amp.... or try Foobar on Asio/Wasapi with no alteration to the data stream for comparisons sake....
Have fun

Hi Bob, I was messing around with a few alternatives yesterday, in addition to the Creative (24/48) I also have a Muse mini USB DAC (16/48) (£18 from ebay) now that I'm using FLAC as my mobile source (I used to use mp3 and the creative was fine for this) I'm getting picky, and neither provided enough grunt to run a 'real' pair of headphones. I wasn't overly happy with the sound of either, so I'd decided to use the digital out from the Muse mini USB, into the Beresford. This sounded excellent but one could hardly describe it as portable (all depends how big your bag is I suppose).

The E10 beats them for several reasons;

1. Its drivers install automatically, as long as you have an internet connection at the time, providing support for 16/32 through 24/96 and all points in-between.
2. It's installed as purely an SPDIF device, which makes things nice and simple, just point WASAPI to it, presumably the little on board DAC is fed from there.
3. The volume into my Sennheiser 580s is very loud even at the low gain setting, I'm not sure I want to try my in-ear (CX300s) ones as it may perforate my ear drums.
4. I can carry on upsampling my FLAC via SoX to 24/96, which does improve the sound IMHO.
5. I've also managed to configure it as an exclusive WASAPI device, with the other 2 GS_WAVETABLE_SYNTH does not allow this (grabs the device on bootup), as they also had analogue device entries, with this I can and therefore turn off volume control etc. This feature is available in the winamp WASAPI plugin. One can enable the 'Allow applications to take exclusive control' box in the control panel entry.

The above is also true with Foobar, I just think the Foobar interface is pants compared to winamp. I also like the SoX resampler in winamp so I am now getting 24/96 into my sennheisers...which is nice :)

One thing to note is that WASAPI appears to be the way to go, I've tried ASIO with both Winamp & Foobar, without success. I don't think ASIO4ALL is compatible with the E10s drivers.

And it's so small it just pops into your lap top bag...if only the same could be said of my Sennheiser 580's and 1tb external drive :doh:

[wee tee cee]

Will,
That looks smashin,I would be pretty interested in one for myself.Just to make sure...It just amplifies the signal without altering the sonics,is that right? The E7 I had boosted bass and treble on standard settings and wasn't to my taste.
Regards Tony.

[WAD62]

Will,
That looks smashin,I would be pretty interested in one for myself.Just to make sure...It just amplifies the signal without altering the sonics,is that right? The E7 I had boosted bass and treble on standard settings and wasn't to my taste.
Regards Tony.

Tony, there is a bass boost/loudness setting (apparently +3 but I don't know what the cut-off frequency is), but I turned that off straight away, might be useful for standard ear buds, but sounded ridiculous on my 580s :)

From what I can gather I've now got it at a bit perfect 24/96 flat output, with WASAPI having exclusive control of the device, without any volume control interference...I'm just using the dial on the E10

Edit; I've just found it comes with its own USB cable and rubber feet, they're inside the tin box under the plastic recess

[wee tee cee]

Will,
The E7 was equipped with EQ settings that just built upon the already artificially boosted bass and treble settings to something ridiculously artificial.I was just wondering how much the sound has Improved over the standard lap top headphone output and If the E10 was altering the sonics much...hope that clarifies my query.
Regards Tony.

[WAD62]

Will,
The E7 was equipped with EQ settings that just built upon the already artificially boosted bass and treble settings to something ridiculously artificial.I was just wondering how much the sound has Improved over the standard lap top headphone output and If the E10 was altering the sonics much...hope that clarifies my query.
Regards Tony.

No other 'tone' settings than the 'Bass' boost hardware switch, I use no DSP functions, and the volume is deactivated. I apply ReplayGain via SoX prior to hitting winamp, so no processing there either.

My laptop has an HD Realtek chip, but because of 'share' settings (my guess) it won't take anything over 24/44.1, I just get static when I force it to 24/96, although the chip is supposed to accept 192. WASAPI shows input at 24/96, and output at 24/44.1

The E10 sounds much better than the onboard chip, less 'crunchy', more detail, probably in part due to 24/96 in, and 24/96 out.

I compared the above using my portapros, I can only really use my Sennheiser 580s properly with the E10, as the output volume from the native laptop isn't enough for them, and although the portapros are nice, they're nowhere near the 580s in quality ...hope this helps :)

[wee tee cee]

ye,
It improves on the laptop....if im getting it right.Must say the computer stuff is over my head.
Cheers Tony.

[WAD62]

ye,
It improves on the laptop....if im getting it right.Must say the computer stuff is over my head.
Cheers Tony.

...it is better than the laptop :)