twelvebears
21-01-2012, 12:15
I've been using the budget bargain Fiio E10 for a while now and have been pretty please with it, as it was certainly and improvement on the built-in headphone output of my 2008 MacBook, however with the arrival of my ACS T1 IEMs, I did suspect that I wasn't doing them justice and started looking around for a better headphone amp.
With the numerous positive comments from fellow AOSers about Schiit Audio amps, I looked long and hard at options there, but because my headphone sessions are in the house via my laptop, usually while sat on the sofa, a fixed desktop solution was really going to work for me and most of the 'mobile' options seemed compromised (iBasso and the like) because they were designed to be carted about attached to iPods etc.
Eventually I came across the CEntrance DACport as a likely candidate for the following reasons:
It was 'mobile' in that it didn't use a plug-in supply and is USB powered
It seems to have universally good reviews everywhere - in fact I haven't found anyone with a bad word to say about it, which is pretty specially given the interweb's ability to find grumpy people with bad-news tales.
It handles high-res files and their various sampling rates 'properly' i.e. no resampling of 88.2 files.
It shares much of it's digital technology with Benchmark as CEntrance actually licence it to Benchmark and many other serious audio makers.
Please note that it does only work for those who are all-computer based, as it's USB only - no line inputs - but that works for me as any other listening is done in the Man Cave where I have no need of 'phones! :eek:
Michael Goodman, CEntrance CEO, replied personally to a couple of e-mails I send and was very helpful. Better still, he offered me a direct purchase discount on both the DACport and the 1 Ohm output impedance modification so that even with postage I got it for the same as the cheapest price I'd have got it here. I must admit however that for some reason, I did get lucky and didn't get collared for import duty? :eyebrows:
I really have been exceptionally impressed with it in the week or so that I've had it. It is exceptionally well made and looks like it will last a lifetime of being carted around. It works flawlessly with both Mac and Windows OS, so it really is 'plug and play'. But most importantly, having tried it with my IEMs and both my Sennheiser HD580s and AKG K701s before the latter went of to new homes, I can confirm that it handles all sorts of headphone loads with equal easy.
Although I did have high expectations, even I was surprised at just how well the DACport worked with all three very different phones. It was superbly quiet with the very sensitive IEMs and had seemingly perfect channel balance even at the lowest volume setting, and at the other end of the scale, had power aplenty to drive both the AKGs and The HD580s without any sign of clipping or running out of steam. In short, it doesn't seem to show any real signs of having been compromised by having to use the 5v 0.5amp USB power source, which has to speak well of clever engineering.
On top of an impressive build and technical performance, it also sound really lovely. Smooth and clean, without any obvious artifice, and yet also being able to reveal all the subtle details of my favorite, most well known recordings. It also seems to make some tracks which are usually a bit 'uncomfortable' (read slightly 'spitty' in the treble) more listenable that usual, which is unexpected but welcome.
I at about £270, it's not cheap, but if you'd like a cracking headphone amp which just also happens toe be very conveniently mobile and you are a computer based listener, then I'd definitely recommend giving it a try. The unmodified version (fine if your headphones are >80 Ohms impedance, less than that at the frequency response may be affected) is available in the UK at a good price from Audio Affair, and with Distance Selling, you could try it for a week and then just send it back if it's not for you.
:cool:
With the numerous positive comments from fellow AOSers about Schiit Audio amps, I looked long and hard at options there, but because my headphone sessions are in the house via my laptop, usually while sat on the sofa, a fixed desktop solution was really going to work for me and most of the 'mobile' options seemed compromised (iBasso and the like) because they were designed to be carted about attached to iPods etc.
Eventually I came across the CEntrance DACport as a likely candidate for the following reasons:
It was 'mobile' in that it didn't use a plug-in supply and is USB powered
It seems to have universally good reviews everywhere - in fact I haven't found anyone with a bad word to say about it, which is pretty specially given the interweb's ability to find grumpy people with bad-news tales.
It handles high-res files and their various sampling rates 'properly' i.e. no resampling of 88.2 files.
It shares much of it's digital technology with Benchmark as CEntrance actually licence it to Benchmark and many other serious audio makers.
Please note that it does only work for those who are all-computer based, as it's USB only - no line inputs - but that works for me as any other listening is done in the Man Cave where I have no need of 'phones! :eek:
Michael Goodman, CEntrance CEO, replied personally to a couple of e-mails I send and was very helpful. Better still, he offered me a direct purchase discount on both the DACport and the 1 Ohm output impedance modification so that even with postage I got it for the same as the cheapest price I'd have got it here. I must admit however that for some reason, I did get lucky and didn't get collared for import duty? :eyebrows:
I really have been exceptionally impressed with it in the week or so that I've had it. It is exceptionally well made and looks like it will last a lifetime of being carted around. It works flawlessly with both Mac and Windows OS, so it really is 'plug and play'. But most importantly, having tried it with my IEMs and both my Sennheiser HD580s and AKG K701s before the latter went of to new homes, I can confirm that it handles all sorts of headphone loads with equal easy.
Although I did have high expectations, even I was surprised at just how well the DACport worked with all three very different phones. It was superbly quiet with the very sensitive IEMs and had seemingly perfect channel balance even at the lowest volume setting, and at the other end of the scale, had power aplenty to drive both the AKGs and The HD580s without any sign of clipping or running out of steam. In short, it doesn't seem to show any real signs of having been compromised by having to use the 5v 0.5amp USB power source, which has to speak well of clever engineering.
On top of an impressive build and technical performance, it also sound really lovely. Smooth and clean, without any obvious artifice, and yet also being able to reveal all the subtle details of my favorite, most well known recordings. It also seems to make some tracks which are usually a bit 'uncomfortable' (read slightly 'spitty' in the treble) more listenable that usual, which is unexpected but welcome.
I at about £270, it's not cheap, but if you'd like a cracking headphone amp which just also happens toe be very conveniently mobile and you are a computer based listener, then I'd definitely recommend giving it a try. The unmodified version (fine if your headphones are >80 Ohms impedance, less than that at the frequency response may be affected) is available in the UK at a good price from Audio Affair, and with Distance Selling, you could try it for a week and then just send it back if it's not for you.
:cool: